Eleanor Roosevelt College

About ERC

Eleanor Roosevelt College (ERC) is one of the six colleges located on the campus at the University of California, San Diego. The college was named after former American First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was a humanitarian as well as a champion of international cooperation and a major member of the early United Nations.

The college system at UC San Diego combines the intimacy of a small institution with the intellectual breadth and
resources of a large research university. Founded in 1988 as UC San Diego’s fifth college, Eleanor Roosevelt College was named in 1994 for the former First Lady, delegate to the United Nations, chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights, and member of the Peace Corps Advisory Council. The college currently includes approximately 3,500 undergraduates from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.


Like each of the other undergraduate colleges at UC San Diego, Eleanor Roosevelt College is led by its own provost, and has its own dean of student affairs, resident dean, dean of academic advising and director of the Making of the Modern World program. This arrangement provides students with opportunities to know and be known by classmates, faculty, and staff, as well as with a broad range of opportunities to become involved in the life of the larger university.


Students at Eleanor Roosevelt College develop an unusually strong sense of intellectual and social community as they complete the Making of the Modern World (MMW) sequence. The courses weave together knowledge from many fields, bringing students forward through time, toward an appreciation of the complex tapestry of the world in which we live.


The academic work of ERC students is further shaped by the requirements for their chosen field of study, selected from among the more than 150 majors available at UC San Diego. About one-third of each entering class at ERC will spend time abroad.


Snapshot history of ERC

In Fall 1988, the first class of 390 students arrived to launch UC San Diego’s Fifth College as the newest in its expanding constellation of undergraduate colleges. The founding of Fifth continued UC San Diego’s bold tradition of anchoring the undergraduate experience in colleges. Like its counterparts, Fifth was launched with a strong general education program, readily accessible academic advising, and neighborhood-based residential and student life programs. In July 1994, Fifth College was named Eleanor Roosevelt College.

Over the past two decades Fifth/Eleanor Roosevelt College has changed a lot. We’ve added new academic and student life programs and built a whole new college neighborhood on the north campus. We’ve grown from 390 to 3700 students.

At the same time, we’ve been building college traditions.

  • The Making of the Modern World course, pioneered in 1988, still defines the college academic experience for the class entering twenty years later.
  • Over one third of each graduating class studies abroad.
  • Several student organizations and activities (Student Council, Programming at ERC, alternative breaks, Rock ‘N Roosevelt, the Spring Semi-Formal) are a continuing part of student life in the college.

UC San Diego’s International House, which opened as part the Fifth College Pepper Canyon apartments, is still a vital part of our college neighborhood. It’s bigger and better than ever with a thriving set of programs for its 250 residents and the campus!

You may read more about the history of ERC in the booklet published for the 20th anniversary.

Celebrating the first 20 years

For the anniversary year, we have adopted a theme of human rights and global citizenship. This builds on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted on December 10, 1948 thanks in large measure to Eleanor Roosevelt’s leadership.

Our celebration this year honored our annual traditions and launched some new initiatives. We:

  • Expanded our academic programs with global seminars, a new MMW course for transfer students, and minors in human rights and international migration studies.
  • Took our programs into the community with You See San Diego field trips, service projects, and our annual public lecture series winter quarter on MMW: The Short Version
  • Built strong college and university spirit through student life programs that highlight traditions. This began most successfully with ERC winning the golden shoe in the Welcome Week Unolympics!
  • Created opportunities for alumni to make return visits to counsel current students and reminisce with one another.