The University of California, Santa Cruz has announced that College Ten — an undergraduate residential learning community founded on principles of social justice and community — will be named in honor of the late congressman and civil rights icon John R. Lewis. College Ten is the youngest and one of the most diverse of the university’s residential colleges. Since its founding in 2002, it has been focused on offering programming and courses to help students become change agents for justice and equity.
Undergraduate students at the university affiliate with one of 10 residential colleges, each of which focuses on different themes, including environmental stewardship, creativity, cultural identity, or in the case of College Ten, social justice and community. College Ten will be the first residential college at the university to be named in honor of a person of color.
The future John R. Lewis College will seek new avenues for social justice impact. The college’s curriculum and programs were designed from the outset to provide learning opportunities, both inside and outside of the classroom, that empower students with crucial skills, knowledge, and perspective to build a more just and equitable world.
“The naming of John R. Lewis College really advances our driving motivations as a division,” said Social Sciences Dean Katharyne Mitchell. “John Lewis was passionate about social justice, racial justice, civic engagement, and democracy, and we are too. We strive every day to walk that walk, and this naming will be a very important moment to lift our aspirations even higher.”
John Lewis died on July 17. He was 80 years old and had suffered from pancreatic cancer. (See JBHE post.)
