The Spring 2008 issue of The Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences offers some significant changes from previous volumes while still maintaining the spirit behind the journal’s original creation.  Perhaps the most striking transformation involves the journal’s physical formatting.  Readers will find a smaller sized volume along with a permanent front cover which features an etching of the first building on the Oakland City University campus. 

The original administration building was begun in 1885 but, due to difficult financial pressures, was not completed until 1891.  The school, originally referred to as “the college on the hill,” lay nestled in a rustic wooded setting atop a prominent ridge.  The original administration building crowned the ridge and soon began serving as a beacon for higher education to the community and the region. The school’s initial course offerings were built around a core of “classical” studies, reflecting a solid liberal arts and sciences emphasis. 

From its inception, the school quickly began to develop a strong teacher education program, one which over the years produced more than its share of teachers and educational administrators for the region’s public and private schools. Yet another area of expertise the school developed concerned training men and women for different areas of religious ministry. 

Today, providing an education which offers a solid liberal arts and sciences core for all graduates, along with preparing students for the professional worlds of education, business, religious ministry, and other professional areas, stands at the heart of the school’s mission.  The Journal for the Liberal Arts and Sciences seeks to carry out the ongoing historical mission of Oakland City University by offering a forum for academic discourse regarding theories, ideas, and issues in the arts, the sciences, and education.