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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
MottoVita Lux Hominum
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.

Earlham College is listed in Loren Pope's book, Colleges That Change Lives.

Campus, Curriculum & Community

The majority of Earlham College's campus is undeveloped forest and meadow, including the undeveloped "back campus" area, which serves as an outdoor classroom. Earlham is nationally recognized for its strong programs in biology, Japanese studies, and peace and global studies.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] Earlham is known for its "Super Languages" program where a full year of a language is taught intensively for one semester.

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, New Zealand (formerly, 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, and 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. [citation needed]

Earlham has an entirely student-managed public radio station, WECI 91.5FM. The Joseph Moore Museum is a natural history museum located on campus and run by students and biology department faculty, focusing on Indiana's natural history. It is open to the public (free of charge) and tours are available upon request. There are a number of themed and friendship houses bordering the North and East faces of the campus.

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

Athletics

Earlham College is also a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference. Earlham has won championships in men's cross country [citation needed]. 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.[citation needed] 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?

A popular cheer that was emoted by the Earlham College Fightin' Quakers football cheerleaders (circa 1979), when the opposing team had possession of the ball, was:

Fight exuberantly!
Fight exuberantly!
Compel them to relinquish the ball!

Wilderness Programs

Earlham was one of the first colleges in the country to initiate student and faculty led wilderness programs, back in 1970 [citation needed]. These programs were designed for incoming first-year and transfer students who 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 program leads backpacking and canoeing trips to places like Big Bend National Park and runs a May Term (a condensed three week term after the spring semester) course which trains students to lead its August Wilderness program.

Student Life

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." In August 2007, as part of New Student Orientation for the incoming class of 2011, the Earlham faculty revealed their new approach to dealing with alchohol issues. Although the official alcohol policy remains the same, the primary focus is now on education and personal responsibility, as opposed to enforcement.

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 developed a progressive pregnancy policy, despite its progressive reputation. Before this there were few 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.

Most students stay on-campus during the weekends. The Student Activities Board, Earlham Film Series, student bands, theater productions, etc. offer a variety of activities on the weekends.

In late of 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 [1]. 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.

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The Hash

Earlham 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," which may include the back property of the neighboring cemetary, during all seasons. In 2004, a student died as a result of injuries sustained while on The Hash. The Campus Safety and Security office and Student Development office share concern about the event and do not condone its happening. The Campus Safety and Security team has recently requested that the event be brought to an end via an article in the student-run newspaper, The Earlham Word.

Last Thursday, the Emperor Bennett mobilized a special secret black ops mission to shut down the Hash, once and for all. It was a hot day, and Campus Safety and Security was heavily camouflaged. Halfway through the operation (around 4:30 pm), Richmond Police Department was called in for reinforcements. The National Guard was subsequently alerted when it became apparent that the Hash House Harriers were employing Chuck Norris as a mercenary. By 6:00 p.m. Bennett's forces retreated to regroup, and debated whether Student Development's secret technology ought to be deployed. There was some fear that the Hashers would use their own secret device, but these fears did not come to fruition. After much discussion, consensus was reached and the top secret device remained in cryo-stasis. The siege ended around 9:00 p.m. with the Hashers surrendering. Security Guy Mark was awarded the Pacifist's Medal of Valor in Combat for his bravery and tenacity.

Notable Earlhamites

Notable Alumni

Notable Faculty

References

  1. 1 endowment "America's Best Colleges 2006". U.S. News & World Report. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  2. 2 full-time instructional faculty "Earlham Facts > Fast Facts > Faculty > Full-time". Earlham College. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  3. 3 enrollment "Earlham Facts > Fast Facts > Enrollment". Earlham College. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. 4 athletics_moniker "Earlham Style Guide > Sports Style" (PDF). Earlham College. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
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