Oakridge College Faculty Handbook

Mission

Oakridge College prepares students for thoughtful work, responsible citizenship, and useful service within Briarmont and the wider world. 

The college began in 1918 as the Oakridge Institute of Forestry and Land Sciences. Its first purpose was practical and necessary: To study the damaged land left behind by destructive industries, protect the surviving redwood forests, improve land management, and help Briarmont understand the long lasting effects of the Hartwell timber years. The Institute was chartered as Oakridge College on July 1, 1947, and the transition did not erase that original mission.

The founding mission remains relevant in the modern era. The damaged land has not finished recovering, and Oakridge treats ecological care as a practical obligation rather than a matter of opinion. 

Oakridge is now a broader liberal arts college. Its programs include the arts, humanities, natural sciences, social sciences, education, legal studies, and professional preparation. Even so, the college remains shaped by its original purpose. Study should be useful, knowledge should be handled with care, and education should help people understand the world they inherit.

Oakridge teaches students to think clearly, communicate well, act with judgment, and contribute to the communities around them.

Educational Purpose

Oakridge College exists to provide an education that is both broad and grounded.

A broad education gives students the ability to study many areas of human knowledge. Students should learn to read carefully, speak clearly, write effectively, understand evidence, ask better questions, and work across different subjects.

A grounded education connects learning to place, history, responsibility, and practical use. Oakridge does not treat education as separate from the world outside the classroom. The college was founded because Briarmont needed knowledge that could respond to real damage. That belief remains part of the college’s identity.

Faculty should understand this dual purpose. Oakridge students are not only preparing for degrees, careers, or personal advancement. They are also learning how to carry responsibility.

Educational Goals

Oakridge College supports the following educational goals:

Clear Thinking

Students should learn to examine information carefully, ask useful questions, and make decisions based on evidence rather than assumption.

Communication

Students should learn to write, speak, listen, and present ideas clearly. Good communication is expected in classrooms, departments, public events, and professional settings.

Practical Judgment

Students should learn how to apply knowledge responsibly. Oakridge values learning that can be used with care, whether in research, public service, creative work, professional practice, or community life.

Stewardship

Students should understand that people inherit places, institutions, histories, and responsibilities. Oakridge’s founding mission was tied to land stewardship, but the principle is broader than land alone. Stewardship also applies to knowledge, culture, students, records, public trust, and the college itself.

Civic and Community Responsibility

Students should be prepared to take part in community life with maturity and respect. Oakridge is part of Briarmont, and its students and faculty are expected to understand that their actions affect more than themselves.

Academic Breadth

Students should be exposed to more than one field of study. A student trained only in one narrow area may miss the larger human, historical, ethical, or practical meaning of their work.

Discipline and Craft

Students should develop skill through practice. Whether they are studying science, writing, law, theatre, health, education, public service, or another field, they should learn that serious work requires repetition, correction, patience, and care.

Ethical Responsibility

Students should understand that knowledge can be misused. Faculty should help students consider the consequences of their work, their choices, and their authority.

Continuing the Founding Mission

Oakridge no longer exists only as a forestry and land sciences institute. It has grown into a full college with a wider academic purpose.

However, the college’s founding mission remains part of its identity.

Oakridge was created because Briarmont needed study, repair, and long-term responsibility after a period of extraction and damage. That history gives the college its older discipline: do not take knowledge lightly, do not ignore consequences, and do not separate education from the world it serves.

In modern form, that mission means:

• Teaching students to think beyond themselves
• Preserving academic and historical knowledge
• Supporting responsible research and creative work
• Preparing students for public, professional, and community life
• Maintaining programs that are useful, credible, and active
• Respecting the land, history, and people of Briarmont
• Treating education as a form of stewardship

Faculty Responsibility to the Mission

Faculty are responsible for carrying out the mission of Oakridge College in daily academic life.

This does not mean every class must be about forestry, restoration, or Briarmont history. It means every class should reflect the standards that grew from that history: seriousness, care, evidence, responsibility, and respect for the consequences of knowledge.

Faculty should help students build skill, judgment, curiosity, and discipline. They should also model the conduct expected of educated people: clarity, fairness, patience, honesty, and respect for the learning process.

The mission of Oakridge College is not only preserved in its history. It is preserved each time faculty teach well, guide students responsibly, maintain academic standards, and help the college remain useful to the community it serves.

Credits

Written by: Charles Fairweather