College of Creative Studies

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A CCS student, Ryan Steinberg, standing at the entrance of the building.

The College of Creative Studies is one of three undergraduate colleges in the University of California, Santa Barbara. It is unique within the UC system in terms of structure and philosophy. It offers a guided yet self-motivated hands-on and research-based education; a former student has called it a “graduate school for undergraduates.” The college has fewer than 350 students in eight majors and approximately 60 professors and lecturers.

1 History
2 Philosophy
3 Privileges
4 The Building
5 Applying
6 External links

[edit] History

In the late 1960s, then Chancellor of UCSB, Vernon I. Cheadle, was looking for an alternative education program for undergraduate students which could embody the new thinking of the 60s and also attract attention to his growing university. He contacted a Professor in the English department, Marvin Mudrick, to come up with ideas for this new program. Mudrick returned to Cheadle with a variety of ideas and in 1967 Cheadle allowed Mudrick to start up the most promising of them, the College of Creative Studies.

The program started with approximately 50 students in 7 majors: Art, Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Music Composition, Literature and Physics. The experimental program may not have lasted long, but it struck a chord with its students, faculty and UC wide administration and along with the powerful pushing of Mudrick as its provost, secured its place at UCSB.

The program grew over the years in student and faculty size and in 1975 found its home in an old building at UCSB, a remnant commissary from when the campus was a World War II marine base. The college also began to gain stature within the UC system and through the nation under the leadership of its line of provosts. In 1995 the major of Computer Science was added.

Recently, the Physics program has become regarded as one of the best undergraduate Physics programs in the nation. The CCS graduates students to graduate schools with percentages resembling those of Ivy Leagues.

In 2005, with the retirement of Provost William Ashby, the title of the Provost was changed to Dean and the College was placed under the leadership of Dr. Bruce Tiffney.

[edit] Philosophy

The basic philosophy of the College of Creative Studies is that certain undergraduate students are capable of rigorously exploring and changing a field of knowledge. The faculty of the college consider the students to be junior colleagues in their fields and help the students accomplish whatever goals they set for themselves. Almost all students have accomplished some sort of “creative” work before they graduate: Literature students compile a portfolio of writing, art students put on a minimum of two shows displaying their work, music students perform their own compositions, and science students are put in labs by their sophomore years to conduct (not only participate in) leading edge research and write scholarly papers for publication.

It has been said that the College was founded as a place where the students are the most important people involved, not the faculty or the bureaucracy, and it has a student-teacher ratio of less than 6-to-1. All students are paired with a faculty adviser when they enter the college with whom they are required to meet every quarter about their academic progress, research opportunities, and anything else of interest.

Students admitted into a major within the College of Creative Studies have a marked interest in their field. Faculty choose students who show promise and enthusiasm in a field, whether it be Shakespeare, Theory of Computation or Invertebrate Biology, so that they can get started learning what they like. Students may skip preliminary courses as appropriate. CCS students have few general education requirements, and may take almost any course in the university if they want to.

In CCS classes, students do not receive letter grades. Instead, the College uses a sliding unit scale where if a student completes all the work for a class at a satisfactory level, the student receives a full 4 units for most classes. If the student completes less work, he/she would receive fewer units, and if the student goes beyond expectations, a professor may give student more units. This system aims to promote a non-competitive atmosphere that focuses more on the student learning the material rather than learning how to take a test.

[edit] Privileges

CCS students are afforded many privileges to help in the pursuit of their education.

Fewer prerequisites: If a CCS student can show a capability of taking an upper division or graduate class, even without the prerequisites, the college greatly facilitates the process of getting the student in that class.
Drop class and change grading: CCS students may drop any class up until the last day of instruction. This privilege is given as a backup if a student happens to try taking advanced classes or more classes than the usual student. They may also change their grading between letter grade or pass/no-pass for classes outside CCS.
Priority registration: CCS students are among the first students at UCSB to sign up for classes each quarter. They sign up at the same time as honors students and athletes.
Higher unit cap: CCS students have a unit cap of 95.5 units per quarter. However, most students take between 15 and 25 units a quarter.
Building access: All CCS students receive a key to the CCS building and have 24-hour access to it.
Computer Lab: CCS students have 24-hour access to their own computer lab where they have free Internet access, printing and photocopying.
Library checkout: CCS students get quarter-long check-out from the UCSB library and may renew materials up to five times.

[edit] The Building

The College of Creative Studies is housed in its own single story building located between campus dorms, a dining commons, and the University Center. The building was built during World War II and shares the title as the oldest building at UCSB with the other buildings left from when the campus was a marine base.

The building contains classrooms, art studios, faculty and administrative offices, an art gallery, computer labs, print and wood shops and a small 100 person theater. For most of its life it was painted brown, but in early 2005 the administrative offices were painted yellow, the college proper was painted green and the Old Little Theater was painted red.

The building acts as a "home base" for its students, who spend time in the building studying and socializing. Students have been able to personalize the building without worries of backlash from the authorities, so the walls are covered with stickers and art, classrooms contain couches and modified desks and there are roaming stuffed animals.

Although many students and staff members are fond of the building, the college has outgrown it and is looking for funds to renovate it and/or build new facilities.

[edit] Applying

The College of Creative Studies accepts applications for admissions all year long. There is an additional application process to the standard UCSB admission for prospective CCS students.