Amidst additions to graduate curriculum, a Ph.D. program in Latin American and Latino studies and a Masters program in feminist studies, there is also a suspension of the American Studies program; a critical race and ethnic studies is in the works and may also enter the university.

For years, UCSC has been praised throughout the country as the pinnacle of alternative education; UCSC has long been portrayed and idealized as a campus with a unique community and liberal ideology, paving the way for progressive curriculum and alternative fields of research.

But times have changed; what once began as a showcase for cross-disciplinary undergraduate education, innovative teaching methods and contemporary architecture has since evolved, perhaps unavoidably, into a public university of the highest order.