Information for Road Scholars

Program #4650: The Dickens Universe

Welcome to the Dickens Universe. This information is mainly intended for those of you attending for the first time since our Road Scholars program is a little different from what you might be used to.

The most significant difference is that you will be wholly integrated with other participants. We do not house you separately or assign you to your own workshops. If you requested a double room, you would most likely share with another Road Scholar, but otherwise, you will be one of the gang. The other participants range in age from high school to senior citizens and may come from as far away as Japan. Many of your fellow Road Scholars, as well as other participants, have been coming to the Universe for many years and can be an excellent resource for help and information.

Part of the appeal of the Dickens Universe is the diversity of its participants and the mixing of all these elements. To that end, we encourage faculty, graduate students, Road Scholars, and everyone else to eat together and socialize.

Friends of the Dickens Project Board Member, Mark Gordon, is the Group Leader, and Courtney Mahaney, the Dickens Project Assistant Director, is the on-site Road Scholar coordinator. They can answer just about any question related to your Road Scholar program, or the Dickens Universe in general.

The week will be fun, stimulating, and perhaps exhausting. We schedule lectures and activities from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM, so pace yourself and allow plenty of downtime. This summer, all events are at Cowell and Stevenson Colleges, located on the east side of UC Santa Cruz's campus. The conference venues are all accessible to wheelchairs, but if you have restricted mobility for any reason, please call Courtney at (831) 459-2103 to discuss the terrain and your options.

Your accommodations are in SHARED apartments and, while we strive to keep the flats non-coed, many couples request double rooms and the balance of the apartment may be shared by either a man or woman or another couple. If you ABSOLUTELY cannot share the bathroom with a member of the opposite sex (and who could blame you?), please call or email and let us know. We'll try our best to accommodate you.

Once you have registered through Road Scholar, we will confirm your registration via email. We no longer mail out information, since all details and updates are available on our website. If you have any questions at all, please email dpj@ucsc.edu.