Abstract

This dissertation is a study of five experimental colleges, universities, and graduate schools in the United States which might be described as utopian in nature. In order to understand the word "utopian," a brief history of published utopias is included in the PDE. These utopias range from Plato's Republic to Hutchins University of Utopia. The similarities between these theoretical utopias are analyzed with their applications to the study of the colleges. A brief history of American utopian communities and communes is also included which also compares and contrasts them to the five colleges. These institutions are placed in the context of American cultural patterns. ;The five colleges chosen were Antioch University, Sarah Lawrence College, Goddard College, The Union Institute, and World College West. They cover a period of 150 years and are located in the East, New England, Midwest, and West. Three of them have non-residential programs which are nationwide. Their successes and failures, good years and bad are traced throughout their histories. These educational institutions often broke with the dominant American culture to create and maintain endangered enclaves which might be characterized as "utopian colleges." These places of learning all share some general characteristics in common which are not merely theoretical but are manifested in the learning and life of the institution. ;All of these five utopian colleges have no grades, except recently World College West, but work is evaluated in written reports. In the five colleges classes are small and conducted in a seminar style, and the students, faculty, and administrators strive to be open-minded. These colleges have a history of being non-sexist and non-racist, and the idea of community is fostered. Personal growth is encouraged in an interdisciplinary educational setting not based on competition but on individual accomplishment. This study is a gathering of material or histories of these institutions as a survey which prepares a way of thinking for future research about the subject. No one has written a book about the progressive movement manifested in institutions of higher education or included the histories of these selected places, as has been done in this original work