Wheaton College (Illinois)
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Wheaton College |
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| Motto | Christo et Regno Ejus (For Christ and His Kingdom) |
| Established | 1860 |
| Type | Private Evangelical Protestant |
| Endowment | $304 million |
| President | Duane Litfin |
| Faculty | 191 full time 81 part time |
| Students | 2,890 |
| Undergraduates | 2,440 |
| Postgraduates | 450 |
| Location | Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
| Campus | Suburban, 80 acres |
| Colors | Blue, Orange |
| Nickname | Thunder |
| Affiliations | Council for Christian Colleges and Universities |
| Website | www.wheaton.edu |
Wheaton College is a private Evangelical Protestant, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles west of Chicago in the United States.
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[edit] History
Wheaton College was founded in 1860. Its predecessor, the Illinois Institute, had been founded in late 1853 by Wesleyan Methodists as a college and preparatory school. Wheaton's first president, Jonathan Blanchard, was a former president of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and a staunch abolitionist with ties to Oberlin College. Blanchard separated the college from any denominational support and was responsible for its new name, given in honor of trustee and benefactor Warren L. Wheaton.
At this time, Wheaton was the only school in Illinois with a college-level women's program. Blanchard used the school as a platform for abolitionism, anti-Masonic advocacy, and his national presidential campaign on the anti-Masonic American Party ticket in 1884.
In 1882, Charles A. Blanchard succeeded his father as president of the college.
In the fall of 1925, J. Oliver Buswell, an outspoken Presbyterian, delivered a series of lectures at Wheaton College. Shortly thereafter, President Charles Blanchard died and Buswell was called to be the third president of Wheaton. Upon his installation in April 1926, he became the nation's youngest college president at age 31. Buswell's tenure was characterized by expanding enrollment (from approximately 400 in 1925 to 1,100 in 1940), a building program, strong academic development, and a boom in the institution's reputation. It was also known for growing divisiveness over faculty scholarship and personality clashes. In 1940 this tension led to the sacking of Buswell for being, as two historians of the college put it, "too argumentative in temperament and too intellectual in his approach to Christianity."[1] By the late 1940s, Wheaton was emerging as a fortress of neo-evangelicalism.
By 1950, enrollment at the college surpassed 1,600, and in the second half of the twentieth century enrollment growth and more selective admissions accompanied athletic success, additional and improved facilities, and expanded programs.
In 1951, Honey Rock, a camp in northern Wisconsin, was purchased by the college.
Wheaton College made national headlines on February 20, 2003 when it lifted its then 143 year-old ban on student dancing. In addition to allowing undergraduate students to dance, Wheaton granted "adult faculty members and grad students ... the freedom to choose whether they want to smoke or drink alcohol, at least while off-campus."
Wheaton again appeared in the news when Joshua Hochschild, assistant professor of philosophy, was dismissed in 2004 for becoming Roman Catholic.[2]
[edit] The Wheaton College Bench
"The Bench" is a well-established tradition at Wheaton College. It was originally a senior privilege - a concrete bench on which only the seniors were allowed to sit. In the 1950's the junior class removed the bench from the grounds, replaced it with a replica, and hid the original in a secret location. When the seniors discovered the impostor and tried to recover the bench, the tradition began. Rules have developed over the years which govern the competition for control of the bench, including that the bench can only be in the possession of either the junior or senior classes - underclassmen cannot assist upperclassmen in gaining control of the bench. Other rules include that the bench must remain within 5 miles of campus, and that it must be shown twice a semester to a crowd of at least 50 people from the opposing class or a group of at least 200 students. Efforts to show the bench typically involve unusual and creative staging (the objective being to show the bench to a large crowd while at the same time preventing the other class from stealing it), but have gotten out of hand and sometimes require administrative help to resolve conflicts. One legendary showing of the bench included dangling it from a helicopter and flying it over the 1958 Homecoming football game. [3]
[edit] Academics
Students may choose from about 40 majors in many liberal arts disciplines and in the sciences. The most popular in recent years have been Business, Communications, English, and Psychology.
Wheaton maintains a strong academic record with an average of 37 National Merit Finalists. U.S. News & World Report has noted that Wheaton is often called the "Harvard of evangelical colleges."[4]
In 2007, U.S. News & World Report ranked Wheaton College 61 out of 212 Best National Liberal Arts Colleges. Wheaton continued to achieve exceptional rankings in several areas of the report:
- #18 in freshmen retention (94%)
- #21 in six-year graduation rate (86%)
- #25 in SAT/ACT scores (1250–1440)
- #39 in percentage of freshmen graduating in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes (54%)
In recent years, Wheaton's overall ranking has been as high as 44; despite the demonstrated academic merit of Wheaton's students, the college's academic ranking has fallen due to its poor class size and alumni giving rankings.
Wheaton College ranked 9th in the nation in the total number of graduates (all fields) who went on to earn doctorates according to Franklin and Marshall University's latest survey, which included more than 900 private colleges and universities.
[edit] Conservatory of Music
Wheaton College is home to an internationally-recognized Conservatory of Music, fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. The Conservatory offers two professional music degrees: the Bachelor of Music (with emphases in performance, suzuki pedagogy, composition, history and literature, or elective studies) and the Bachelor of Music Education. 100% of the teaching faculty in the Conservatory hold doctorates. There are approximately 220 music majors in the Conservatory, with a student:faculty ratio of 7:1. "Conservies" spend much of their time in Pierce Chapel and are widely respected for their work ethic. Music majors and liberal arts majors alike perform in the Conservatory's six large ensembles: Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Men's Glee Club, Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Women's Chorale.
[edit] Graduate School
The Wheaton College Graduate School was founded in 1937, with the intent to provide further theological and ministerial training. Graduate students come from all over the world to attend, and may study for an M.A., M.A.T., or Ph.D. in Biblical and Theological Studies, or a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology. The once widely respected Department of Communications of the Graduate School has been closed. Approximately 550 graduate students are enrolled.
[edit] Off-campus study
Wheaton's gives students a number of popular off-campus study opportunities.
The college sponsors study-abroad programs in Asia, England, France, Germany, the Holy Lands, Latin America, and Spain, as well as a summer program in Washington, D.C. Participants in Wheaton-in-England, one of the most popular annual programs, take 2–3 courses in literature while studying in London and St. Anne's College, Oxford.
Many students also participate in the Human Needs and Global Resources program. The HNGR program matches select students with six-month internships in the Third World, including opportunities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
In 1935, The Wheaton College Science Station was established in the Black Hills of South Dakota for field instruction in the natural sciences.
In 1951, HoneyRock the Northwoods Campus of Wheaton College was established in Three Lakes, WI. HoneyRock is not only a year round camp for young people but it offers a variety of leadership schools and courses for students. Nearly 3000 people utilize HoneyRock each year.
Due to Wheaton's membership in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, Wheaton students may also study at the University of Oxford, the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, Wesley Institute in Australia, and Xi'an Foreign Language University in China. The CCCU also sponsors programs in American studies, Latin American studies, Middle Eastern studies, Russian studies, and journalism.
[edit] Campus
Wheaton's most recognizable and oldest building is Blanchard Hall, a limestone tower built as the main College building in 1853. At the time, the College building was one of only two on campus, the other (called the "boarding hall") being a frame building at the foot of the hill crowned by the tower. Jonathan Blanchard had a vision for the expansion of this tower structure: its castle-like architecture is, supposedly, patterned after buildings at the University of Oxford which Blanchard admired on a trip to England in 1843. After four additions (1871, 1873, 1890, 1927) the Main Building was completed in 1927. In this year, under college president J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., the Main Building was renamed Blanchard Hall, to honor Wheaton's first two presidents, Jonathan Blanchard and his son Charles Blanchard.
[edit] Academic
In 1900 the brick "Industrial Building" was built. From 1917–45 it housed the Wheaton Academy, and from 1945–60 the Graduate School. In 1960 it was renamed Buswell Hall, and in 1980 renamed Schell Hall in honor of Edward R. Schell.
The science departments are housed in Breyer (Chemistry) and Armerding (Biology, Geology, Math, and Physics) halls. Armerding Hall is also the home to the Wheaton College Observatory (a feature of the college since the presidency of Charles Blanchard in the late-nineteenth century). In 1935, The Wheaton College Science Station was established in the Black Hills of South Dakota for field instruction in the natural sciences.
The Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, housed in McAlister Hall and neighboring Pierce Memorial Chapel, is an internationally recognized music school and holds the distinction of being the only conservatory within an Evangelical school of secondary education. The approximately 200 students within the conservatory focus on a range of fields within music including education, performance, composition, and history. Student recitals, required for graduation with a music degree, are generally held in Pierce Memorial Chapel.
[edit] Athletic
The Gymnasium, later renamed Adams Hall, was built in 1898. Today it is home to the Art Department.
Alumni Gymnasium (renamed the Edward A. Coray Alumni Gymnasium in 1968, in honor of Coach Ed Coray's long service), was built during the Edman presidency and paid for by alumni. The cornerstone was laid at homecoming on October 11, 1941. A copper box placed in the cornerstone contained a copy of the Wheaton Record, the Wheaton Daily Journal, a college catalog, a student directory, and a copy of the Homecoming program.
Wyngarten Health Center was built in 1958, followed by Centennial Gymnasium in 1959-60, which was extensively renovated and expanded in 2000. It is now known as King Arena and is part of the Sports and Recreation Complex (SRC).
[edit] Library and collections
The Library, named after college trustee Robert E. Nicholas, opened in January 1952. In 1975 Buswell Memorial Library, named for the college's third president J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., was built adjacent to the Nicholas Library and an interior corridor linked the two, creating the college's main library.
The Marion E. Wade Center, formerly housed in Buswell Library, moved to its new purpose-built home in September 2001. The Marion E. Wade Center, established in 1965 by professor of English Clyde S. Kilby, is an extensive research library and museum of the books and papers of seven British writers: C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Dorothy L. Sayers, George MacDonald, and Charles Williams. The Wade Center also owns several noteworthy pieces of furniture previously used by some of these authors. The collection boasts the wardrobe made by C.S. Lewis' grandfather, and widely thought to have inspired C.S. Lewis' seven volume Chronicles of Narnia series. Another article is J.R.R. Tolkien's writing desk, where he wrote the entirety of The Hobbit, and worked on The Lord of the Rings.
Buswell Library's special collections also include the archived correspondence, manuscripts, articles, photos, and other papers of Madeleine L'Engle, the Newberry Medal-winning author of A Wrinkle in Time. With items dating as early as 1919, the collection is comprised largely of material sent to the college by L'Engle and has been supplemented by the college with books and other supporting materials. The collection is the most comprehensive research center for L'Engle's work.[5]
[edit] Student life
The Memorial Student Center (MSC) was dedicated on June 11, 1951. It was built in memory of over 1600 former students and graduates who served in World War II and in honor of those 39 who gave their lives. It housed the Student Union café, nicknamed "the Stupe" (which has since been moved to the recently constructed Beamer Center). An early pamphlet described the new building and listed some of the rules for its use, such as No Rook Playing and No Playing of Boogie-Woogie, Jazz, or Otherwise Abusing the Piano.
The Dining Hall (now the "Old Dining Hall" ODH) opened January 4, 1953. Today it houses Student Services.
Jenks Hall is home to the Arena Theater, which was established in the Fall of 1974 and has staged over 100 full length productions.
In the fall of 2004, the Todd M. Beamer Student Center was completed. Beamer, a Wheaton alumnus, was part of a small group of passengers who stormed hijackers on United Flight 93, thus bringing down the plane in rural Pennsylvania during the September 11, 2001 attacks, and preventing it from reaching its target. The $20+ million dollar project was commissioned in order to meet the needs of the growing college community. Along with its spacious and sleek, modern design, the Beamer Center features a convenience store, the new "Stupe", a bakery café, several reading rooms and lounges, a recreation/game room, a prayer chapel, an expanded college post office, the offices for several organizations and departments, and several other events rooms. In the fall of 2006, strong rain storms created a flood that destroyed the lower level of the Beamer Center. Wheaton College has since restored the flood damaged building.
[edit] Spirituality
The Chapel, on the corner of Washington and Franklin streets, was dedicated on November 15, 1925. This building was also used by the college for commencements and other important assemblies. In 1936–37, it was renamed the Orlinda Childs Pierce Memorial Chapel. Neighboring McAlister Hall is home to the Conservatory of Music and houses conservatory faculty offices, several music classrooms, and the practice rooms used daily by conservatory students.
The college's regular chapel services are held in Edman Memorial Chapel, which seats 2,400. It is named for V. Raymond Edman, fourth president of the college. Edman died in 1967 while speaking in chapel. Campus tradition holds that he was preaching on being in the presence of the King. This chapel/auditorium is also used for many events of Wheaton's performing arts programs. In 2000, an entirely handcrafted organ made by Casavant Frères of Canada was installed.
[edit] Other
The building housing the Billy Graham Center (BGC), named after one of the college's most well-known graduates opened in September 1980. The Billy Graham Center itself, as the repository of the evangelist's corporate records, had existed since 1974. The BGC houses several evangelism institutes, a museum of the history of evangelism, the college's Archives and Special Collections, as well as the Wheaton College Graduate School and the school radio station, WETN 88.1 FM.
The Women's Building, renamed Williston Hall in 1930–31 (in honor of longtime Blanchard friend and donor J. P. Williston), was built in 1895. Its construction required the college to borrow $6,000.
The President's House, or Westgate, formerly owned by college trustee John M. Oury, was presented to President Buswell on the tenth anniversary of his inauguration, April 23, 1936. This served as the home of three of Wheaton's subsequent presidents. It now houses the Office of Alumni Relations.
In 1951, HoneyRock the Northwoods Campus of Wheaton College was established in Three Lakes, WI. HoneyRock is not only a year round camp for young people but it offers a variety of leadership schools and courses for students. Nearly 3000 people utilize HoneyRock each year. Through HoneyRock the college owns nearly 800 acres in Northern, WI.
[edit] Athletics
Wheaton College competes in many NCAA Division III sports in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. The men's basketball team won the first NCAA Small College National Championship in 1958, defeating Kentucky Wesleyan in the finals, 89-65. The Wheaton men's soccer team captured the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship in 1984 and 1997, to go with runner-up finishes in 1999 and 2006. The women's soccer team won the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship in 2004 and 2006. Wheaton athletics also competed in basketball at the 1904 Summer Olympics.
[edit] Notable alumni
[edit] Religion
- Curtis Gustav Almquist (superior of the North American congregation of the Society of St. John the Evangelist)
- David E. Aune (New Testament scholar, University of Notre Dame)
- Rob Bell
- Philip W. Butin (president, San Francisco Theological Seminary)
- William Lane Craig
- Peter Crossman (scholar of African religion, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)
- Dr. Donald Drake (former President of Piedmont Baptist College)
- Bart Ehrman
- Jim Elliot
- Elizabeth Elliot (Author)
- Eldon J. Epp (New Testament scholar)
- Bob Evans (founder of Greater Europe Mission)
- David Otis Fuller
- Billy Graham
- John L. Gresham (theologian, Paul VI Pontifical Institute and Kenrick-Glennon Seminary)
- Fred Hartley (pastor and author)
- Gerald F. Hawthorne (New Testament scholar)
- Carl F. H. Henry
- Arthur F. Holmes (philosopher)
- Thomas Howard
- Daniel Juster (leader in the "Messianic Judaism" movement)
- Walter Kaiser, Jr.
- Robert A. Kraft (historian of early Judaism and Christianity, University of Pennsylvania)
- Josh McDowell (Christian apologist)
- Mark Noll
- John Ortberg (pastor and author)
- John Piper
- Nate Saint (martyred missionary)
- Philip Yancey (Christian author and editor)
- Gary Wilde (minister and author)
- John Walvoord (theologian and former president of Dallas Theological Seminary)
[edit] Media & Entertainment
- Wes Craven[6] (horror film director)
- Bryce Bell
- Susan Bergman (author)
- Brian Funck (singer-songwriter, Harrod and Funck)
- The Detholz! (band)
- Mary Lou Leonard Engle (musician/missionary)
- Ian Eskelin (singer-songwriter, All Star United)
- Cathleen Falsani (journalist)
- Colyn Fischer (violinist)
- Elizabeth A.H. Green (musician)
- Jason Harrod (singer-songwriter)
- Claire Holley (singer-songwriter)
- Margaret Landon
- Walter R. Ratliff
- Luci Shaw (poet)
- Robert H. Siegel (poet)
- Wesley G. Pippert (journalist)
- John W. Nelson [7](conductor)
- Sylvia McNair [8](soprano)
- Wendy White (mezzo-soprano)
[edit] Education
- C. Stephen Evans (philosopher, Baylor University)
- Nathan O. Hatch, (president, Wake Forest University)
- Jasper Hopkins (philosopher, University of Minnesota)
- David Lyle Jeffrey (former provost and current professor of literature and humanities, Baylor University)[9] [10]
- Jay Johnson (executive director, Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry, Pacific School of Religion)
- John Snarey (professor of human development and ethics, Emory University)
- David Steinmetz (church historian, Duke University)
- Ronald R. Thomas (president, University of Puget Sound)
- Daniel M. Varisco (anthropologist, Hofstra University)
- Merold Westphal (philosopher, Fordham University)
- Linda H. Peterson (professor of English, Yale University)
- Eric Potter (professor of English, Grove City College)
- James Dixon (professor of English, Grove City College)
- Diane Dixon (professor of English, Grove City College)
[edit] Politics
- Dan Coats, former U.S. Senator (R-IN)
- Richard A. Connerney, pundit
- Michael Gerson, senior advisor to President George W. Bush
- Dennis Hastert, U.S. Representative (R-IL), former Speaker of the House
- David Iglesias, former U.S. Attorney, District of New Mexico
- Gretchen Klotz (de), leader among the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (de))
- Jim McDermott, U.S. Representative (D-WA)
- Paul B. Henry, U.S. Representative (R-MI)
- Dr. Richard Halverson, Chaplain of U.S. Senate
[edit] Other
- Todd Beamer (passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93)
- William J. Danker (missiologist)
- Paul Gast (geochemist and geologist)
- Jonathan McPeters
- Donnie Nelson (general manager, Dallas Mavericks)
- Randy Pfund (general manager, Miami Heat)
- John Wesley Powell (famed 19th-century geologist and explorer of the American West)
- Violet Bergquist Redding (linguist)
[edit] Presidents
- Jonathan Blanchard (1860–1882)
- Charles Albert Blanchard (1882–1925)
- Rev. J. Oliver Buswell (1926–1940)
- V. Raymond Edman (1941–1965)
- Hudson T. Armerding (1965–1982)
- J. Richard Chase (1982–1993)
- A. Duane Litfin (1993— )
[edit] Board of Trustees
Wheaton College is governed by a board of trustees which is usually composed of 18-20 voting members. These include: - Duane Litfin (President) - C. William Pollard (Chairman) - David Gieser (Vice Chairman) - Barbara Anderson (Secretary) - Harold Airhart - Melvin Banks - George Bennett, Jr. - James Bowen - Gregory Campbell - Daniel Coats - Gary Griffin - Jeanette Hsieh - Phillip Hubbard - Walter Kaiser, Jr. - Emery Lindsay - Donald Meyer - Kathleen Nielson - Thomas Pratt - James Plueddemann - Phillip Ryken
[edit] Trivia
- The Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton College has memorabilia of the Inklings, including C.S. Lewis' writing desk and a wardrobe from his childhood home (although Westmont College also owns a wardrobe that once belonged to Lewis), Charles Williams's bookcases, J.R.R. Tolkien's desk, and Pauline Baynes's original map of Narnia.[1]
- The official student newspaper at Wheaton College is the Wheaton Record, a weekly publication in existence since 1876. The Record is produced by students and published by the college and distributed each Friday after chapel free of charge. The Record was the recipient of the 2006 John David Reed General Excellence Award and 13 other awards from the Illinois College Press Association, of which it is a member. The Record is also a member of the Associated Collegiate Press. The college does not currently permit the Record to be published online.
- Wheaton College was one of the schools visited by the 2006 Soulforce Equality Ride which sought to engage in dialogue with students at universities with policies barring homosexual behavior. According to Equality Ride founder Jake Reitan, the Equality Ride was founded after he met a gay student from Wheaton several years earlier. While Wheaton did not invite the group to campus, administrators welcomed the visit and worked with Soulforce to develop a schedule of events on campus including a debate between members of the Equality Ride and members of the Wheaton community.
[edit] References
- ^ The Opening of the Evangelical Mind
- ^ "No Catholics at Wheaton?", Daniel Golden, Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2006
- ^ Dziedzic, Steve, Wheaton College IL off the record / College Prowler (Pittsburgh: College Prowler, 2006), 149 & 153.
- ^ Tolson, Jay. "The new school spirit". U.S. News & World Report, 14 February 2005.
- ^ About the Collection — Madeleine L'Engle
- ^ Wes Craven official site FAQ
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nelson_(conductor)
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_McNair
- ^ http://www.baylor.edu/pr/news.php?action=story&story=34508
- ^ http://www.baylor.edu/Great_Texts/index.php?id=6528
- T. A. Askew, "The Liberal Arts College Encounters Intellectual Change: A Comparative Study of Education at Knox and Wheaton Colleges, 1837-1925" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1969).
- P. M. Bechtel, Wheaton College: A Heritage Remembered, 1860–1984 (Wheaton: Shaw, 1984).
- E. E. Cairns, V. Raymond Edman: In the Presence of the King (Chicago: Moody, 1972).
- E. A. Coray, The Wheaton I Remember: Memoirs (Chicago: Books for Living, 1974).
- M. S. Hamilton, "The Fundamentalist Harvard: Wheaton College and the Continuing Vitality of American Evangelicalism, 1919-1965" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 1995), advisor, Nathan O. Hatch.
- M. S. Hamilton, The Fundamentalist Harvard: Wheaton College, Evangelicalism, and American Higher Education (Oxford University Press or Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
- J. D. Lower, "An Evaluation of the Marion E. Wade Collection, Wheaton College, as a Research Collection" (unpublished A.M. thesis, University of Chicago, 1978).
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Campus map
- Wheaton College Conservatory of Music
- Wheaton College Graduate School
- WETN 88.1 FM
- Wheaton Athletics
| Members of the Christian College Consortium |
|---|
| Asbury • Bethel • George Fox • Gordon • Greenville • Houghton • Malone • Messiah • Seattle Pacific • Taylor • Trinity International • Westmont • Wheaton |
| College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin |
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| Augustana • Carthage • Elmhurst • Illinois Wesleyan • Millikin • North Central • North Park • Wheaton |
