Wheaton College (Illinois)

This article is about the college in Illinois. For the college of the same name in Massachusetts, see Wheaton College (Massachusetts).

Wheaton College

File:Wheaton College Logo.png
Motto	Christo et Regno Ejus ("For Christ and His Kingdom")
Type	Private Evangelical Protestant
Established	1860
Endowment	$362.8 million
President	Duane Litfin
Academic staff	191 full time 81 part time
Students	2,890
Undergraduates	2,440
Postgraduates	450
Location	Wheaton , Illinois , USA
Campus	Suburban, 80 acres
Colors	Blue and Orange
Affiliations	Council for Christian Colleges and Universities
Mascot	Thunder
Website	http://wheaton.edu/

Wheaton College is a private Evangelical Protestant, coeducational, liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles (40 km) west of Chicago in the United States. Some regard it as the finest of the Evangelical colleges with respect to its reputation of academic rigor.

Wheaton College is listed in Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives.

History

Wheaton College was founded in 1860. Its predecessor, the Illinois Institute, had been founded in late 1853 by Wesleyan Methodists as a college and preparatory school. Wheaton's first president, Jonathan Blanchard, was a former president of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and a staunch abolitionist with ties to Oberlin College. Mired in financial trouble and unable to sustain the institution, the Wesleyans looked to Blanchard for new leadership. He took on the role as president in 1860, having suggested several Congregationalist appointees to the board of trustees the previous year. The Wesleyans, similar in spirit and mission to the Congregationalists, were happy to relinquish control of the Illinois Institute. Blanchard officially separated the college from any denominational support and was responsible for its new name, given in honor of trustee and benefactor Warren L. Wheaton.

A dogged reformer, Blanchard began his public campaign for abolitionism with the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1836, at the age of twenty-five. . Later in his life, after the Civil War, he began a sustained campaign against Freemasonry. This culminated in a national presidential campaign on the american Anti-Masonic Party ticket in 1884.

It has also recently been confirmed that under Blanchard's leadership, the College was a stop on the Underground Railroad. The confirmation came from the letters of Ezra Cook, one of Blanchard's relatives by marriage, who notes that the town and College's anti-slavery beliefs were so widely held that "that he, along with hundreds of other Wheaton residents, had seen and spoken with many fugitive slaves" .

Blanchard consistently lobbied for universal co-education and was a strong proponent of reform through strong public education. At this time, Wheaton was the only school in Illinois with a college-level women's program.

In 1882, Charles A. Blanchard succeeded his father as president of the college.

In the fall of 1925, J. Oliver Buswell, an outspoken Presbyterian, delivered a series of lectures at Wheaton College. Shortly thereafter, President Charles Blanchard died, and Buswell was called to be the third president of Wheaton. Upon his installation in April 1926, he became the nation's youngest college president at age 31. Buswell's tenure was characterized by expanding enrollment (from approximately 400 in 1925 to 1,100 in 1940), a building program, strong academic development, and a boom in the institution's reputation. It was also known for growing divisiveness over faculty scholarship and personality clashes. In 1940 this tension led to the sacking of Buswell for being, as two historians of the college put it, "too argumentative in temperament and too intellectual in his approach to Christianity." By the late 1940s, Wheaton was emerging as a fortress of neo-evangelicalism.

By 1950, enrollment at the college surpassed 1,600, and in the second half of the twentieth century, enrollment growth and more selective admissions accompanied athletic success, additional and improved facilities, and expanded programs.

In 1951, Honey Rock, a camp in northern Wisconsin, was purchased by the college.

Academics

According to The Princeton Review's The Best 351 Colleges, "If the integration of faith and learning is what you want out of a college, Wheaton is arguably the best school in the nation with a Christ-based worldview." Students may choose from about 40 majors in many liberal arts disciplines and in the sciences. Some of the most popular in recent years have been Business, Communications, English, Biology, Biblical Studies, Political Science, International Relations, and Psychology.

Wheaton maintains a strong academic record with an average of over 30 National Merit Finalists in entering freshman classes. U.S. News & World Report has noted that Wheaton is often called the "Harvard of evangelical colleges."

In 2009 U.S. News & World Report ranked Wheaton College 56 out of 265 Best National Liberal Arts Colleges. Wheaton continued to achieve exceptional rankings in several areas of the report:

• #15 in freshmen retention (95.2%)
• #21 in six-year graduation rate (86%) (2007 Report)
• #25 in SAT/ACT scores (1250–1440) (2007 Report)
• #39 in percentage of freshmen graduating in the top 10 percent of their high-school classes (54%) (2007 Report)

In recent years, Wheaton's overall ranking has been as high as 44. Wheaton asserts that its US News and World Report ranking is lower than that of academically comparable counterparts because Wheaton is ranked lower in financial resources due to its lower tuition costs and smaller endowment.

Wheaton College ranked ninth in the nation in the total number of graduates (all fields) who went on to earn doctorates (during the period of 1986-1995) according to Franklin & Marshall College's latest survey, which included more than 900 private colleges and universities.

All members of the college community—staff, faculty, and students—are asked to sign and adhere to Wheaton's Community Covenant (http://www.wheaton.edu/welcome/aboutus_community.html), which details expected standards of behavior. The college revised the Covenant in 2003. It now allows undergraduate students to dance at college-sponsored events and gives "adult faculty members and grad students ... the freedom to choose whether they want to smoke or drink alcohol, at least while off-campus."

Conservatory of Music

Wheaton College is home to an internationally-recognized Conservatory of Music, fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. The Conservatory offers two professional music degrees: the Bachelor of Music (with emphases in performance, suzuki pedagogy, composition, history and literature, conducting, collaborative piano, or elective studies) and the Bachelor of Music Education. 100% of the teaching faculty in the Conservatory hold doctorates. There are approximately 200 music majors in the Conservatory, with a student-faculty ratio of 7:1. Music majors and liberal arts majors alike perform in the Conservatory's six large ensembles: Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Men's Glee Club, Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Women's Chorale.

Artist Series

The Artist Series at Wheaton College, operating under the umbrella of the Conservatory of Music, is a subscription concert series that brings world-class performers to the Wheaton College community. Previous Artist Series performers include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel and the Symphonica Toscanini, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, The Canadian Brass, and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards & Band of the Coldstream Guard. The Artist Series frequently partners with Wheaton College Conservatory graduates, including Sylvia McNair, soprano, and John Nelson, conductor.

Graduate School

The Wheaton College Graduate School was founded in 1937, with the intent to provide further theological and ministerial training. Graduate students come from all over the world to attend, and may study for an M.A., M.A.T., or Ph.D. in Biblical and Theological Studies, or a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology. The once widely respected Department of Communications of the Graduate School has been closed. Approximately 550 graduate students are enrolled.

Off-campus study

Wheaton gives students a number of popular off-campus study opportunities.

The college sponsors study-abroad programs in Asia, England, France, Germany, the Holy Lands, Latin America, and Spain, as well as a summer program in Washington, D.C. Participants in Wheaton-in-England, one of the most popular annual programs, take 2–3 courses in literature while studying in London and St. Anne's College, Oxford.

Many students also participate in the Human Needs and Global Resources program. The HNGR program matches select students with six-month internships in the Third World, including opportunities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

In 1935, The Wheaton College Science Station was established in the Black Hills of South Dakota for field instruction in the natural sciences.

In 1951, HoneyRock, the Northwoods Campus of Wheaton College, was established in Three Lakes, WI. HoneyRock is not only a year round camp for young people but it offers a variety of leadership schools and courses for students. Nearly 3000 people utilize HoneyRock each year.

Due to Wheaton's membership in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, Wheaton students may also study at the University of Oxford, the Los Angeles Film Studies Center, Wesley Institute in Australia, and Xi'an Foreign Language University in China. The CCCU also sponsors programs in American studies, Latin American studies, Middle Eastern studies, Russian studies, and journalism.

Campus

Blanchard Hall, Wheaton College

Wheaton's most recognizable and oldest building is Blanchard Hall, a limestone tower built as the main College building in 1853. At the time, the College building was one of only two on campus, the other (called the "boarding hall") being a frame building at the foot of the hill crowned by the tower. Jonathan Blanchard had a vision for the expansion of this tower structure: its castle-like architecture is, supposedly, patterned after buildings at the University of Oxford which Blanchard admired on a trip to England in 1843. After four additions (1871, 1873, 1890, 1927) the Main Building was completed in 1927. In this year, under college president J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., the Main Building was renamed Blanchard Hall, to honor Wheaton's first two presidents, Jonathan Blanchard and his son Charles Blanchard.

Academic

In 1900 the brick "Industrial Building" was built. From 1917–45 it housed the Wheaton Academy, and from 1945–60 the Graduate School. In 1960 it was renamed Buswell Hall, and in 1980 renamed Schell Hall in honor of Edward R. Schell.

The science departments are housed in Breyer (Chemistry) and Armerding (Biology, Geology, Math, and Physics) halls. Armerding Hall is also the home to the Wheaton College Observatory (a feature of the college since the presidency of Charles Blanchard in the late-nineteenth century). In 1935, The Wheaton College Science Station was established in the Black Hills of South Dakota for field instruction in the natural sciences. Currently a new science building is in the process of being constructed.

The Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, housed in McAlister Hall and neighboring Pierce Memorial Chapel, is an internationally recognized music school and holds the distinction of being the only conservatory within an Evangelical school of higher education. The approximately 200 students within the conservatory focus on a range of fields within music including education, performance, composition, and history. Student recitals, required for graduation with a music degree, are generally held in Pierce Memorial Chapel.

Athletic

The Gymnasium, later renamed Adams Hall, was built in 1898. Today it serves as home to the Art Department, though massive renovations have currently moved all art classes to the fifth floor BGC.

Alumni Gymnasium (renamed the Edward A. Coray Alumni Gymnasium in 1968, in honor of Coach Ed Coray's long service), was built during the Edman presidency and paid for by alumni. The cornerstone was laid at homecoming on October 11, 1941. A copper box placed in the cornerstone contained a copy of the Wheaton Record, the Wheaton Daily Journal, a college catalog, a student directory, and a copy of the Homecoming program.

Wyngarten Health Center was built in 1958, followed by Centennial Gymnasium in 1959-60, which was extensively renovated and expanded in 2000. It is now known as King Arena and is part of the Sports and Recreation Complex (SRC).

Library and collections

The Library, named after college trustee Robert E. Nicholas, opened in January 1952. In 1975 Buswell Memorial Library, named for the college's third president J. Oliver Buswell, Jr., was built adjacent to the Nicholas Library and an interior corridor linked the two, creating the college's main library. The building also contains the Peter Stam Music Library, located downstairs and named in honor of the Conservatory of Music's first head, Peter Stam.

The Marion E. Wade Center, formerly housed in Buswell Library, moved to its new purpose-built home in September 2001. The Marion E. Wade Center, established in 1965 by professor of English Clyde S. Kilby, is an extensive research library and museum of the books and papers of seven British writers: C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Dorothy L. Sayers, George MacDonald, and Charles Williams. The Wade Center has memorabilia of the Inklings, including C. S. Lewis' writing desk and a wardrobe from his childhood home constructed by his Grandfather widely thought to have inspired the Chronicles of Narnia series (although Westmont College also owns a wardrobe that once belonged to Lewis), Charles Williams's bookcases, J.R.R. Tolkien's writing desk where he wrote the entirety of The Hobbit and worked on The Lord of the Rings, and Pauline Baynes's original map of Narnia.

Buswell Library's special collections also include the archived correspondence, manuscripts, articles, photos, and other papers of Madeleine L'Engle, the Newbery Medal-winning author of A Wrinkle in Time. With items dating as early as 1919, the collection is comprised largely of material sent to the college by L'Engle and has been supplemented by the college with books and other supporting materials. The collection is the most comprehensive research center for L'Engle's work.

Student life

The Memorial Student Center (MSC) was dedicated on June 11, 1951. It was built in memory of over 1600 former students and graduates who served in World War II and in honor of those 39 who gave their lives. It housed the Student Union café, nicknamed "the Stupe" (which has since been moved to the Beamer Center). An early pamphlet described the new building and listed some of the rules for its use, such as No Rook Playing and No Playing of Boogie-Woogie, Jazz, or Otherwise Abusing the Piano. The MSC was remodeled during the Fall semester of 2007 for academic use, and is now home to the Business Economics department, the Political Science and International Relations department as well as the J. Dennis Hastert Center for Economics, Government, and Public Policy.

The MSC was remodeled according to the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The MSC was the first building renovated according to these standards and sets higher standards than existing EPA standards. Many of the materials that were used were post-consumer and over 20% of the materials were manufactured within a 500 mile radius of the College.[2] The MSC remodeling is part of the current capital campaign, The Promise of Wheaton.

The Dining Hall (now the "Old Dining Hall") opened January 4, 1953. Today it houses Student Development, Undergraduate Admissions, and the College Bookstore.

Jenks Hall is home to the Arena Theater, which was established in the Fall of 1974 and has staged over 100 full length productions.

In the fall of 2004, the Todd M. Beamer Student Center was completed. Beamer, a Wheaton alumnus, was part of a small group of passengers who stormed hijackers on United Flight 93, thus bringing down the plane in rural Pennsylvania during the September 11, 2001 attacks, and preventing it from reaching its target. The $20+ million dollar project was commissioned in order to meet the needs of the growing college community. Along with its spacious and sleek modern design, the Beamer Center features a convenience store known as the "C-Store," the "Stupe" (the name derives from students shortening the previous name for the campus Student Union, "Stupid Onion;" "Stupid Onion," in turn, is derived from a mispronunciation of Student Union,) a bakery café named "Sam's" (named after the former Vice President of Student Development Sam Shellhammer, who retired following the 2007-08 school year after serving Wheaton's campus community for thirty years), several reading rooms and lounges, a recreation/game room, a prayer chapel, an expanded college post office, the offices for several organizations and departments, and several other event rooms. In the fall of 2006, strong rain storms created a flood that destroyed the lower level of the Beamer Center. Wheaton College has since restored the flood-damaged building.

The official student newspaper at Wheaton College is the Wheaton Record, a weekly publication with a circulation of 3400 in existence since 1876. The Record is produced by students, published by the college and distributed each Friday after chapel free of charge. The Record was the recipient of the 2006 John David Reed General Excellence Award and 13 other awards from the Illinois College Press Association, of which it is a member. The Record is also a member of the Associated Collegiate Press.

In addition, Wheaton College has many organizations on campus that range from helping the poor and needy in Chicago to the arts and Improvisation

Spirituality

The Chapel, on the corner of Washington and Franklin streets, was dedicated on November 15, 1925. This building was also used by the college for commencements and other important assemblies. In 1936–37, it was renamed the Orlinda Childs Pierce Memorial Chapel. Neighboring McAlister Hall is home to the Conservatory of Music and houses conservatory faculty offices, several music classrooms, and the practice rooms used daily by conservatory students.

The college's regular chapel services are held in Edman Memorial Chapel, which seats 2,400. It is named for V. Raymond Edman, fourth president of the college. Edman died in 1967 while speaking in chapel. He was preaching on being in the presence of the King, and the recording is available in the Wheaton chapel archives. This chapel/auditorium is also used for many events of Wheaton's performing arts programs. In 2000, an entirely handcrafted organ made by Casavant Frères of Canada was installed.

Other

The building housing the Billy Graham Center (BGC), named after one of the college's most well-known graduates, opened in September 1980. The Billy Graham Center itself, as the repository of the evangelist's corporate records, had existed since 1974. The BGC houses several evangelism institutes, a museum of the history of evangelism, the college's Archives and Special Collections, as well as the Wheaton College Graduate School and the school radio station, WETN 88.1 FM.

The Women's Building, renamed Williston Hall in 1930–31 (in honor of longtime Blanchard friend and donor J. P. Williston), was built in 1895. Its construction required the college to borrow $6,000. After seventy-eight years of housing only women, Williston Hall is now being converted into a coed dormitory opened also to men starting in the fall semester of 2009 [3].

The President's House, or Westgate, formerly owned by college trustee John M. Oury, was presented to President Buswell on the tenth anniversary of his inauguration, April 23, 1936. This served as the home of three of Wheaton's subsequent presidents. It now houses the Office of Alumni Relations.

In 1951, HoneyRock[4], the Northwoods Campus of Wheaton College, was established in Three Lakes, Wisconsin. HoneyRock is not only a year round camp for young people, but it offers a variety of leadership schools and courses for students. Nearly 3000 people utilize HoneyRock each year. Through HoneyRock the college owns nearly 800 acres (3.2 km²) in Northern Wisconsin.

The Senior Bench at Wheaton College is one of the oldest and most legendary rivalries in the school’s 150 year history. According to dusty archives files and whispers of oral tradition, the graduating class of 1912 is believed to have bequeathed a hefty concrete monument to solidify its place in the annals of her alma mater. Anchored in front of Blanchard Hall and first photographed for the 1934 Tower yearbook, it was intended for seniors only, but through the decades envious undergraduates soon coveted its prized status. A great rivalry began in 1949 when juniors from the class of 1950 stole the top two foot by seven foot section while the seniors were away on their annual retreat. Many ingenious, inventive, and sometimes illegal methods have been employed by rival classes in their passionate pursuit of securing this nearly 800-pound stone slab. During the 1950s an exact replica was cast by the class of 1957 in a foolhardy attempt to trick the other classes, yet to no avail. The class of 1959 is heralded for one of the most amazing bench showings as it suspended the bench from a helicopter and flew it over the Homecoming football game. Another infamous bench caper was hatched when seniors from the class of 1963 traveled by train to Colorado for their yearly retreat. As the train stopped at Mendota, Illinois the bench was shown by the juniors who had arrived by car to taunt the seniors. A melee ensued and a scheduled thirty second stop erupted into a two hour delay as railroad agents, local police and the Interstate Commerce Commission were all summoned to sort out this violation of federal law. The current rules surrounding possession of the bench were enacted after seniors from the class of 1966 showed the bench in chapel and were greeted by slashed tires and cut ignition wires in the parking lot. The bench was confiscated by the Dean of Students and mysteriously destroyed while under lock and key. A replica soon surfaced and the tradition was resurrected. Henceforth all bench activity has been limited to the junior and senior classes, the bench must remain within a fifteen-mile radius of Blanchard Hall, half of the bench must be visible at all times, and the bench must be shown twice a year and never in chapel. In subsequent decades the passionate rivalry has ebbed and flowed as soil analysis kits, airplanes, wiretaps, high-speed car chases, Billy Graham, wishing wells, and even eBay, have all been employed in pursuit of this elusive prize for all Wheaton students.

Athletics

Wheaton Thunder logo

Wheaton Thunder logo

Wheaton College competes in many NCAA Division III sports in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. The men's basketball team won the first NCAA Small College National Championship in 1958, defeating Kentucky Wesleyan in the finals, 89-65. The Wheaton men's soccer team captured the NCAA Division III Men's Soccer Championship in 1984 and 1997, to go with runner-up finishes in 1999 and 2006. The women's soccer team won the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship in 2004, 2006 and 2007. Wheaton athletics also competed in basketball at the 1904 Summer Olympics. The 1967-68 women's basketball team finished their season undefeated in 11 games, including a victory over the University of Iowa. Wheaton College was a member of the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from 1919-1937.

In 2008 Andy Studebaker was selected in the NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, and he was subsequently signed to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Criticism and controversy

Wheaton College has received criticism in recent years from both conservative and liberal alumni. Areas of controversy have included evolutionary biology being generally accepted in the science departments. Wheaton College was prominently featured in the PBS documentary Evolution.

In general, on issues of religion and science, the college holds the view that Christian faith and science are not at odds. One example of this is the college's hosting of a chapel address by climatologist Sir John Houghton in 2007.

The school's mascot was changed from the Crusaders to the Thunder in 2000 as the image of a mounted Crusader was deemed potentially offensive and reminiscent of a controversial period in Christian history. The change was noted in the national press, and some alumni objected to the change. Other suggestions for a new mascot name that were rejected included the Mastodons, a reference to Perry Mastodon, which is a mastodon skeleton that was dug up nearby and is now on display on the college campus in the Armerding Hall science building.

Wheaton again appeared in the news when Joshua Hochschild, assistant professor of philosophy, was dismissed in 2004 for becoming Roman Catholic. In 2008, English professor Kent Gramm resigned after declining to give the college administration details of his pending divorce from his wife of 30 years.

Wheaton College was one of the schools visited by the 2006 Soulforce Equality Ride which sought to engage in dialogue with students at universities with policies barring homosexual behavior. According to Equality Ride founder Jake Reitan, the Equality Ride was founded after he met a gay student from Wheaton several years earlier. While Wheaton did not officially invite the group to campus, administrators responded cordially to the visit and worked with Soulforce to develop a schedule of events on campus including a debate between members of the Equality Ride and members of the Wheaton community.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Wheaton College (Illinois) alumni

Presidents

• Jonathan Blanchard (1860–1882)
• Charles A. Blanchard (1882–1925)
• Rev. J. Oliver Buswell (1926–1940)
• V. Raymond Edman (1941–1965)
• Hudson T. Armerding (1965–1982)
• J. Richard Chase (1982–1993)
• A. Duane Litfin (1993—present)

Notes and references

• T. A. Askew, "The Liberal Arts College Encounters Intellectual Change: A Comparative Study of Education at Knox and Wheaton Colleges, 1837-1925" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1969).
• E. E. Cairns, V. Raymond Edman: In the Presence of the King (Chicago: Moody, 1972).
• E. A. Coray, The Wheaton I Remember: Memoirs (Chicago: Books for Living, 1974).
• M. S. Hamilton, "The Fundamentalist Harvard: Wheaton College and the Continuing Vitality of American Evangelicalism, 1919-1965" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 1995), advisor, Nathan O. Hatch.
• M. S. Hamilton, The Fundamentalist Harvard: Wheaton College, Evangelicalism, and American Higher Education (Oxford University Press or Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
• J. D. Lower, "An Evaluation of the Marion E. Wade Collection, Wheaton College, as a Research Collection" (unpublished A.M. thesis, University of Chicago, 1978).

External links

• Official website
• Campus map
• Wheaton College Conservatory of Music
• Wheaton College Graduate School
• WETN 88.1 FM
• Wheaton Athletics
• HoneyRock - Northwoods Campus of Wheaton College

41°52′5.3″N 88°5′48.8″W