At the Oregon Extension students live a simplified life in a rustic forest setting in which time, space, and the curriculum allow for deepening an intrinsic love of learning. For a fall semester they are exposed to agrarian and forest practices of sustainability, and encouraged to knit together their own, personal integrated vision of life drawing on a broad liberal arts curriculum.
The campus is in the middle of a wilderness. Students live in cabins that were built in 1929 to house the families of lumber mill workers. The classroom and library was once a general store in this small mountain town that now constitutes the OE campus. One has the sense here of stepping into a calmer zone in space and time. Courses are taught following the “block” method—one course at a time for 3½ weeks, with four blocks in the semester, earning 17 semester credits.
OE stud
ents read a lot of books, and reflect on them in small groups meeting in professors' homes. Over the semester students work, progressively, with four large themes that make up our curriculum: Nature, Community, Sustainability, and the Human Condition. Each is approached in interdisciplinary ways, and credits can be earned in 13 different academic areas:
Environmental Studies
Communication
Literature
Education
Art
History
Philosophy
Political Scienc
Religious Studies
Business Administration
Biology
The campus is in the middle of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument of southern Oregon, set apart for its unique biodiversity.
The Sustainability component of the semester is incorporated into the students’ experience through electives in a lab science course in conservation biology, furniture making, nature writing, or social entrepreneurship, and daily agrarian hands-on experience (gardening, poultry management for eggs and meat, goat husbandry, cheese making, and canning).
The OE is affiliated with Eastern Mennonite University.