Earlham College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 24.34.71.245 (talk) at 18:09, 23 November 2005 (→‎Tilt at Earlham). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Earlham College

File:Earlham college.gif

Established 1847
School type Private, Coed
President Douglas C. Bennett
Location Richmond, IN, USA
Enrollment 1,190
Faculty 114
Campus 800 acres (3.2 km²)
Sports 16 Division III NCAA teams
Website www.earlham.edu

For other places with the same name, see Earlham (disambiguation).

Earlham College is a moderately selective Quaker liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 and has about 1,200 students. The current president is Doug Bennett. In keeping with Friends belief in equality, students address all faculty at Earlham by their first name, without the use of Doctor or Professor.

Earlham College sits on an 800 acre (3.2 km²) campus, the majority of which is undeveloped forest and meadow. The undeveloped 'back campus' area is criss-crossed by trails for the enjoyment of the student body as well as serving as a readily accessible outdoor classroom for the biology and arts programs. Earlham is nationally recognized for its unique programs in Biology, Japanese Studies, and Peace and Global Studies. Notably, Earlham ranks 8th in the nation (out of 1302 colleges and universities) in percentage of graduates who go on to receive a PhD in the Biological Sciences.

Earlham also has an extensive Outdoor Education program. Tucked in Earlham's 'back campus' there is a high and low ropes challenge course. Earlham was one of the first colleges in the country to send students on wilderness backpacking trips or other outdoor adventures during freshman orientation. Today many colleges run such programs, something that Earlham started in 1971. Earlham also has a state-of-the-art equestrian center that is student run.

With a student to faculty ratio of 10:1, a diverse student body and strong programs abroad, Earlham ranks high among liberal arts schools of its size. Earlham has sizable black and Jewish populations, as well as a large student population from outside the US. While students come from a range of ethnic groups, there is a noticeable lack of American-born East and South Asian students. While there are small numbers of Catholics, Muslims, Evangelical Protestants, and Bahá'í students, many students affiliate with mainline protestant denominations.

Despite the small student population, Earlham College has a high number of off-campus programs. According to college statistics, nearly 65% of Earlham students go on a semester-length or longer off-campus program. In addition, there are a number of off-campus May Terms, with destinations both within the US and outside. Earlham has recently established a formal exchange program with Waseda University in Japan, which had existed informally for decades. Each year about a dozen students from each school experience a year of student life at the other university. In addition, Earlham College works with the SICE program in Morioka, Japan, a program in which about twelve to fourteen students teach English in grade schools in Morioka.

Earlham College is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association, and also a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference. While not an outstanding athletic school, Earlham has won its host of championships, most recently in men's cross country. The school mascot is the "Quaker," and teams are known as the "Hustlin' Quakers," changed from "Fighting Quakers" around the early 2000's.

Earlham is unique in that it has an entirely student-managed public radio station, WECI 91.5FM.

Another notable Earlham fact is that it has the only student-run Hash House Harriers running group, founded in 1989 and still continuing at present (2005). While only loosely connected with national organizations, the student group maintains weekly runs and has been described by visitors as the "Galapagos of Hashes" for the creativity and development of hashing practices. The Hash run takes place on the 'back campus' during all seasons. The "Hash," as it is known to students, was briefly suspended in the Spring of 2004 when a Billy Palinski, a student, died after suffering injuries during the run.


Tilt at Earlham

Earlham's "dry campus" policy is controversial among members of the student body and some faculty members. While drinking is not commonplace, some students refer to the campus as "pleasantly moist".

Tension sometimes arises between students and the Quaker Indiana Yearly Meeting over issues of sexuality. Indiana Yearly Meeting tends to be more conservative on issues such as condom distribution, pregnancy, and homosexuality.

Earlham College only recently adopted a pregnancy policy, despite its progressive reputation. Before this there were no explicit guidelines in the event that a student became pregnant. The new policy states that pregnant women may reside in on-campus housing, but are also offered a housing exemption if they so desire.

Until lately the distribution of condoms on campus was restricted to health services. Recently condoms have become available outside the room of each hall's Resident Assistant.

Other points of contention were political, mostly involving conservative speakers invited to campus. While some students are hostile to these speakers because of their political views, other students enjoyed the chance to hear speakers with divergent points of view.

In the spring of 2005, William Kristol, editor of the 'Weekly Standard' was hit in the face with a pie by a student during a lecture on campus [1]. The event made National and International news and was carried by many leading news outlets. Many students and faculty at the lecture booed the pie-thrower and applauded when Mr. Kristol resumed his talk. The "pie-ing" quickly became a divisive issue among Earlham students and faculty. Some of the main areas of contention included whether or not throwing a pie is a violent act, how or if the student that threw the pie should be punished for that action, the importance of free speech, how to improve political diversity on campus, and whether a Quaker-affiliated school should provide a venue and funding for a speaker who supports the Iraq War.

Other conservative (and libertarian) speakers have been welcomed at Earlham in the past, in spite of the trend for students and faculty at Earlham to have more liberal-left political leanings. Conservative speakers such as Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, Christina Hoff Summers, Ward Connolly and Stanley Kurtz received warm receptions despite their different perspective from many students. Columnist Ann Coulter's talk on campus in the spring of 2002 was more provocative. Despite her antagonism with a packed house of students and faculty, Coulter was able to complete her lecture and take questions from the audience.

However, while there have been some notable exceptions, it is true that the majority of speakers that are invited to Earlham tend to reflect a left-liberal viewpoint. Major left-liberal personalities visiting campus in recent years include Cornel West, Rashid Kahlidi, Ralph Nader, Angela Davis and Anthony Romero.

Notable alumni

Notable Faculty

  • Peter Suber - Research Professor of Philosophy. Suber is best known to some as the creator of the game Nomic and to others as a leader in the open access movement.
  • Ferit Güven - Professor of Philosophy and author of Madness And Death In Philosophy.
  • John Iverson - Professor of Biology. Turtle Expert. [5]
  • Paul Lacey - Professor Emeritus of English. Literary executor to the late poet Denise Levertov.
  • John Hunt - (former) Professor of English, Faulkner Scholar.
  • Wayne C. Booth - (former) Professor of English- Literary Critic; author of The Rhetoric of Fiction and The Company We Keep.

External links and references

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Earlham_College&oldid=29071789"