Earl Warren College
Earl Warren College is one of eight undergraduate residential colleges at the University of California, San Diego.
Warren College has one of the largest student populations at UC San Diego, with over 4,500 undergraduate students, comprising about one seventh of the student population. It is named for former California governor and chief justice Earl Warren. Warren College was founded in 1974 in as Fourth College, and later moved to its present location, located near the canyon, with nearby Hopkins Parking Structure to the west on the other side of the canyon. Voigt Drive runs through the Warren College campus and connects to Hopkins Drive on the other side of the canyon, to the west. Since fall 2020, Warren College is the only college not located on Ridge Walk, which overlooks the coastline, when Sixth College moved for second time from its former location in Pepper Canyon to its new home in the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood on Ridge Walk built on former Muir Parkings Lots directly north of Muir College.
Residence halls and apartments
Each of the residence halls within Warren College is named after justices that sat on the U.S. Supreme Court along with Chief Justice Warren. Residence halls are located near the ecological reserve, a canyon filled with eucalyptus trees and hiking trails.Residence Halls:
- Stewart
- Frankfurter
- Harlan
- Black
- Brennan
- Douglas
- Goldberg
Academic and Other Facilities
Warren College hosts a variety of academic buildings, lecture halls, departmental buildings, and other facilities, particularly for engineering and some STEM-focused departments.The Canyon Vista Marketplace and dining hall, operated by UC San Diego's Housing Dining Hospitality, serves the Warren College area and is likely named as such due to its own location overlooking the canyon as well as the fact that Warren's location as a whole is near the canyon. Canyon Vista consists of a dining-operated market, as well as food service stations including a grill called Fusion Grill, Three-Sixty, Fresh, and a coffee bar named Earl's Coffeehouse, and according to the HDH website, mobile ordering app, as well as signage and promotional materials located in the dining hall, is the only dining hall on the UC San Diego campus that is certified for and serves halal food, such as halal chicken, on campus.
The Warren College campus is also home to an enormous rock sculpture in the shape of a bear, officially named Bear by Tim Hawkinson, which was completed in 2005 and is more commonly and unofficially known as "Bearl," which is wordplay combining he words "Bear" and "Earl," located on the engineering quad, and is part of the Stuart Collection. Warren is also home to another Stuart Collection art piece, Fallen Star, a slanted house on top of a building, designed by Do Ho Suh, a Korean immigrant describing the immigrant experience which is oftentimes disorienting, located on the roof of the Engineering Building also known as Jacobs Hall and is accessible from the 8th and top floor, facing in the direction of Warren Mall.
Student life and involvement
Warren College has various student committees, including Warren College Student Council, Warren College Events Board, Warren Transfer and Commuter Commission, Commission on Warren Spirit, Frosh Small Group, Provost's Student Advisory Council, Warren College Honors Council, Warren Initiative for Student Health, and Warren Association of Volunteer Enthusiasts.Academic Programs and Requirements
Programs of Concentration
All courses are organized into three disciplines, math/physical sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. Warren College allows students to pursue a major of their choice in any discipline while requiring the completion of two Programs of Concentration in the other two disciplines. Each Program of Concentration is composed of six courses, of 4-units,.Engineering students
Student looking towards an engineering, B.S. degree, however, are required to complete two area studies, each comprising three courses of 4 units, at least two of which must be upper-division courses. Similar to PofCs, area studies must be non-contiguous to the student's major and to each other.Image:UCSD-Warren Pano.jpg|center|500px|thumb|Panorama of Warren Mall, containing the major engineering buildings at UC San Diego.
Warren College is home to a large number of engineering students because its general education requirements are more flexible for students pursuing an undergraduate degree in engineering. Additionally, many engineering departments have facilities located in or near Warren College. However, regardless, as students can choose to major in any program or department, provided they are eligible, regardless of their college of registration, despite students' college choice rankings and preferences on their applications, it is not guaranteed that engineering students will be automatically assigned to Warren.
In 2006, the college has added a new building dedicated to the study of Information Technology, called Calit2, known as Qualcomm Institute at its UC San Diego branch.
Writing program
Warren Collège's writing program, conspicuity known as Warren College Writing Program , consists of a two-quarter sequence for students who entered as a first-year and a one-quarter course for transfer students, based on the model of argumentation developed by British philosopher Stephen Toulmin.Naming Controversy
During a Warren College Student Council meeting in 2023, the then-assistant dean of Warren College, Katy Brecht, noted that the use of the Warren College name may need to be used in moderation and with sensitivity at times and for the promotion of certain events as namesake of the college, Earl Warren, may be controversial due to his actions during his time as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the resulting implications it had on Asian Americans, particularly those of Japanese descent.Frequent controversies when creating namesakes after people may have resulted in UC San Diego campus administration and leadership to have a shift in attitude that is more reluctant towards naming other, more recently opened colleges currently still using a numbered system, especially after people, which is particularly notable as Sixth College, originally opened in September 2001, is still yet to be named more than two decades later as of April 2025. Additionally, the reluctance to name new and future buildings after people, as is tradition in the past, which is also noticeable in the naming of the NTPLLN buildings hosting Sixth College, has been officially confirmed during a naming committee meeting of the Pepper Canyon West buildings intended to house additional transfer students, then under construction, in summer 2023, when the naming criteria was shared among attendees Transfer At-Large Representative during the preceding and succeeding, which stated that, among others, the buildings should not be named after people at all, but rather use positive, abstract or conceptual themes, which is also visible in and similar to other newer developments around campus. As such, the two towers of the PCW development were named Rya and Vela. The reasons given for this guidance and policy during the naming meeting was due to the controversies that often arises from naming after people, since people are complex, multifaceted, and imperfect by nature.