Porter College
Porter College is one of ten residential colleges that make up one of the defining experiences for students at UC Santa Cruz: the residential college system. It is part of the Porter-Kresge neighborhood on campus. Porter College was founded in 1969 as the fifth of UC Santa Cruz’s residential colleges and was later renamed in honor of a generous grant from the Porter-Sesnon family.
PARKING INFORMATION
Visitors to UCSC may purchase a daily permit at the Main Entrance Kiosk (M-7) or the TAPS Sales Office (L-7). They may also utilize ParkMobile in designated hourly/daily parking spaces. The closest parking lot to this location is Porter College (125).
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UC Santa Cruz Campus Tour Chapter 4: The Residential College System
Porter College Introduction
Housing & The Residential Colleges
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Porter College
🏠 Housing & The Residential Colleges
One of the defining experiences for students at UC Santa Cruz is our residential college system. Year-after-year, our alumni identify their residential college experience and student group involvement as central to their core identities and connection to campus. The people you will live with in these communities, the shared experiences, your growth academically and personally, are all fostered by the close-knit, home-away-from-home structure our residential colleges provide.
These ten communities, each with their own academic themes, architecture, activities, location, and support resources, provide a neighborhood for your lived campus experience. By design, our residential colleges are not connected to any specific major. This provides a wonderful opportunity to interact, live, and learn alongside fellow banana slugs from different backgrounds, countries, and experiences.
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🖼 Porter College
Porter is home to a Gaming Community, Transfer Community, LGBTQIA+ Community, and Film & Digital Media themed housing. Porter has art galleries, including Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery, the JB Hall Gallery, and the Bridge Gallery, as well as a specialized digital media computer lab and The MakerSpace Co-op, which has tools and materials available to use for personal crafting projects or even class assignments. Affiliates may also apply to contribute to the Portal Mural Program that regularly updates the artwork adorning the walls of the College.
Its theme, "Ars Longa, Vita Brevis: Life is Short, Art Endures," manifests the belief that creativity is integral to all fields of study from art to physics to linguistics, and promotes an environment in which original thought, creative imagination, and personal and cultural differences are appreciated.
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