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Earl Warren College History

Earl Warren College was founded in 1974, as the fourth college at UC San Diego. It is named in honor of Earl Warren, former Chief Justice of the United States and the only three-term Governor of California. The Warren Court’s legacy of civil rights legislation, including Brown v. Board of Education and Hernandez v. Texas, which gave Mexican Americans the right to serve on juries, serves as a guiding inspiration to the College. The College emphasizes individual responsibility, informed judgment, and an awareness of ethical issues that inform contemporary society. Since its founding, the College witnessed a steady growth to approximately 4,100 students and is proud of its ethnically diverse student body, faculty, and staff.

Notable Alumni

  • Hossein Eslambolchi '77, Electrical and Computer Engineering - Eslambolchi is the former CTO and president of AT&T Labs and current Chairman and CEO of Divvio, Inc., and Founder and Chairman of 2020 Venture Partners, LLC.
  • Len Lauer '79, Economics - Lauer is Qualcomm Executive Vice President and Group President, focusing on mobile content and services and emerging display technologies.
  • Mike Judge '85, Physics – Judge is the creator of Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, as well as films such as Office Space and Extract.
  • Thom Sherman '88, Theatre – Sherman is the Executive Vice President of Drama Development at the CW Network, focusing on developing new television shows for the network.
  • Michael Robertson '90, Cognitive Science - Robertson is founder and former CEO of MP3.com, which quickly became one of the most popular Internet music sites.
  • Shonte Wright '97, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering - Wright is a thermal systems engineer in the Thermal and Propulsion Engineering Section at Jet Propulsion Laboratory at NASA where she works on the Mars Exploration Rover Project.

Time Capsule

  • 2009 - Los Angeles Times editorial featuring our namesake, Earl Warren, provides insight into the principles upon which Warren College was founded.
  • 1982 - Earl Warren and the College at UCSD (PDF), written by Harry Scheiber, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, and honorary faculty member of Ear Warren College.