Responsibility for and agency in your education.
Students at Outer Coast are entrusted to make decisions that affect what their education – and the institution itself – looks like. Students gather for weekly Student Body (SB) meetings to legislate student life and engage in the real-stakes work of creating fair policy, resolving conflict, and finding common ground. In addition to weekly SB meetings, students may also choose to serve alongside staffulty on committees that carry out specific functions, such as admitting future cohorts of students with the Applications Committee or shaping the academic curriculum and hiring faculty with the Curriculum Committee. To shape the long-term future of Outer Coast, the SB also elects two student representatives to serve on the Board of Trustees.
In self-governance, students learn that the details matter, that relationships are as important as ideas, that good communication is hard, and that big change is often the sum of many incremental steps. Ultimately, students develop the communication skills and emotional intelligence necessary for effective collaboration throughout the rest of their lives.
Within their cohort, students also determine their own community values; organize cleaning and maintenance of their living and eating spaces; and make policies for internet, cell phone, and social media use.
