Olivet College Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
- There is a college in Illinois named Olivet Nazarene University.
Olivet was founded in 1844 with unique visions of liberal arts education. The founders of Olivet College believed in a coeducational experience, and was the second coeducational college in the nation, the first by charter. Only Olivet's sister school Oberlin was coeducational prior to Olivet. Service was another integral part of the founders' visions, as the founders helped to build the surrounding community as well as the broader community. The founders also believed that an education could be had by anyone, not just those "rich in the world's goods" -- a principle which continues to this day. Olivet also required manual labor as part of service to the community, which also helped form the college's ideals of social responsibility, which included abolitionist beliefs. Abolitionist beliefs, along with a coeducational experience led the state legislature to deny a charter for the college until thirteen years after the first courses were offered (some Olivetians believe that the charter was denied because of possible competition with Michigan College (now University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.)
After founding Oberlin College in Ohio, John Shipherd and thirty-nine missionaries (which included Oberlin College faculty, students and graduates) came to Michigan to create a college, which Shipherd deemed "New Oberlin." The original land for the college was to be in present-day Ingham County, approximately twenty-five miles from the actual location. Olivetian lore says that while Shipherd was on a trip to the site in Ingham County, his horse continued to get lost, and would always wander back to a the hill above a swamp (where Olivet's Campus Square exists today.) Shipherd decided that powers from above must be drawing the horse back to this site, and Shipherd deemed that this would become the site for "New Oberlin," however he then chose to name it Olivet, after the biblical Mount of Olives. Shortly after the founding of the college, John Shipherd succumbed to malaria, as many other early Olivetians would. The first courses began in December 1844, and commencement followed that spring (transfer students from Oberlin College were graduated.) By this point, president Reuben Hatch had petitioned for a charter, which was denied. Olivet thus became the Olivet Institute, a two year school, as it would remain for more than a decade.
After being founded and earning a positive reputation throughout the late nineteenth century, the majority of the twentieth century saw Olivet College become a typical liberal arts school. With the exception of a short-lived attempt at an Oxford style curriculum, and numerous literary workshops between 1934-1944 Olivet had become a typical liberal arts college.
Until 1992.
After weeks of racial unrest, a white female student claimed she was abducted and raped by black men. This resulted in a brawl between black students and a fraternity in the lobby of the college's Shipherd Hall, a coeducational dormitory named after founder John Shipherd. Soon after the brawl, rumblings of Ku Klux Klan activity surfaced and the majority of the college's black population left, before the academic year commenced. The incident caused media from around the world to center on Olivet, and question its chances of survivability.
In 1993 the faculty of the college created a new vision for the institution, Education for Individual and Social Responsibility. Resultant was the current Olivet Plan, which debuted in 1995 and may be one of the most progressive curricula in the nation.
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The Olivet College Conservatory of Music (and now the Margaret Upton Conservatory of Music) has some of the finest facilities in the Michigan and once held great steed (and operated as a separate acadedmic unit.) Today the Upton Conservatory confers only liberal arts degrees, in various disciplines of music.
Olivet College, along with Albion College and Michigan State University, founded the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1888. The MIAA is the nation's oldest collegiate conference. Olivet College athletic teams, nicknamed the Comets, participate in the following intercollegiate sports as a member of the MIAA, unless noted:
Men baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, track & field, wrestling (Division III Independent)
Women basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, volleyball
Blessed was the hour when father Shipherd knelt, humble before the presence that he felt. Then he created Olivet upon this hill, and lighted the lamp of learning radiant still. His ancient faith hath taught us how to pray, Pro christo et humanitate.
With thou take o Olivet, our love for thee to the high goals for all that we should be. Make us thy sons and daughters ever know the truth, and thus in thy strength give purpose to our youth. God's blessing rest where we are pledged to say, Pro christo et humanitateEarly history
Twentieth century to today
Degrees currently granted
College Facilities
Past Facilities
Current Facilities
Conservatory of Music
Athletics
Presidents of the College
The Olivet Hymn