| Currently, ours is one of only two Great Books programs in California’s 110 community colleges which serve nearly 3,000,000 students. Our Great Books faculty include four Ph.Ds in English, History, and Philosophy. Our shared vision is to expose students to central imaginative, philosophical, and historical texts of Western Civilization. More to the point, the MPC-GBP equips students with the concepts, terminology, and vocabulary that will allow them to participate in what Robert Hutchins called “The Great Conversation.” The MPC-GBP rejects the notion that Great Books are reserved for private schools and Ivy League universities. Our courses are for anyone drawn to depth and complexity rather than superficiality and ideology, to perennial questions rather than aprioristic answers, to reflection and "shared inquiry" rather than reactive or formulaic polemics, to permanent learning rather than terminal degrees.
Upon completion of English 5, Introduction to Great Books, and any four other designated Great Books courses, the MPC-GBP awards a certificate recognizing the student as a "Great Books Scholar." This designation will aid in transfer and scholarship applications, enhance one's resume or curriculum vitae for future employers, and signify to others such highly-prized qualities as verbal fluency and cultural literacy.
In addition, enough of our courses are online so that the student may complete the MPC-GBP from anywhere in the world.
The MPC Great Books Program is the proud recipient of a $15,000 grant from the Apgar Foundation for the purposes of presenting a colloquium on the relationship between great books and democracy. The first speaker will be Robert Pinsky, three-time Poet Laureate of the United States and author of Democracy, Culture and the Voice of Poetry. The event is scheduled for April 21, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in Lecture Forum 103 on the MPC campus. On April 28, Victor Davis Hanson will continue the discussion. Dr. Hanson is the best-selling author of Carnage and Culture, a classicist and military historian, and a nationally-syndicated columnist. The colloquium concludes on May 5 with poet and immediate-past chair of the National Endowment for the Arts Dana Gioia. Mr. Gioia developed the Big Read program and the Reading at Risk and To Read Or Not To Read studies. Tickets are available in the MPC Humanities Division Office, BH-102, for $10 per speech or $25 for all three.
Register now online at www.mpc.edu/TakeAClass/Pages/default.aspx
Interview on YouTube 
Chronicle of Higher Ed story 
Named NAS "Excellent Program" 
For IHE's story about us, visit 
Podcast with Donald Hall, click 
MPC Great Books Club discussion 
Radio Interview, 4.5 minutes in 
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