A Brief History of CAPE

A Message from the Founder

CAPE was born in 1972 as one of several projects initiated by the Students' Educational Change Center. Founding members of the Center included Ian Boase, Jeff Unsicker, Michele Peltier, and Mickey Richardson, and it was as a student cooperative seeking to serve as a catalyst for broad educational renewal at UCSD.

The notion that students could have a say in their own education was still a pretty radical and contested concept in 1972, and when CAPE was launched with classroom questionnaires in Fall quarter 1972 classrooms there was considerable faculty opposition. As the methodology improved and students began to take it seriously, CAPE's impact became more accepted within the institution. The publication also provided a forum for other educational change outreach efforts, such as the 12-page "Counter Catalog" insert in the Summer 1975 issue. The Counter Catalog included articles on UC history, the role of the university-industrial complex, the status of women at UCSD, and ongoing student struggles.

Lincoln Cushing,
CAPE Coordinator 1972-1975