Outer Coast College


Outer Coast is a private college in Sitka, Alaska. It opened a two-year undergraduate program in fall 2024 and is currently completing the accreditation process. Outer Coast admitted a freshman class of 20 students in 2024 and a similar number the following year, for a total student body of approximately 40.

History

After Sheldon Jackson College closed in 2007, the title to the campus was transferred to the Sitka [Fine Arts Camp] in February 2011. In the summer of 2014, Alaska state representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins began deliberating with alumni, teachers and students of Deep Springs College about the possibility of founding a new college on the historic campus in partnership with the Fine Arts Camp. Full-time work to create Outer Coast began in September 2015.
In October 2017, the Outer Coast team committed to launching the Outer Coast Summer Seminar in the summer of 2018. The inaugural seminar was held from July to August, drawing in rising high school juniors and seniors from Alaska and the continental United States to participate in rigorous college-level courses as well as numerous service projects.
Since 2020, Outer Coast has run three iterations of the Outer Coast Year, a nine-month intensive for high school graduates from across Alaska, the Lower 48, and the globe. The Outer Coast Year program transitioned to the full two-year undergraduate program in 2024. In addition, the institution has offered six intensive, college-level academic summer programs — or Summer Seminars — for high school students.
Admissions at Outer Coast are need-blind and run on a sliding-scale, means-based cost of attendance model.

Philosophy

Outer Coast is modeled on Deep Springs' "three pillars" of academics, labor and self-governance. In academics, students enroll in a rotating series of seminars across disciplines as well as core Indigenous Studies courses, the first of which features Tlingit language learning. In self governance, students are actively involved in the governance and operations of the institution through Student Body meetings and smaller committees vested with particular responsibilities and decision-making authority. At Outer Coast, the labor pillar is reinterpreted as the service pillar. Students develop service projects with community organizations in Sitka. Outer Coast places a strong emphasis on the incorporation of Tlingit and other Native Alaskan perspectives in both the selection of its student body and curriculum.