Category: 60th

The UC Board of Regents approve Cynthia K. Larive—a professor of chemistry and the executive vice chancellor at UC Riverside—as the 11th chancellor of UC Santa Cruz.

Chancellor George Blumenthal, who served 12 years as chancellor, announces he will step down at the end of the next academic year. Blumenthal, a theoretical astrophysicist, previously served as a UCSC faculty member since 1972.

UC Santa Cruz’s first campuswide campaign wraps up, with record giving by alumni and friends in support of the student experience, high-impact research, and social justice and environmental responsibility. The campaign raised $335 million, surpassing the original goal of $300 million.

After spending more than a decade silent, the Quarry Amphitheater—which had seen legends such as César Chávez, Angela Davis, Buckminster Fuller, Joan Baez, and more—is restored and reopened.

UC Santa Cruz receives a gift of the photography collection of Pirkle Jones and Ruth-Marion Baruch, plus works by Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, and Edward Weston—an extraordinary archive of photographs documenting the people, landscape, and politics of California in the mid-20th century—valued at $32 million.

With a gift from the Helen and Will Webster Foundation, College Eight—opened in 1972 with the theme of environment and society—becomes Rachel Carson College, named for one of the great environmental prophets of the 20th century. It is the first UCSC college named after a woman.

UC Santa Cruz opens its Silicon Valley Campus, recognizing the shared DNA between the campus the global tech hub: Asking big questions, not accepting conventional wisdom, and seeking to make the world a better place through innovation.

UC Santa Cruz marks its 50th anniversary with a year-long celebration of its trailblazing history and groundbreaking impact on the world.

Celebrated writer Jonathan Franzen, author of The Corrections, wrote much of his new best-selling novel, Freedom, at Cowell College. Franzen, recently on the cover of Time magazine, and his partner live part time in Santa Cruz. Both are longtime friends of UCSC.