Congratulations and Welcome

To help prepare you to apply for housing and to live on campus, we offer this housing guide containing important information about your college, housing options, and answers to many commonly asked questions about campus housing.

It is our goal to provide you with an academically and socially supportive environment that will help you build a strong connection with the campus and get the most out of your UCSC experience.

We look forward to having you as part of our campus community!

Your College

Kresge was founded in 1971 and is the sixth college at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It was designed with the concept of participatory democracy as a means of encouraging a strong sense of community. We envision the college as a place where students can enjoy a sense of independence and self-expression. Kresge College continues to support and encourage participation, dialogue and active involvement from its students, faculty, and staff.

Kresge Renewal Project

An ambitious renovation project is underway at Kresge College that will bring beautiful new academic and residential buildings. Students living at Kresge during the 2023-24 academic year will encounter construction related disruptions, including noise, traffic detours, and the like. We’re looking forward to the wonderful improvements this exciting project will bring to the college; please bear with us during the construction phase. Find out more at kresgeproject.ucsc.edu.

Community Ethics

Kresge College upholds the ideals of cultural, ethnic, gender expression, political and spiritual diversity. At Kresge, we realize that freedom to decide and to express one’s opinion and beliefs is of the utmost importance. However, attitudes of disrespect or intolerance of the beliefs, ideas, lifestyles or person-hood of another are not conducive to the academic and social environment Kresge strives to create. In choosing to be affiliated with Kresge, we affirm these ideals and make a personal commitment to practice them in our daily lives.

Community Life

Both organized and spontaneous events occur frequently, so watch for them! Kresge events are a great way to meet other students,and the college staff and faculty. The college sponsors quarterly “mini-festivals”, open mics, Media and Society Lecture Series, hikes, Kresge Presents Pride, and more.

Kresge has a vibrant community life and we hope you will take part in it by both attending our events as well as letting us know of events you may like to see produced at your college. We are interested in your ideas, so let us hear from you.

Community Involvement

Kresge Student Parliament

Kresge College has an active student government, which meets weekly to discuss major college and university issues and to help initiate, develop and sponsor college events with campus-wide student organizations. Kresge Parliament offers students opportunities for leadership, community service, support, and activism in a setting emphasizing participatory democracy.

Town Meetings

Members of Kresge faculty, staff and students meet occasionally to discuss issues and concerns facing Kresge or the larger campus. Issues and ideas are discussed, opinions are shared and solutions are discovered, all in a safe and supportive environment with an emphasis on building community.

Student Run Co-Ops

Kresge is home to the student-run Kresge Garden. The Kresge Garden is a community space in which students learn to grow food from seeds, dig beds, create a functional compost system, and work together cooperatively.

Kresge College

Power and Representation