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Religious Studies Board records
UA.090
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Religious Studies Board records
Creator:
University of California, Santa Cruz. Religious Studies
Board
Creator:
King, Noel Quinton
source:
Lease, Gary, 1940-
Identifier/Call Number: UA.090
Physical Description:
12.5 Linear Feet
25 half cartons
Date (inclusive): 1968-1980
Abstract: This collection contains the Religious
Studies Board office files, and correspondence pertaining to the short-lived Religious
Studies major at UCSC.
Physical Location: Stored offsite at NRLF: Advance notice
is required for access to the papers.
Language of Material:
English
Collection open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by Regents of the University of
California. Reproduction or distribution of any work protected by copyright beyond that
allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It is the responsibility
of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any necessary permissions.
UCSC Special Collections and Archives can grant permission to publish materials to which it
holds the copyright. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy
on Reproduction and Use.
Religious Studies Board Records. UA 90. University Archives, University Library, University
of California, Santa Cruz.
Transfer from the Religious Studies Board, 1980.
During the academic year 1967-68 a number of UCSC faculty formed an interdisciplinary
program in religious studies. Initially this involved only a committee providing a framework
for independent majors. By the following year the interdisciplinary committee became a
Committee of Studies in Religious Studies, with Noel Q. King as its Chair. An enlarged staff
was soon assembled, new courses added, and the Committee's size doubled. In the academic
year 1970-71 religious studies was still administered by a Committee, but it had become a
full and official major, granting a Bachelor of Arts degree. According to the
UCSC
Catalog
for 1971 it was an interdisciplinary program "seeking to bring out the
religious, moral, and numinal dimensions of such fields as history, psychology, philosophy,
anthropology, and art." The program continued to expand for a couple of years, and then in
1973 was granted the status of a Board of Studies, receiving four full-time appointments.
The mid-1970's saw annual curricula of 10 to 15 courses, with 500 to 800 students enrolled
any given quarter.
A proposal for redesigning the program was accepted in 1975-76, but soon an ideological
split developed within the faculty over the role of the program in regard to relating to the
students. The Board became "paralyzed," and with the arrival of a new Dean for the
Humanities Division in the spring of 1978, an external review was undertaken. The result was
a recommendation for a complete redesign and reconception of the program's curriculum, while
stablizing the number of core faculty. However, timing was such that extraordinarily severe
budget restrictions were being imposed by the State of California, and two of the four
faculty positions which were being vacated by resignations were axed. By January 1979 it
became clear the program would likely be phased out.
The UCSC Religious Studies Board was formally disestablished in 1980.
[This short history is paraphrased from an essay by Gary Lease, a former head of the
program. See
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, v.7:4 (1995),
pages 305-324.]
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains office files and correspondence pertaining to the Religious
Studies major at the University of California at Santa Cruz, covering from its inception
around 1970 to its official disestablishment in 1980.
The collection follows the original office arrangement as received during the transfer of
the records.
Processed by Mathew E. Simpson in 2013. EAD encoded finding aid by Mathew E. Simpson.
UA 89 Noel Q. King Papers
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Religion -- Study and teaching (Higher) --
California -- Santa Cruz -- 20th century
Lease, Gary, 1940-