Disorientation Guides

Last updated September 5, 2024.
Created: September 4, 2024.

Welcome to the master list of disorientation guides from across the University of California. This page is intended to be a historical archive of every single disorientation guide ever created by UC students, for UC students.

We also collect disorientation guides from our comrades at private universities whose work inspires us.

Disorientation is a rich, decades-long tradition that offers an alternative to the so-called “orientation” and “convocation” programs typically offered to indoctrinate… er, welcome, young students into the new university system.

An older generation of students realized that their hard-won knowledge about how the UC works was being lost with each graduating class. So a few experienced students and community members collaborated to create “disorientation” guides to educate the next generation of students about important history the university doesn’t want future generations to know, to pass along information typically communicated via oral traditions, and to share community resources beyond the typical university directories.

Have any disorientation guides that aren’t listed here? Send us a link or PDF: ucintelnetwork@proton.me

University of California Disorientation Guides

UC Berkeley

2023: disorientation guide (original source) | website

2022: website

2010: cal disorientation guide (original source)

2008: Cal Disorientation (original source)

2004: Cal Berkeley Disorientation Zine (original source) | website

2003: Cal Berkeley Disorientation Zine (original source) | website

UC Davis

2022: Cops off Campus Disorientation Guide ’22-’23

UC Merced

Coming soon.

UCI

2009: Disorientation Guide (original source)

UCLA

Coming soon.

UCR

Coming soon.

UCSB

Coming soon.

UCSC

2011: Disorientation Guide (original source)

2004: disorientation guide (original source)

UCSD

Coming soon.

UCSF

Coming soon.

Our Comrades’ Disorientation Guides

Brown

2006: Disorientation Guide (original source)

Columbia

2002: Disorientation Guide (original source)

2000: Disorientation Guide (original source)

Harvard

2024: Harvard Crimeson Convocation Zine (original source)

2008: Disorientation Guide (original source)

Stanford

2009: Re-Orientation Guide (original source)

1996: Disorientation Guide (original source)

Disorientation, Radical, and Activist Websites

dis-o (berkeley)

(dis)orientation zine (berkeley)

whose.university.OURuniversity (davis & uc-wide)

reclaim UC (uc-wide)

research and destroy

UCD cops off campus (davis)

Disorientation Zines: A guide to zines, DIY/homemade publications which allow folks to tell their own stories or share information. Topics include mental health, disability, queerness, race and racism, sexual assault, political topics, recipes, and much more.

People’s History of Berkeley