Oakes College

Oakes College
Motto	Fiat Lux
Established	1972
Type	Residential college
Provost	Kimberly Lau
Undergraduates	1312 [1]
Location	Santa Cruz, California
Campus	Suburban/Sylvan
Colors	UCSC Blue      UCSC Gold
Nickname	Oakies
Website	www.http://oakes.ucsc.edu/

Oakes College is a residential college at the University of California, Santa Cruz. It is on the southwestern corner of the campus, south of College Eight and east of the Family Student Housing complex.

Oakes was founded in 1972 as College Seven. In 1968, the Black Liberation Front, a black power group, demanded an all-black college. Professor J. Herman Blake, UCSC's only African American faculty member at the time, proposed a compromise in which College Seven's academic program would focus on ethnic studies. Though the term "ethnic studies" was dropped in the planning phases, the college has always stressed racial, ethnic and cultural diversity, along with the representation and support of students from historically disadvantaged groups.^[2]

Oakes is perceived by some students as a "minority college", partly due to its roots in radical elements of the American Civil Rights Movement. Comparative racial and ethnic statistics do show that Oakes' student body has slightly higher percentages of minorities than a number of other UCSC colleges and UCSC's student body as a whole. For example, 9.8% of Oakes's students are African American and 12.2% are Filipino American, compared with 2.7% and 4.5%, respectively, among UCSC's general student body. (pdf)

College Seven was renamed Oakes in 1975 after philanthropists Roscoe and Margaret Oakes, whose endowment contributed significantly to the founding of the college.

Noted political activist Angela Davis, an Oakes affiliate, ^[3] is a professor of history of consciousness, an unconventional program centering on the history of struggles for racial, economic and social justice and equality.

Oakes Theme Housing

Oakes College provides theme housing for their students that want to live on campus. There are four dormitory buildings and four apartment blocks.

Dormitory Buildings
Biko House- African American Theme
Hong-Lim House- Asian American/Pacific Islander Themes
Bayit Wiesel- Jewish, GLBTI Themes
Casa Huerta- Chicano/Latino Theme

Apartment Blocks
Casa Kahlo- Chicano/Latino Theme
Shabazz Block- African American Theme
Milk Block- Jewish, GLBTI Themes
Lili'uokalani Minami Block- Asian American/Pacific Islander Themes

Notes

1. ^ Fall Quarter Undergraduates by College (Historical), Fall 2006 data, accessed July 17, 2007
2. ^ History :: Oakes College :: UCSC
3. ^ "UCSC General Catalog". http://reg.ucsc.edu/catalog/html/04_06colleges.htm#oakescollege. Retrieved 2006-07-28. 

External links

• Oakes College home page
• UC Santa Cruz home page
• UCSC statistics by residential college

Coordinates: 36°59′21″N 122°03′52″W / 36.98925°N 122.06433°W / 36.98925; -122.06433