All ten residential colleges at UCSC require their freshmen to take a core course. Unlike other colleges’ one quarter core, Stevenson’s core course, "Self and Society," is two quarters long and students can earn up to five general education requirements. Because students explore relationships between selves and societies for two quarters, our core course embodies, defines, and redefines our academic traditions and community.

Furthermore, after two quarters of the core course, Stevenson students are confident of their abilities to succeed as students at UCSC and to engage in contemporary debates about selves and societies in communities outside the university.

The Community

Nothing encourages a strong community at Stevenson more than Self & Society. Writing assistants, who have taken the course, provide individual help with papers and meet with writing groups in residence house lounges. Because the core course happens in the College, students and faculty see each other more, get to know one another, and talk about core outside of class time.

Many of the best core course discussions happen late at night in the residence houses, at the Stevenson Coffee House, or over lunch. Core is a common experience that Stevensonians share and treasure.

The Course

The Stevenson Core Course, Self & Society, expresses the strong and continuing commitment of the College’s provosts and the Stevenson faculty to provide a comprehensive and effective general education course. Over the fall and winter quarters students read fifteen texts, many of which they will read in future courses; meet in small discussion groups two or three days a week to share and debate their reactions to the texts; and write at least fifty pages.

The course challenges and expands a student’s perspective on "self" and "society" and the interactions between the two by drawing upon texts that have shaped and questioned what selves and societies ought to be. Readings include religious writings (the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita) , philosophy (Plato), political theory (Machiavelli, Marx), social criticism (Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, Freud, Gandhi), as well as autobiography (Malcolm X) and fiction (Chinua Achebe).

Current students also have access to the comprehensive Stevenson College Core Course website ("Digital Core"), which helps students access information on the texts and resources for succeeding in the course.  The website also features digital media projects by former Stevenson Core students, called "web narratives", which inspire different ways of interpreting or thinking about these texts.

Here’s a link to the 2007-08 syllabus:

Core_Syllabus_07-08_general.pdf

 

 

Feedback On The Core Course

• "Stevenson has the best core course at UCSC. People from other colleges tell me all the time that they wish they could take it. Core is extremely interesting and mind-expanding. It has been my favorite class this quarter. Meeting in smaller, core groups was a wonderful way to bond with my Stevenson classmates… . Overall, core was a tremendous success and I cannot wait for next quarter!!!"


• "I feel I received more from this course in regards to the way I think than any class I’ve ever taken."


• "I feel I can walk away with confidence in my writing ability to write a well-constructed essay. The class discussions were particularly interesting and I often spent a lot of time alone thinking of how others interpreted the texts. I feel that through this course I have experienced an inner growth directly related to the texts that we read."


• "This course broadened my view of society and where I fit into it. Not only did I learn new ways of thinking about life, but also why there is so much conflict in the world today. The readings in this class will be valuable because it will help this generation change what needs to be changed in the world."


• "This course was not only valuable to me as a student, but also as a person."

Here is an email we received from a Stevenson parent in the winter of 2008:

Subject: Stevenson’s Wonderful Core Course

"[My son] has shared with me the enjoyment and enrichment that he has experienced from the Stevenson core course. I was with him when we purchased the books for the first term and extremely impressed with the breadth of the material. I would have to credit this one class for helping him to gain confidence in himself to succeed in school and to open his mind in a way that had not happened until now. I am becoming quite a fan of UCSC and of Stevenson College in particular. Great job!"

 

 

Here is an email we received from a Stevenson parent in the spring of 2008:

 

"I must tell you that our daughter has thrived at UCSC. Her passion for learning has only increased with the Stevenson core program… . I must tell you as a mother and a professor how gratifying it was to hear on the phone "Mom, I am so excited, I get to write a research paper!" While this is not the type of reaction I tend to get from my students,I was overjoyed at her response… . This has been a wonderful year and as an educator, I felt you needed to know the extraordinary year Kristina has had. She has made many friends. Thank you and the UCSC community. I look forward to her

continuing at UCSC because this process for her is a perfect fit."