Welcome to Oakes!

Founded in 1972, Oakes College is a multi-cultural community committed to equality and freedom from oppression and to providing a high quality education to students from diverse backgrounds. Poised at the edge of UCSC’s natural preserve, Oakes also leads at the edge of scholarship, community-building, and integrated experiences. Oakes students are engaged in the arts, humanities, sciences, and engineering, and are represented in all of the majors at UCSC.

Our core course, Values and Change in a Diverse Society, seeks to help students appreciate the fundamental role of higher education in identifying and solving some of the critical problems facing our nation and the world, and in exploring the connections between educational quality and diversity. In the core course and throughout the Oakes community, students are encouraged to explore issues of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic class, and politics.

A support system of academic and administrative staff, student life staff, and student neighborhood assistants aid students in achieving skills essential to success both in college and in life. At Oakes our students have the opportunity to live in a diverse community where the values of individual responsibility and personal integrity are essential to our community standards in and out of the classroom.

At Oakes difference is not a barrier, but an invitation to grow.

Oakes Mission Statement | Oakes History