Westside / Downtown

UC Santa Cruz’s famed residential college system is not disappearing — it remains central to the university’s identity and mission, writes Paul Koch, interim campus provost and executive vice chancellor. But as the campus grows and changes, the colleges must evolve to better serve today’s students, he writes. He argues that new staffing models will strengthen, not weaken, the system and explains how a broad community conversation on the colleges will continue into the next academic year. The challenge, he insists, is preserving what makes the colleges special while creating a roadmap for their future.