In the 1960s, a small team of innovators gathered on a stunning sweep of land overlooking the California coast. They envisioned a new and different kind of university-one that could reinvent public higher education in the United States. Through this oral history of the University of California, Santa Cruz, we hear first-person accounts of the campus's evolution, from the origins of an audacious dream through the sea changes of five decades. More than two hundred narrators and a trove of archival images contribute to this dynamic, nuanced account. Today, UC Santa Cruz is a leading research university with experimental roots. This is the story of what was learned, what was lost, and what has grown along the way.

"This extraordinary history presents a luminous storytelling quilt. Diverse voices of undergraduate and graduate students, administrators, faculty, and staff reveal hard truths about race and class, sexual harassment, and administrative blunders alongside spectactular successes. It is an incredibly moving journey."

--Bettina Aptheker, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Feminist Studies Department, UC Santa Cruz