Pillar 1:

Students Are Change Makers UCSC Students As Change Makers

"What I try to tell young people is that if you come together with a mission, and its grounded with love and a sense of community, you can make the impossible possible." - John R Lewis

The history of students on our campus participating in Social Justice movements and acting as Agents of Change goes back to the creation of UCSC and continues to this day.

UCSC's Student Change Makers

Ever since UCSC was founded in 1965, students have been fighting for social change — with a protest against the campus administration even happening at the first graduating class's commencement. Some more recent examples of student activism at UCSC include:

The Fight for Ethnic Studies

Building on the protests at the first graduation ceremony, UCSC students have spent decades fighting for more support and resources for students of color. Many of these demands have centered around advocating for ethnic studies on campus.

In 2001, the Filipino Student Association (FSA; now known as Bayanihan) organized to facilitate a student-initiated course called Pilipino Historical Dialogue (PHD) due to the extreme lack of classes on the Philippines or Pilipinx/Pilipinx-American experiences. This student-led class is still offered today as CRES 45 and has continued to be taught by Bayanihan members.

After decades of protests and demands from students and faculty for ethnic studies at UCSC, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) was eventually launched as an undergraduate program in 2014. CRES introduced a Black Studies minor in 2020 and in 2021, CRES finally gained departmental status.

A/BSA’s Reclamation of Kerr Hall

In May 2017, the Afrikan/Black Student Alliance (now known as the Black Student Union) occupied Kerr Hall for three days to demand that the school invest in the Black student population. The student activists had four (originally six but two were postponed) demands:

1. Guaranteed on-campus housing for four years for ABC students at R.PAATH
2. Returning the R.PAATH Lounge to its original purpose by removing the beds added to transform the lounge into a housing assignment
3. The university funds the cost of painting the exterior of the R.PAATH building in Pan-Afrikan colors (red, green, and black)
4. Incoming students receive mandatory diversity competency training, that is reviewed and approved by A/BSA every two years

This article by City on a Hill Press, a student-run paper that's another example of students being change makers, examines the BSU demands six months after the protests. In the video below, you can hear Imari Reynolds, then fourth-year student and A/BSA chair explaining their demands to Fox News to fight disinformation.

Graduate Students Fight for a COLA

In September 2019, UCSC graduate student organizers began fighting for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) to bring every graduate student’s gross annual income to a minimum of $54,000 — regardless of residence, visa, documentation, employment, or funding status. This amount would bring students out of being rent burden and to parity with grad students at UC Riverside. The amount was calculated using the UCSC Graduate Cost of Attendance and Living Calculator. By December, grad students had gone on strike with grades ultimately being withheld for the Fall Quarter.

In February 2020, a full strike began at the base of campus. Hundreds of grad students, undergrad students, faculty, and other supporters gathered for weeks to protest, with food, music, teach-ins, speeches, button-making, dancing, and more being offered daily. The protesters were met by a heavy police force, resulting in several arrests, instances of police violence, and even the use of military surveillance equipment. Learn more via this COLA timeline and this City on a Hill article , or in the video below:

BSU's Takeover at the John R. Lewis College Dedication

During the dedication of John R. Lewis College in May 2022, many of our students got into some good and necessary trouble to advocate for students and directly challenge UC President Michael V. Drake and UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive on campus priority and funding issues.

While student emcees Cheru Robinson and Ray Diaz urged the two to reaffirm the UC's commitment and mission to ensure that the UC supports its students and workers, BSU President X Starr and Political & Cultural Affairs Chair Airielle Silva reminded both President Drake and Chancellor Larive the importance of supporting the Black community at UCSC and reiterated the previous BSU demands that directly outline the support students are asking for. Many students in the audience also joined in, by participating in a silent protest during President Drake's speech.

Learn more about the updated 2021 BSU demands and student activism at the dedication ceremony in this article.

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C9/JRLC's Practical Activism Conference

One way that UCSC students act as agents of change is through our Practical Activism Conference!

Practical Activism is an annual student-led conference featuring speakers, performances, interactive workshops, and a variety of hands-on creative activities and opportunities on a wide range of social justice issues. The conference serves to provide information, tools, and opportunities to generate local and global change.

Housed at College Nine and John R. Lewis College, the Practical Activism Conference is coordinated, planned, and implemented by a group of passionate students who are mentored by professional staff from the CoCurricular Programs Office (the CoCo). While all are encouraged to attend, students can also earn a total of 4 units that fulfill the PR general education requirement for planning the conference in Fall and Winter Quarter. Learn more about how you can get involved here!

The video below explains more about the conference's history and the impact it has had on current students, alumni, and beyond:

John R. Lewis College Presents:
Students as Agents of Transformative Change

Necessary Trouble: Thinking with the Legacy of John R. Lewis
“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” – John R. Lewis

Ready for some necessary trouble? In anticipation and in honor of the dedication of John R. Lewis College at UC Santa Cruz, the Division of Social Sciences, Colleges Nine and Ten, the Institute for Social Transformation, and the Center for Racial Justice organized five events centered on topics exemplified by the life of Representative John Lewis. At UC Santa Cruz, we believe that the real change is us. The series aimed to highlight the efforts of faculty, students, staff, community leaders, and alumni in their commitments to social and racial justice, civic engagement, and democracy as a call for all of us to carry John R. Lewis’ legacy forward.

“Every generation leaves behind a legacy. What that legacy will be is determined by the people of that generation. What legacy do you want to leave behind?” ― John Lewis, Across That Bridge: A Vision for Change and the Future of America

Students as Agents of Transformative Change:

More than simply an institution of higher education, UC Santa Cruz has been a site of powerful student organizing and transformative engagement with the world, including struggles that have challenged the structural racism and neoliberalism of the institution itself. In organizing for change, students have reshaped the university in profound ways.

In the late 1960s, students, calling for ethnic studies, took over the graduation stage to protest both the U.S. war in Vietnam and racism on this campus. In that same decade, the Black Liberation Front called for Oakes to be named Malcolm X College, a space dedicated to the study of the Black experience. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, students continued to organize for Third World and Native American studies while mobilizing against South Africa’s apartheid government. During the underground years, undocumented students formed organizations like the SIN Collective, enacting mutual aid and paving the way for undocumented student services. Students again led the charge in fighting for Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, drawing strength and inspiration from past struggles for ethnic studies. In more recent years, Black students reclaimed Kerr Hall, denouncing the anti-blackness of the university, and Santa Cruz graduate students sparked a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) movement, which morphed into a nationwide Cops Off Campus campaign.

Running as a through-line in student organizing at UC Santa Cruz has been an insistence on political education as essential to the imagination and enactment of racial justice and social change. This event puts the spotlight on student organizers who catalyzed transformation in both the classroom and beyond.

Getting Involved

As a UCSC student, you have the opportunity to leave your mark and get involved in making change on our campus and in our community. Here are some additional resources to help you in taking the first step!

A black-and-white photo of student protesters at UCSC holding signs reading "On Strike" and holding their fists in the air.

Moving Forward

Time to wrap up this Pillar! When you apply for the GTA Completion Certificate (prior to Graduation), you will complete a final reflection addressing each of the Five Pillars and linking the values and commitments in each pillar to some of the leadership and learning experiences you have had at JRLC and UCSC.