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I write to wholly endorse UC Santa Cruz lecturer Kiva Silver’s opinion piece arguing that UCSC’s unique college system and the first-year core courses foster essential critical thinking and relational skills that offset the techno-dominance of artificial intelligence. 

I could not agree more. I taught the core course at College Nine for 13 years, and witnessed firsthand the way core courses provided a protected learning space for incoming students that allowed them to be vulnerable, find their footing within the larger campus, build relationships with peers and better understand and navigate the university’s hidden curriculum. 

As small seminars, they foster thoughtful deliberation, collaborative and reciprocal learning, intellectual risk taking – skills desperately needed in this age of extreme political polarization. A plethora of research coming out of National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, one of the organizations showcased in the Feb. 11 faculty forum, shows not only the value of these courses to cultivate a well-rounded education but to support other metrics of student success: higher rates of retention, graduation, persistence, academic achievement, student satisfaction. 

If the university is not convinced to keep these courses based on their humanistic value, perhaps recognizing how they impact institutional goals will be more convincing. 

The 10 colleges are not bound by the same demands as traditional departments and thus have the capacities and flexibility to focus solely on undergraduate education and better meet changing student needs. College Nine and John R. Lewis College offer robust experiential learning opportunities that complement traditional classroom learning. Rachel Carson College issues its own minor in sustainability studies. All of the colleges sponsor enriching, and sometimes life-changing, courses on topics like leadership, personal finance or designing one’s life that are not easily housed in other units. 

Other universities are trying to replicate our programming, which has been built into this institution since its founding. We should not only aim to preserve this great model, but invest in it more. 

How could colleges play an even greater role in undergraduate life at UC Santa Cruz? How might they enhance and streamline undergraduate teaching and learning efforts across campus? I am aware that the university is struggling to close an ever-increasing budget deficit, as Lookout’s reporting acknowledges.

Let’s be clear, however: Students entering UCSC in the forthcoming years are not responsible for the current budget deficit. Their education should not be shortchanged to address it. 

Emily Murai 

Continuing lecturer in environmental studies and director, Center for Reimagining Leadership