The College of Wooster

The College of Wooster is a liberal arts college primarily known for its Independent Study program. It has roughly 1,800 students and is located in Wooster, Wayne County, Ohio. 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.

The current president of the college is mathematics professor R. Stanton Hales, who, formerly, served as Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the College of Wooster, and before that, as Associate Dean of Pomona College. He has announced that he intends to retire as of June 30, 2007; the trustees are currently searching for a new president^*. Distinguished faculty have included Dijana Plestina, who was the first lady of Croatia.

This college is one of 40 named in Loren Pope's book Colleges That Change Lives.^*

History

The University of Wooster was founded in 1866 by Presbyterians who wanted to do their part in the education of young people, and in 1870 opened its doors with a faculty of five and a student body of thirty men and four women. Wooster citizen Ephriam Quimby donated the first 22 acres, a large oak grove situated on a hilltop overlooking the town. By the early 20th century 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 liberals arts instituation, 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.

The College's campus is 240 acres large and boasts of an unusual tree endowment which supports a tree conservation maintenance and replacement program at Wooster.

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 typically 32 courses, students may earn diplomas in Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, or Bachelor of Music Education.

In addition to the programs listed below, students may design their own major with approval from the registrar. 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.

Areas of study

Majors: Africana Studies, Anthropology, Archaeology, Art History, Art (Studio), Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Biology, Business Economics, Chemical Physics, Chemistry, Classical Studies, Communication Sciences and Disorders, Communication Studies, Comparative Literature, Computer Science, Cultural Area Studies, Dance, Economics, English, French, Geology, German, History, International Relations, Mathematics, Music, Music Education, Music History and Literature, Music Performance, Music Theory (Composition), Music Therapy, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Russian Studies, Sociology, Spanish, Theater, Urban Studies, Women's Studies

Additional minors: Chinese, Education (with teaching licensure in early childhood, middle childhood, adolescence, and multi-age), Film Studies, International Business, Physical Education

Pre-professional programs: Pre-Architecture, Pre-Engineering, Forestry and Environmental Studies, Dentistry, Nursing, Pre-Social Work, Pre-Business, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Veterinary Medicine, Pre-Law, Pre-Seminary Studies, Dual-Degree Programs

Independent Study program

The College of Wooster is noteworthy for its Independent Study program, under which all students complete a thesis or other significant project during the course of their senior year. The program, begun in 1947 by Howard Lowry (the College's 7th President), has received considerable attention from other schools, and other colleges have modeled programs after it. In 2003, the IS program was recognized by US News and World Report as the second best "senior capstone experience" in the US, coming in behind Princeton University. This unique approach to education has kept Wooster competitive against other more well-known colleges, making it 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 a Tootsie Roll. The tradition developed when the registrar at the time, Lee Culp, decided to give out candy along with the buttons one year; the Tootsie Roll itself was chosen simply because they were cheap 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 Dean of the Faculty leading the way, the seniors travel through Kauke Arch in a jubilant parade ending at Kittredge dining hall for a celebratory dinner with their advisors and college administrators.

A database exists on the College of Wooster website which allows people to browse the myriad Independent Study topics from every class year since the late 1940s.

Student Life

Wooster has long emphasized international education. An unusually high percentage of its early graduates went overseas as missionaries, and soon not only their sons and daughters, but also the students from their schools, were enrolling at Wooster as students. This international presence affected the entire campus, establishing a tradition which continues to influence the College. Today, approximately seven percent of the student body is international in origin, representing more than 40 different countries. Majors in Cultural Area Studies and International Relations, instruction in seven foreign languages, twenty overseas programs, and the popularity of Babcock International Program, all attest to a global awareness which is a vital part of the educational fabric of the College. The majority of Wooster's international students currently come from South Asia (India and Pakistan), and West Africa (many from Ghana).

Athletics

Wooster is a member of the NCAA Div-III North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Its school colors are black and old gold, and its mascot is the "Fighting Scot." Scottish culture is an important part of the school's spirit; its football games, in addition to the standard marching band, features a small pipe band clad in the yellow and black MacLeod tartan.

In recent years, the athletic teams at Wooster have had considerable success. Among other achievements, the baseball team has made three appearances in the NCAA Division III World Series and nine NCAC championships (a league record). The men's basketball team has nine NCAC regular season championships, nine NCAC Tournament titles, and twelve appearances in the Div-III NCAA Tournament. In 2004, the football team went undefeated in the regular season, won its first outright NCAC conference championship, and won its first NCAA tournament game.

Performing Arts

Wooster is the home of the Ohio Light Opera, an endeavor founded by the college in 1979. It is the only professional company in the United States entirely devoted to operetta. They perform the entire Gilbert & Sullivan repertoire, but also regularly revive rarely performed continental works of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Over the years, the Company has produced eighty different operettas. Performances usually take place in the Freedlander Theater.

Student activities and clubs

The College of Wooster has over 100 student organizations, from the Jenny Investment Club, which allows students to invest real money for the Collegeas they learn about the stock market, to Common Grounds, a student-run coffee shop and house program offering chemical-free alternatives to the College community.

There are currently 9 active Greek groups at the College of Wooster, 5 sororities and 4 fraternities. Called clubs and sections, these groups are not affiliated with national Greek organizations, and approminately 15 percent of the student body participates.

The college has a wide variety of student-run media. The Wooster Voice is the weeky student newspaper, and has been published continually since 1886 (see list of college newspapers), while WCWS (WOO 91) is the college radio station. The Goliard is the annual literary magazine. English professor Daniel Bourne also publishes an international literary magazine called Dodge every year. 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.

Pictures

Kauke Hall

Scovel Hall

COW Athletic Fields

Controversies

In 1995, the College of Wooster gained some notoriety in academic circles when it rescinded its offer to hire Susanne Woods as its next president. After announcing its decision to hire her, evidence surfaced that Woods was a lesbian, and the college decided not to hire her after all, despite the fact that they had been courting her for the position for nearly a year. Many on Wooster's faculty decried the homophobia of the board of trustees, though because of confidentality agreements neither Woods nor the board members have spoken publicly about the incident. The official reason given for Woods' dismissal was the parties' inability to agree on the role of the president in the school. Woods is currently the provost and a professor of English at Wheaton College (Massachusetts) located in Norton, Massachusetts.

Notable alumni

Student	Notability	Year graduated	Major (when known)	IS topic
Karl Taylor Compton	Former president of MIT	1908, cum laude	Philosophy	Attended before the IS program existed Master's thesis A study of the Wehnelt electrolytic interrupter published in Physical Review in 1909
Arthur Holly Compton	Won the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the Compton effect	1913	-	Attended before the IS program existed
Stanley Gault	Former CEO of Rubbermaid and Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company	1948	Geology	Attended before the IS program existed
E. W. "Bud" Wendell	Former President and CEO of Opryland USA, member Country Music Hall of Fame	1950	Economics	Attended before the IS program existed
Mary F. Crow	Poet Laureate, State of Colorado	1955	English	Study of Some Elizabethan Sonnetiers - Sidney, Daniel, Drayton
John Dean	Counsel to the President of the United States	1961	Political Science	The Social Responsibilities of the Political Novelist
James S. Toedtman	Editor, AARP Bulletin	1963	Physics	An Analysis of the 1962 Congressional Campaign in the 13th District of Ohio
Donald L. Kohn	Member of the Board of Governors of the United States Federal Reserve, and nominated to position of Vice Chairman by George W. Bush	1964	Economics	Flexible Exchange Rates as a Means to Stable International Markets - Theory, Practice, and Evaluation
Timothy Smucker	CEO of The J.M. Smucker Co.	1967	Economics	PERT and Plant Location
Stephen R. Donaldson	New York Times bestselling science fiction author	1968	English	A Creative Writing Project
Susan Stranahan	Pulitzer-prize winning journalist	1968	History	The Mining Camp
Vince Cellini	Current host on The Golf Channel and former anchor for CNN Sports	1981	Speech	Communication Theory: Its Use in the Formation of Public Opinion
Mary Neagoy	Former Senior Vice President of Communications for Nickelodeon	1983	English	Narrative Authority and Female Characters in the Novels of William Faulkner

External links

Notes

The Chronicle of Higher Education. "Private Life Intrudes on Public Job". August 4, 1995. Follow-up on September 22, 1995. ( http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/eguid-41.dir/47eguide.htm and http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/eguid-42.dir/04eguide.htm ).

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