Why has ICU maintained dialogue-oriented classes ever since it opened?

The ratio of students to full-time faculty members at ICU is currently 19 to 1 (as of May 1, 2019).

The university has maintained a commitment to dialogue-oriented classes ever since its founding, in the belief that learning in small groups is an essential part of a good liberal arts education. "Dialogue" is the heart of learning at ICU. Sustaining constant dialogue among students and between students and faculty members helps make academic topics more concrete and allows students to learn at a deeper, more specialized level.

The "dialogue" extends well beyond the classroom itself. ICU employs systems such as "comment sheets" in which students reflect upon the day's class and write out any questions they could not ask in class. Faculty "office hours" are set in which students can visit their faculty and ask questions outside normal class hours. These diverse forms of "dialogue" yield positive learning outcomes, and in the natural course of their learning students acquire the kind of presentation skills that are essential to succeed in the world of work.