An exhibition exploring Centennial College, an experimental undergraduate education program that existed on campus from 1969 to 1981, is on display through Dec. 15 in Love Library.
“Highlights from Centennial College” features photographs provided by program alumni and the University Archives and Special Collections. The display is featured on the second floor of Love Library with supplemental materials in cases in the library’s lower level, near the University Archives.
Centennial College alumni will hold a reunion on campus Oct. 11-12. Learn more about the event.
Centennial College, officially named the Centennial Educational Program, opened in the fall of 1969 and continued until the spring of 1981. The innovative college was created to celebrate the university’s centennial celebration in 1969.
Before its establishment, Centennial College evolved into a cluster college where students could live and study together. Woods Charitable Fund awarded a grant for the planning and a faculty-student committee chaired by Robert Knoll prepared an interdisciplinary curriculum. Knoll was Centennial’s first senior fellow/head of the program.
“The old idea of the professor as the authority figure dispensing received wisdom was replaced by the idea of the teacher as a guide,” Knoll wrote in his book, “Prairie University.” “Students were to find their own way in the underbrush, rescued by their teachers when lost.”
The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, is available for viewing during Love Library’s operating hours.
