Christian Newth, History 250: The Historian Craft, Spring 2019

The 1960s and 1970s were a hectic time for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. On campus, the University saw many organizations created for the betterment of students. These organizations gave students more power over events and curriculum at UNL. One such organization was the Centennial College. The Centennial College was a living-learning community that was housed in Neihardt. It was planned to have a large impact on campus, but that plan did not pan out at the University. The novelty about Centennial was that it tried to implement a new way of learning at UNL. [1] Although the Centennial College had good progressive ideals to change curriculum, the college ultimately did not work at UNL.

Colleges in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s encountered rapid change with civil rights, the Vietnam War, and student’s rights movements. Many people outside university campuses were also affected by these protests and movements. [2] These protests shifted opinions so greatly that President Lyndon B. Johnson factored them into his decision to not run for reelection in 1969. The students of the 1960s also protested many events such as the decision to fight in Vietnam on campuses across the country. One of the biggest controversies that aroused protests across the country was the Kent State Shooting in Kent, Ohio. There were four protesters killed and nine were wounded. The Kent State Massacre was perpetrated by the National Guard that was placed on campus to monitor the protest. [3]

UNL students were so concerned with Kent State that the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska (ASUN), UNL’s student government, ordered an investigation of an administrator who was working at Kent State when the event happened. This investigation was called in 1989 long after the shooting. [4] University of Nebraska-Lincoln students were involved with protests against the Kent State shooting, but were slow to get to some of the other movements and protests of the 1960s. There was not any actions to change the University until the late 1960s and the centennial celebration of UNL’s founding in 1969. Examples of these movements included student government, with the founding of the ASUN in 1967.[5] The ASUN was founded to try to get a better handle on the affairs of the University which the students were a major part of.

The movements that impacted universities across the country impacted UNL. It would spark change at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln through the creation of other organizations, such as Accent on Developing Advanced Processes of Thought (ADAPT) they started around 1976 and in 1966 Nebraska Free University (NFU).[6] Some students wanted something to promote a different kind of learning, which led UNL to create the Centennial College in response. The Centennial College hoped to promote a freer learning experience to students in the college. Many would be attracted to this new form of education that was taught at the College.

In 1969 the Centennial College was born from the ideas of students and faculty. One of the founders was Professor Robert E. Knoll. He helped the students put together a plan for what was going to happen with the new college, and what it was going to do. [7] Centennial College was going to be a cluster college at the University. There are two types of cluster colleges. The first type is a collection of small independent Universities that come together. The second type is part of the school where that college is founded but is not directly controlled by the school that the cluster college is a part of.[8] Centennial is the second of the two different types of the cluster colleges. The Cluster College is set up and funded by the school. Funding from the University would cause many headaches between the Centennial College and UNL throughout Centennial’s time of service. Centennial was called a college, but Centennial could not give out any degrees. The students would have to get a degree from a different college while at UNL.[9] Centennial would share certain things with the actual University, such as professors provided by UNL. This caused some tension between UNL and the Centennial College. Although many students and faculty were excited for this new experiment, some had their concerns on how this college would work with and provide for the University. That was doubled by the fact that Centennial was also autonomous of UNL.[10]

The Centennial College was opened in the fall of 1969 to 165 students, with a mix of freshmen and upperclassmen. All of the Freshmen had to live in the designated dorms on campus.[11] Pictured Left is the front of the Centennial College.[12] Centennial used two buildings of the Neihardt living complex for the students to live together, which created a living-learning community. The students lived and learned with each other in Neihardt. This caused it to be the home away from home for many of the students in the college. Students attending the Centennial College also used the Neihardt building to host the main classes, the Centennial Course, on the first floor.[13]

All students in the college had to take this course, which was basically an independent research project. The students at Centennial would usually made a commitment to at least two courses, or as Centennial calls them, projects. However, students could make a larger time commitment to one project. Students would spend most of the semester looking at topics that might interest them. During the last five weeks of the semester students finished up their projects. Projects could be presented like research paper, poster, and other ways to show what the students researched. Students could turn in multiple projects they could turn it in whenever they wanted to.[14] Goals of this course were unclear for students. The goals could have been to prepare students for research, or to get students interested in topics that they might never have researched.

The Fellows, professors of the Centennial College, had offices within the building which gave students easy access to them.[15] Pictured are some of the Fellows, with the lead Fellow Gene Harding standing in the front left. [16] The Fellows could stay at Centennial for up to two years, and if they decided to, they could leave after one. The programs goal for faculty was to also develop them with new teaching methods, which was a way of impacting the students at UNL.[17] By teaching faculty these new methods, they would try to spread their influence across campus. However, the Centennial College did not have many Fellows in it.[18] When it came to decide how many faculty Centennial was going to have, it decided to keep the ratio like that at UNL between faculty to students. Centennial also had language teachers at Neihardt to help the students learn new languages so those students could do projects in different languages.[19]

Centennial did have other people come to campus to teach subjects such as artists in residence. This was a much more specific program targeted to students who wanted to do research with an actual artist. They had all sorts of artists such as, musicians, painters, and even mimes. These program were for students more interested in the real-world experiences, rather than a regular classroom teaching. The appeal led to students who might wish to be an artist of some sort, but did not know where to go next. Artists in residence would have been a key program to help students in their full development as a student at UNL.[20] Another program the Centennial College had was the “Lunch in the Pub.” The students met with some notable person from the community in Lincoln, or other notable people abroad. The program helped to expose students to new ideas and different careers they could take.[21]

The classroom environment at Centennial was much more relaxed compared to the other colleges within the University.  The students did not have to leave Neihardt, and had no assignments due till the end of the semester. As a result, the college was a much more laid-back place to teach students.[22] Pictured left is some students studying in one of the rooms of Neihardt.[23] Non-Centennial College students would also come to do homework at Neihardt, finding the atmosphere there helpful to get things done. Centennial did seem to affect the University through this environment and was known for being that place students could go to study.[24] This contribution, however, would not satisfy the faculty and the board who saw the community as a waste of funds.

Students at Centennial had full control over what would happen at the college, which made UNL nervous. The Centennial College had town halls to help to make plans that would affect the college and the students within it.[25] Students at town hall meetings even had the power to choose which professors would be teaching at the college. Some students enjoyed this aspect and had the power to kick out professors, as what happened to one professor who just lectured during class. The Lead Fellow, director or dean of the college, could not make any major decisions without the consent of the students and a town hall meeting.[26] Centennial had many issues with the town hall format. One being that not all students would show up for the town halls. Also, with students wanting to isolate the college from the rest of the University.

One of the things people outside of the University commented about the Centennial College was the fact that it did not affect more of the student body. As only around 200 students were in the program every year. In addition, Centennial had to cut some students at the start of the second year. This was because they could not increase how many students they had in the program and they wanted to open it to a similar size class of freshmen.[27] One of the goals that the Fellows had in the first year of the students college experience was to interest students in the University and research. This atmosphere helped to ensure that the students were very pleased with the program.[28] Certain people outside of the Centennial College wondered how the University would actually use the Centennial College to change anything.[29] At first, UNL did not apply anything learned from the Centennial College to the University as a whole. The college already looked like many independent study programs that UNL was offering to students at the time. Students did not have to strive for a letter grade they were evaluated and given a pass or no pass, and some students tried to get by with doing little work.[30] These Problems caused students and faculty to become skeptical of the Centennial College. Making it harder for the college to expand and exert its influence on the University.

The Centennial College experimented with many different changes and studied how students reacted to these different classes and ways of teaching. One example is how students were taught mathematics. The Fellows tried to see if students reacted better to the concept being taught more of a way of thinking, and not a bunch of processes to get to an end goal.[31] However, the Fellows did not agree on how the Centennial College should be run and what should be strived for at the college.[32] Without goals for teaching laid out prior to starting Centennial, some Fellows tried to go their own way, which caused some tension among the Fellows. One problem within the college that the Fellows could agree on was the lack of motivation in some students. The fellows wanted some sort of structure, rather than letting the students dictate what the structure would be.[33] The most likely cause of this is probably because some of the students took advantage of this lack of structure and made projects that were very easy. Whether a new form was eventually implemented was not clear. The problem did remain that some students took advantage of the relaxed nature of the Centennial College.

The impact of  Centennial at UNL can still be seen through the William H. Thompson Learning Community(WHT). The WHT Learning community is an honors program for people who receive the Susan Thompson Buffet Scholarship. Scholars live together in Harper Hall for their first year, just like Centennial had to live in Neihardt. The WHT students also have a mentor with several other mentees in their group, a key difference between the Centennial College and WHT. Like Centennial, WHT has classes specifically for the scholars to develop their interests without the burden of research. WHT has advisors and administrators specifically there for students to help them succeed in their classes. The last similarity between Centennial and WHT is that they look at the student’s emotional side as well, instead of looking at just the academics of a student. Professors and staff  help students to have a productive college experience at UNL.

The 1960s and 70s were a hectic time for campuses across the United States and here at UNL. The protests caused many administrations to make new programs to meet the needs of students. Programs like the Centennial College were created to meet the changing demands of students and faculty here at UNL. These programs tried to impact campus, and innovate the lives of students at UNL. The new progressive methods that the Centennial College had made it a great experiment, but it ultimately did not work. Many things could have caused this, but the main reason was because the Centennial College’s students control over the program.

Notes