Merrill College
Merrill College seeks to expand students’ awareness of their own heritage and of the diversity of cultures around the world, past and present. The college makes a special effort to create a home for students from different cultural backgrounds and for international students.
Merrill houses the departments of Politics, Legal Studies, and Latin American and Latino Studies. It also hosts KZSC, the campus radio station; the Dolores Huerta Research Center for the Americas; UCSC’s Cantú Queer Center; the student-run Pottery Co-op (the only one of its kind at UCSC); and the Ming Ong Computer Center.
Academic Emphasis
The Merrill College ethos is "cultural identities and global consciousness." This pairing signals the college’s commitment to drawing on the funds of knowledge brought by individual college members and understanding these identities in a global context.
Additional information about Merrill College academics, including College One requirements and other academic programs, is available here.
College Community and Facilities
At Merrill 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 building relationships and 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. The Merrill Residential Education team understands community not as a product we can deliver to our students, but as an experience that students themselves are responsible for creating for and with each other. The Residential Education team partners with students, serving as 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.
The Merrill Programs and Leadership Office (MPLO) and Merrill Student Government (MSG) create space for student voices and experiences that lead to personal and academic growth and development.
Located on a hilltop between UCSC’s famed Chadwick Garden and Santa Cruz’s Pogonip Open Space, Merrill’s award-winning buildings nestle at the edge of the redwood forest. Four residence halls house approximately 600 students in two high-rise structures and two smaller buildings. There are all-female floors and trans-inclusive housing options among Merrill residence halls; the remainder offer a coed environment (single-gender bedrooms with all-gender bathrooms).
Merrill’s plaza and central lawn make excellent use of the ample sunshine and provide common space for students living in the residence halls and other housing options.
The apartments, located a short distance from the central area of the college, house approximately 200 continuing Merrill students. Grouped amid winding pathways and redwood trees, these three-story buildings have two or three apartments per floor. Each apartment houses four to six students in a combination of single, double, and triple rooms and comes fully equipped with a kitchen and a bathroom, a large living area, and an outside deck. Residents of the apartment complex share a large community room, two laundry rooms, and plenty of outdoor space.
Facilities at Merrill include the Cultural Center, where large gatherings, cultural and musical events, and celebrations take place; the Baobab Lounge, which provides study space, informal gathering space, a piano, and a television; and Casa Latina/Charles E. Merrill Library and Merrill Academic Success (MAS), which provide Merrill students with quiet places to study. The Ming Ong Computer Center offers access to desktop computers and printing. Finally, at the student-run pottery co-op, students can throw, fire, and glaze their pieces in the workshop space.
The physical facilities of Merrill College were provided through a partnership of public funds and gifts from the Charles E. Merrill Trust and the fOng family, in commemmoration of Ming Ong, a student who passed away in 1986.
For more information, visit the Merrill College website or call (831) 459-2144. For residential information, call the Housing and Residential Education Office at (831) 459-5689.
Merrill College Fellows and Staff
Merrill College faculty fellows are listed on the college's faculty directory on the college's faculty website.
Merrill College staff are listed on the college's staff page.