The Santa Barbara Community

The UCSB Campus
Counseling Services

Santa Barbara is known for its ocean views, red tile roofs, terrazzo walks, and sheltering trees, all of which reflect its Spanish heritage. Few cities of Santa Barbara’s size offer so many cultural opportunities as this community. Annual events include Old Spanish Days, the Summer Solstice parade, a highly popular international film festival, a well renowned writer’s conference and an arts festival. Many arts and crafts shows and ethnic festivals are also held during the year, along with concerts, theater, and dance performances. Detailed information about living in the Santa Barbara area is available on the Internet. Two comprehensive sites are: www.santabarbaraca.com and www.santabarbara.com.

Several major institutions of higher learning are located in the Santa Barbara area: the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), Westmont College (a four-year inter-denominational Christian liberal arts college), Antioch University (a small, private, non-religious affiliated university offering undergraduate/graduate programs), Santa Barbara City College (a California community college), The Fielding Institute (a mid-career graduate school offering doctoral, masters and certificate programs), and Pacifica Graduate Institute (an accredited graduate school offering unique M.A. and Ph.D. programs). Two noted professional schools are in nearby Montecito: Brooks Institute of Photography and the Music Academy of the West.

The UCSB Campus

The University of California at Santa Barbara is one of eleven campuses in the University of California system. The campus is located on an 815-acre coastal site nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ynez mountain range, 10 miles from Santa Barbara and 100 miles north of Los Angeles.

UC Santa Barbara has a reputation as a world-class research university, offering studies in more than 80 fields encompassing the arts, humanities, science and technology, and social sciences. It ranks among the top 25 public universities in the nation in scientific quality, and roughly half of its departments have been cited among the top 20 in the country. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, UCSB is home to five Nobel Laureates, about 900 renowned faculty members and dozens of elected members or fellows of prominent academies and associations.

Student enrollment is 21,410, including 2,995 graduate students. Our combined student population is increasingly multicultural (ethnically diverse students comprise over 40% of the student body) and highly competitive (applicants must be in the top 12.5% of their high school graduating class). More than 70% of the students live on campus or in the adjacent community of Isla Vista, which creates a stimulating student residential environment. Students combine a commitment to academic achievement with an appreciation of sun and surf.

For more information, click here to connect to UCSB’s homepage.

Counseling

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The Counseling Center and Placement Center at UCSB were merged in November 1979 as an integrated service, with career planning as the unifying concept for the agency at that time. In 1984, after five years of planning, the counseling and placement departments moved into a new building specifically designed for these services, and the combined unit became known as Counseling & Career Services. Starting in 2005, administrative realities and subsequent decisions were made which resulted in the two functions, counseling and career, again being separated into two distinct agencies. Both agencies continue to share the same building and look to be one unit to the outside world. They continue to recognize that personal and career development are interrelated growth processes that occur along a continuum from self-assessment and self-understanding to eventual employment and life/career satisfaction.

Assisting students in determining where they are on this continuum and providing them with the skills and information they need to reach their personal and career goals are central activities of the two agencies. Programs are designed to address the developmental needs of students and their quality of life in the university environment as an integral part of the learning process.

The major service delivery functions of Counseling are personal counseling, crisis intervention, groups and consultation/outreach. Auxiliary and support functions include training, research and evaluation, organizational and staff development and administrative assistance. The services with which interns have the most contact are counseling, crisis intervention, groups, and consultation/outreach.

Counseling services include individual and group counseling for personal, social, educational, and career concerns; workshops for interpersonal skill building and problem solving; personal development resources for self-improvement in areas such as stress reduction and anxiety; and crisis intervention in personal and campus emergencies.

Special efforts have been made to extend counseling services to diverse student populations. Liaisons have been established with the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), Disabled Students Program (DSP), the Women’s Center, Housing and Residential Life, and The Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (RCSGD). Interns have opportunities to explore multicultural counseling issues through these outreach programs and during case discussions and training seminars.

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