Virtual Events
Virtual Events
Wherever you live, connect with UC Santa Cruz by joining us for virtual events. Engage in meaningful conversations, gain professional insights, or network with fellow Slugs, gain professional insights, or simply catch up with fellow Slugs—all from the comfort of your own home.
Slugs & Steins
Slugs & Steins is a monthly series of informal discussions highlighting UC Santa Cruz’s amazing faculty members. Talks are held on the 2nd Monday of each month with topics ranging from organic artichokes to endangered zebras, self-driving cars to Shakespeare.
All are welcome, and audience participation is encouraged. We encourage you to share the link far and wide as slugs and friends from around the world may join us.
Career development webinars
Whether you’re exploring your next move or sharpening the skills you already have, our virtual career development programs are here to help you grow. Join live, online workshops and webinars led by industry professionals and career experts.
Kraw Lecture Series
The Kraw Lecture Series in Silicon Valley is made possible by a generous gift from UC Santa Cruz alumnus George Kraw (Cowell ‘71, history and Russian literature) and Raphael Shannon Kraw. The lecture series features acclaimed UC Santa Cruz scientists and technologists who are grappling with some of the biggest questions of our time.
These talks are hybrid, free, and open to the public. Attend in person at UC Santa Cruz Silicon Valley extension or via livestream.
December 2025
Interactive Reflection on our Collective Memories: 60 Years of UCSC
Virtual Event
Richard Mahon
Monday, December 8
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m
For this month’s Slugs & Steins, we will close out the year and say goodbye to the first quarter of the 21st century with UCSC alumnus Richard Mahon. Richard will guide us in reflecting on UCSC after 60 years and on our collective time attending the university.
Whether you graduated as part of the pioneer class or only in the past few years, this month’s Slugs and Steins will ask you to look at how your experience studying at UC Santa Cruz helped shape and mold your life. Richard will share his perspectives about the experiences of UCSC students from both his time there as a student and instructor, and as a parent of a UCSC graduate. He will incorporate lessons from an English composition class he is currently teaching at Allan Hancock College, a California community college in Santa Maria, which looks at how family and education are crucial determinants of a person’s life. Richard will invite alumni to share what UCSC has meant to them, and to reflect on what alumni can do to keep the promise of a transformative UC education for young people coming of age in California today. Please be prepared to share your thoughts and experiences if you wish.
Speaker
Richard is a Cowell College alum (History & Religious Studies, 1978), a History of Consciousness alum (1989) and a former Stevenson College lecturer (Self & Society) and Academic Preceptor (both 1990-1997). He observed UCSC through the eyes of his son (Stevenson, History, 2015), and he has returned to teach sections of the Cowell Core Course for three of the last five years (2021, 2023, 2024). He serves on the Alumni Council and is current chair of the Page & Eloise Smith Scholastic Society board. He truly has seen UCSC through a variety of lenses and in a range of eras.
Questions? Please contact University Events at specialevents@ucsc.edu.