New College of California was a college founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President John Leary. It ceased operations in early 2008.
New College's main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission District in San Francisco. The offices at 777 Valencia Street and companion buildings across the street were home to its humanities-based programs, including the Humanities BA, Mathematics, Poetics, Writing and Consciousness, Media Studies, Graduate Psychology, Experimental Performance Institute, Women’s Spirituality MA, Humanities and Leadership, Activism and Social Change, the Teacher Credential Program, as well as a broadcast studio and administration offices. New College of California School of Law was located at 50 Fell Street in the city's Civic Center. The North Bay Campus in Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community was housed in Santa Rosa, California, in a building owned by the Arlene Francis Foundation, a private foundation run by Peter Gabel, former president of New College and Arlene Francis's son. The Science and Math Institute classes were initially held at the building at 50 Fell Street then morphed online to become part of the Southern California University of Health Sciences in Whittier, California, within of downtown Los Angeles.
History
The college was founded in 1971 by John Leary, who previously served as the president of Gonzaga University. A year earlier, while serving as the Vice President for University Relations at Santa Clara University, Leary first proposed the idea for an experimental college centered around Socratic Seminars. In 1978, local newspapers uncovered that Carr had been selling Honorary PhD degrees for $25,000, and was subsequently fired. WASC issued another warning in 2005, noting concerns about the college's long-term financial stability. Law School faculty continued teaching through the spring semester after being promised that pay would be forthcoming at the start of the semester. The DOE, citing the college's poor record keeping and financial issues, withheld financial aid from the school.
Students of the New College of California School of Law transferred to John F. Kennedy University Law School in April 2008. The Women’s Spirituality MA program transferred to the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto in May 2008. The North Bay Campus' Green MBA moved to Dominican University of California in March 2007.
Notable people
Alumni
- Susie Bright, feminist author
- Dossie Easton, author and psychotherapist
- Ford Greene, attorney
- Marya Hornbacher, author
- Michael Lerner, author and rabbi
- Eric Mar, San Francisco Supervisor (also served as an instructor)
- Gene Ransom, Athlete and coach
Faculty
- Harry Britt, gay political activist and former Supervisor for San Francisco, California. Britt also directed the Weekend BA Degree Completion Program.
- Daniel Cassidy, author, filmmaker, and founder and codirector of the Irish Studies Program.
- Robert Duncan, founding member of the New College Poetics program.
- Peter Gabel, Ph.D., was a law professor at New College of California's Law School for 30 years, and served as President for 20 years.
- Richard Heinberg, scholar on such topics as Peak Oil and Transition strategies, served as core faculty in the North Bay Campus' BA program in Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Communities.
- Edie Meidav, novelist, director of the MFA in Writing and Consciousness.
- David Meltzer, poet and musician of the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance, taught in the Poetics Program.
- A. C. Thompson, winner of the George Polk Award for Local Reporting for his series Forgotten City about San Francisco's public housing, and instructor in the Media Studies Graduate Program.