Welcome to Rachel Carson College, UCSC's Environmental College

Since its creation in 1972, Rachel Carson College (founded as College Eight) has been a crucial component of the university's world renowned Environmental, Ecological and Sustainability programs and initiatives. Through a generous gift from the Webster Foundation, our college was endowed as Rachel Carson College in 2016. Rachel Carson College has embarked upon an ambitious curricular initiative to nurture student talents, skills and knowledge. The curriculum involves both a College Core Course on "Environment and Society" and a minor in Sustainability Studies, open to all UC Santa Cruz students.

Our Sustainability Studies Minor has the distinction of being the only minor offered through one of our ten Colleges at UCSC, rather than being offered through a Department. This affords students trained in different disciplinary majors the unique opportunity to work and learn together in any of our courses.  Our multidisciplinary, design-based approach to sustainability is  guided by the interplay between four lenses: People (e.g., human-centered, quality of life, service-oriented), Planet (e.g., land use, endangered species, pollution), Prosperity (e.g., cost-effective, viable throughput), and Practical (e.g., functional, feasible, place-based). Another distinction of our Sustainability Studies Minor is a year-long capstone sequence designed to advance students as change agents who can contribute to bringing about a more sustainable world through service-learning. Students are challenged to meet real-world constraints as they engage in applied  team projects and initiatives focused on topics ranging from natural resource management to resource recovery to regenerative water systems. We welcome new ideas, diverse student voices, and alternative prospects that challenge the status quo. Our focus on experiential learning invites both curricular and co-curricular  opportunities to work with a variety of campus and community-based partners.

Our new College Provost (appointed 2024), Shelly Grabe, aims to grow our Sustainability Minor by designing curriculum and programming that fleshes out the premise that environmental and climate crises are unjust. Additional courses and guests may underscore that people of color, low-income households, and girls and women bear a disproportionate burden from climate change and environmental pollution and are often on the front lines of climate crisis. Ideas for guest speakers who may center knowledge or sustainability strategies from minoritized communities are welcome!

College Provost, Shelly Grabe (sgrabe@ucsc.edu).