Student Groups

Student Programs

Student Environmental Center

The purpose of the Student Environmental Center is to promote student involvement through research, education, and implementation of environmentally sustainable practices on campus in collaboration with the university. It is a great place to start as an introduction to student involvement in campus sustainability. General Gatherings take place on Wednesdays from 5:30-7:30 in the Rachel Carson College Student Commons (Red Room).

Read more about their meetings and current projects at the SEC website or contact them at secsteering@ucsc.edu for more information.


People of Color Sustainability Collective

The People of Color Sustainability Collective (POCSC) is an initiative founded by the Ethnic Resource Centers, housed under the American Indian Resource Center, that works in partnership with Colleges Nine and Ten and the Campus Sustainability Office. The mission of the People of Color Sustainability Collective is to highlight the work that communities of color have done to advance sustainability and to redefine sustainability to include diverse cultural interpretations.

For more information, visit the POCSC website.


Education for Sustainable Living Program

The Education for Sustainable Living Program (ESLP) is a collaborative and interdisciplinary effort to reshape the way we learn, effectively mentor students, and engage in projects that support the sustainable development of the University of California at Santa Cruz community. Using models of experiential learning, ESLP supports student-facilitated Action Research Teams and guest speakers, while inspiring participants to internalize the concept of sustainability within academia and greater society.

For more information, visit the ESLP website or email them at eslp@ucsc.edu.


Friends of the Community Agroecology Network

Community Agroecology Network (CAN) is an international organization actively working in eight regions of Mexico and Central America. They confront social, economic, and environmental injustice through research, education, and action. CAN partners with community-based organizations, farmers’ cooperatives, nonprofits, and universities to generate local approaches to sustainable development.

For more information, visit the FoCAN website or email them at actioned@canunite.edu.


Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA)

The Program in Community and Agroecology (PICA) is a educational and residential program focused on experiential learning, sustainability and food systems. All UCSC students are welcome to participate in the garden workdays and workshops offered. PICA residents have the opportunity to grow their own food together, share meals together, and explore ways to live more sustainably. PICA is located at the entrance to the Village at the UCSC campus, right across from the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS).

For more information, visit the PICA website.


Campus Sustainability Council

The role of the Campus Sustainability Council (CSC) is to provide funding to registered UCSC student organizations for programs and events that create, implement, and monitor environmentally sound practices on campus as established  in the Blueprint for a Sustainable Campus. These organizations additionally facilitate greater collaboration between students, the administration, staff, faculty, and the community.

For more information, visit the CSC page.


Common Ground Center

The mission of Common Ground is to create cultural change for social justice, environmental regeneration, and economic viability. They act as a catalyst and facilitator of systemic change through undergraduate action-education, research, advocacy, and civic engagement. The Center has a large base of community support from its existing programs in Nonviolent Communication, Restorative Justice, Transformative Action, The World Café and the Kresge Garden, as well as existing partnerships with civil society organizations promoting the values, principles and practices of Common Ground.

For more information, visit the Common Ground Center website.


Gente de la Tierra (GDLT)

Gente de la Tierra provides a space for students and other communities to express themselves about their struggles and their ongoing issues about social, economic, environmental and cultural conditions through dialogue, art and other forms of activities as a healing process. Community members of Gente de la Tierra believe bringing awareness is a start to address the current issues with interdisciplinary resolutions from UCSC’s different departments and community as an empowerment movement.

For more information, visit the GDLT website.


SeaSlugs

SeaSlugs is an ocean-minded campus organization at the University of California Santa Cruz dedicated to environmental stewardship. The group provides an excellent opportunity for students (both undergraduate and graduate) to engage in the greater Santa Cruz community through public service while making a positive impact on the local environment. They have ties with local organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation, Save Our Shores, Save the Waves, The Clean Oceans Project, et al, which can help dial you in to the local oceanic environmental community.

For more information, visit the SeaSlugs website.

Take Back the Tap

Take Back the Tap UCSC is an initiative to end the sale and distribution of bottled water on our campus.

For more information, visit the Take Back the Tap website or email them at tbttucsc-group@gmail.com.


Stevenson Community Garden

The Stevenson Garden aims to create a safe space for all people to explore, grow, and learn as well as to educate our community about the role food systems play into sustainability, food justice, and nutrition. While transforming the landscape and soil into fertile and productive land, the garden also hopes to create a student powered space where social and environmental issues are tied together. Some ways to get involved are: attend a weekly work day, come by for an event, or sign up for a 2 unit internship through the ENVS internship office.

For more information, visit the Stevenson Garden website.


Sustainability Committee

A committee dedicated to creating a forum where UCSC student's ideas for creating a more sustainable campus can be heard. For more information, visit their website.


California Student Sustainability Commission (CSSC)

The Education for Sustainable Living Program's (ESLP) sponsor. For more information, visit the CSSC website.