Faculty Forum — The Residential College System and the First-Year Student Experience

Faculty Forum: The Residential College System and the First-Year Student Experience

UC Santa Cruz was founded on a residential college system that combines living and learning. A core goal of our system has always been to use a shared learning experience built around the college theme to create a sense of belonging and community among first-year students. The campus has changed dramatically over the last quarter century: the shift to letter grades and a new approach to general education; growth of the undergraduate population; an increasingly diverse student body (HSI recognition in 2012, AANAPISI in 2014, APRU in 2020, HSRU in 2022); and recognition as one of the top research universities in North America (AAU membership in 2019).

The college system has changed incrementally over that time, but we have not had a comprehensive, campus-wide discussion of what today’s students need from our college system and how best we might serve them; and Senate faculty engagement with the colleges has dwindled. As important, UCSC has not been meeting predicted graduation rates in comparison to the academic preparation of entering first-year students. This forum is the first step in engaging the faculty in thinking about how we can ensure that our college system serves our students and meets our obligations to the state and our aspirations as a research university.

The forum will feature four speakers who will offer brief comments and then engage in a panel discussion, largely addressing questions from the audience.

• Kimberly Lau, UC Santa Cruz, Professor of Literature and Chair of the Council of College Provosts, on our current college system.
• Laura Arroyo, UC Santa Cruz, Assoc. Vice Chancellor for Colleges, Housing, and Educational services, on co-curricular approaches to college engagement.
• Daniel Friedman, Univ. of South Carolina, AVP University 101 and National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, on the South Carolina first-year model
• John Moore, UC San Diego, Professor of Linguistics and Dean of Undergraduate Education, on the UC San Diego college model

Please join us for this important conversation.

Hosted by:
Kimberly Lau
Professor of Literature
College Provost of John R. Lewis College
Chair of the Council of College Provosts

Matthew McCarthy
Professor of Ocean Science
Chair of the Academic Senate

Paul Koch
Distinguished Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences
Interim Campus Provost/Executive Vice Chancellor

Richard Hughey
Professor of Computer Science & Engineering and Biomolecular Engineering
Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education and Global Engagement