Sonoma State was founded in the Spring of 1961. Its first faculty consisted of eight persons who comprised the Santa Rosa Center of San Francisco State College. Warren Olson was hired by Sonoma State College in 1962 as its first professor of philosophy and humanities. The 60's were a time of change and innovation in education.

Warren Olson

On January 5, 1968, Sonoma State entered the fray with a two year trial: Tutorials in Liberal Arts and Science Program.Its inauguration was held in the Fall of 1969 originally under the title of "Cluster School #1."

Warren Olson suggested the name be changed to the "Robert Maynard Hutchins School of Liberal Studies." He explained that Hutchins was devoted to educational innovation and to a life-long attempt to convince Americans that democracy will not be realized unless its citizens are liberally educated.

R.M. Hutchins

In addition, Robert Maynard Hutchins represented the intellectual tradition associated with Socrates which we sought to embody in our School of Liberal Studies. Upon an affirmative reply from Hutchins to Warren Olson's request, the "Cluster School #2" became the "Robert Hutchins School of Liberal Studies."

Warren Olson describes the original four person staff as "a philosopher, a political scientist, a poet and a psychologist" to which was added a "young theoretical physicist." The first class of freshman included 100 adventuresome souls who feasted upon a 30 book reading list for the first 12 unit semester, called "Images of Man." At the end of the first semester deep divisions had surfaced in the small but spirited Hutchins staff. The poet and the physicist had sided on a totally unstructured approach and their positions with Hutchins were not renewed. By the Fall of 1970 there were 3 vacant positions to which were added 5 new positions to accommodate the entering class of 100. The positions were successfully filled with 6 men and two women. of the original class of 100 students, 55 returned for their sophomore year, and ultimately 25 of the pioneers graduated with degrees in Liberal Studies.

The Hutchins School of Liberal Studies has gone through many incarnations but still holds fast to the principle on which it was founded: "interdisciplinary education [is] vital -- that the traditional fragmentation of the disciplines, while perhaps good as a research model, [is] inadequate on a teaching level."

The previous history is former student Kelly Wheaton's abstraction of Warren Olson's The Origin and Birth of The Hutchins School of Liberal Studies.