College of William & Mary

College of William & Mary

File:WMseal.gif
Type	Public university
Established	1693
Endowment	US $492 million
Chancellor	Sandra Day O'Connor
President	Gene R. Nichol
Academic staff	763
Students	7,709
Undergraduates	5,734
Postgraduates	1,975
Location	Williamsburg , Virginia , U.S.
Campus	Small city, 1,200 acres (4.9 km²)
Colors	Green and Gold
Nickname	The Tribe
Website	www.wm.edu

The College of William & Mary (also known as William & Mary, W&M or The College) is a small, selective, coeducational public university located in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. It is the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. It is considered one of the original eight Public Ivies listed by Richard Moll in 1985.

William & Mary was founded in 1693 by a Royal Charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II of England. William and Mary educated U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler and other key figures important to the development of the nation, including U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and 16 signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. W&M is notable in higher education for the founding of the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society.

Known for its liberal arts program, William & Mary also offers a law school (the first in the United States), as well as several other graduate programs. Although considered one of the first universities in America, the school retains the traditional "College" in its name as was specified in its Royal Charter of 1693. The institution's official name is "The College of William & Mary in Virginia."

History

Prologue

File:Wren1.jpg

Wren Building with a snow-covered statue of Lord Botetourt

A school of higher education for both Native American young men and the sons of the colonists was one of the earliest goals of the English leaders of the Virginia Colony, which was initially based at Jamestown in 1607. Within the first decade, a promising start of a school was initiated as part of the progressive colonial outpost of Henricus under the leadership of Sir Thomas Dale. However, the Indian Massacre of 1622 destroyed the Henricus development, postponing the colonists' hopes for a school of higher education. It would be almost 70 more years before their efforts to establish a school of higher education would be successfully renewed with the founding of William & Mary.

Founding and colonial history

In 1691, the House of Burgesses sent James Blair (the colony's top religious leader and rector of Henrico Parish at Varina) to England to secure a charter to establish "a certain Place of Universal Study, a perpetual College of Divinity, Philosophy, Languages, and the good arts and sciences...to be supported and maintained, in all time coming." Blair journeyed to London and began a vigorous campaign. With support from his friends, Henry Compton, the Bishop of London, and John Tillotson (Archbishop of Canterbury), Blair was ultimately successful. [3]

See also article James Blair (Virginia)

Reverend Dr. James Blair (Founder)

The College was founded on February 8, 1693, under a Royal Charter secured by Blair. Named in honor of the reigning monarchs King William III and Queen Mary II, the College was one of the original Colonial colleges. The Charter named Blair as the College's first president (a lifetime appointment which he held until his death in 1743). The new school was also granted a coat of arms from the College of Arms.[4]

William and Mary was founded as an Anglican institution; governors were required to be members of the Church of England, and professors were required to declare adherence to the Thirty-Nine Articles.

The Royal Charter called for a center of higher education consisting of three schools: the Grammar School, the Philosophy School and the Divinity School. The Philosophy School instructed students in the advanced study of moral philosophy (logic, rhetoric, ethics) as well as natural philosophy (physics, metaphysics, and mathematics); upon completion of this coursework, the Divinity School prepared these young men for ordination into the Church of England.

This early curriculum, a precursor to the present-day liberal arts program, made William and Mary the first American college with a full faculty. The College has achieved many other notable academic firsts.

In 1693, the College was given a seat in the House of Burgesses and it was determined that the College would be supported by tobacco taxes and export duties on furs and animal skins. In 1694, Blair returned from England, and William & Mary opened in the original "College Building" at Middle Plantation, located on high ground midway across the Peninsula between the James and York Rivers. The College Building (the precursor to today's Wren Building) was completed in 1699 on a picturesque site comprising 330 acres. The present-day College still stands upon those grounds.

After the statehouse at Jamestown burned in 1698, the legislature moved temporarily to Middle Plantation, as it had in the past. Upon suggestion of students of the College, the capital was permanently relocated there, and Middle Plantation was renamed Williamsburg.

Thomas Jefferson (Class of 1762)

Williamsburg served as the capital of Colonial Virginia from 1699 to 1780. During this time, the College served as a law center and lawmakers frequently used its buildings. It educated future U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler. The College issued George Washington his surveyor's certificate, which led to his first public office. Washington was later appointed the first American chancellor following the American Revolution Chancellors in 1788, which was his last public office that he held until his death in 1799.

George Wythe (America's first law professor)

George Wythe, widely regarded as a pioneer in American legal education, attended the College as a young man, but dropped out unable to afford the fees. Wythe went on to become one of the more distinguished jurists of his time. Jefferson, who later referred to Wythe as "my second father," studied under Wythe from 1762 to 1767. By 1779, Wythe held the nation's first Law Professorship at the College. Wythe's other students included Henry Clay, James Monroe and John Marshall. [5]

The College also educated three U.S. Supreme Court Justices (John Marshall, Philip Pendleton Barbour and Bushrod Washington) as well as several important members of government including Peyton Randolph and Henry Clay.

Secret societies

John Heath and William Short (Class of 1779) founded the Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society at William and Mary on December 5, 1776 as a secret literary and philosophical society. Additional chapters were soon established at Yale and at Harvard.[6], and there are now 270 chapters nationwide,[7]. Alumni John Marshall and Bushrod Washington were two of the earliest members of Phi Beta Kappa, elected in 1778 and 1780, respectively. [8]

Some of the secret societies known to exist at the College today are the Seven Society, Order of the Crown and Dagger, the Bishop James Madison Society, the Flat Hat Club, the Alpha Club, the 13 Club, the W Society, the Williams, the Phi Society.

Post-colonial history

The colonies declared their independence in 1776 and William & Mary severed formal ties to England. However, the College's connection to British history remains as a distinct point of pride; it maintains a relationship with the British monarchy and includes former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher among those who have served as Chancellors.

Wren Building in 1859

In 1842, alumni of the College formed the Society of the Alumni which is now the sixth oldest alumni organization in the United States.

During portions of the American Civil War (1861-1865), William & Mary was occupied by Union troops. The Battle of Williamsburg was fought nearby during the Peninsula Campaign on May 5, 1862; on September 9, 1862, drunken soldiers of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry set fire to the College Building, reportedly in an attempt to prevent Confederate snipers from using it for cover.

Following restoration of the Union, the College's 16th president, Benjamin S. Ewell, sought war reparations from the U.S. Congress, but he was unsuccessful. The College closed in 1882 due to lack of funds. During this time, President Ewell sounded the bell in the Wren Building every year, an act traditionally regarded as the start of the academic term. [9]

In 1888, William & Mary resumed operations under a substitute charter when the Commonwealth of Virginia passed an act[10] appropriating $10,000 to support the College as a state teacher-training institution. Lyon Gardiner Tyler (son of US President and alumnus John Tyler) became the 17th president of the College following President Ewell's retirement. Tyler, along with 18th president J.A.C. Chandler, expanded the College into a modern institution. Then, in March of 1906 the general assembly passed an act taking over the grounds of the colonial institution, and it has remained publicly supported ever since. In 1918, William & Mary was one of the first universities in Virginia to become coeducational. During this time, enrollment increased from 104 students in 1889 to 1269 students by 1932.

Significant campus construction continued under the College's nineteenth president, John Stewart Bryan. In 1935, the Sunken Gardens were constructed, just west of the Wren Building. The sunken design is taken from a similar landscape feature at Chelsea Hospital in London, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Thanks to the generosity of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., the Sir Christopher Wren Building, the President's House and the Brafferton (the President's office) were restored to their eighteenth century appearance between 1928 and 1932.

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited the College on October 16, 1957, where the Queen spoke to the College community from the balcony of the Wren Building.

In 1974, Jay Winston Johns willed Ash Lawn-Highland, the 535-acre historic Albemarle County, Virginia estate of alumnus and U.S. President James Monroe, to the College. The College restored this historic Presidential home near Charlottesville and opened it to the public. [11]

The Sir Christopher Wren Building

The building officially referred to as the "Sir Christopher Wren Building" was so named upon its completion in 1931 to honor the English architect Sir Christopher Wren attributed with the design for the College's main building by an eighteenth century author. Wren was famous for designing St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The Wren Building is based on the design of original College Building (1699) as it appeared after a 1716 remodeling. The basis for the 1930s name is a 1724 history in which Hugh Jones stated that the 1699 design was "first modelled by Sir Christopher Wren" and then was adapted "by the Gentlemen there" in Virginia; little is known about how it looked, since it burned within a few years of its completion and was remodeled by 1716. Therefore historians have little evidence to substantiate Jones's claim that Wren actually designed the 1699 main building. The College's Alumni Association recently published an article exploring Sir Christopher Wren's potential involvement in the original College Building. [12] A follow-up letter clarified the apocryphal nature of the Wren connection. [13].

In the early 20th century, the Reverend Dr. W.A.R. Goodwin and John D. Rockefeller Jr. undertook a massive restoration project in Williamsburg -- the project culminated into Colonial Williamsburg. As part of this undertaking, the Wren Building was the first major building to be restored. Following a drawing on the Bodleian copper plate (ca. 1740) and plans Thomas Jefferson drew of the interior in 1772, the Boston architectural firm of Perry, Shaw & Hepburn restored the building to its second form (1705-1859). The architectural firm subsequently designed complete reconstructions of the Capitol and the Governor's Palace, the original versions of which had burned during the eighteenth century. [14]

Two other buildings around the Wren Building complete a triangle known as Ancient Campus: the Brafferton (building) (built in 1723 and originally housing the Indian School, now the President and Provost's offices) and the President's House (built in 1732).

The Wren Building also holds the distinction of being the oldest functional educational building in the United States. The Wren Building was known in colonial times as "The College" because, in the early years of the institution, the entire College of William & Mary consisted solely of the Wren Building. Inside its hallowed walls, all students (males only at that time) lived, ate, studied, worshiped and learned.

Academics

History and milestones

William and Mary is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Of the original colonial colleges, William & Mary was the "most prominent and had the best classroom and residential buildings." [15]

The College was the first to teach Political Economy; Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations was a required textbook [16][17]. In the reform of 1779, William & Mary became the first college in America to become a university, establishing faculties of law and medicine; it was also the first college to establish a chair of modern languages. Chemistry was taught beginning in the nineteenth century; alumnus and future Massachusetts Institute of Technology founder William Barton Rogers served as the College's Professor of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry from 1828-1835.

Beginning with his 1778 Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, alumnus and future University of Virginia founder Thomas Jefferson was involved with efforts to reform the College. Jefferson guided the College to adopt the nation's first elective system of study and to introduce the first student-adjudicated Honor System.

Also at Jefferson's behest, the College appointed his friend and mentor George Wythe as the first Professor of Law in America in 1779. John Marshall, who would later go on to become Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was one of Wythe's students. The College's Marshall-Wythe School of Law is the oldest law school in the United States[18].

William & Mary has had five Rhodes Scholars since 1988 and many students have won Fulbright, Truman and Goldwater fellowships. [19]

Popular majors and Graduate Placement

The most popular majors at the College are government, history, economics, English, biology, and business administration. W&M students with at least a B+ average have a 70-75% acceptance rate to medical school and students with at least a B average enjoy an 80-85% acceptance rate to law school. It is worth noting that both these figures are double the national average. Sixty percent of W&M students go on to graduate school within 5 years of graduation [20]

Rankings

In 2007 and for the past several years, William & Mary has ranked as the ^#6 public university in the nation by U.S. News and World Report. [21] And among America's public four-year, degree-granting institutions, William & Mary is ranked ^#2 for its high graduation rate. [22] In the latest available US News rankings, it is ranked ^#31 among all national universities.[23] In the last U.S. News ranking of quality undergraduate teaching, it ranked ^#1 among public universities. [24]

The 2007 U.S. News rankings placed W&M's Marshall-Wythe School of Law ^#27 among all law schools[25] and the doctoral program in American colonial history ^#2 [26]. In 2007, Business Week ranked W&M's undergraduate business program ^#29 [27]. Similarly, in 2006, the Public Accounting Report ranked the undergraduate accounting program ^#23 and the graduate accounting program ^#24.[28] In 2007, a survey completed by more than 1,000 U.S. and Canadian faculty members in international relations, identified William & Mary as one of the top five colleges or universities for an undergraduate student interested in international relations.[29] William & Mary was one of only five non-doctoral programs in the top 25.

In 2007 William & Mary ticked up one place to rank as the ^#3 "best value" among America's public colleges in the latest issue of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine. [30]

According to a 2006 survey by the NCAA, William & Mary athletes were ranked ^#5 for graduation rates (tied with Stanford University). Of the six sports that are individually highlighted in the NCAA report, William & Mary shows a 100% graduation rate in three sports categories (football, women’s basketball and women’s track and field/cross county).[31]

In summer 2005, Newsweek Magazine dubbed William and Mary the "hottest small state school" due to William and Mary's small enrollment (for a public university) and 34% increase in the number of applicants since 1999. [32]

In 2007 BusinessWeek ranked The Mason School of Business at The College of William and Mary 29th best undergraduate business program in the US. [33]

Learning environment

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, a state organization charged with promoting Virginia's institutions of higher education, concluded:

William & Mary is one of the nation's premier public universities, combining the best features of an undergraduate college with those of a research university. [34]

William & Mary's small university environment, with only 5,635 undergraduates enrolled, distinguishes it from larger research universities, and its 11:1 student-to-faculty is lower than most top public universities. 86% percent of undergraduate classes have fewer than 40 students. [35] Many applicants indicate that they were drawn to W&M's small-college environment.

Graduate programs

William & Mary also enrolls approximately 2,000 students in the following graduate or professional schools:

• William & Mary Law School (Marshall-Wythe)
• Mason Business School
• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
• Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy
• School of Education
• Virginia Institute of Marine Science

Admissions and selectivity

Nationally, W&M's acceptance rates (ranging from 31% to 37%) place it among the most selective universities in the U.S. [36][37]

The top five overlap schools for William & Mary applicants are the University of Virginia, Duke, Georgetown, Cornell, and Vanderbilt. [38]

For the 2005-06 academic year, 31.0% of applicants were admitted to William & Mary, more selective than the University of Virginia (37.7%) and Vanderbilt University (35.3%) but less selective than Georgetown University (21.5%), Duke University (21%), and Cornell University (27.1%). [39] Of those admitted to the 2005 enrolling class, 40.9% matriculated at William & Mary, an admissions yield that leads Vanderbilt's (39.4%) but trails those of the University of Virginia (52.8%), Georgetown University (47.2%), Cornell University (46.5%) and Duke University (43.2%). [40]

Student life

Campus activities

The College enjoys a temperate climate[41]. In addition to renovations on the student recreation center, (including a new gym, rock climbing wall, and larger exercise rooms)[42] the largely wooded campus has its own lake and outdoor amphitheatre. Beaches at Virginia Beach are an hour away, and Washington DC is a two-hour drive to the north.

The College's University Center Activities Board (UCAB) hosts concerts, comedians, and speakers on campus and in the 8,600-capacity Kaplan Arena. [43]

Honor System

William & Mary's Honor System was first established by Thomas Jefferson in 1779. During the orientation week, nearly every entering student recites the Honor Pledge in the Great Hall of the Wren Building pledging:

As a Member of the William & Mary community I pledge, on my Honor, not to lie, cheat, or steal in either my academic or personal life. I understand that such acts violate the Honor Code and undermine the community of trust of which we are all stewards.

The Honor System stands as one of the College's most important traditions; it remains student-administered through the Honor Council with the advice of the faculty and administration of the College. The College's Honor System is codified such that students found guilty of cheating, stealing or lying are subject to sanctions ranging from an oral warning to dismissal. [44]

Traditions

Crim Dell in the heart of W&M's wooded campus

William & Mary has a number of traditions, including the Yule Log Ceremony, at which the president dresses as Santa Claus and reads a rendition of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," or other holiday texts.

Incoming freshmen participate in Opening Convocation, at which they pass through the entrance of the Wren Building and are officially welcomed as the newest members of the College. Freshmen also have the opportunity, during orientation week, to serenade the President of the College at his home with the Alma Mater song. The Senior Walk is similar, in that graduating seniors walk through the Wren Building in their "departure" from the College. On the last day of classes, Seniors are invited to ring the bell in the cupola of the Wren Building.

Unofficial traditions include the Triathlon, a set of three tasks to be completed by each student prior to graduation. These include jumping the wall of the Governor's Palace in Colonial Williamsburg after hours, and if so inclined, running through the Boxwood Maze to the Palace itself, streaking through the Sunken Gardens, and swimming in the Crim Dell (pictured). One of the most beloved unofficial traditions at WM is the playing of Pot O' Gold by the mens Track and field team as an initiation for their freshman class. The game is considered by many to be the greatest "hydration" game of all time. Unfortunatly, the legacy of this game (which dates all the way back till 2004) was put in jeoprady by a freshman track runner this past year who was unable to run away from the cops!

Legends include: kissing a date on the Crim Dell Bridge results in a future marriage. The crypt under the chapel can be reached via steam ducts under the campus and were supposedly used to steal bones from the grave of Norborne Berkeley, 4th Baron Botetourt who is entombed in the Wren Chapel. Many ghosts supposedly haunt the older sections of this school as it enters its 4th Century.

W&M trivia

• Hollywoodland, the recent L.A. film noir centering around the mysterious death of Superman actor George Reeves, is based upon a book co-authored by W&M professor Nancy Schoenberger

• As a college student at W&M, Thomas Jefferson attended lavish dinner parties held by royal governor Francis Fauquier where he developed his early love for wine (his favorites were madeira and claret). [45]

• There are elaborate catacombs running under the Wren Building and leading to tombs under the Wren Chapel, which have been closed off due to student explorations.

• The reigning British monarch Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip spoke at the College on October 16, 1957, as did Prince Charles in 1993 at the 300th anniversary (or Tercentenary) of the founding of the College.

• The Steely Dan song "My Old School" with its lyric about William and Mary was widely thought to be about the College, but apparently is about songwriter Donald Fagen's student days at Bard College.

• Upon graduation in 1965, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates received the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award naming him the graduate that "has made the greatest contribution to his fellow man."

• Three people with ties to W&M, Chancellor Sandra Day O'Connor, Board of Visitors member Laurence Eagleburger, and alumnus Robert Gates were members of the 2006 Iraq Study Group.

Fraternities and sororities

William & Mary has a long history of fraternities and sororities dating back to Phi Beta Kappa, the first "Greek-letter" organization, which was founded there in 1776. Today, Greek organizations play an important role in the College community, along with other social organizations (e.g., soccer house, theatre organizations). Overall, about one-third of its undergraduates are active members of the following 14 national fraternities and 12 sororities. [46]

Fraternities represented at William and Mary are:

• Alpha Epsilon Pi
• Alpha Phi Alpha
• Alpha Tau Omega
• Beta Theta Pi
• Chi Phi
• Delta Chi
• Delta Phi
• Kappa Alpha Order
• Kappa Sigma
• Kappa Delta Rho
• Lambda Chi Alpha
• Pi Kappa Alpha
• Phi Kappa Tau
• Phi Mu Alpha
• Sigma Chi
• Sigma Pi
• Theta Delta Chi

Sororities represented are:

• Alpha Chi Omega
• Alpha Kappa Alpha
• Chi Omega
• Delta Delta Delta
• Delta Gamma
• Delta Sigma Theta
• Gamma Phi Beta
• Kappa Alpha Theta
• Kappa Delta
• Kappa Kappa Gamma
• Phi Mu
• Pi Beta Phi

Athletics

File:Logo wm.gif

William & Mary's sports teams are known as "The Tribe." The College fields NCAA Division I teams for men and women in basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track and field. In addition, there are women's field hockey, lacrosse and volleyball squads as well as men's baseball and football. In the 2004-05 season, the Tribe garnered 5 Colonial Athletic Association titles, and it leads the conference with over 80 titles. In that same year, several teams competed in the NCAA Championships, and the football team appeared in the I-AA semifinals. [47] The men's soccer team has produced some notable players; the goalkeeper Adin Brown was a back-to-back NCAA First Team All-American in 1998 and 1999.

In May of 2006, the NCAA ruled that the athletic logo (which includes two green and gold feathers) could create an environment that is offensive. In June the College appealed the decision regarding the use of the institution’s athletic logo to the NCAA Executive Committee; this appeal was rejected on August 3, 2006. The "Tribe" nickname, by itself, was found to be neither hostile nor abusive, but rather communicates ennobling sentiments of commitment, shared idealism, community and common cause. [48]. As a result, the current athletic logo contains only the word "Tribe." In October 2006 the College notified the NCAA that it would phase out the use of the two feathers before the fall of 2007.[49] Some students have vowed to display it on their own at NCAA post-season games.

Previously, the College's "unofficial" mascot was "Colonel Ebirt" ("Tribe" backwards), which was discontinued.[50]

Leadership

On July 1, 2005, Gene R. Nichol (formerly Dean and Burton Craige Professor of the Law School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) was sworn in as the College's 26th President, succeeding Timothy J. Sullivan. Nichol's tenure has encountered controversy over his decision to remove the Millington Cross from the College's Wren Chapel, as well as the "Sex Workers Art Show," a display of pornography, prostitution and arguably graphic displays of sex toys. The show is funded by student and departmental fees and has come to campus for two consecutive years (http://phibetacons.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzdiMzlmZDE4Mzc2NzNkNDk5MzU2NjBkNzQwN2JlNmQ=). After one month the Millington Cross has not been placed in the Wren Chapel as promised by the religion committee, leaving some to speculate about deceptive diffusement of the Wren Cross Controversy by the religion committee. + On July 1, 2005, Gene R. Nichol (formerly Dean and Burton Craige Professor of the Law School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) was sworn in as the College's 26th President, succeeding Timothy J. Sullivan. - - Nichol attended Oklahoma State University, where he played second-string quarterback on its football team, and received his law degree in 1976 from the University of Texas, graduating Order of the Coif. He was the dean of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law from 1999 to 2005 dean of the University of Colorado Law School from 1988-1995, after which the ABA threatened to remove the school's ABA accredidation.[51] Both the University of Colorado and the University of North Carolina Law Schools suffered a major drop in their US News and World Report ratings while Nichol served as dean and neither have recovered to where they were when he arrived {http://prelawhandbook.com/law_school_rankings__1987_1999/edit Nichol made a bid for the United States Senate representing the state of Colorado in 1996 with the Democratic Party, but was defeated in the primary. He also made a bid for the US House of Representatives and was also defeated.

Sandra Day O'Connor was installed as the College's 23rd Chancellor on April 7, 2006. Until 1776, the Chancellor was an English subject, usually the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Bishop of London, who served as the College’s advocate to the crown, while a colonial President oversaw the day-to-day activities of the Williamsburg campus. Following the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was appointed as the first American chancellor; later President John Tyler held the post. The College has recently had a number of distinguished Chancellors: former Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger (1986-1993), former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1993-2000), and former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (2000-2005).

The Student Assembly, the College's student government organization charged with student advocacy, social event planning, and appropriating funds to other student groups, has existed since 1915, with some structural reforms made in recent years.

See Also: List of Presidents of William & Mary

W&M Board of Visitors

• William Barr
• Laurence Eagleburger
• Michael K. Powell

Commencement speakers

• 2007 - Robert Gates (Class of 1965) (scheduled)
• 2006 - Desmond Tutu
• 2005 - Timothy J. Sullivan (Class of 1966)
• 2004 - Jon Stewart (Class of 1984)
• 2003 - Queen Noor of Jordan
• 2002 - Lamar Alexander
• 2001 - Madeleine Albright
• 2000 - Brent Scowcroft
• 1999 - John Warner
• 1998 - Joseph Ellis (Class of 1965)
• 1997 - Margaret Thatcher
• 1996 - Antonin Scalia
• 1995 - George H. W. Bush
• 1994 - George Will
• 1993 - Bill Cosby
• 1992 - James Baker
• 1991 - Hanna Holborn Gray
• 1990 - Douglas Wilder
• 1989 - Glenn Close (Class of 1974)
• 1988 - Colin Powell
• 1987 - Roger Mudd
• 1986 - Jeane Kirkpatrick
• 1985 - Grace Hopper
• 1984 - Paul Volcker
• 1983 - Elizabeth Dole
• 1982 - Garry Trudeau
• 1981 - William F. Buckley, Jr.
• 1980 - Art Buchwald
• 1979 - Jeff MacNelly
• 1978 - Barbara Jordan

Distinguished William & Mary alumni

Main article: List of Notable Alumni from the College of William and Mary

William & Mary has produced a large number of distinguished alumni including: U.S. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, John Tyler, and James Monroe; key figures in American history Peyton Randolph, Henry Clay and Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall; MIT founder William Barton Rogers; U.S. Military Generals Winfield Scott and David McKiernan; Pittsburgh Steelers headcoach Mike Tomlin, football Hall-of-Famer Lou Creekmur, and Minnesota Vikings safety Darren Sharper; the popular entertainers Glenn Close and Jon Stewart; and the 22nd U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Notable professors

• James L. Axtell - William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Humanities; inducted to American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2004)
• George Grayson - Government professor, noted expert in Latin American politics, Senior Associate with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
• Charles Hobson - author of several prominent books on Chief Justice John Marshall, and the editor of the Marshall papers (housed at W&M's law school)
• Jack B. Martin - Associate Professor and Chair of English; author of a Creek language dictionary along with Margaret Mauldin
• Mitchell Reiss - Professor of Government and Law; Director of Policy Planning (U.S. Department of State)
• William H. Starnes, Jr. - Professor Emeritus; inventor of ester thiol organic PVC stabilizers
• William Van Alstyne - Professor of Law, noted constitutional scholar
• Dirk Walecka - Emeritus Professor of Physics; recipient of Tom Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics from American Physical Society; former director of CEBAF/JLAB
• Lawrence Wilkerson - Harriman Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy, former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell, and critic of Iraq War intelligence

External links

Further information

• The College of William & Mary (official site)
  • Historical Chronology
  • W & M (aerial photographs)
  • W & M News (official publication of the administration)
• The Royal Charter of the College
• Earl Gregg Swem Library
• The William & Mary Quarterly
• Athletics department
• W & M Washington, DC Office

Alumni organizations

• William & Mary Alumni Association (formerly the Society of the Alumni)
• Mason School of Business Alumni Association
• Marshall-Wythe School of Law Alumni Association
• Virginia Institute of Marine Science Alumni Office

Student organizations

• W&M Student Activities and Student Activities Board
• The Flat Hat
• WCWM, the official radio station
• Student Information Network
• The Virginia Informer
• The DoG Street Journal
• Student Environmental Action Coalition
• Reveille - Women's A Cappella
• One Accord - Men's Christian a cappella
• The Science Fiction & Fantasy Club
• William & Mary Anime Society
• Sinfonicron Light Opera Company

Institutes and special projects

• American Indian Resource Center
• Center for Conservation Biology
• Courtroom 21 Project: World's Most Advanced Courtroom (School of Law)
• Keck Lab for Environmental Sciences
• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture
• SciClone: largest academic Sun Microsystems cluster in western hemisphere
• Virginia Institute of Marine Science
• The Institute of Bill of Rights Law