Beloit College

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Beloit College
File:Beloit seal.jpg
MottoScientia Vera Cum Fide Pura (True Science with Pure Faith)
TypePrivate liberal arts college
Established1846
EndowmentUS$109 million
PresidentDick Niemiec
Academic staff
94
Undergraduates1,300
Postgraduates0
Location
United States Beloit
,
WI
,
USA
CampusUrban, 65 acres
ColorsBlue and Gold
NicknameBuccaneers
MascotBuccaneers (Official) Turtles (Academic-Unofficial)
Websitewww.beloit.edu

Beloit College is a selective, private coeducational liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin, USA, and a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. Its current president is John Burris (resigning as of June 30, 2008), and its enrollment stands at roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. On April 25, 2008 the Board of Trustees appointed former health industry executive and alumnus Dick Niemiec [1] as the College's interim president while the official presidential search takes place. The campus is notable for numerous prehistoric Indian mounds. It is also among the top 20 selective liberal arts colleges in proportion of graduates obtaining doctoral degrees. [citation needed]

Founding

Beloit College, the first post secondary education institution in Wisconsin, was founded by a group called Friends for Education, which was started by seven pioneers from New England who agreed that a college needed to be established soon after arrival in Wisconsin Territory. The group raised funds for a college to be founded in their new town and convinced the territorial legislature to enact their charter for Beloit College into law on February 2, 1846. The first building for the college (called Middle College) was built in 1847, and it remains in operation today. Classes began in the fall of 1847, and the college's first degrees were awarded in 1851.

History

The first president of Beloit was a Yale University graduate named Aaron Lucius Chapin, who served as president from December of 1849 until 1886, and under whose direction the college became widely known for scholastic achievement and for its willingness to experiment with new curricular approaches.[citation needed] The college remained very small for almost its entire first century with the enrollment only topping 1,000 students with the influx of World War II veterans in 1945-1946. The "Beloit Plan", a year-round curriculum introduced in 1964, comprising three full terms and a "field term" of off-campus study, brought the college increased national attention.[citation needed] The trustees decided to return to the two semester program in 1978.

Among Beloit's more notable alumni are Roy Chapman Andrews, Robert Lee Morris, Charles Winter Wood, Jim Zwerg, and Lorine Niedecker. Teresa Heinz Kerry holds an honorary doctorate from Beloit College.

One of the aforementioned Indian effigy mounds, in the shape of a turtle, inspired Beloit's symbol (and unofficial mascot).

Although independent today, Beloit College was historically related to the Congregationalist tradition, continuing to maintain a limited relationship with the United Church of Christ. [2] However, that denomination has no congregations in Beloit proper.

Present day

Beloit College remains nationally known for its innovative curriculum, which retains many aspects of the "Beloit Plan" from the 1960s. Beloit has a notably strong anthropology program: more Beloit graduates have earned Ph.D.s in anthropology than graduates of any other undergraduate liberal arts college not affiliated with a university [3]. Beloit has a good reputation in geology, owing still to Roy Chapman Andrews' expeditions as well several pioneering geologists in the 19th century including T.C. Chamberlin and O.E. Mienzer. Beloit's students have placed well in the Association for Computing Machinery annual programming competition: in 1990, Beloit placed 11th; in 1991, 19th. They have often received "Meritorious" certificates for exceptional solutions in the Mathematical Modelling Competition. In the 2006 college rankings by U.S. News & World Report, Beloit was shortlisted for "Study Abroad" (56% of students do) and "First-Year Initiative". It was also ranked highly for percentage of students living on-campus. In 2007, it was listed 35th for "Best Value", and overall, it ranked 61st among liberal arts colleges. In 2000, Beloit was included in the book Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools You Should Know About Even if You're Not a Straight-A Student (ISBN 0-14-029616-6). The 1999 National Study of Student Engagement ranked Beloit in the top 20% of five benchmark categories measuring the quality of the student experience, one of just four schools to achieve this ranking.

File:100 4118.JPG
Middle College

The college long hosted the Beloit Poetry Journal, but the editor, Professor Emerita Marion K. Stocking, has retired to Maine and now runs the journal there. In 1985 the complementary Beloit Fiction Journal began, and has published an annual collection of short contemporary fiction every year since. The establishment of the Mackey Chair in Creative Writing has brought a new nationally-known author to campus annually for several years, including Billy Collins, Bei Dao, Ursula K. Le Guin, Amy Hempel, Denise Levertov, and Robert Stone. Beloit biology faculty member John Jungck along with Nils S. Peterson, CEO of From the Heart Software, co-founded and run the BioQUEST, while Brock Spencer maintains ChemLinks. Both are special-interest groups on the reform of science education. Beloit has had a faculty and student exchange program with Fudan University in China since the 1980s.

Psychology is one of the most popular majors at Beloit. The Psychology Department started with the famous professor Guy Allen Tawney, who taught from 1897 to 1906. He was a student of Wilhelm Wundt who is one of the founders of psychology. Psychology majors may seek opportunities to help professors with their research. Additionally, many psychology majors conduct independent research or get involved with experience within the field. A study abroad program to Morocco and Estonia is targeted at psychology majors (although most students may apply for the program), where they engage in cross-cultural studies. Furthermore, many psychology students continue on to graduate programs for their M.A. or Ph.D.

The Beloit College Geology Department continues a tradition of excellence in geology that began with T.C. Chamberlin more than a century ago. Today the department combines a rigorous course load with mandatory field methods and mandatory field research. The department is currently a member of the Keck Geology Consortium. Started by the Keck Family, the philanthropic family most noted for forming the popular children's' show Sesame Street, the Keck Consortium is a research collaboration of several similar colleges across the United States, including Amherst College, Pomona College, and Washington and Lee University to name a few. The Consortium sends undergraduate students worldwide to research and publish their findings.

Two museums open to the public are on Beloit's campus and are run by College staff and students. The Logan Museum of Anthropology and the Wright Museum of Art both were founded in the late 19th century. The Logan Museum, accredited by the American Association of Museums curates over 200,000 ethnographic and archaeological objects from 122 countries and over 450 cultural groups. The Wright Museum's holdings of over 8,000 objects include a large collection of original prints and Asian art. Both museums feature temporary special exhibitions year round. Beloit College's campus also houses two sculpture works by renowned international public artist Siah Armajani, these are his "Gazebo for One Anarchist: Emma Goldman 1991" and "The Beloit College Poetry Garden."[4]

Extracurricular activities at Beloit play an important role, with intramural Ultimate having a high level of participation among students. Recently, Beloit College students broke the world record for the longest game of Ultimate by playing for over 72 hours [5].

Beloit College also has a frisbee golf course contained almost entirely within the grounds of the college. Many students find this a relaxing way to spend time, during all hours of the day or night, regardless of pedestrians or inebriation. This course has undergone many changes with the expansion of dormitories and additions to the lovely grounds like the Poetry Garden [6]. Beloit students are ever flexible and have incorporated the garden into the course. There remains some debate as to whether the garden holes are too easy and merely a means of shooting an easy game below par.

Since 1998, the college has become known for the annual "Mindset Lists," written by Professor Tom McBride, summarizing pop culture references which are allegedly meaningless to incoming college freshmen. In 2004, the college unveiled a renovation plan that would tie the campus more effectively to the community. In 2006, Beloit officially announced that it was attempting to raise $100 million. This campaign would fund a new science building, an increased endowment, and other campus improvements.

Justice Richard Goldstone was named the 2007 Weissberg Distinguished Professor of International Studies at Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin. From January 17-28, 2007 he visited classes, worked with faculty and students, participated in panel discussions on human rights and transitional justice with leading figures in the field and delivered the annual Weissberg Lecture, "South Africa's Transition to Democracy: The Role of the Constitutional Court" on January 24th at the Moore Lounge in Pearsons Hall.

Justice Richard J. Goldstone delivers the 2007 Weissberg Lecture

On March 23, 2007 Congressman John Lewis delivered the keynote speech "Get In The Way" for the College's New Conscience/New Campus/New Community Conference.

Beloit College will complete its new Center for the Sciences in the fall of 2008. The building is expected to achieve a minimum Silver Level LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) green building certification. The project will cost roughly $40 million and will be a state-of-the-art building and almost 120,000 sq. ft.

Prominent departments

Notable faculty members

Rob LaFleur, Anthropology
Jerry Gustafson, Economics
Emily Chamlee-Wright, Economics
Beth Dougherty, International Relations
Georgia Duerst-Lahti, Political Science
Shawn Gillen, English and Journalism
Tom McBride, English
John Jungck, Biology
Andras Boros-Kazai, History
Ken Yasukawa, Biology (2004 President of the Animal Behavior Society)[7]
Brock Spencer, Chemistry
Charles Westerberg, Sociology
Steve Wright, Creative Writing
Lisa Haines-Wright, English and Medieval Studies
Yaffa Grossman, Biology
Matt Tedesco, Philosophy

Athletics

File:P1000688.JPG
Womens Vollyball-2007 MWC Champions

Beloit College is a member of the Midwest Conference, NCAA in Div. III and fields varsity teams in football, baseball, softball, volleyball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track & field, men's and women's soccer. Beloit College also has a competitive rowing team that is sponsored by club funds and alumni support.

Prominent alumni

See also Category:Beloit College alumni

External links

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