The Nature of Merrill  

The academic and social atmosphere at Merrill College -- situated in a beautiful, compact pocket of redwood trees -- is friendly, engaged, and accepting. Our excellent students, faculty, and staff represent numerous cultural groups and nationalities. Merrill's central goals are to promote respect for all world cultures, and for the individual cultural heritage of each Merrill student in particular. Merrill students develop a sense of social consciousness and social responsibility, both locally and globally. They come to appreciate how people from the most diverse cultural backgrounds can work together, both to form a local community and to serve humankind.

Merrill faculty and staff encourage students to perform to their maximum potential in coursework. Our knowledgeable staff is cognizant of University requirements, but also sensitive to individual student needs and capabilities and flexible enough to allow students to grow. Our advising staff assists Merrill students with course offerings, majors, other academic support services, and career opportunities; they also carefully monitor students' academic standing, and help students in academic difficulty to find ways of improving their academic performance. Merrill is committed to supporting the academic success of all students; to this end, our staff conducts advising outreach programs, works closely with the EOP (Education Opportunity Programs) office, and regularly recommends academic success courses and tutoring to students in need. For example, the Science Learning Community -- a joint venture with neighboring colleges -- offers multifaceted assistance to students from these colleges who have a strong interest in science but who feel slightly under-prepared for university-level work.

To compliment our academic mission, Merrill offers a variety of innovative co-curricular activities; we take pride in the quality of our residential life programs. Our unique and newly renovated Pottery Co-op, and our Merrill "moat" murals allow Merrill students to express themselves creatively. To further provide opportunities for creative expression for our students, as well as developing cultural appreciation, we offer quarterly college nights featuring performances and special menus that reflect a variety of cultural traditions, such as Asian/Pacific Island themes and Black History. The Merrill Activities Office also sponsors special events, such as Cinco de Mayo, International Women's Day, and various concerts.

In addition to the events sponsored by the Activities Office, the Residential Life office provides themed housing options: Co-ed, Scholars, transfer, substance-free, academic intensive, science learning, arts floor, outdoor interest, world culture, Asian and Pacific Islander, Chicano/Latino, and the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-sexual/Transgender floor. Through themed housing we hope to provide students with an experience in cross-cultural education and living. Consistent with the theme of our college and our core course, the dorm houses themselves are named for important national and international figures that strongly defended their beliefs in the realms of art, politics, and literature. Just as these noted individuals served their regional, ethnic, and national communities, Merrill students repeatedly exercise their opportunities and abilities to serve the greater community through the college's service learning programs.

The Merrill Core Course is explicitly dedicated to issues falling within the rubric of our College theme, CULTURAL IDENTITIES AND GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS. The course is intended to provide an occasion for analytical and creative thinking as students work to understand the nature of cultural identity and struggles worldwide.

To provide a local connection to these issues, Merrill sponsors several volunteer programs, such as the Classroom Connection program, a credited class involving weekly volunteering at two local elementary schools. The Santa Cruz Immigration Project offers interested Merrill students the opportunity to assist primarily low-income Latino immigrants with the immigration and citizenship process. The Step-to-College Mentor Program links Merrill College students as tutor/mentors with at-risk Mexican immigrant students from farm worker families in the Pescadero School District. In addition to these programs, Merrill also houses the campus's Peace Corps office, which disseminates information both within the College and campus wide, about this unique opportunity for global community service.

Merrill students can also apply for positions as Academic Peer Advisors, Residential Assistants, Events/Tech Crew members, and Orientation Leaders, and they can participate in the Merrill Student Government. In sum, Merrill students have ample ways to contribute to and develop a vibrant Merrill neighborhood; our community is a stimulating, healthy and focused environment.

Merrill is the home of Casa Latina, the Chicano/Latino Research Center, and the department of Latin American and Latino studies; also located at Merrill is the department of Politics as well as the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Resource Center.

In accordance with its founding philosophy, Merrill College projects a cohesive vision, sustained and advocated by our committed faculty and staff. We take necessary steps to assure the continuity of this vision so that Merrill remains, within the larger UC Santa Cruz campus, a community of people who manifest a distinct consciousness of global issues and willingness to serve others in the greater local and global village that we now occupy.

Frosh Core Course - "Cultural Identities and Global Consciousness"

Frosh Scholars Program

Classroom Connection

Science Learning Community

Academic Advising

Housing at Merrill

Student Activities