College Seven (Oakes College) opened in at UCSC in 1972 with the vision of creating a multicultural community dedicated to the goals of equality and freedom from oppression. Student-faculty interaction was encouraged, as well as a strong counseling component, to address personal issues. Quotas were rejected in favor of recruiting a diverse student

and faculty body, and the core curriculum focused on cultural pluralism. Much of the core curriculum focused on teaching writing and science skills, both of which were neglected in the education of historically marginalized students. The idea was that students would take these acquired skills back to their home communities.

These oral history interviews were conducted in 1982, ten years after Oakes College opened, by Roseanne Shensa, a UCSC student under the mentorship of then- Regional History Project director Randall Jarrell. Publication was delayed due to lack of resources for transcription.