Give to Cowell

Cowell has a history of developing rich and diverse courses, events, and extracurricular opportunities for students. We’ve had to be very creative to fund these projects in recent years, and never more so than at this time. Your support can help us maintain the level of academic and cultural programming that our students have enjoyed for years.

Cowell College Endowment

The Cowell College Endowment Fund generates an annual return that the Provost can use for current needs. The principal of the fund provides a long-term investment in Cowell. If you want Cowell College to last a second 50 years as a distinct academic entity (i.e. more than a group of dorms), donations to the Endowment Fund will help to secure Cowell’s future. For more information on how to give to the Endowment Fund, send us an email for assistance. 

Provost’s Fund

Allows the provost to respond to changing needs and capitalize on opportunities as they arise. For example, the fund can support civic engagement with the students and with the Santa Cruz community. It allows the college to offer additional classes such as Cowell Core, and enhancement courses such as Personal Finance and Investing, and Public Speaking. The fund supports important elements of the Cowell community such as the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery, Page Smith Library and Cowell Press. During the pandemic the fund has been able to support emergency needs of students.

Smith Society

The Smith Society is a cross-generational community that provides academic, personal, social and financial support to UCSC students who lack the traditional family support afforded to most of their peers. Typically, these students have multiple adverse childhood experiences including, but not limited to, neglect, abuse, abandonment, or homelessness. Students may identify as being current or former foster youth, wards of the court, runaways, orphans, children of incarcerated parents, or children of parents with severe mental illness.

Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery

With a history that extends to UC Santa Cruz’s pioneer classes of faculty and students, the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery functions as a significant pillar within the intellectual life of Cowell College and represents a cornerstone in the university’s network of exhibition spaces.  In the spirit of the college’s motto “The pursuit of truth in the company of friends,” the Eloise Pickard Smith Gallery celebrates the capacity of the visual arts to enliven and expand the horizons of inquiry while fostering connections not only within the college, but within the broader campus and local community.

Cowell Provost’s Emergency Academic Support Fund

This fund provides small sum emergency support for undergraduate students who are selected by the Cowell Provost. Initiated in 2019 by a group of Cowell alums, this small fund is meant to serve as an unbureaucratic source of assistance for any Cowell student faced with a sudden emergency that threatens to derail their academic progress, to be awarded at the sole discretion of the Cowell Provost. In the past, it has provided textbooks and associated Internet access as well as computer repairs. 

Any amount donated will help us enhance the quality of the Cowell experience for our students. To give directly to a specific Cowell program, please be sure to specify what you would like to support. If you are not able to make a monetary donation, we hope you’ll consider other ways of getting involved with the college. 

Thank you for your support! It really makes a difference for student academic and residential life at Cowell.