New College of California

New College of California was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President, Father John Leary. After 37 years, it ceased operations in early 2008,

New College’s main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission District in San Francisco. The offices at 777 Valencia, and companion buildings across the street, were home to its Humanities-based programs, including the Humanities BA, Poetics, Writing and Consciousness, Media Studies, Graduate Psychology, Experimental Performance Institute, as well as a broadcast studio and administration offices. New College of California School of Law was located at 50 Fell Street. The North Bay Campus in Culture Ecology and Sustainable was housed in Santa Rosa, California, in a building owned by the Arlene Francis Foundation, a private foundation run by Peter Gabel, former president of New College and Arlene Francis's son. The Science Institute classes were held at the Southern California University of Health Sciences, 16200 E. Amber Valley Drive in Whittier, California, within of downtown Los Angeles.

Notable Alumni

• Eric Mar, Commissioner & past-President, San Francisco Board of Education.
• Carla Wilson
• Darrick Smith
• Frank Williams
• Juba Kalamka
• Rodel Rodis
• Toni Riss
• Faye D'Opal
• Ford Greene
• Norma Castellanos-Perez
• Linda Lofthus
• Peggy Flynn
• Buford Buntin
• Dossie Easton, Author

Notable Faculty

• Peter Gabel, Ph.D., was a law professor at New College of California's Law School for 30 years, and served as President for 20 years. He was a founder of the Institute for Labor and Mental Health in Oakland. He is the son of the late Arlene Francis and Martin Gabel. His Arlene Francis Foundation loans money to New College and shared space with New College in the Sperry Building. Gabel resigned from the Board of Trustees amid controversy regarding his role in the mismanagement of the college by former President Hamilton and the Board of Trustees failure to exercise adequate oversight.
• Richard Heinberg is an internationally-known journalist, author, and Peak Oil expert. Mr Heinberg has written seven books include: "The Party's Over," "Powerdown," "The Oil Depletion Protocol," "A New Covenant with Nature," "Cloning the Buddha," "Celebrate the Solstice," and "Memories and Visions of Paradise." He is one of the core faculty at the New College North Bay Campus and teaches courses on Energy and Society, and Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community.
• Stephen J. Ducat, professor of psychology and author of "The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity."
• Adam Clay Thompson, winner of The George Polk Award for Local Reporting for his series “Forgotten City,” about San Francisco's public housing, and instructor in the Media Studies Graduate Program.
• Harry Britt, a gay political activist and former Supervisor for San Francisco, California. He was first appointed to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in January 1979 by Mayor Dianne Feinstein, succeeding Harvey Milk who was assassinated in City Hall along with Mayor George Moscone by another Supervisor Dan White. Britt was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1980, 1984, and 1988. Britt served as President of the Board of Supervisors from 1989-90. Britt chose not to run for reelection in 1992. Britt ran unsuccessfully for the 5th Congressional District of California in 1987, narrowly losing to Nancy Pelosi in a special election to fill the seat left when Sala Burton died. He also was unsuccessful in his race against Mark Leno for the California Assembly in 2002. Britt directed the Weekend BA Degree Completion Program.
• David Meltzer, poet and teacher in the graduate Poetics program at New College of California, as well as in the College’s undergraduate Humanities program. His most recent book of poetry is Beat Thing Alameda Press, 2004. He is the editor and interviewer for San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets Lights, 2001. With Steve Dickison, he co-edits Shuffle Boil, a magazine devoted to music in all its appearances and disappearances.
• Daniel Cassidy, author, teacher, filmmaker, founder and co-director of the Irish Studies Program. His most recent publication is "How the Irish Invented Slang: the Secret Language of the Crossroads", He is also co-founder of the Crossroads Irish-American Festival.
• Neeli Cherkovski, writer-in-residence. He wrote Ferlinghetti: A Biography, and co-edited the North Beach literary journal Beatitude, Elegy For Bob Kaufman, Whitman's Wild Children, Bukowski: A Life, and most recently, a poetry collection entitled Leaning Against Time.
• Robert Duncan, founding member of the New College Poetics program. He was an American poet and a student of H.D. and the Western esoteric tradition who spent most of his career in and around San Francisco. Though associated with any number of literary traditions and schools, Duncan is often identified with the New American Poetry and Black Mountain poets. Duncan's mature work emerged in the 1950s from within the literary context of Beat culture and today he (like his partner, the artist Jess Collins) is identified as a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance.
• Tom Clark, taught Poetics at New College of California from 1987 to its closing in 2008. A native of Chicago, he attended the University of Michigan, was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 1963 and left for England to study at Cambridge and later, Essex University. He served as Poetry Editor of the Paris Review from 1964 to 1973, printing early work by many of the poets who would later be associated with the New York School--Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Bill Berkson, John Ashbery, Anne Waldman, Joe Brainard, and others. His literary essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times, Times Literary Supplement, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, London Review of Books, and many other journals.

New College of California was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1971 by former Gonzaga University President, Father John Leary. After 37 years, it ceased operations in early 2008,

New College’s main campus was housed in several buildings in the Mission District in San Francisco. The offices at 777 Valencia, and companion buildings across the street, were home to its Humanities-based programs, including the Humanities BA, Poetics, Writing and Consciousness, Media Studies, Graduate Psychology, Experimental Performance Institute, as well as a broadcast studio and administration offices. New College of California School of Law was located at 50 Fell Street. The North Bay Campus in Culture Ecology and Sustainable was housed in Santa Rosa, California, in a building owned by the Arlene Francis Foundation, a private foundation run by Peter Gabel, former president of New College and Arlene Francis's son. The Science Institute classes were held at the Southern California University of Health Sciences, 16200 E. Amber Valley Drive in Whittier, California, within of downtown Los Angeles.