Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, dozens of experimental colleges were founded across the United States. While these institutions are usually remembered as either a fringe movement of the 1960s or a niche for nonconformist students, this essay argues that their genesis was markedly mainstream. Drawing from popular trends, higher education…

In a seven-year study of new experimental colleges, Grant and Riesman (1978) report that within those schools "The utopian impulses are strong, representing a search for a more perfect union." One of the most radical of those experiments was Minnesota Metropolitan State College (MMSC). In addition to having no campus, the school had no…

The University of California, Santa Cruz is an environment in which many programs and practices have been revised, reinforced, or newly created. From its beginning in 1965, Santa Cruz has encouraged new approaches to learning. Some of the innovations that have taken place at the university include: (1) general course requirements are minimal; (2)…

Discusses the innovations taking place at Johnston College of the University of the Redlands, an experimental cluster college, including: governance, living-learning alternatives, and student life. (PG)

Describes the new innovative college recently added to the Washington State System. (HS)

The Paracollege of St. Olaf College is a satellite institution in which educational experimentation takes place. The paracollege has a student body of 240 and the faculty numbers 21. In addition to the other aims of St. Olaf as a whole, the Paracollege has as its objectives (1) to be an experimenting unit of St. Olaf College, always searching for…

The search for the atypical and non-mainstream college has been rather fruitless. The major universities, the graduate schools, and the academic guilds are found to be in almost full command of the system, and practically every other institution seems to be emulating them. (Author)

Offers questions to serve as an intellectual springboard for those involved in the planning, implementation, or evaluation of experimental colleges. (HS)

Two graduates of Hampshire College discuss their experiences at the innovative institution and its future chances to resist conventional molds. (Author/PG)

Provision needs to be made in California for alternative educational forms because: (1) there is currently a great deal of dissatisfaction with prevailing arrangements, and since there is no agreement on one ideal form or system, the best procedure is to set up probes of alternative futures; (2) the needs of society, like those of individual…

Since 1961, 24 universities and 1 university college have been founded in Britain and Northern Ireland to be added to the already existing 22 universities and 4 university colleges. The key word in the creation of these institutions has been innovation. This report is a case study of the struture of the new universities. It takes into…

In 1969 Hiram College, Hiram, Ohio, launched a new integrated curriculum that emphasized interdisciplinary studies and increased student freedom and responsibility. All traditional, discipline-oriented graduation requirements were eliminated in favor of new nondepartmental courses, more electives, and more individual faculty attention for…