OBERLIN, OHIO-- Area residents are invited to share their knowledge, vocations, avocations, and experience with Oberlin College and the Oberlin community during Spring 2001 classes as teachers in ExCo, Oberlin’s Experimental College program.

Begun as an experiment in non-traditional education over 30 years ago, the program offers a wide range of courses that are open to the public. Some courses have minimal fees, but most are free.

Anyone may teach and take classes in ExCo, a roster of interdisciplinary courses created and taught each semester by Oberlin students, faculty, staff and area residents. The teachers are not necessarily experts, says ExCo Committee Chair Marie Rinkoski, but applicants who demonstrate expertise and enthusiasm may teach a course as long as that course is judged to have educational merit .

The application deadline is November 2. Teaching is open to any Oberlin student, staff, and area community member, including those from greater Cleveland. The application process includes filling out forms and taking part in an interview within two weeks after the application deadline. The forms are available outside the ExCo office, Room 302 of Oberlin’s Wilder Hall. Off-campus applicants may call 440-775-8096 or email to obtain applications.

Although rare today, experimental colleges were popular in the 1960s and early '70s. ExCo was founded in 1968 and is alive and flourishing today, so much so that students from Grinnell College initiated their own experimental college two years ago after seeking help from Oberlin. Their program is closely based on Oberlin’s.

ExCo today still provides the Oberlin community with one of the most enjoyable and most rewarding college learning experiences. Due to its flexible nature ExCo reflects the current academic, intellectual, social, ideological, philosophical, political, emotional, sexual, and fashion trends of the Oberlin community. In each semester there may be between 50 to 120 courses, so there is considerable variety. Among the more than 50 courses taught this fall are classes ranging from martial arts, ceramic murals and film production to issues in women’s health, wilderness leadership skills and the classical music of North India.

Oberlin students may receive one or two hours college credit for taking ExCo courses. Each student may accumulate up to 5 credit hours through ExCo, and can take any ExCo course for no credit at all. Those Oberlin College students who teach ExCo courses also receive credit.

The student organization is headed by a volunteer committee, which is solely responsible for choosing the curriculum and maintaining the integrity of the program throughout the academic semester. The ExCo Committee oversees and evaluates course proposals, prints the catalogue each semester, handles administrative duties, and organizes registration.