About
Exploring Cultural Identities & Raising Global Consciousness
Our extraordinarily beautiful college, an oasis in the redwoods, is located atop a hill that rises above the rest of the campus. Although it’s true that Merrill students are famed for our cardiovascular fitness, people don’t look up to us just because of our altitude. It’s our college community at Merrill that makes us truly extraordinary.
Our college theme, “Cultural Identities and Global Consciousness,” is the only theme at UC Santa Cruz that takes the form of a challenge: how to create a college community that acknowledges and celebrates our differences while simultaneously working to create a better world?
We have a reputation for tranquility, and it’s true that students enjoy the sense of well-being that comes from being sheltered by towering redwoods. The Merrill Lawn is the best place on campus to hang out and relax on a sunny day. But we also have a long-standing reputation for challenging injustice and working to better our campus and world. Our striking architecture sent shockwaves across campus when our college was inaugurated in 1968. Over the decades, Merrill students have worked hard to transform this campus and the world for the better, and we continue that work today.
There’s a reason why Merrill is one of UC Santa Cruz’s most diverse colleges, with students from around California, the United States, and the world. Merrill doesn’t just educate. Merrill inspires. We invite to join us at the top of the hill.
Provost Welcome
Merrill College is more than a place to live and learn. It is a community that celebrates diversity, creativity, and global awareness. In his welcome message, Provost Aims McGuinness shares what makes Merrill unique, from its inspiring theme to its student-centered traditions.
Traditions & History
Since its founding in 1968, Merrill College has been shaped by a rich history of cultural inquiry, community creativity, and global awareness. From its distinctive architecture to the student-created Merrill Moat and the enduring legacy of faculty like Noel Q. King, Merrill’s story is deeply rooted in tradition and innovation.
News & Updates
From student highlights and campus events to college traditions and community stories, find out what’s happening at Merrill College. Stay connected with the latest updates, memorable moments, and stories that showcase our vibrant community.
Our mission
Merrill College is dedicated to helping students engage responsibly with the world. As a community, we strive to embrace formative practices – to learn what we don’t know and how to know it, and to take action on what we have learned – in order to create a more just and inclusive world. Merrill strives to help students understand and develop their positions. We intentionally make space for a diversity of perspectives and encourage community members to own their impact on others.
The Merrill Experience
The academic and social atmosphere at Merrill College — situated in a beautiful, compact pocket of redwood trees — is friendly, engaging, and accepting. Our excellent students, faculty, and staff represent numerous cultural groups and nationalities. Merrill’s central goals are to promote respect for all world cultures, and for the individual cultural heritage of each Merrill student in particular. Merrill students develop a sense of social consciousness and social responsibility, both locally and globally. They come to appreciate how people from the most diverse cultural backgrounds can work together, both to form a local community and to serve humankind.
Experiential Education
In accordance with its founding philosophy, Merrill College projects a cohesive vision, sustained and advocated by our committed faculty and staff. We take necessary steps to assure the continuity of this vision so that Merrill remains, within the larger UC Santa Cruz campus, a community of people who manifest a distinct consciousness of global issues and willingness to serve others in the greater local and global village that we now occupy.
The Merrill Core Course is explicitly dedicated to issues falling within the rubric of our College theme, Cultural Identities and Global Consciousness. The course is intended to provide an occasion for analytical and creative thinking as students work to understand the nature of cultural identity and struggles worldwide.
To provide a local connection to these issues, Merrill sponsors several programs. Our Field Study program offers you the opportunity to intern within the Santa Cruz community with specific goals and tasks, or you can design your own research question and learn how to do qualitative social science research. Our field study office will assist students with finding a community that complements their interests as we strongly believe field study contributes to a well-rounded liberal arts education. The Merrill Undergraduate Research Mentorship Program for Merrill juniors and seniors pairs students with a Merrill Faculty Fellow to work as paid research apprentices on the faculty member’s research. The purpose of the program is to inspire and prepare Merrill students to pursue graduate studies upon graduation from UCSC and is designed to provide research experience and personal and professional development.
Community
To complement our academic mission, Merrill offers a variety of innovative co-curricular activities; we take pride in the quality of our residential life programs. Our unique and newly renovated Pottery Co-op, and our Merrill “Moat” Murals allow Merrill students to express themselves creatively. To further provide opportunities for creative expression for our students, as well as developing cultural appreciation, we offer quarterly college nights featuring performances and special menus that reflect a variety of cultural traditions, such as Asian/Pacific Island themes and Black History. The Merrill Activities Office also sponsors special events, such as Cinco de Mayo, International Women’s Day, and various concerts.
In addition to the events sponsored by the Activities Office, the Residential Life office provides themed housing options: Co-ed, Scholars, transfer, substance-free, academic intensive, science learning, arts floor, outdoor interest, world culture, Asian and Pacific Islander, Chicano/Latino, and the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual/Transgender floor. Through themed housing we hope to provide students with an experience in cross-cultural education and living consistent with the theme of our college and our core course.
Merrill students can also apply for positions as Academic Peer Advisors, Residential Assistants, Events/Tech Crew members, and Orientation Leaders, and can participate in Merrill Activities Council or Merrill Student Government. In sum, Merrill students have ample ways to contribute to and develop a vibrant Merrill neighborhood; our community is a stimulating, healthy and focused environment.
Merrill is also home to the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas, the department of Latin American and Latino studies, the department of Politics, the popular Santa Cruz radio station KZSC, and the Lionel Cantú Queer Center.
Our advising staff assists Merrill students with course offerings, majors, other academic support services, and career opportunities; they also carefully monitor students’ academic standing, and help students in academic difficulty to find ways of improving their academic performance. Merrill is committed to supporting the academic success of all students; to this end, our staff conducts advising outreach programs, works closely with the EOP (Education Opportunity Programs) office, and regularly recommends academic success courses and tutoring to students in need.
Leadership
“Leadership for Social Change” is a 2-unit course facilitated by the Housing and Residential Education staff at Crown and Merrill Colleges. The course is very collaborative in nature and centers around the Social Change Model of Leadership Development as a basis for leadership and community building skill development. Key highlights of the course include a call-to-action community assessment group project, journal reflections, and hands-on class activities regarding the “7 Cs” that propel social change. The targeted audience for this course includes student staff and leaders at Crown and Merrill and is primarily serving Residential Assistants during Spring 2016. Cultural identities, global consciousness, and ethics within society are major threads of this course, which combines the Merrill ethos and Crown theme quite seamlessly (Crown College is the sister college to Merrill). Eventually, this course is anticipated to serve as the introductory requirement for a Leadership Program that results in a certificate, and which will be open to all Crown and Merrill students.