Crown College
Crown College seeks to provide our students with a living and learning environment in which they can positively develop intellectually and socially. Crown is traditionally viewed as the “science college,” and the majority of our affiliated faculty fellows teach in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. However, half of our students major in the social sciences, arts, and humanities.
Crown is located on a hilltop surrounded by a redwood forest. The core buildings consist of an administration office, dining commons, lounge spaces, study spaces, faculty offices, and classrooms built around a large patio and central fountain. The award-winning architecture with its white walls and high-pitched tiled roofs suggests a hillside Mediterranean village. The college’s residential facilities house approximately 800 students. The facilities at Crown College were built through a partnership of public funds and a gift from the Crown Zellerbach Foundation.
Academic Emphases
From the time of its founding in 1967, issues pertaining to the role of science and technology in society have been a focus of special interest at Crown College. We approach these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective that recognizes the influence of social and cultural factors on the scientific enterprise, as well as the ways in which science and technology influence our society. Complementing its focus on science and technology, Crown also supports innovation and experiential learning through classes and funding opportunities.
CRWN 1, Academic Literacy and Ethos: Ethical and Social Implications of Emerging Technologies
Offered fall quarter
Crown College’s entering frosh enroll in our core course, CRWN 1, which explores the theme, Ethical and Societal Implications of Emerging Technologies. Students work individually, in small groups of four to five students, and in sections of 25 to 30 students, thereby modeling and embracing the diversity found across campus. CRWN 1 looks at how technologies transform our society, the agents driving technological development and what the generalized adoption of emerging technologies is leading to. CRWN 1 also explores the ethical dilemmas involved and what we can do as responsible citizens to address the challenges facing our society. Deeper goals of this course include fostering a sense of belonging, and ensuring that our students achieve college-level reading, critical thinking, and effective communication skills.
A central component of the course is a group research project, in which students study the impact of a technology of their choice, while learning strategies for effective group work. The core course is enhanced through our plenary series, which gives students opportunities to meet intellectual leaders and hear them speak in the intimacy of the provost’s house. We also organize a science fiction short story contest, and students are encouraged to attend and/or present at Crown’s Social Fiction Conference and have the opportunity to enact a play connected to the impact of technology by taking a drama class offered in winter.
Other Academic Programs
Crown has programs that support innovation, the cultivation of transferable skills, and experiential learning. On the innovation front, Crown offers entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship classes, supports the Student Creativity and Entrepreneurial Empowerment club, and Crown facilitates interested students to access to incubator space and funding opportunities through its partnership with the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurial Development. Crown also offers a Sci Fi class and sponsors a Sci Fi short story contest. To support transferable skills, Crown offers classes in broadcasting, in digital storytelling, in podcasting, and in computer modelling of human behavior or biological systems. Finally, Crown promotes experiential learning by providing funding to support student class or research projects as well as internships in Crown’s Center for Applied Ethics and Values and in our GetVirtual project https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/05/getvirtual.html .
Crown is one of the colleges hosting the College Scholars Program, which provides a congenial and challenging academic home for a select group of well-prepared students at UC Santa Cruz. This enriched program of study includes special courses, seminars, colloquia, and other events in the fall of the sophomore year. Admission to the College Scholars Program can be by invitation during the admissions process based on high school academic performance (early entry) or in winter of the freshman year based on academic potential shown during the first quarter at UCSC (late entry).
College Advising
Crown Advising is located in the Crown Administration Building and is staffed by the college assistant, professional academic advisers, and peer advisers. Crown Advising offers drop-in advising and appointment advising (phone or in person) every weekday in fall, winter, and spring terms. Summer advising is by appointment only (phone or in person). To schedule an appointment, students should use Slug Success (https://ucsc.campus.eab.com) For quick questions or completion of most forms, students are encouraged to email crownadvising@ucsc.edu. Please visit our website for the most up to date information about adviser availability.
crownadmising@ucsc.edu
Phone: 831-450-2665
Crown College Administration Building
Crown Fellows and Staff
Crown College faculty fellows are listed on the college's faculty directory. Crown College Core faculty instructors are listed on the college’s Core Course Faculty page: Core Course Faculty page. Crown College staff are listed on the college's staff page.
Additional information about Crown College academics, including Core Course requirements and other academic programs, is available here.
College Community and Facilities
Crown sponsors a wide variety of co-curricular events spanning cultural, educational, and social areas of interest. One popular series is the Science/Public Affairs Tables, informal dinners at the Provost House offering students an opportunity to socialize with a faculty member outside the classroom and learn about their research interests.
Students become involved in Crown life by both initiating and participating in a wide range of activities. Social activities vary each year according to the interests of students. Typical events include College Nights, themed dinners with special menus and entertainment that are open only to the Crown community; dances, including the Glow Dance and the Crown/Merrill Semi-Formal; and study breaks and stress relievers. Unique to Crown, and a collaboration between student and academic life, the Social Fiction Conference examines issues of social justice in the ever-changing context of science fiction, fantasy, gaming, and anime.
Outdoor activities organized by the student senate, the College Programs Office, or residential staff range from whale watching on the Monterey Bay to visiting the Exploratorium in San Francisco, and from backpacking to stargazing.
Crown Student Senate (CSS), the elected student government at Crown, holds open weekly meetings to determine funding allocations for student activities and to discuss issues of concern to students and the college. CSS also sponsors events to entertain, including the very popular Casino Night.
At Crown College, we believe that the experience of living in our on-campus residence halls and apartments offers students not only support for their academic experiences, but also unique opportunities for learning about the concept of community. When college students feel connected to a community during their studies, they experience a smoother transition to university life, greater academic success, and higher satisfaction with their college experience. The Crown Residential Education team understands community not as a product we can deliver to our students, but as an experience that they are responsible for creating for and with each other. Even so, we do not ask our students to undertake this weighty task on their own. The Residential Education team partners with students, striving to be “good companions” on their journey by facilitating experiences that help them to cultivate and apply the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to create, participate in, and lead caring and socially just communities.
Crown offers two types of residential facilities: residence halls and apartments. Eight traditional residence halls each house approximately 80 students in single and triple rooms in a coed environment (single-gender bedrooms with all gender bathrooms) or on a few all-female floors. For students interested in living and learning in a special-interest environment, Crown provides the Gaming House, Outdoor Pursuits House, and College Scholars and Science Learning Communities.
The college also has apartments for approximately 270 continuing students. Like the residence halls, the apartments are built on a small scale. Each three-story building has two or three apartments per floor that house four to six students in a combination of single, double, and triple rooms and include a kitchen, living room, dining room, bathroom, and outside deck.
Other facilities in the college include the Crown Library study space; a computer laboratory with Mac workstations, which provides students with access to several kinds of systems and an array of applications and instructional software selected to support academic coursework; the Fireside Lounge with a piano and a television; and the Music Practice Room. The Crown-Merrill Community Room, with a television, pool table, foosball, and ping-pong table, provides an informal place to study or just visit with friends. Dining facilities boast continuous dining and Banana Joe’s take-out and quick mart.
For general information, call the College Office at (831) 459-2665 or visit the Crown College website. For residential information, call the Housing and Residential Education Office at (831) 459-5689.