Porter College, the fifth college at UCSC, is named as a memorial to the grandfather of three University of California benefactors: Porter Sesnon, Barbara Sesnon Cartan, and William T. Sesnon. Benjamin F. Porter came to California in the 1850s with his cousin George. The two had been attracted by glowing stories sent to them in New Hampshire by another cousin, John Porter, a resident of Soquel in the 1840s and sheriff of Santa Cruz County in the1850's.

The young Porter cousins traveled by sea to Panama and walked the Isthmus to the Pacific and again sailed to California. After settling in Santa Cruz, Mr. Porter purchased a small parcel of land containing a tannery in the area now known as Porter Gulch.

By 1870 he had acquired adjoining lands and had built a family home. That same year, Mr. Porter became founding director of County Bank of Santa Cruz. In 1896, his only surviving child, Mary Sophia, married William T. Sesnon, a native of Alameda who later became deputy sheriff of the State of California.

Over the years, the Porter-Sesnon family has provided generous donations in support of UCSC. In 1968, Barbara Sesnon Cartan made a gift for the establishment of the Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery in memory of her mother. Other gifts have enabled the campus to give scholarships to support UCSC students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

A gift of nearly 70 acres of Porter-Sesnon land has enabled the University to give capital support and an endowment to our college. The College, which was founded in 1969 as “College Five,” was formally dedicated as “Porter College” on November 21, 1981. The motto of the college is congruent with our commitment to creativity: Ars Longa, Vita Brevis (Life is short, Art endures).