College Briefs 2005

Fall 2005 is notable for different reasons as many Presbyterian-related schools begin the new academic year. Let them share with you the new developments on their campuses:

 

Agnes Scott College, Atlanta, Ga.

Agnes Scott College welcomes the class of 2009 – its most academically competitive in at least 20 years. Recording a 47-point SAT test score gain, half were ranked among their high schools’ top 10 percent and one third are from underrepresented groups. Enhancing the fun factor – a new pep band builds spirit for ASC athletics.

 

Austin College, Sherman, Texas

Austin College reached a record enrollment of 1,362 students for fall term 2005. The student body includes 43 students in study abroad programs in Europe, Australia, and South America. The freshman class of 348 first-time students has an average SAT score of 1246. The class, 51 percent male and 49 percent female, includes 25 percent ethnic representation.

 

Buena Vista University, Storm Lake, Iowa

Buena Vista University has launched BVUOnline.org, offering online Master of Education degree programs in Effective Teaching and Instructional Leadership, and in Teaching English as a Second Language, plus an online bachelor’s degree completion program in Business Administration. Available completely over the Internet, the courses are designed for professional advancement and a diploma from Buena Vista University.

 

Carroll College, Waukesha, Wis.

Contributions to Carroll College during the 2004-05 fiscal year surpassed $8.8 million, a record for the 159-year-old institution. Of the total, $5.4 million has been designated by donors to the Promising Futures Campaign, a $10 million fund-raising effort to increase support for student scholarships. The campaign, which began July 1, 2004, will end June 30, 2007.

 

Davidson College, Davidson, N.C.

When the Royal Shakespeare Company comes to Davidson College this academic year, it’ll be students taking the stage. The centerpiece of the eleven-day RSC at Davidson Residency will be a student production under the direction of the RSC actors, educators, and directors. For more information, visit www.davidson.edu/shakespeare.

 

University of Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa

University of Dubuque opened its 153rd convocation Sept. 7. Groundbreaking for the Myers Teaching and Administrative Center was part of the convocation service and was led by bagpiper Dr. Kirk Witherspoon. The 40,000-square-foot facility will house classrooms, group study rooms, informal study nooks, 100-seat capacity lecture hall, reception/meeting room, as well as administrative and faculty offices. Generous donors Dr. Charles and Romona Myers were present at the occasion.

 

Hastings College, Hastings, Neb.

Hastings College welcomed an incoming freshman class of 313, marking the second largest new student class in the college’s history, reflecting the highest all-time head count. Two apartment-style residence facilities opened and major repairs from a May hailstorm were completed. Students in the Vocation and Values Program built a labyrinth on campus in August. This pathway provides students a means of prayer, devotion and reflection.

 

Jamestown College, Jamestown, N.D.

Jamestown College’s Unruh and Sheldon Center for Business and Computer Science, a $4.5 million project, is on schedule for completion by June 2006. The Center is equipped with state-of-the art classrooms that can be reconfigured to accommodate various computer needs. In addition, the lobby will host such amenities as a stock ticker.

 

Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill.

Ties between Lake Forest College and Chicago were strengthened this fall, thanks to a three-year $450,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish the Lake Forest College Center for Chicago Programs. The Center will facilitate programming between the College and cultural, educational, business and political organizations in Chicago. For more information visit www.lakeforest.edu/chicago.

Lyon College, Batesville, Ark.

Lyon College opened its hearts and its doors to survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Evacuees were housed in the college’s guesthouse and faculty house. Enrollment was extended to allow safe haven for displaced college students. Lyon students, faculty and staff donated money, necessities and volunteer time for relief efforts, including helping at a nearby church camp that housed evacuees.

 

Macalester College, St. Paul, Minn.

Macalester College, a private, national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 1,845 students, is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, diversity and civic engagement. Events this fall include visits by author and social scientist Barbara Ehrenreich, the former President of Botswana, New York Times columnist David Carr, and Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia, Inc. founder, owner and author.

 

Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn.

Maryville College has been selected to receive nearly $500,000 as a continuation grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc for the Initiative on Vocation. The Initiative on Vocation includes more than twenty programs, such as the Center for Calling & Career, Summer-Youth-Get-A-Way and the Isaac Anderson Fellowships for Church Leadership. The Fellowships provide up to $17,000 to two outstanding students who are considering ministry as a vocation.

 

Millikin University, Decatur, Ill.

Millikin University recently opened ADM-Scovill Hall, the new home of Millikin’s Tabor School of Business and the campus technology center. Millikin completed a $6 million renovation of the facility that transformed the former science building into 36,000 square feet of high-tech instructional space featuring total wireless access, high-tech classrooms, and a 24/7-computer lab.

 

Monmouth College, Monmouth, Ill.

New president Mauri Ditzler recently welcomed a near-record number of students as Monmouth College opened the fall semester just two-dozen students shy of its highest enrollment. About 130 of them will be living in North Hall, a $6.7 million residence hall that was completed over the summer. It is Monmouth’s third major facility addition since 2001.

 

Montreat College, Montreat, N.C.

Montreat College spent last year undergoing a strategic planning process; this year begins the implementation phase of that plan. Among other things, the mission, vision, and values of the college were looked at closely in order to focus on exactly who Montreat College is. The new mission statement is this: Montreat College is Christ-Centered, Student-Focused, and Service-Driven.

 

Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio

Muskingum College has received a matching grant from Nebraska-based LI-COR to purchase a DNA Analyzer. The device, which provides both DNA sequencing and DNA “fingerprinting”, allows for expanded curriculum offerings in the college’s science division, as well as in other academic disciplines, beginning in fall 2006.

 

University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, Ark.

University of the Ozarks began its 171st academic year with a Matriculation Ceremony on August 19 that welcomed more than 200 new students to campus. Also in August, Ozarks was named as a “top tier” comprehensive university in the South Region for the seventh consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report in its 2006 edition of America’s Best Colleges.

 

Peace College, Raleigh, N.C.

Peace College has opened a new $4.5 million residence hall, built as part of the college’s expansion program on its downtown Raleigh, N.C., campus. The new hall is part of $6 million in recent investments in facilities on or adjoining newly acquired property that will allow continued expansion of the college — a baccalaureate college for women established in 1857.

 

Pikeville College, Pikeville, Ky.

The fall semester at Pikeville College opened with a celebration of the institution’s 117th year. Enrollment remains strong, with 1,130 students — 850 undergraduate and 280 in the School of Osteopathic Medicine. A men’s-and-women’s soccer program has been added this year. Later in the fall, the College will dedicate a $1.25 million research expansion project at the medical school.

 

Presbyterian College, Clinton, S.C.

The inaugural “Washington Monthly College Guide” ranked Presbyterian College 13th among national liberal arts colleges for producing U.S. leaders. PC, which led all PC(USA) institutions in the rankings, earned a strong nod for its Student Volunteer Services program, as well as its ROTC program that is among the oldest in South Carolina.

 

Rhodes College, Memphis, Tenn.

Rhodes College celebrated the grand opening of the Paul Barret, Jr. Library in August. Named for its donor, the library is centered at the heart of the campus and continues the collegiate Gothic architecture tradition. With its student-focused design, collaborative study spaces allow students to work together and to use wireless connections to the world.

 

St. Andrews College, Laurinburg, N.C.

U.S. News & World Report, The Washington Monthly, and The Princeton Review have recognized St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg as one of the nation’s and region’s top liberal arts colleges. The National Survey of Student Engagement placed the College in the top 10 percent nationally in four of five categories. See www.sapc.edu.

 

Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas

Trinity University is one of the nation’s top private undergraduate institutions. In September, the University launched the Campaign for Trinity, a $200 million capital campaign to enrich programs and ensure improvements to the San Antonio campus known for superior academic quality, outstanding faculty, and exceptional academic and residential resources.

 

The University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Okla.

Private. Personal. Affordable. The University of Tulsa includes four colleges — arts and sciences, business administration, engineering and natural sciences, and law — and a graduate school. Named among the top 100 national universities by U.S. News & World Report, TU’s 11-to-1 student/faculty ratio ensures an educational culture where students are rigorously challenged in highly personalized study.

 

Warren Wilson College, Asheville, N.C.

Warren Wilson College enrolled a record 830 undergraduates for the fall semester, which marked the start of Doug Orr’s fifteenth and final year as President. The Rev. Steve Runholt was called as College Chaplain and Pastor of Warren Wilson Presbyterian Church, and Julie Lehman is the new Church Relations Director.

 

Waynesburg College, Waynesburg, Penn.

This year Waynesburg College is offering a new major in Biblical and Ministries Studies. Students with this major can specialize in Media Ministry, Religion and Philosophy, International Mission, Music Ministry, Children and Youth Ministry, and Drama Ministry options. Waynesburg College is one of the first colleges in the country to offer a major in Media Ministry.

 

Whitworth College, Spokane, Wash.

Whitworth recently approved a five-year strategic plan that will continue to strengthen the college’s academic profile through new facilities in the arts and sciences, expanded opportunities for international study, and unwavering commitment to its historic mission to encourage both rigorous, open intellectual inquiry and the integration of Christian faith and learning.

 

Wilson College, Chambersburg, Penn.

Wilson College welcomes Katherine Smanik Moyes as the new Helen Eden Carnell Chaplain. Ms. Smanik Moyes comes to Wilson having just completed her Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School. She has served as a CPE Student Chaplain for Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.; as Youth Director at Westminster Presbyterian Church in West Hartford, Conn.; and as Youth Director at Harmony Hill Presbyterian Church in Lisburn, Northern Ireland.

 

Wooster College, Wooster, Ohio

The College of Wooster opened its 136th academic year by welcoming 537 first-year students and 22 transfer students, a group gathered from 36 states and seven foreign countries. The entering class boasts the highest average SAT score — 1220 — in the school’s history. The college’s comprehensive campaign passed the $110 million mark on its way to a goal of $122 million by June 2007.