Jim Pepper & The Evolution of Environmental Studies at UC Santa Cruz
2007, 68 pages
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Copyright Restrictions
PLEASE NOTE these interviews are provided for research purposes only. All
uses of these manuscripts are covered by copyright agreement between the interviewees
and the Regents of the University of California. All the literary rights in
these manuscripts, including the right to publish, are reserved to the University
of California, Santa Cruz. No part of these manuscripts may be quoted for
publication without the permission of the University Librarian of the University
of California, Santa Cruz.
Recruited by the visionary geographer Richard [Dick] Cooley to join the new
environmental studies program at UCSC, Pepper arrived in Santa Cruz in 1972.
This oral history is part of the Regional History Project's VERIP series with
professors who retired in the early 1990s. In these two interviews conducted
by former Regional History director Randall Jarrell and current director Irene
Reti, Jim Pepper describes UCSC's environmental studies program as one that
“had both a theoretical dimension to it and an applied dimension, a program
. . . that integrated theory and practice.” Pepper brought to this nascent
department his practical experience and background as a professional landscape
architect and planner, as well as his probing interest in the philosophical
and ethical questions at the heart of environmental issues. Between 1972 and
his retirement in 1994, Jim Pepper helped to build a flagship program in environmental
studies at UCSC. Outside of academia, Jim Pepper has enjoyed a 45-year distinguished
career in environmental planning, site planning, and urban design. His projects
included the formulation of an earthquake recovery plan for downtown Santa Cruz
after the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989.
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