Don't forget the 'official' mascot of UC Santa Cruz is the Banana Slug.
Know that place like the back of my hand... the company I worked for wired up the dorms and apartments for computer networking. They got a good little snack bar that sells killer burritos.
Dont forget that UC Santa Cruz is known as a bastion of subversive thinking and political correctness. The city limit signs proudly proclaim they are a 'nuclear free zone'. (Note to the Pentagon planners: for the next update of the SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan, the US nuclear war plan) ...drop bomb there
)
And it's one of the few universities that actually have residential colleges: where you major is also where you live. I'd be suspect of any university that openly displays a mural with Che Guevara painted on it.
But I can't complain about the scenery, though... it is a beautiful campus at the top of a hill; in some parts you can easily see the ocean.