College of Wooster

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The College of Wooster
COW seal!!!.jpeg
Motto Scientia et religio ex uno fonte
(Science and religion from one source)
Established 1866
Type Private
Endowment US $239 million [1] (9/30/10)
President Grant H. Cornwell
Academic staff 137
Undergraduates 1,854
Postgraduates N/A
Location Wooster, Ohio, USA
Campus Suburban, 240 acres (1 km²)
Athletics 23 varsity sports teams
NCAA Division III
Colors

Old Gold and Black

        
Mascot Fighting Scots
Website www.wooster.edu

The College of Wooster is a private liberal arts college primarily known for its 'Independent Study' program. It has roughly 2,000 students and is located in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio (approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Cleveland). Founded in 1866 by the Presbyterian church as the University of Wooster, it was from its creation a co-educational institution. The school is a member of The Five Colleges of Ohio and the Great Lakes Colleges Association. As of June 2009, Wooster's endowment stood at approximately $242 million.[1]

Wooster is one of forty colleges named in Loren Pope's influential book Colleges That Change Lives, in which he called it his '...original best-kept secret in higher education.'[2] It is consistently ranked among the nation's top liberal arts colleges, according to U.S. News and World Report. In US News' 'Best Colleges 2011', Wooster ranked fifth among national liberal arts colleges in the category of 'Best Undergraduate Teaching,' the second consecutive year in the top ten.

Contents

[edit] History

Kauke Hall is the main academic building on campus

Founded as The University of Wooster in 1866 by Presbyterians who wanted to do their part in the education of young people, the institution opened its doors in 1870 with a faculty of five and a student body of thirty men and four women. Wealthy Wooster citizen Ephraim Quinby donated the first 22 acres (89,000 m2), a large oak grove situated on a hilltop overlooking the town. After being founded with the intent to make Wooster open to everyone, the university's first Ph.D. was granted to a woman, Annie Irish, in 1882. The first black student, Clarence Allen, began his studies later in the same decade.[3]

In the pre-dawn hours of December 11, 1901, a fire destroyed the five-story 'Old Main' building, the centerpiece of the campus. Within two years, it was replaced by several new buildings which (after substantial renovations within the last 30 years) remain the primary structures for the classes, labs, and faculty offices. These include Kauke Hall (the iconic center of campus), Scovel Hall and Severance Hall (which together form a large courtyard in front of Kauke Hall), and Taylor Hall.

A decade after the fire and rebuilding, there were eight divisions, including a medical school whose faculty outnumbered those in the college of arts and sciences. However, the university had gradually begun to define itself as a liberal arts institution and, in 1915, after a bitter dispute between the faculty and the Trustees, chose to become The College of Wooster in order to devote itself entirely to the education of undergraduate students in the liberal arts. The enrollment of the college is kept intentionally small, around 1800 students, to allow for close interaction between faculty and students.

The College's 240-acre (0.97 km2) campus boasts of an unusual tree endowment, established in 1987, which supports a tree conservation, maintenance and replacement program. Near the center of campus lies the Oak Grove, a pleasant green space which is the site for the commencement ceremony each May. Several of its trees are older than the college itself, including a black oak near Galpin Hall that dates to 1681, as well as a 1766 white oak. Each senior class plants a class tree in the Oak Grove on the day before graduation.

[edit] Academics

Students entering Wooster are provided with a liberal arts education, a learning approach that encourages students to experience different fields of study and once majors are chosen, to bring those varied experiences to their selected fields of study. Upon completion of at least 32 courses, students may earn a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, or Bachelor of Music Education degree.

In addition to the programs listed below, students may design their own major with approval from the registrar and the Provost. Some of the pre-professional programs listed below are cooperative programs, in which students spend a certain period of time at the College of Wooster before transferring to accelerated courses at other colleges and universities.

[edit] Independent Study program

The College of Wooster is especially noteworthy for its Independent Study program, in which all students work one-on-one with a faculty advisor to complete a written thesis or other significant project during the course of the senior year. The student also presents an oral defense of the thesis before a faculty committee. The program, begun in 1947 by Howard Lowry (the College's 7th President), has received considerable attention from other colleges and universities, and a number of other institutions have modeled programs after it. In 2003, the independent study program at Wooster was recognized by US News and World Report as the second best 'senior capstone experience' in the US, behind only Princeton University. This unique approach to education has long kept Wooster competitive against better-known colleges. As evidence of this fact, Wooster ranks 14th in the United States among independent colleges whose graduates earned Ph.D.'s between 1920 and 1995 (according to the Baccalaureate Origins of Doctorate Recipients,1998).

Special traditions have been developed surrounding Independent Study. Upon completion, a student will receive a yellow button that says 'I did it!' as well as the highly coveted Tootsie Roll. The tradition developed when the registrar at the time, Lee Culp (also a graduate of the College of Wooster), decided to give out candy along with the buttons one year; the Tootsie Roll itself was chosen simply because it was cheap to buy in bulk. The 'due date,' or the last day that students can turn in their completed Independent Study project, is the first Monday after spring break. On I.S. Monday, the pipe band begins a drone and, with the Provost leading the way, the seniors travel through the Kauke Arch in a jubilant parade ending at Kittredge dining hall, where a celebratory dinner with their advisors and college administrators follows.

[edit] Libraries

The College of Wooster Libraries consists of three branches (Andrews Library, The Flo K. Gault Library, and The Timken Science Library in Frick Hall) and a music library located at the Scheide Music Center. Andrews Library, the largest library in the system, houses more than 850,000 volumes and can accommodate over 500 readers.[4] Andrews Library houses the college's Special Collections, media library, and the student writing center. The Flo K. Gault Library, built as an addition to Andrews Library in 1995, primarily serves as a place for class seniors to work on their Independent Study projects. The Gault Library contains carrels devoted to Independent Study for every senior student of the humanities and social sciences. The Timken Science Library in Frick Hall (1900, 1998), which is the oldest branch in the system, served as the original academic library for the college from 1900 to 1962. The building reopened in 1998, with substantial funding from the Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio, and now primarily serves students in the math and sciences departments. The library provides Independent Study carrels for math and science seniors.

[edit] Art Museum

The College of Wooster Art Museum was established in the 1930s as a small gallery to facilitate the teaching of art and art research at the college. The current museum was established at the Ebert Art Center in 1997. The museum houses two small galleries, the Charlene Derge Sussel Art Gallery and the Burton D. Morgan Gallery, as well as storage for the college's permanent art collection. The museum's encyclopedic collection spans from ancient to contemporary art. Permanent collections include the John Taylor Arms Print Collection - which represents works by Edward Hopper, Winslow Homer, Isabel Bishop, Martin Lewis, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Albrecht Dürer, Käthe Kollwitz, and Félix Bracquemond - the William C. Mithoefer Collection of African Art, Middle Eastern pottery, and Chinese decorative art.

[edit] Student life

[edit] International presence

Wooster has long emphasized international education. An unusually high percentage of its early graduates went overseas as missionaries (Wooster has its own unique collection of artifacts sent back from those alumni, including among other things an Egyptian mummy), and soon not only their sons and daughters, but also the students from their schools, were enrolling at Wooster as students. Dr. Elias Compton, former dean of the College, founded the Wooster in India program during the 1930s, which established a sister school relationship with Ewing Christian College in Allahabad, India. Over a forty-year time span, Wooster sent several former students to serve as Head Resident at Ewing while Ewing faculty were brought to Wooster as Ewing Fellows; a plaque with the names of Ewing Fellows hangs in Babcock Hall.[6] The Wooster in India program helped build this unique bond between Wooster and India that enhanced the exchange of students, ideas and cultures.[7] This international presence affected the entire campus, establishing a tradition which continues to influence the College. Today, approximately six percent of the student body is international in origin, representing more than 30 different countries.[1] The College offers majors in Cultural Area Studies and International Relations, instruction in seven foreign languages, and opportunities to study abroad in 60 countries. The majority of Wooster's international students currently come from South Asia (India and Pakistan), and West Africa.[citation needed]. Fifty-nine percent of Wooster students are from outside of Ohio.[1]

[edit] Athletics

[edit] Performing arts

Besides having a well-respected music department, Wooster is the home of the Ohio Light Opera, an endeavor founded within the college in 1979, but is not a part of the college curriculum. It is the only professional company in the United States entirely devoted to operetta. OLO performs the entire Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire, but also regularly revives rarely performed continental works of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Over the years, the Company has produced eighty different operettas.

The college is also one of a few colleges in America to have an active on-campus pipe band. Officially called the College of Wooster Pipe Band, members perform at many official on-campus events such as commencement, sports games (football, basketball, swim meets, and sometimes lacrosse games), and many spontaneous student-run events. During the spring season they perform and compete at a grade 3 level, having won prizes at the Scots wi' Shotts event in Cleveland hosted by the local Lochaber Pipe Band. The Pipe Band also placed first in the grade 3 contest at the 2009 Toronto Indoor Highland Games. Wooster was the only American band competing.

In 2007, Wooster's theatre production of 'Nocturne' was invited to perform at the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival in Washington, D.C. Wooster's production was one of four shows chosen from a field of approximately 400 entries.

[edit] Student activities and clubs

The College of Wooster has over one hundred student organizations, from the Jenny Investment Club, which allows students to invest real money for the College as they learn about the stock market, to Common Grounds, a student-run coffee shop and house program offering 'an alternative atmosphere to the partying scene' for the College community.[24]

There are currently ten active Greek groups at the College of Wooster, six sororities and four fraternities. Called clubs and sections, these groups are not affiliated with national Greek organizations, and approximately fifteen percent of the student body participates.

The college has a wide variety of student-run media. The Wooster Voice is the weekly student newspaper with a newly launched website, and has been published continuously since 1886 (see list of college newspapers), while WCWS (WOO 91) is the college radio station. The Goliard is the annual literary magazine. Each year, English professor Daniel Bourne also publishes an international literary magazine called Artful Dodge. Additionally, the English Department has classes every two years on journalism and magazine writing; these students create and publish a newspaper and a magazine respectively.

[edit] Notable alumni

[edit] Notable faculty

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Fast Facts <http://www.wooster.edu/en/About-Wooster/Fast-Facts.aspx>
  2. ^ Loren Pope. Colleges that Change Lives <http://www.ctcl.com/colleges/wooster/index.htm>
  3. ^ [1][dead link]
  4. ^ Andrews Library - College of Wooster Campus Tour <http://www3.wooster.edu/admissions/campustour/library.php>
  5. ^ What is OhioLINK <http://www.Ohiolink.edu/about/what-is-ol.html>
  6. ^ 'International Education Week,' Cosmos Oct. 2008, Vol. 22 Issue 3 <http://www3.wooster.edu/oisa/COSMOS/2008-09/november.pdf>
  7. ^ Wooster Voice - International Insight <http://thewoostervoice.com/2009/08/international-insight-3/>
  8. ^ Babcock Hall - College of Wooster <http://www.wooster.edu/en/Student-Life/Residence-Life/Residences/Halls/Babcock-Hall.aspx>
  9. ^ "Site of First Ohio State Home Football Game / The Ohio State University First Football Team 1890 Marker". Hmdb.org. http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=12442. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  10. ^ "Athletics - College of Wooster". Athletics.wooster.edu. http://athletics.wooster.edu/fb/archives/history.php. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  11. ^ "NCAC History". Northcoast.org. http://www.northcoast.org/history.html. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  12. ^ "Admissions & Financial Aid - College of Wooster". Admissions.wooster.edu. 2010-04-28. http://admissions.wooster.edu/traditions/kilts.php. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  13. ^ [2][dead link]
  14. ^ "2009 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship". Titans.uwosh.edu. http://www.titans.uwosh.edu/NCAAChampionship/2009/BaseHits/2009AllAmericans.html. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  15. ^ "Van Horn, Johnson Consensus All-American Picks - College of Wooster". Wooster.edu. 2010-05-28. http://www.wooster.edu/Athletics/Athletics-News/2010/May/Baseball-News-2010-All-America. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  16. ^ "Athletics - College of Wooster". Athletics.wooster.edu. http://athletics.wooster.edu/mb/coach.php. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  17. ^ http://www.northcoast.org/mb/mballtime.pdf
  18. ^ "National Collegiate Athletic Association". Ncaa.org. http://www.ncaa.org/wps/ncaa?key=/ncaa/ncaa/sports+and+championship/general+information/stats/m+basketball/attendance/index2.html. Retrieved 2010-07-17. [dead link]
  19. ^ "Athletics - College of Wooster". Athletics.wooster.edu. http://athletics.wooster.edu/fb/results/1900.php. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  20. ^ http://www.oac.org/documents/2008FBGuidecb.pdf
  21. ^ "Koechli Tabbed a First-Team Academic All-American Again - College of Wooster". Wooster.edu. http://www.wooster.edu/Athletics/Athletics-News/2009/November/Womens-Soccer-News-2009-Academic-All-America. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  22. ^ "Keener Selected First-Team Academic All-American - College of Wooster". Wooster.edu. 2009-11-18. http://www.wooster.edu/Athletics/Athletics-News/2009/November/Mens-Soccer-News-2009-Academic-All-America. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  23. ^ "Story Named to Academic All-America First Team - College of Wooster". Wooster.edu. 2010-06-08. http://www.wooster.edu/Athletics/Athletics-News/2010/June/Mens-Lacrosse-News-Academic-All-America. Retrieved 2010-07-17. 
  24. ^ Common Grounds home page <http://www.wooster.edu/commongrounds/index.html>
  25. ^ Mary Crow, Colorado Poet Laureate <http://www.colostate.edu/depts/English/poetlaureate>

[edit] External links

Coordinates: 40°48′42″N 81°56′08″W / 40.81167°N 81.935494°W / 40.81167; -81.935494

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