About Us
Our Mission
Created to both honor and renew UC Santa Cruz’s tradition of outstanding teaching and bold educational experimentation, the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) serves all members of the UCSC teaching community. We use research and equity-minded practices to strengthen the culture of teaching and promote student success. As a center dedicated to supporting teacher-leaders at our thriving minority-serving research university, we collaborate with educators and campus partners to explore innovative, accessible teaching practices and technologies that advance equity, deepen learning, and foster student engagement.
On Equity-Mindedness & Servingness
Central to this mission is our commitment to equity-mindedness and servingness. At UC Santa Cruz, it’s not just about what we teach—it’s about how we teach. As a double minority-serving institution (HSI, AANAPISI), we have a unique opportunity to extend UCSC’s long-standing commitment to education for social justice.
The TLC supports educators in developing and sharing equity-minded teaching practices that embody servingness—an approach focused on meaningfully serving the students we enroll through pedagogies that research shows improve student retention, academic achievement, persistence, and belonging. With our campus partners, we work to ensure that our teaching practices effectively support first-generation college students, multilingual students, and students historically and currently minoritized on campus.
We understand teaching as a site of transformation and weave a commitment to equity and servingness into everything we do—from how we teach, to how we support educators, to how we envision the future of learning at UC Santa Cruz.
Our Origins
Established in 2023 through the merger of the Center for Innovations in Teaching & Learning (CITL, founded in 2016) and Online Education (OE, founded in 2014), the Teaching & Learning Center (TLC) brings together the complementary expertise of both units. This unification strengthens our ability to support instructors in navigating the evolving instructional landscape, including the integration of technology into pedagogy. As a comprehensive teaching center, the TLC promotes holistic, equity-minded approaches to course design and delivery, student learning and assessment, and the recognition and reward of teaching excellence.
Founding Director: Jody Greene
The TLC exists today thanks to the vision and leadership of Founding Director Jody Greene, Professor of Literature since 1998. In 2016, Greene established the Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning (CITL) to revitalize UCSC’s teaching mission and support educators in advancing student success. As Founding Director of CITL and Associate Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Greene shaped how the campus values inclusive, student-centered, and equity-minded pedagogy. In 2023, Greene shepherded the merger of CITL and Online Education, establishing the TLC and securing its home in McHenry Library. This strategic restructuring expanded the center’s scope and impact, setting the foundation for the integrated work the TLC carries forward today. Following seven years of transformative leadership, Greene became UCSC’s first Associate Campus Provost for Academic Success. A nationally recognized voice in higher education, Greene is co-editor of Teaching Environmental Justice (2023) and co-author of the forthcoming Faculties: A Dialogue on Inciting Constructive Change in Destructive Times. Their legacy continues to shape the TLC’s mission and direction.
Our Partners
TLC partners with key units on campus who are engaged in student equity work, including student-facing units, to encourage a more holistic and collaborative approach to addressing inequity and ensuring student success.
Our campus partners include:
Our partnerships have included collaborations on:
- Developing a New Faculty Teaching Academy (CCA)
- Partnering on professional development for STEM equity (HSI Initiatives)
- Co-authoring a handbook on accommodations for students with disabilities (DRC)
- Developing workshops on accessibility and Universal Design for Learning (DRC)
- Redesigning the way we prepare and support Summer Session GSIs (Division of Undergraduate Education)
- Assessing teaching effectiveness in the faculty personnel review process (COT/CAP)
- Redesigning the questions we ask in the Student Experience of Teaching Surveys (COT)
- Surveying students about their learning during remote instruction (IRAPS)
- Developing equity data tools and reports for use in consultation with faculty to address course- and department level equity gaps (IRAPS)
- Co-leading workshops for faculty on the campus climate survey (ODEI)
- Helping graduate students prepare teaching statements for the academic job market (Grad Div, Graduate Student Commons)
- Working with departments to foster equity-minded teaching practices (Grad Div, ODEI)
- Helping the residential colleges rethink approaches to academic integrity violations (Colleges)
- Creating special workshops to prepare international graduate students for teaching roles (Global Engagement)
- Maintaining instructional continuity (ITS, Registrar)
- Providing online orientation for incoming students (Orientation, Council of Provosts)
- Facilitating cross-campus enrollment in online courses (Registrar)