Graceland University

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Graceland University
Motto	Prudens futuri (Wisdom for the Future)
Established	1895
President	Dr. John D. Sellars
Faculty	146
Students	2,351
Location	Lamoni, Iowa, USA
School Song	Graceland Forever
Colors	Blue & Gold
Nickname	Yellowjackets
Mascot	Sting
Affiliations	Community of Christ
Website	www.graceland.edu

Graceland University is a private liberal arts university of about 2300 students and 150 faculty with campuses in Lamoni, Iowa and Independence, Missouri. The school, though non-sectarian, was established by, and is affiliated with, the Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), and was founded in 1895 as Lamoni College.

Its main campus is located in Lamoni, Iowa. This residential campus offers 43 majors and 60 degree options, 17 varsity sports, campus wide activities, and intramural sports. Among the significant architectural structures on the Lamoni Campus are the Higdon Administration Building, the Roy A. Cheville Chapel, Closson Physical Education Center, Frederick Madison Smith Library, and the Shaw Center.

The Independence campus is an urban campus that houses the school of nursing, undergraduate and graduate programs in education and Community of Christ Seminary.This campus also houses the Center for the Study of the Korean War, the largest Korean War archive in the United States.

In 1995, Graceland University acquired SkillPath, a business training company offering seminars and classes in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. SkillPath has offered approximately 20,000 sessions to more than 500,000 students in 450 cities.^[1]

Dr. John D. Sellars was named as Graceland's 17th president, assuming that role effective July 15, 2007. He follows Dr. Steven L. Anders (Graceland's vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty who was appointed acting president on August 7, 2006), and John K. Menzies (who resigned as Graceland’s president on August 5, 2006).

Graceland won first-place in the four-year division of the SIFE USA National Exposition in Kansas City, Missouri, on May 23, 2006. The team then went on to be the 1st runner up at the World Cup competition in Paris, France. In 2008, the SIFE team finished 3rd in National competition in Chicago, Illinois. They have qualified for National's 9 out of the past 10 years.

Contents 1 Academics 2 Housing System 3 Athletics 3.1 Football 3.2 Women's soccer 3.3 Women's volleyball 3.4 Men's volleyball 3.5 Men's soccer 4 Alumni 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Academics

University rankings
USNWR Liberal Arts College[2]	NR
Washington Monthly Liberal Arts[3]	NR

Graceland is not ranked by U.S. News & World Report, being deemed a Tier 3 institution.^[4] It is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission as a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.^[5]

[edit] Housing System

Instead of having fraternities and sororities like many universities, Graceland has residential social organizations called "houses". Each student is assigned to a "house," regardless of whether they live on or off campus. Each house functions socially as a fraternity or sorority. House officers form a house council including a president, a Council of Student Activities member (also known as COSA), a Student Academic Council member (also known as SAC), a senator who represents the house in student government, an intramural sports representative, a chaplain, and finally Crescents (exclusive to women's houses and whose duties include decorating and doing arts and crafts). Members of a house council are elected to their positions by members of their house.

[edit] Athletics

[edit] Football

In 2005, the Yellowjackets went 9-3, won their first conference title since 1975 and qualified for the NAIA national championships for the first time ever. This was just four years removed from an 0-10 season. Cris Welch is 28 and 14 in four years.

Herbert Goodman and Jeff Criswell went on to play in the NFL

[edit] Women's soccer

In 2006, GU won their third straight Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship. Despite a 17-1-1 record, the Jackets were not selected for the NAIA national tournament. They have not been defeated in conference play since October 2003 (29-0-3). GU is 67-6-11 over the lst four years.

[edit] Women's volleyball

Stew McDole has won 741 matches in 25 years at Graceland.

[edit] Men's volleyball

The Jackets capture three NAIA Championships (1973, 76, 79). They were one of only two teams to qualify for nationals all 11 years it was run. The NAIA stopped the championships following the 1978-79 season.

[edit] Men's soccer

In 2006, Graceland went 18-4-2. Despite losing in the Region V Championship, the Jackets were selected to the NAIA National Tournament and seeded second. They beat Milligan 1-0, Grand View 3-0, Webber International 1-0 and Azusa Pacific 0-0 (7-6 in a shoot out) to win the NAIA National Championships.

They beat Grand View 3-0 after losing 3-0 to them in the opening game of the season. In the semi finals against Webber International they played without one of the top two defensive players, Ruben Ruelas (broken ankle against GV), Edson Edward (#3 scorer, injury) and veteran Brett Porter (sitting out due to yellow cards). In the final against Azusa Pacific, they were without Ruelas, Edward, Facundo Rinaldi (Top reserve, out with a red card) and Kevin Souter (top player out on fouls).

In the shoot out, both teams made all five of their penalty kicks, which is highly unusual. Then in the second round, both teams missed their first three shots each. After each made the fourth shot, Goal Keeper Isaac Unruh came up with a huge save and Nick Gay put his shot past the keeper for the win.

In 2008, the Yellowjackets won the HAAC conference for the third time (1997, 2005 and 2007) finishing with a 17 wins, 2 ties and 2 losses record. Graceland advanced to National Tournament for the third year in a row. Kevin Souter (Portsoy, Scotland) has been signed by the Kansas City Wizards Professional Soccer Team.

In the Fall of 2008 Angel Monroy long time assistant and associate head coach during the 2007 season took over the reigns of the men's soccer program after Ivan Joseph traveled to Ryerson University (Toronto, Canada) to become the University's athletic director. Under the tutelage of the new coaching staff the yellowjackets continued their success finishing the season ranked nationally in the NAIA (#22) with a record 13-5-2 and 6-1-2 in the conference.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Alumni

• Leonard Boswell: politician, Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives, Iowa 3rd District, 1997–Present
• Teresa Carpenter: journalist and novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner, 1981
• Jeff Criswell: football player; offensive lineman for Indianapolis Colts 1987, New York Jets 1988–1994 and Kansas City Chiefs 1995–1998.
• Merle Harmon: sport announcer, motivational speaker, entrepreneur [1]
• Bruce Jenner: athlete, Olympic gold medalist, 1976
• C. Robert Mesle: Process theologian, 1972
• Richard J. "Dick" Resch: pre-engineering 1958 graduate, President and CEO of KI,^{[citation needed]} donated $3 mil to Graceland for the Platz-Mortimore Science Hall, renamed Resch Hall
• Frederick Madison Smith: Graceland's first graduate; third president of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now the Community of Christ, 1915–1946
• Israel Alexander Smith: President of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, now the Community of Christ, 1946–1958
• David Yost: actor, original Blue Power Ranger
• Milton Young: politician, Republican U.S. Senator from North Dakota, 1945-1981
• Kevin Souter: athlete, Kansas City Wizards in Major League Soccer

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Graceland University
• Graceland University Bands website
• The Center for the Study of the Korean War

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