Curriculum Michigan State University-Oakland

The Meadow Brook Seminars in Higher Education were an attempt to plan the curricula for the newly founded Oakland University. The fomenters of the seminars, John Hannah, president of M.S.U. and Durward Varner, chancellor of M.S.U.-O., proceeded on the assumption that they were creating a new university and a new type of education that could produce liberally educated students despite the field of specialization, they also wanted to begin without the inhibitions that sometimes prevented existing universities from starting anew. Thus, the seminars attempted to attract the leaders of American society and education to shape the curriculum. Among those who participated were such luminaries as Henry Luce, Milton Eisenhower and Henry Steele Commager; distinguished educators in the fields of engineering, business administration, continuing education, the liberal arts and teacher education. In each of the seminars the participants vigorously discussed what had been done wrong in the past and what should be done in the future. The records of this seminar document not only its proceedings but reflect on the elan and sense of mission with which the university was established.