The power of 10 UC campuses working together to center community desires and ambitions
300k
Students
170k
Staff
25k
Faculty
4
Carnegie Elective Classifications for Community Engagement
5
Hispanic Serving Institutions
9
Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions
40%
Next Generation
Mutuality, Justice, Community Power.
Stories of equitable change
Through intentional and responsive engagement, UC faculty, students, and staff are shifting how academia builds power with community members.
Research uncovers local labor issues that may be driving increased unionization
May 20, 2025
Surveys show young workers suffer from scheduling instability, and those who are LGBTQ+ are more likely to experience wage theft and workplace injuries. Meanwhile, census data show a harmful pay gap for Latina workers.
Center for Labor and Community partners with regional union leaders on state-funded push to ensure workplace rights, safety, and benefits
April 11, 2025
UC Santa Cruz’s Center for Labor and Community will partner with the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO on a state grant to educate workers across the Central Coast in sectors like agriculture, hospitality, construction, manufacturing, and retail.
Reviving Indigenous languages: $600,000 grant honors the linguistic tapestry of Oaxacan immigrants in California
April 3, 2025
The new cohort of THI Oaxacan Language Public Fellows will develop an exhibition in collaboration with and under the layered mentorship of library professionals, museum professionals, local transnational Indigenous activists and scholars, and academic faculty.
Santa Cruz County youth aim to improve community mental health through better support for immigrants
April 4, 2024
A three-year partnership between UC Santa Cruz and United Way to empower young change-makers is wrapping up this spring, with youth leaders from across Santa Cruz County preparing to distribute resource kits for local immigrants.
UC Santa Cruz and United Way invest in youth perspective in researching mental health throughout local communities
May2, 2023
Beginning in early 2021, UC Santa Cruz partnered with the United Way of Santa Cruz County’s Youth Action Network, seeking to support youth empowerment and leadership. As part of that vital work, the partners were recognized as the United Way Partner of the Year.
Scholars, students, and community working together for transformation at UCSC’s All-In Conference
November 10, 2022
More than 400 university scholars, students, community organizers, foundation representatives, artists, and activists came together in late October for a one-of-a-kind event to build collaborative partnerships for community-engaged research and meaningful social change at the UC Santa Cruz conference: All-In: Co-creating Knowledge for Justice.
Practice Guidance & Policy Statements
Building reciprocal research and scholarship cultures for good requires progressively adapting practices and institutionalizing community-engaged policies
UC Santa Cruz: Campus Expectations for Assessing Community-Engaged Scholarship in Academic Personnel Reviews
August 11, 2023
Campus-wide guidance on incorporating community-engaged scholarship in the academic personal review process.
UC Santa Cruz: FAQs about community-engaged research and the IRB
Stemming from conversations with community-engaged staff and IRB Board members this resource outlines approaches to navigate common community-engaged research challenges.
UC Santa Cruz: The Teaching and Learning Center – Preparing Community-Engaged Teaching Files
August 2023
Guidelines for tenure, merit, and promotion cases that include community-engaged work.
Featured Network Members
Learn how our network members are changing lives and rebuilding institutional frameworks to center equitable practices.
“Nothing about us, without us.”
~anonymous
UC Community Engagement Network 