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St. Olaf College

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St. Olaf College
File:StOlafSeal.gif
MottoFram! Fram! Kristmenn, Krossmen
(Adapted from the Old Norse battle cry for St. Olav: "Forward! Forward! Men of Christ, Men of the Cross")
TypePrivate
Established1874
PresidentDavid R. Anderson '74
Students2900 (approximation)
Location
Northfield
,
Minnesota
,
USA
Campus3.72 km² (920 acres)[1]
AffiliationsMIAC, ELCA.
Websitewww.stolaf.edu

St. Olaf College is a coeducational, residential, four-year private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus.

History of the College

Founding of the College

Many Norwegian immigrants arrived in Rice County, Minnesota, and the surrounding area in the late 19th century. With nearly all the immigrants being Lutheran Christians, they desired a non-secular post-secondary institution in the Lutheran tradition that offered classes in all subjects in both Norwegian and English. The catalyst for founding St. Olaf was the Reverend Bernt Julius Muus, and he sought out the help of the Rev. N.A. Quammen and H. Thorson. Together they petitioned their parishes and others to raise money in order to buy a plot of land on which to build this new institution. The three men succeeded in receiving around $10,000 in pledges, and thus went on to form a corporation and to buy a plot of land and four buildings (old Northfield schoolhouses) for accommodations for the school.

St. Olaf, then called St. Olaf's School, opened on January 8, 1875 at its first site under the leadership of its first president, Thorbjorn Mohn.

Overview of the Campus

The center of St. Olaf's campus.
St. Olaf's wind turbine, which directly powers one-third of the campus.

Ecology and sustainability is a top priority on the 300-acre St. Olaf campus that includes woodland, prairie and wetlands. The college also owns 600 adjacent acres of no-till farmland. The newest landmark on campus is the 350-foot tall, 1.6 megawatt wind turbine that began generating one third of the college’s electricity in fall 2006.

A new Science Complex is scheduled to open in fall 2008. It will join some 14 academic and administrative buildings and 11 residence halls spread across the "Manitou Heights" hilltop on the western edge of Northfield. Many St. Olaf students also live in 18 “honor” houses on the campus periphery. These home-like residences offer students the chance to develop personal interests through local volunteer work or through such organizations as Jewish Student Outreach, the Story House and St. Olaf Cancer Connection. Other honor houses, such as the French, German, and Asian Studies houses, allow students to further immerse themselves in academics.

Academics

Before graduating, St. Olaf students complete nearly 20 required courses in foundation studies (writing, a second language, oral communication, mathematical reasoning, physical well-being) and core studies that include studies in Western culture, human behavior and society, biblical and theological studies, artistic and literary studies, and studies in natural science. Many of the courses are, by nature, interdisciplinary. St. Olaf offers 41 major areas of study for the bachelor of arts degree, four for the bachelor of music degree and fourteen areas of concentration.

Music at St. Olaf

St. Olaf's music program, founded by F. Melius Christiansen in 1903, is renowned. Its band, choir and orchestra tour the continental U.S annually and have made many critically-acclaimed international tours. The St. Olaf Band was the first American college musical organization to conduct a concert tour abroad when it travelled to Norway in 1906. The orchestra was the first college orchestra ever to be a part of the Community Concert series.

The St. Olaf Choir, currectly directed by Anton Armstrong '78, was founded by Christiansen in 1907 as the St. John's Lutheran Church Choir in Northfield, and is regarded as one of the premier a cappella college choirs in the United States. It has toured Europe several times, as well as China, Korea, and Australia, performing before heads of state and producing over a dozen recordings. The choir performs in the nationally broadcast annual St. Olaf Christmas Festival, along with the St. Olaf Orchestra and four of the college's other choirs.

In 2005 the St. Olaf Band, St. Olaf Orchestra and St. Olaf Choir toured throughout Norway to help that country celebrate its centennial.

One of the few student-run music ensembles at St. Olaf is the men's a capella group known as the Limestones, though it operates independently from the college.

A few ensembles that sprouted their roots at St. Olaf include the Minnesota Symphonic Winds and the a cappella choral groups Cantus, Inpulse and Magnum Chorum.

Athletics

St. Olaf College is a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC). St. Olaf athletic teams and students are nicknamed the "Oles". St. Olaf's Swimming and Diving team is traditionally the strongest of its sports teams, having won a majority of its MIAC conference championships, and is strongly competitive at the national level, often finishing within the top ten NCAA Division III schools at nationals. St. Olaf competes in the following sports:

Fall Sports:

Winter Sports:

Spring Sports :

St. Olaf also has many student coached club and intramural teams that compete within the student body and also intercollege. Most notable is the St. Olaf ultimate team, which makes an annual trip to a national collegiate tournament (Spring Ultimax) in North Carolina.

Rivalry with Carleton College

St. Olaf is a traditional athletic rival of its crosstown neighbor, Carleton College. Each year in football, Carleton and St. Olaf compete in a contest recently dubbed the "Cereal Bowl" in honor of the Malt-O-Meal production facility that is located in Northfield. In this contest, the Oles have not lost to Carleton since 1995, and hence have retained both the "Goat Trophy" (created by a St. Olaf carpenter in 1931) and the silver Cereal Bowl trophy that are awarded annually to the winning team. The rivalry between St. Olaf and Carleton, which began with a Carleton victory over St. Olaf in 1919, is one of the oldest in all of college football, and the only to feature two colleges from the same ZIP code.

A lesser known fact about the Cereal Bowl is that Northfield's veterans' memorial (located in Bridge Square) features an eagle that is turned to face the college that wins the annual football match between the two schools.

College fight song

The college song, Um Yah Yah, is in 3/4 time and has the following lyrics:

We come from St. Olaf, we sure are the real stuff.
Our team is the cream of the colleges great.
We fight fast and furious, our team is injurious.
Tonight Carleton College will sure meet its fate.

Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya! Ya!

Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya! Ya!

It is one of the few college songs to mention another college in its lyrics (Texas A&M University's "Aggie War Hymn" is another, as well as UCLA's, University of Alabama's, and Georgetown University's fight songs), and is also the only college fight song written in 3/4 time.

There is an alternate version:

We come from St. Olaf, we wear cashmere sweaters.
We live on a hill to be closer to God.
We don't smoke, we don't drink.
At least that's what they think
But under the covers we Um! Ya! Ya! Ya!.

Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya! Ya!

Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya!, Um! Ya! Ya!
Um! Ya! Ya! Ya!

Presidents of the College

St. Olaf has had 11 presidents since its founding:

Notable alumni

Trivia

St. Olaf is mentioned in the works of Minnesota author F. Scott Fitzgerald. His character Jay Gatsby of The Great Gatsby attended the college briefly and worked as a janitor. It also is mentioned in Garrison Keillor's radio program A Prairie Home Companion.

The fictional Minnesota city of St. Olaf was the hometown of Rose in the TV show The Golden Girls. No confirmed basis has been found for the rumor that this name was chosen as a by a Golden Girls writer who had attended cross-town rival Carleton College and was mocking St. Olaf by giving its name to the hometown of the crazy Rose character. In the TV show the fictional city's sister city was St. Gustav, Minnesota, a nod to Gustavus Adolphus College, located nearby in St. Peter, Minnesota.

U.S. News ranks St. Olaf College 55 for Liberal Arts Colleges.

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