Westminster College (Utah)
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This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (April 2009) |
| Westminster College | |
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| Motto | "Pro Christo et Libertate" |
| Established | 1875 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | $46.1 million[1] |
| President | Michael S. Bassis |
| Academic staff | 253[2] |
| Undergraduates | 2,168[3] |
| Postgraduates | 719[3] |
| Location | Salt Lake City, Utah, United States 40°43′54″N 111°51′18″W / 40.7318°N 111.8550°WCoordinates: 40°43′54″N 111°51′18″W / 40.7318°N 111.8550°W |
| Campus | Urban |
| Athletics | NAIA division 1 |
| Colors | Purple and Gold |
| Mascot | Griffin |
| Website | westminstercollege.edu |
Westminster College is a private liberal arts college located in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The college comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. It is the only accredited liberal arts college in the state of Utah.
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[edit] History
The school was founded in 1875 as the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute, a prep school under the supervision of the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City.
At that time, members of many Protestant Christian denominations flocked to Salt Lake City in order to try to convert people who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster is the only remaining vestige of a trend in the late 19th century in which the Protestants set up private primary and secondary schools and offered free tuition to children in order to try to convert them from Mormonism.
College level classes were first offered in 1897 as Sheldon Jackson College. It was given that name after a Presbyterian minister and its primary benefactor, Sheldon Jackson. High school level classes ceased to be offered in 1945. Westminster severed its ties to the Presbyterian church in 1974.
The college changed its name to "Westminster College" in 1902 to better reflect a more general Protestant education. The name is derived from the Westminster Confession of Faith, a Presbyterian confession of faith, which, in turn, was named for a London suburb where it was devised. Today, students from all religious persuasions (or none) are welcome.
The college is also no longer antagonistic toward The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. About 40 percent of its students are LDS, approximately the same percentage as for the general population of Salt Lake City. The school also proposed abandoning its traditional crest emblem, a shield emblazoned with the term "Pro Christo et Libertate." After students actively protested the administrative effort, however, the school crest was preserved.[citation needed]
Westminster was the first accredited two year junior college in Utah. It became a liberal arts institution in 1949.
Originally located in downtown Salt Lake City, the college moved to its present campus on 27 acres (0.11 km2; 0.04 sq mi) in the Sugar House neighborhood of the city.
The current president of Westminster College is Dr. Michael S. Bassis, who was appointed in 2002.
[edit] Recognition
Westminster College is the only private, non-denominational, comprehensive liberal arts college in Utah and one of the very few in the Intermountain West. Admissions statistics advertise a student-faculty ratio of 11:1. Peterson's Guide to Competitive Colleges includes Westminster College in the top 10 percent of 3,600 public and private colleges and universities nationwide. U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks Westminster in the top tier of Master's universities in the West and as an excellent educational value. In the 2009 edition, Westminster was ranked 19th, up four places from the previous year. Additionally, Westminster was recognized as a great value, ranking 13th on the list of "Great Schools, Great Prices" in this category.[4]
The Princeton Review included Westminster College in its annual guide of "The 368 Best Colleges" for 2008, and has also ranked the College 18th in the nation for "best quality of life."
[edit] Academics
Westminster College is a comprehensive college blending liberal arts studies with professional programs. The college comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. The college operates on a fall and spring semester system with a mini term in May and eight-and twelve-week summer terms.
Westminster offers 34 undergraduate majors conferring BA and BS degrees (not including pre-med, pre-law, and pre-dental programs). In addition to a number of post-baccalaureate certificate programs in various fields, Westminster also offers 12 graduate degrees: Master of Business Administration (MBA), Master of Business Administration in Technology Management (MBATM), Master of Arts in Community Leadership (MACL), Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT), Master of Education (MEd), Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), Master of Science in Nursing Education (MSNEd), Master of Science in Nurse Anesthesia (MSNA), Master of Professional Communication (MPC), and Master of Science in Professional Counseling (MSPC).[2]
Westminster College recently launched a new program within the Gore School of Business focusing on training students to be entrepreneurs. The Center for New Enterprise will offer graduate and undergraduate degrees as well as community education programs in entrepreneurship.
Westminster College is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Programs throughout the college are accredited as well.[2]
[edit] Campus
Westminster's Campus is known for its natural beauty and elegant architecture. Located on 27 acres (0.11 km2; 0.04 sq mi) in the middle of a long-established community, the campus has been designed to blend in with the neighborhood.
It is located in Sugar House, Salt Lake City, a beautiful neighborhood with much to do. A block away from Sugar House Park, which is one of the largest in Salt Lake City, outdoor activities are very common place. The Nerf Club heads down there every week to do battle.
There is only one meal location on campus, but within the Sugar House neighborhood there are many places conveniently located close to campus. Westminster students can use their student IDs to get discounts at many of these places.
On campus are two gyms each equipped with a basketball court, weight room, and studio.
The larger of the buildings, the Health Wellness and Athletics Center (HWAC), also has an indoor pool, three story rock climbing wall, and racket ball court. The facilities are home to the Indoor Soccer Club and Swim Club.
The Martial Arts Club and Boxing Club meet downstairs twice a week in Payne Gymnasium.
[edit] Student activities
The Associated Students of Westminster College or ASWC is the student government and activity board on campus. They provide services such as activities, student advocacy, and over sixty different clubs and organizations.
Westminster has several intercollegiate academic teams.
The Ethics Bowl Team has ranked constantly in the national top four over the past few years.
The Mock Trial Team is the best in the state and hosts its own invitational. They compete in AMTA.
The Debate Team is a new addition to the school and competes in NPDA style debate, as well as other speech events.
The Moot court Team is likewise new.
[edit] School publications
The school newspaper is a bi-weekly called "The Forum". There is also a nationally recognized literary journal known as Ellipsis. The Estonian, Westminster's student yearbook, was last published in 1987.
[edit] Athletics
Prior to 1979, Westminster's athletic teams were called the "Parsons," and the school was a member of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Football, basketball, and other team sports were offered at the intercollegiate level. That year, however, a financial crisis at the school caused it to discontinue its intercollegiate athletic program.
Beginning in the 1990s, Westminster gradually began to restore an intercollegiate athetic program, and the school's mascot is now the griffin. Today the school competes in the Frontier Conference of the NAIA's division one athletics for most sports, men's and women's alpine skiing and snowboard teams compete in the United States Ski Collegiate Ski and Snowboard Association (USCSA), men's lacrosse competes at the MCLA Division II level in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference (RMLC), and women's lacrosse competes in the US Lacrosse Women's Division Intercollegiate Associates (WDIA) in the Rocky Mountain Women's Lacrosse League (RMWLL). Westminster athletic offerings include:
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Men's sports |
Women's sports |
In the 2006-2007 academic year, Westminster began fielding a men's lacrosse following the completion of a new athletic field on campus. The Westminster men's lacrosse won the 2008 Division II MCLA National Championship held in Irving, Texas at Texas Stadium with a 17-10 win over Grand Valley State.[5] The program won the first national championship in the school's 130 year history, in only its second year. The Men's Basketball team has had notable success as the Griffins have gone 216-99 (.684) overall while proving even more dominant in Frontier Conference play with a 105-33 (.761) mark on their way to six of the last eight Frontier Conference titles while earning a spot in the NAIA National Tournament eight times.
[edit] Notable alumni and faculty
- Bonnie Baxter - Current professor of biology whose ecologic studies of the Great Salt Lake have been profiled on BBC [1] and PBS NOVA [2]
- Greg Gagne - co-authored Operating System Concepts,[6] one of the most widely-used operating systems textbooks in the world.
- David Litvack 1994 - Utah State House Representative for the 26th district and Alumni Board member.
- Heather McPhie - Freestyle skier, member of the US Olympic Team for the 2010 Winter Olympics.[7]
- Jeffrey Nielsen - Current professor of Philosophy, best known for his dismissal from BYU for criticizing the LDS Church's opposition of gay marriage.
- Geoff Stradling - Hollywood composer and orchestrator for TV series and movies. Stradling frequently works on movie scores with Ladd McIntosh, a former Westminster professor who led the Westminster Jazz Band to numerous awards in the early 1970s [3].
- Richard D. Wood - A noted American molecular biologist and winner of the Meyenburg Prize [4] for identification of proteins involved in repairing DNA after ultraviolet irradiation [5].
[edit] References
- ^ As of June 30, 2009. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2008 to FY 2009" (PDF). 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. National Association of College and University Business Officers. http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2009_NCSE_Public_Tables_Endowment_Market_Values.pdf. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
- ^ a b c "Westminster College: Westminster Fact Sheet". http://www.westminstercollege.edu/communication_office/index.cfm?parent=1757&detail=3342&content=3343. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ a b "Westminster College: President's Annual Report 2008". http://www.westminstercollege.edu/pdf/communication_office/Presidents_Annual_Report%2008_v10.pdf. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ "Westminster College: About Westminster". http://www.westminstercollege.edu/about/. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
- ^ Coyne, Jac (May 17, 2008). "Big Blue Owns Big D". Lacrosse Magazine. http://www.laxmagazine.com/sports/s-club/spec-rel/051708aah.html. Retrieved December 18, 2010.
- ^ http://www.os-book.com/
- ^ "Heather McPhie - Biography". United States Ski and Snowboard Association. http://www.usskiteam.com/freestyle/athletes/athlete?athleteId=1098. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "Westminster College: Campus News (November 20, 2008)". http://www.westminstercollege.edu/campus_news/index.cfm?id=632. Retrieved 2008-12-22.
- ^ "Carnegie Foundation U.S. Professors of the Year". http://www.usprofessoroftheyear.org/POY_Display.cfm?CONTENTITEMID=8976. Retrieved 2008-12-22.[dead link]
[edit] External links
- Official website
- Associated Students of Westminster College website
- Detailed (yet slightly outdated) College History
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- Universities and colleges in Utah
- Educational institutions established in 1875
- Council of Independent Colleges
- National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities members
- Universities and colleges accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities
- Buildings and structures in Salt Lake City, Utah
- Universities and colleges in Salt Lake County, Utah
- Visitor attractions in Salt Lake City, Utah
