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In
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Statement
of Goals and
Objectives
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General
Information
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About
Oberlin
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Catalog
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About
Oberlin
Oberlin College: Scholarship, Diversity, Social
Commitment
Statement of Goals and
Objectives for Oberlin College
Oberlin College,
an independent coeducational institution, holds a distinguished
place among American colleges and universities. Oberlin was
the first college to grant undergraduate degrees to women and
historically was a leader in the educating of blacks; its heritage
is one of respect for the individual and active concern for
the larger society. The College uniquely combines an outstanding
professional school of music with a leading undergraduate college
of arts and sciences. The two divisions reinforce each other.
The Conservatory provides flexible programs to prepare students
as professional musicians and teachers of music. Deeply committed
to academic excellence, the College of Arts and Sciences offers
a rich and balanced curriculum in the humanities, social sciences,
and sciences. Within that framework the College expects that
students will work closely with the faculty to design an educational
program appropriate to their own particular interests, needs,
and long-term goals.
Oberlin seeks
a diverse and promising student body. Recognizing that diversity
broadens perspectives, Oberlin is dedicated to recruiting a
culturally, economically, geographically, and racially diverse
group of students. Interaction with others of widely different
backgrounds and experiences fosters the effective, concerned
participation in the larger society so characteristic of and
tolerant of divergent views. The Conservatory of Music in particular
seeks talented musicians with considerable potential for further
growth and development. Performance is central to all of the
curricula including music education, history, theory, composition,
and technology.
Oberlin's faculty
is dedicated to combining effective undergraduate instruction
with productive scholarship and artistry. Members of the faculty
are highly skilled and professional, well-grounded in their
chosen discipline; yet they characteristically have interests
that extend beyond their own specialization. The College seeks
to recognize and encourage teaching of unusually high caliber,
and scholarly and other creative activities are considered essential
to continued teaching excellence. Thus, active research, scholarship,
artistry, and/or performance is expected of each faculty member.
Oberlin College
enjoys an exceptional physical plant including libraries, art
museum, computing center, scientific laboratories, physical
education facilities, concert halls, and practice rooms. Creating
an environment in which academic excellence can flourish, these
attractive physical resources are important to realizing the
aims of the College.
For its students,
the aims of Oberlin College are:
- to equip them
with skills of creative thought, technique, and critical analysis
which will enable them to use knowledge effectively;
- to acquaint
them with the growing scope and substance of human thought;
- to provide for
their intensive training in the discipline of a chosen area
of knowledge;
- to ready them
for advanced study and work beyond the college years;
- to foster their
understanding of the creative process and to develop their appreciation
of creative, original work;
- to expand their
social awareness, social responsibility, and capacity for moral
judgment so as to prepare them for intelligent and useful response
to the present and future demands of society;
- to facilitate
their social and emotional development;
- to encourage
their physical and mental well-being;
- to cultivate
in them the aspiration for continued intellectual growth throughout
their lives.
--Adopted by
the General Faculty November 15, 1977
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Oberlin's
Distinguished 169-Year History
The roots of Oberlin
College reach back to 1833 when two young Yankee missionaries arrived
at a stump-dotted clearing in the forests of northeast Ohio.
The Rev. John
J. Shipherd and Philo P. Stewart, inspired by Alsatian pastor John
Frederick Oberlin, resolved to found a college and colony on the
western frontier "where they would train teachers and other Christian
leaders for the boundless most desolate fields in the West." They
shortly gained the support of Charles Grandison Finney, one of the
19th century's great revivalists. Finney's reputation attracted
students to the college and colony, "bound together by a solemn
covenant which pledged them to the plainest living and highest thinking,"
as well as financial support for the College and the town of Oberlin.
In the spring
of 1833, the first settler, Peter Pindar Pease, built his log
house at the center of Oberlin. That December, 29 men and 15 women
students began classes in the Oberlin Collegiate Institute. Two
years later circulars describing Oberlin noted that "youths are
received as members, irrespective of color." As a result, by the
turn of the century one-third of all African American graduates
of predominantly white institutions in the United States had graduated
from Oberlin.
In 1837 four young
women matriculated for the regular college course. Three of the
four graduated in 1841 and became the first women in America to
receive A.B. degrees.
In 1850, by an
Act of the Ohio Legislature, the Oberlin Collegiate Institute
became Oberlin College. The change was in name only since collegiate
instruction had been offered from 1834 when the original charter
was granted.
The music division
became part of the College in 1867, two years after its founding
as a private school. The Graduate School of Theology, organized
in 1835 as the theological division, was merged with the Divinity
School of Vanderbilt University in 1966.
Present-day Oberlin
College reflects its early commitment to high intellectual standards,
liberal education, excellence in teaching and social and moral
commitment.
The town of Oberlin,
Ohio (population 8,600) is 35 miles southwest of Cleveland and
is easily accessible by car, plane, bus or train.
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The academic
programs of Oberlin College are based in its two divisions:
The College of Arts and Sciences (2,200 students) and the
Conservatory of Music (650 students).
The College
of Arts and Sciences offers a four-year undergraduate program
leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree. The Conservatory of
Music offers four-year undergraduate programs of professional
and academic studies leading to the Bachelor of Music degree,
as well as two-year programs leading to a Performance Diploma
(undergraduate) and an Artist Diploma (graduate).
A five-year
Double-Degree Program leading to both the Bachelor of Arts
degree and the Bachelor of Music degree is also available.
The Conservatory also offers limited graduate programs leading
to the Master of Music (opera theater, conducting), the Master
of Music Education and the Master of Music Teaching degrees.
All of these are five-year programs integrated with specific
undergraduate Oberlin Bachelor of Music degree programs. The
Master of Music in Historical Performance program admits students
with undergraduate degrees from schools other than Oberlin.
Academic information
differs in some cases between the College of Arts and Sciences
and the Conservatory of Music. For information about degree
programs, graduation requirements, advising and academic standing,
grading policies, major and minor study and other areas, please
refer to the College of Arts and Sciences, Conservatory of
Music or Double-Degree sections of the catalog.
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Oberlin's facilities
are unsurpassed by any school its size. It has one of the nation's
most extensive college library collections, one of the three
finest college art collections in the country and first-rate
facilities and equipment in music, theater arts, the natural
sciences, computing and physical education.
The Seeley
G. Mudd Center
houses most of the College's collection of more than 2 million
items; the balance is in three departmental area libraries elsewhere
on campus.
The Irvin E.
Houck Computing Center maintains more than 125 networked Macintosh
and DOS/Windows computers in public areas spread across the
campus, as well as another 55 terminals connected to the College's
central AlphaServer. This equipment is made available to all
students without charge. Using this technology, students can
do word processing, construct spreadsheets, perform statistical
analyses, write and run programs, send and receive electronic
mail and connect to computers worldwide via the Internet. All
dormitory rooms are connected to a campus network. Oberlin Online,
the campus-wide information system, is accessible on the World
Wide Web at http://www.oberlin.edu.
The Roger
W. Sperry Building,
completed in 1990, houses offices and teaching and research laboratories
for the Neuroscience Program. Specialized laboratories are available
for research in molecular neurobiology, electrophysiology, pharmacology,
endocrinology, neural development and neuroanatomy.
Peters Hall,
completed in 1887, was renovated in 1996 and its function redefined
primarily for foreign languages. Extensive classroom space, including
a dedicated seminar room for each department, and faculty office
space is complemented by the Paul and Edith Cooper International
Learning Center, a state-of-the-art language lab and media center.
Also housed in the building are the Study-Away Library and offices
for international students, student advising, Learning Assistance
Resource Center, Residential Life and Services and the Counseling
Center.
The Kettering
Hall of Science
houses the Departments of Biology, and is part of a new Science
Center. The
science center opened in 2001 and, when completed in 2002 will
incorporate the Roger W. Sperry building, the Wright Physics building
as well as a new science library, and significant amounts of new
space for research and teaching in the natural sciences. The Science
Center will house the Chemistry Department, the Neuroscience Program,
the Physics Department and the Science Library as well as the
Biology Department. The 230,000 square feet state-of-art facility
has been designed to encourage collaborative learning between
the disciplines of the natural sciences, to support both faculty
and student research, and provide an environment where both formal
and informal learning are fostered.
The Adam
J. Lewis Center for Environmental Studies
opened in November 1999. Designed to purify and reuse wastewater
on site, utilize sustainably grown or produced materials, and
eliminate the use of toxic materials, the center has a rooftop
photovoltaic array as well as a monitoring system that assesses
energy performance levels. The building is intended to be a laboratory
that showcases environmentally efficient building technologies,
operating systems, and sustainable building techniques. The Lewis
Center has won several major architectural awards and has attracted
considerable national attention.
In addition to
the facilities of the Conservatory (see the Conservatory of Music
section of the catalog), performing arts utilize Sophronia
Brooks Hall Auditorium,
which seats 500 for theater and opera productions, and Warner
Center for the Performing Arts,
used for theater and dance classes and productions.
The Allen
Memorial Art Museum,
internationally recognized for the excellence of its collection,
was established in 1917 as the teaching collection of Oberlin
College. Over the years the Museum's collection has been carefully
developed through purchases and gifts. It has been ranked as one
of the finest college or university art collections in the nation,
and it continues to grow in size and distinction. The collection,
which ranges over the entire history of art, is particularly strong
in the areas of Dutch and Flemish painting of the 17th century;
European art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries; contemporary
American art; and Old Master and Japanese prints.
The Museum is
a landmark building designed by noted American architect Cass
Gilbert. In 1977 it was expanded through the addition of a large
new gallery for modern art, designed by the architectural firm
of Venturi, Rauch and Associates. The Allen Memorial Art Buildings
also house the College's art department with its superior art
library of 75,000 volumes.
Athletic facilities
are located in the Jesse
Philips Physical Education Center.
It contains Carr Pool, (site of two NCAA swimming and diving championships),
a Nautilus center, a free-weight room, three full-length courts
for basketball, volleyball and indoor tennis, six racquetball
courts, nine squash courts, a training room and specialty rooms
for activities such as gymnastics and fencing.
Oberlin's John
W. Heisman Club Field House
was completed in the fall of 1992. Connected to the Philips Physical
Education Center, it contains a 200-meter track and four tennis
courts, plus space for football, baseball, soccer and lacrosse
practice. Other facilities include 12 all-weather tennis courts,
22 multi-purpose outdoor fields and six bowling lanes.
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