Jamestown College

Jamestown College
Motto	Latin: Lux et Veritas
Motto in English	Light and Truth
Established	1883 (1883)
Type	Private Liberal Arts
Religious affiliation	Presbyterian
Endowment	$23.7 million
President	Robert S. Badal
Dean	Gary Watts
Students	967
Location	Jamestown, ND, USA 46.914°N 98.698°W / 46.914; -98.698
Campus	Urban (110 acres)
Colors	Orange and Black
Nickname	Jimmies
Mascot	Knight
Affiliations	APCU; DAC; NAIA
Website	www.jc.edu
Your success. Our tradition.

Jamestown College is a private liberal arts college founded by the Presbyterian Church located in Jamestown, North Dakota. It has about 1,000 students enrolled today and has been co-educational from its founding.

In 2007, Jamestown became the first North Dakota college or university to make US News and World Report's "Tier 1" for undergraduate colleges in the Midwest, a distinction repeated annually ever since. As of 2011, Jamestown College ranks 33rd in the region.

History

Jamestown College was founded in 1883, but closed fairly quickly during the depression of 1893. The school reopened in 1909 and has remained in operation ever since.

Jamestown College has been notable for three things: its athletics, its science and nursing programs, and its choir. In 1979, the Jamestown College football team went to the NAIA Division II National Championships. Jamestown's pre-medical students have a long-standing tradition of higher-than-average medical school acceptance rates.

In 1972 the college's choir—directed by Richard Harrison Smith and for decades one of the top small-college choirs in the United States—became the first American choir to sing at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, an honor they repeated four more times during the 1970s and 1980s. The choir continues to tour internationally every four years. The choir performed on a tour of Italy in May 2006, with concert venues including the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and St. Mark's Basilica in Venice. The choir's most recent international tour was to China in May 2010.

1980s: Low Ebb

In the mid-1980s, a difficult farm economy, along with alleged mismanagement by several former college administration officials, led the college into difficult times; in 1986, the school graduated 92 students, had a full-time enrollment of only 500 students, and reportedly came within 24 hours of closing its doors. A few 11th-hour donations and some radical restructuring brought the college back from the brink. The fundraising charge was led by Marvin E. Seibold ('56) and R.G. "Bob" Lyngstad who formed the "Committee of 100"—a group of 100 donors who each gave $10,000 to keep the College open.

Renaissance

Today, after nearly twenty years of aggressive fundraising, the school has nearly triple the students, and has been able to embark on a large building program to replace some of the buildings, which in many cases date from the college's original heyday in the 1920s.

The $30 million capital campaign to finance both this new construction and a larger scholarship base recently surpassed its goal several months ahead of its self-imposed 2008 deadline.

Recent developments

The Unruh and Sheldon Center for Business and Computer Science

Jamestown College has recently added many new buildings to the campus:

• renovations to the nursing program building, featuring a state of the art simulated Intensive Care Unit.
• the Unruh and Sheldon Center, home to the college's Business, Accounting and Economics, and Computer Science and Information Technology departments. This building is one of the most wired and high-tech buildings in the midwest; construction of the $5 million facility was completed in the summer of 2006 using gifts from Jim Unruh and Agnes (Sheldon) Griffin.
• the Ed and Elaine Nafus Student Center, including a two-story atrium entrance, an open commons area for students, a new coffee lounge, and full handicap-accessibility.
• an expansion of the Larson Center gymnasium and indoor track facility.
• the Foss Wellness Center, a modern student wellness and physical education center.
• the Student Media Center, featuring a studio, control room, and the Kurt Schork Newsroom, an integrated center for video, audio, and print media production.

A recent addition to the JC curriculum as of the 2006-07 school year is the "Character in Leadership" program, giving entering freshmen the ability to receive a minor in leadership.

The Jamestown Journey to Success

In 2007, Jamestown announced the Journey to Success, a new program targeted at preparing students for rapidly changing environments. The program has five elements: a combination of liberal arts education and professional preparation, more personalized advising and career counseling, first-year student mentors, a proven placement service and guaranteed internships, and finally, guaranteed graduation in four years.

Notable people

Alumni

• Richard K. Armey (1962), U.S. Representative from Texas and House Majority Leader
• Donald D. Lorenzen (1920–80), Los Angeles, California, City Council member, 1969–77
• Barbara McClintock (illustrator) (1976)
• Alvin Plantinga (1950), John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Author and philosopher
• Kurt Schork (1969), reporter

Faculty

• Larry Woiwode, accomplished author and poet, serving as Poet Laureate of the State of North Dakota since 1995
• Richard Harrison Smith, director of the Concert Choir from 1969 to 1999

Honorary degrees

• Louis L'Amour (1972) Western author

See also

• List of Jamestown Jimmies head football coaches

External links

• Jamestown College