Students are encouraged to do independent research, and students and faculty from different fields often pursue interdisciplinary research interests. The Santa Cruz campus operates on a quarter-based academic year and uses a Narrative Evaluation System to record academic performance. Undergraduate education at Santa Cruz is organized on a collegiate basis. Eight colleges divide a large university into smaller academic and social communities. Each college has a distinctive quality derived from its core course and extracurricular programs, its faculty and their academic disciplines, and its architectural style.
Graduate students are welcome to affiliate with one of the colleges.
Central campus resources include the McHenry Library, the Science Library, the Computer Center, the Performing Arts Center, the Elena Baskin Visual Arts Studios, the Student Center, and the Bay Tree Bookstore, as well as science laboratories, lecture halls, athletic facilities, and restaurants. All are within walking distance of each other and of the colleges. They are also linked by a system of free minibuses. UC Santa Cruz is located 75 miles south of San Francisco on 2,000 acres of meadows and redwood-forested hills overlooking Monterey Bay. The campus occupies the site of historic Cowell Ranch, whose old buildings and fences have been carefully preserved.