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Earlham College

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For other places with the same name, see Earlham (disambiguation).
Earlham College
File:Earlham-College.gif
MottoEngagement with a
Changing World
Typeprivate coeducational
Established1847
Endowment$384 million[1]
PresidentDouglas C. Bennett
Academic staff
93[2]
Undergraduates1,185[3]
Location
Richmond
,
IN
,
USA
Campuslarge town:
800 acres (3.2 km²)
AthleticsFile:EarlhamCollegeSpiritMark.jpg
16 Division III NCAA teams
Colorsmaroon and white
NicknameThe Hustlin' Quakers[4]
AffiliationsReligious Society of Friends (Quakers)
MascotMr. Quaker
Websitewww.earlham.edu

Earlham College is a national, selective Quaker liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 and has approximately 1,200 students. The current president is Douglas C. Bennett. In keeping with Friends' belief in equality, everyone addresses each other at Earlham by his or her first name, without the use of titles such as "doctor" or "professor."

While Earlham is primarily a residential undergraduate college, it does have two graduate programs — the master of arts in teaching and the master of education — which provide a route for teacher licensure to students with liberal arts undergraduate degrees. Additionally, there are two associated institutions located adjacent to the Earlham campus: Earlham School of Religion, a Christian graduate theological school in the Quaker tradition, and Bethany Theological Seminary, an independent Brethren institution offering graduate and non-degree programs.

Campus, Curriculum and Community

Earlham College sits on an 800 acre (3.2 km²) campus, the majority of which is undeveloped forest and meadow. The undeveloped 'back campus' area is criss-crossed by trails for the enjoyment of the student body as well as serving as a readily accessible outdoor classroom. Earlham is nationally recognized for its strong programs in biology, Japanese studies, and peace and global studies. The Earlham Libraries are known for their course-integrated program of information literacy instruction. Notably, Earlham ranks 8th in the nation (out of 1,302 colleges and universities) in its percentage of graduates who go on to receive a Ph.D. in the biological sciences and 26th in the percentage of students going on to Ph.D. programs in all fields. Earlham is known for its "Super Languages" program where a full year of a language is taught intensively for one semester. Earlham recently began offering two semesters of modern Arabic.

Earlham has an extensive outdoor education program which features its own indoor climbing wall. Tucked into Earlham's 'back campus' is a high and low ropes challenge course. Earlham also has a state-of-the-art equestrian center that is student-run.

Earlham ranks high among liberal arts schools of its size with regard to student body diversity. Earlham has sizable black and Jewish populations. International students comprise over 10% of the student body in most years. There are small numbers of Catholics, Unitarian Universalists, Muslims, Buddhists, Evangelical Protestants, United Church of Christ and Bahá'í students, and a large number of students affiliated with mainline Protestant denominations. There are also atheists, agnostics, and non-denominationalists. Between 10 and 20 percent of the student population belongs to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

The faculty at Earlham provide a rigorous curriculum and engage students in collaborative research. The student to faculty ratio is approximately 12:1.

Earlham College has a high number of faculty-led off-campus programs. Almost two-thirds of Earlham students go on a semester-length off-campus program to such destinations as Mexico, Vienna, Martinique, Northern Ireland, Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain, the Southwestern U.S., Japan and Tanzania. In addition, there are a number of shorter off-campus May terms, with destinations both within the U.S. and abroad (Galapagos, Senegal, Menorca, Turkey as recent examples). Earlham has a formal exchange program with Waseda University in Japan, which has existed informally for decades. Each year about a dozen students from each school experience a year of student life at the other university. In addition, Earlham College works with the SICE program in Morioka, Japan, a program in which about twelve to fourteen students teach English in grade schools in Morioka.

Earlham College is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

Earlham is unique in that it has an entirely student-managed public radio station, WECI 91.5FM.

The Joseph Moore Musem is a natural history museum located on campus and run by students and biology department faculty. The focus is Indiana's natural history. It is open to the public (free of charge) and tours are available upon request.

Earlham College remains the only American institution of tertiary education allowing one to study aardvarks extensively in their native habitat in the Kakamega Forest. [1]

Athletics

Earlham College is also a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference. While not an outstanding athletic school, Earlham has won championships in men's cross country and has an ultimate team. The athletics teams are known as the Quakers. They originally had been the Fightin' Quakers; although the name was meant tongue-in-cheek, it was changed in the 1980s to the Hustlin' Quakers after the college's board of regents decided that it was inappropriate for Quakers to fight. In the 1990s, the name was changed again to simply Quakers. Among the student body, the chant sometimes sung publicly is

Fight, Fight, Inner Light!
Kill, Quakers, Kill!
Knock 'em Down, Beat 'em Senseless!
Do It til We Reach Consensus!

Also:

Fight, Fight, Inner Light!
Kill, Quakers, Kill!
Beat 'em, Beat 'em, Knock 'em Senseless!
Tell Me, Do We Have Consensus?

The Hash

Another notable Earlham fact is that it has the only student-run Hash House Harriers running group, founded in 1989 and still continuing at present (2007). While only loosely connected with national organizations, the student group maintains weekly runs and has been described by visitors as the "Galapagos of Hashes" for the creativity and development of hashing practices. The Hash run takes place on the "back campus" during all seasons.

Wilderness Programs

Earlham was one of the first colleges in the country to initiate student and faculty led wilderness programs, back in 1970. These programs were designed for incoming first-year and transfer students and students received credit for them. The program is divided into the Water August Wilderness and the Mountain August Wilderness and lasts for approximately three weeks; the former canoes in Wabakimi Provincial park in Ontario and the latter hikes in the Uinta Mountains in Utah. Students in the past have taken ice climbing, white water kayaking, rock climbing and canoeing for credit. The programs leads backpacking and canoeing trips to places like Big Bend National Park during breaks and runs a May Term (a condensed three week term after the spring semester) course which trains students to lead its August Wilderness program. Some of these students go on to lead wilderness courses for Outward Bound after graduation.

Non Consensus Issues

A great deal of effort is made at Earlham to stress its emphasis upon reaching consensus on any issue of importance. For example, student organizations are strongly encouraged not to operate according to majority vote or steering committee but instead to adopt Quaker-based consensus governance. This principle supposedly guides the institution as a whole [2].

Therefore, when matters exist for which consensus is not reached among all members of the Earlham community, the lack of consensus, in and of itself, can become an issue. Thus, these matters are known as "non consensus issues."

Student Life Issues

Earlham's "dry campus" policy is controversial among members of the student body and some faculty members. Drinking is fairly commonplace; some students refer to the campus as "pleasantly moist."

Tension sometimes arises between students and the Quaker Indiana and Western Yearly Meetings over issues of sexuality. Western and, to an even greater degree, Indiana Yearly Meeting tend to be more conservative on issues such as condom distribution, pregnancy, and homosexuality. This tension has been a recurrent feature of Earlham life for decades.

Earlham College only recently adopted a pregnancy policy, despite its progressive reputation. Before this there were no explicit guidelines in the event that a student became pregnant. The new policy states that pregnant women may reside in on-campus housing, but are also offered a housing exemption if they so desire.

Until lately the distribution of condoms (and other contraceptive devices) on campus was restricted to health services. Recently prophylactic devices have become available outside the room of each hall's resident assistant.

Visiting Speakers

Other points of contention were political, mostly involving the invitation of conservative speakers to campus. While some students are hostile to these speakers because of their political views, other students enjoy the chance to hear speakers with divergent points of view.

In late March 2005, William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, was hit in the face with an ice cream pie by a student during a lecture he gave on campus [3]. This event made national and international news and was carried by many leading news outlets. Many students and faculty at the lecture showed strong disapproval of the act and applauded when Kristol resumed his talk.

Other conservative (and libertarian) speakers who have been invited to Earlham in the past such as former U.S. President Richard Nixon (then a freshman Congressman), Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar, Christina Hoff Sommers, Michelle Easton, Alan Dowtey, Kay Hiemenowitz, Ward Connerly, Andrew Sullivan and Stanley Kurtz received warm receptions despite their difference in opinion with many students and faculty. Famed columnist and right-wing political pundit Ann Coulter's visit to Earlham in November 2001 was much more provocative, however.

While there have been some notable exceptions, the majority of speakers invited to Earlham reflect left-leaning viewpoints. A short list of left-leaning personalities visiting campus in recent years include (in no particular order) Cornel West, Bell Hooks, Rashid Khalidi, Frances Moore Lappé, Gerry Adams, Hanan Ashrawi, Ralph Nader, Jackson Katz, Angela Davis, Anthony Romero, Leslie Feinberg, Adam Shapiro, Malik Shabazz, Dianne Nash, George Lakoff, Victoria Jackson Gray Adams, Michael Shellenberger, Howard Zinn, Nikki Giovanni, Ali Abunimah, Helena Cobban and Margaret Cho.

In addition, Earlham has hosted a wide variety of well-known entertainers including Aretha Franklin, Bill Cosby, Sinbad, The Indigo Girls, David Sedaris, Wesley Willis, Second City, The San Francisco Mime Troupe, and Matisyahu.

Notable Earlhamites

Notable Alumni

Notable Faculty

References

  1. 1 endowment "America's Best Colleges 2006". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved January 15, 2006.
  2. 2 full-time instructional faculty "Earlham Facts > Fast Facts > Faculty > Full-time". Earlham College. Retrieved January 15, 2006.
  3. 3 enrollment "Earlham Facts > Fast Facts > Enrollment". Earlham College. Retrieved January 15, 2006.
  4. 4 athletics_moniker "Earlham Style Guide > Sports Style" (PDF). Earlham College. Retrieved January 15, 2006.
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