The EXCO of U of M began in the Fall of 2007 at the Twin Cities campus. EXCO was one of many movements started across campus in response to the AFSCME strike in September 2007, an event that served as a catalyst for re-thinking the U of M as a public, land-grant university.
The Experimental College movement began in 1966 when universities and colleges across the U.S. saught to include more alternative voices in the culture of the university. The EXCO at the U of M is closely affiliated with the EXCO at Macalester College in St. Paul, which began in Spring 2006.