Campus News
Fall Move-In and Slug Start 2026: a welcome built on belonging
Move-in and Slug Start welcomed thousands of Banana Slugs to UC Santa Cruz, creating connections and community at the start of a new academic year.
This fall, UC Santa Cruz welcomed roughly 6,300 new Banana Slugs, including about 5,700 incoming undergraduate students and 580 new graduate students. Across move-in and Slug Start, students and their families arrived to a campus ready to help them connect, get involved and begin finding their place at UC Santa Cruz.
For the Division of Student Affairs and Success and partners across campus, those first days are about more than starting a new academic year. They are an opportunity to build the relationships, connections and sense of belonging that can support students throughout their UCSC experience.
Welcoming thousands of Slugs home
Across six days of move-in, about 9,300 students settled into campus housing, a monumental effort of coordination and community led by College Student Life and supported by partners across campus.
This year also marked a new chapter in campus housing with the opening of Parkside at Delaware, where about 350 UCSC students are calling the community home for the first time.
Families were part of the welcome, too. The Slug Family Welcome reached capacity across three consecutive evenings, giving families an opportunity to meet campus leaders and staff, learn more about UCSC and celebrate the beginning of their students’ next chapter.
Together, these moments marked the return of thousands of Banana Slugs to the redwoods and the beginning of a new UCSC experience for thousands more.
Finding community through Slug Start
Led by the Center for Leadership and Involvement in partnership with teams across campus, Slug Start gives students opportunities to meet people, discover resources, explore their interests and get involved.
The opening days included:
- The New Admit Class Photo, bringing more than 4,000 new Banana Slugs together on East Upper Field for the highest turnout yet for one of the incoming class’s first shared traditions. With Monterey Bay stretching out behind them, students gathered for a memorable snapshot of the newest generation of Banana Slugs and a chance to look around and see the community they were joining.
- Late Night at the Athletics and Recreation Center, introducing students to recreation, fitness and ways to stay active.
- Cornucopia, UCSC’s signature fall festival and resource fair, bringing thousands of Banana Slugs together with hundreds of student organizations, campus departments and programs.
- The Student Employment & Work-Study Fair, connecting students with campus employers and opportunities to earn income and build experience.
- Boardwalk Frolic, bringing students together for an evening of rides and games at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
- Choose Your Own Slugventure, closing out the first week of fall quarter with a movie night and silent disco.
And Slug Start is only getting started. Events and programs continue through the first six weeks of fall quarter, creating more ways for students to find community, explore their interests and discover what their UCSC experience can become.
A new year begins
As classes began, students, faculty and staff continued another UCSC tradition: first-day photos capturing the excitement and possibility that come with the beginning of a new academic year.
For some students, it was their very first day of college. For others, another beginning in the redwoods.
From a family saying goodbye at move-in to thousands of new students overlooking Monterey Bay together, the opening days of fall quarter offered countless ways to begin finding a place at UC Santa Cruz.
There is no single way to become part of the Banana Slug community. And with a new academic year underway, this is only the beginning.