North Coast College is a new academic institution in northeastern Minnesota. Its four-year baccalaureate programs are patterned after those of St. John's College, located at Annapolis, Maryland and Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose curriculum is based on the Great Books series. North Coast is loosely affiliated with St. John's and intends its campus to be a sister institution with an academic calendar synchronized with St. John's. North Coast College joins with the University of Minnesota-Duluth and St. Scholastica in a cooperative, collaborative relationship. Until construction of its new campus on the shore of St. Louis Bay, North Coast will begin its academic life in rented buildings in downtown Duluth.
The President and Board of Advisors of North Coast have challenged architects and landscape architects to conceive its new campus setting. But rather than issue a traditional program--a laundry list of named spaces with specified square footage --they have issued a performance-based program, suggesting the qualitative requirements of their educational philosophy and allowing some flexibility in how those needs may be satisfied. They envision an initial student body of 200, with growth potential for a maximum of 350. The optimal student-faculty ratio is 1:8; this may fluctuate but will never be greater than 1:10. For more specific information on the Great Books learning environment, visit the website for St. John's College at http://www.sjca.edu/.
