olivet

OLIVET COLLEGE
www.olivetcollege.edu

Background
Current Institutional Involvement and Commitment to Civic Learning
Proposed Activities to be Funded as Part of the Cluster
Expected Student Learning and Institutional Outcomes
Ability to Provide Leadership for Additional Civic Learning Clusters
Leadership Team

Background

Olivet College is a private, largely residential, liberal arts institution in Michigan that enrolls approximately 900 students. Founded in 1844, Olivet's guiding principle was to provide students with the "means of intellectual, moral, and spiritual improvement and to teach them the Divine art and science of doing good to others." Since its first days the College has emphasized access to all qualified students. Similar to many small colleges, Olivet indicates that beginning in the 1970s it began to lose sight of its core values. In 1992, following a campus racial incident, the College began to refocus on its early commitments for higher education. Challenging the faculty to rearticulate the mission of the institution, the then new president demanded that their work be grounded in the historical values of the College. The College's resulting new vision statement, Education for Individual Responsibility, echoes the language of the original catalog: "Olivet College is dedicated today, as it was in 1844, to the principle that the future of humanity rests in the hands, hearts, and minds of those who will accept responsibility for themselves and others in an increasingly diverse society."

The transformation of the institution that proceeded from the development of the new vision statement has been far-reaching and profound. In response to challenging the traditional assumptions about the purposes and assessment strategies of a college education, the College redesigned the curriculum and developed five groups of learning outcomes which have resulted in establishing the Portfolio Assessment Program to evaluate student learning outcomes.

Building on its new statements of educational purposes and an innovative delivery system known as the Olivet Plan, Olivet College continues to focus on renewal of undergraduate education. The College indicates that its current challenges are to establish institutional accountability for student learning, to build civil and inclusive communities that model democracy at its best and help students develop civic virtues and civic responsibility, and to ensure equity of access to higher education by controlling costs.
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Current Institutional Involvement and Commitment to Civic Learning

At Olivet College "civic learning" means civic responsibility. This is connected to how the College hopes to prepare each student for his/her "Life's Work." A critical part of this preparation is the focus on the responsibility students should develop regarding their community and how they engage in the process of democracy. This is represented in the College's academic vision: Education for Individual and Social Responsibility . Furthermore, "civic learning" also means that students will receive opportunities to develop not only competence in a chosen field, which is integrated with an expansive general education program, but character as well. Olivet has chosen, in a deliberate way, to insist that students develop a sense of responsibility for their communities beginning at the local level and expanding to the state and national levels as well. This means exploring a range of ideas about community, how to build civil and inclusive communities and how to support the "wealth of human diversity and the bond of human similarity." This is in the context of a diverse global society undergoing continuing change.
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Proposed Activities to be Funded as Part of the Cluster

Although Olivet has developed many new programs both curricular and co-curricular, the College needs to strengthen the connection between a student's understanding of government/politics, responsibility and praxis. Olivet envisions using the Civic Learning Cluster Project as an opportunity to develop learning experiences that enhance a student's understanding of world history, politics and economics, as well as the application of that knowledge to social problems. The College proposes to use the opportunity to further transform its Civilization Studies program. In 1995-6 during the first round of change for this year-long course, the faculty expanded it to include a much wider view of history—including a survey of a range of cultures (e.g., Asia and Africa). There has been insufficient change in pedagogy, however, and the direct connection to civic responsibility remains weak. A critical understanding of power, structure, and agency, as well as the dynamic nature of culture, also is still missing. It is hoped that the curricular transformations will assist students to make connections with responsible groups or organizations that can help to make positive social change.

Second, the College envisions developing programs that provide a real opportunity for students to get off campus for extended periods of time to learn first hand about local, state, and federal history and how social activism has lead to social justice; for example, having students travel to key sites of the civil rights movement.

Finally, the College envisions using this opportunity to further clarify how the entire institution can better coordinate its on-campus and off-campus activities that connect to civic responsibility. This means finding ways for the entire campus to engage in community building and social justice activities beyond Service Day.

Expected Student Learning and Institutional Outcomes

The pertinent outcomes are found in the College's "portfolio learning outcomes" or "demonstration objectives." Civic responsibility is referred to as service activity for first and second year students and involvement in civic affairs and reflection on civic responsibility for third and fourth year students. Also, exploration of personal values and philosophy is a demonstration objective related to personal development. Possible portfolio exhibits for validation at the sophomore level include: FYE service project, participation in the recycling program, volunteer work with a local civic organization or school, participation in a student organization-sponsored service program or project and a student initiated service project. Possible sources of senior or graduation level exhibits demonstrating involvement in civic affairs and reflection on civic responsibility include: participation in student government, involvement in the political process, participation in a service club or organization, military duty, jury duty and certain individual activities (i.e. working on a political campaign). Olivet wishes to enhance its current activities and initiatives by providing students with a better grounding in the political and economic processes of local, state and federal government agencies, as well as an understanding of the world economy and how it is intertwined with politics.
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Ability to Provide Leadership for Additional Civic Learning Clusters

Olivet College indicates that its experience with institutional change and how to make it happen on a small campus could be very valuable to the Civic Learning Cluster. The College it has expertise regarding sources of information and lessons learned that could be used in other campus contexts. Many faculty, staff and students at the College have embraced the concept of civic learning, social justice and political engagement and are looking for ways to further develop their ideas. These faculty are constantly trying to develop strategies and tactics that help students understand the complexities of democracy.

Leadership Team

Kathy Fear, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, Associate Professor of Education
Saleef Kafajouffe, Chair of the Social Science Department and Assistant Professor of Social Sciences
Wayne Millette, Assistant Professor of Education and Social Sciences and Director of the Master of Arts in Teaching Program
Andrea S. Rutledge, Assistant to the President and Director of Special Projects
Don Tuski, Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Anthropology
Matt Wait, Chemistry Lab Assistant, Student Success Advisor
Student to be named
Director of Civilization Studies, to be named
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