Amherst College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts, USA. It is the third oldest college in Massachusetts. It has been coeducational since 1975. Amherst College is also part of the Pioneer Valley's Five Colleges, along with
Mount Holyoke College, Smith College,
Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. According to current U.S. News and World Report rankings, Amherst College is the #2 liberal arts college in
the United States.
History
Founded in 1821, Amherst College developed out of the secondary school Amherst Academy. The college was intended to be a
successor to Williams College, which was then struggling to stay open.
Amherst Academy
In 1812, funds were raised in Amherst for a secondary school, Amherst Academy. The institution got its name from the town,
which in turn had been named after Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron
Amherst, a veteran from the Seven Year's War and later commanding general of the
British forces in North America. On November 18, 1817, a project was adopted at the Academy
to raise funds for the free instruction of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a
desire to obtain a liberal education with a sole view to the Christian ministry." This required a substantial investment from
benefactors.
During the fundraising for the project, it became clear that without larger designs, it would be impossible to raise
sufficient funds. This led the committee overseeing the project to conclude that a new institution should be created. On
August 18, 1818, the Amherst Academy board of trustees accepted
this conclusion and began building a new college.
Williams College Debate Re: Removal
According to Tyler:
As early as 1815, six years before the opening of Amherst College, the question of removing Wlliams College to some more
central part of Massachusetts was agitated among its friends and in its board of trustees. At that time Williams College had two
buildings and fifty-eight students, with two professors and two tutors. The library contained fourteen hundred volumes. The funds
were reduced and the income fell short of the expenditures. Many of the friends and supporters of the college were fully
persuaded that it could not be sustained in its present location. The chief ground of this persuasion was the extreme difficulty
of the access to it. At the same meeting of the board of trustees at which Professor Moore was elected president of Williams
College, May 2 1815, Dr. Packard of Shelburne introduced the
following motion: "That a committee of six persons be appointed to take into consideration the removal of the college to some
other part of the Commonwealth, to make all necessary inquiries which have a bearing on the subject, and report at the next
meeting." The motion was adopted, and at the next meeting of the board in September, the committee reported that "a removal of
Williams College from Williamstown is inexpedient at the present time, and under existing circumstances." But the question of
removal thus raised in the board of trustees and thus negatived only "at the present time and under existing circumstances,"
continued to be agitated. And at a meeting on the 10th of November, 1818, influenced more or less doubtless by the action of the
Franklin County Association of Congregational Ministers, and the Convention of Congregational and Presbyterian Ministers in
Amherst, the board of trustees resolved that it was expedient to remove the college on certain conditions. President Moore
advocated the removal, and even expressed his purpose to resign the office of president unless it could be effected, inasmuch as
when he accepted the presidency he had no idea that the college was to remain at Williamstown, but was authorized to expect that
it would be removed to Hampshire County. Nine out of twelve of the trustees voted for the resolutions, which were as follows:
"Resolved, that it is expedient to remove Williams College to some more central part of the State whenever sufficient funds
can be obtained to defray the necessary expenses incurred and the losses sustained by removal, and to secure the prosperity of
the college, and when a fair prospect shall be presented of obtaining for the institution the united support and patronage of the
friends of literature and religion in the western part of the Commonwealth, and when the General Court shall give their assent to
the measure."
In November, 1819, the trustees of Williams College voted to petition the Legislature for permission to remove the college to
Northampton [near to the town of Amherst]. To this application, Mr. Webster says, "the trustees of Amherst Academy made no
opposition and took no measures to defeat it." In February, 1820, the petition was laid before the Legislature. The committee
from both houses, to whom it was referred, after a careful examination of the whole subject, reported that it was neither lawful
nor expedient to remove the college, and the Legislature, taking the same view, rejected the petition. ... Thus the long and
exciting discussion touching the removal of Williams College and the location of a college in some more central town of old
Hampshire County at length came to an end, and the contending parties now directed all their energies to building up the
institutions of their choice. (William S. Tyler, A History of Amherst College (1895))
The opening of Amherst College
Moore, however, still believed that Williamstown was an unsuitable
location for a college, and with the advent of Amherst College, was elected its first president on May
8, 1821. Amherst was founded as a non-sectarian institution "for the classical education of
indigent young men of piety and talents for the Christian ministry." (Tyler, History of Amherst College) Amherst College
is today an independent, non-denominational liberal arts college for women and men. Amherst's diverse student body includes,
among other backgrounds and racial and ethnic groups: African-Americans, Asian-Americans, bi- or multi-racial students,
Caucasian-Americans, international students (non-U.S. citizens), Latina/o-Americans, and Native Americans.
College Row, consisting of Williston, South, North, and Appleton Halls, with Johnson Chapel at center
At its opening, Amherst had forty-seven students. Fifteen of these had followed Moore from Williams College. Those fifteen
represented about one-third of the whole number at Amherst, and about one-fifth of the whole number in the three classes to which
they belonged in Williams College. President Moore died on June 29, 1823, and was replaced with a Williams College trustee, Heman Humphrey.
For two years in the mid-1830's, Amherst was the second largest college in the United States, second only to Yale. In 1835, Amherst attempted to create a course of study parallel to the classical liberal arts
education. This parallel course focused less on Greek and Latin, instead focusing on English, French, Spanish, chemistry,
economics, etc. The parallel course did not take hold, however, until the next century.
Williams alumni are fond of an apocryphal story ascribing the removal of books from the Williams College library to Amherst
College, but there is no contemporaneous evidence to verify the story. In 1995, Williams president
Harry C. Payne declared the story false, but the legend is still nurtured by many.
Academic hoods in the United States are traditionally lined with the official colors of the school, in theory so watchers can
tell where the hood wearer earned his or her degree. Amherst's hoods are purple (Williams' official color) with a white stripe or
chevron, said to signify that Amherst was born of Williams.
Presidents of the college
- Zephaniah Swift Moore, 1821–1823
- Heman Humphrey, 1823–1845
- Edward Hitchcock, 1845–1854
- William Augustus Stearns, 1854–1876
- Julius Hawley Seelye, 1876–1890
- Merrill Edward Gates, 1890–1899
- George Harris, 1899–1912
- Alexander Meiklejohn, 1912–1924
- George Daniel Olds, 1924–1927
- Arthur Stanley Pease, 1927–1932
- Stanley King, 1932–1946
- Charles W. Cole, 1946–1960
- Calvin Plimpton, 1960–1971
- John William Ward, 1971–1979
- Julian Gibbs, 1979–1983
- Peter R. Pouncey, 1984–1994
- Tom Gerety, 1994–2003
- Anthony Marx, 2003—
Academics and resources
Academic program
Admission to Amherst College is among the most competitive in the country. Notable faculty members include modern literature
and poetry critic William H. Pritchard, Beowulf translator Howell Chickering, Jewish and Latino
studies scholar Ilan Stavans, Pulitzer
Prize-winning Khruschev biographer William
Taubman, African art specialist Rowland Abiodun, Natural Law expert Hadley Arkes,
and law and society expert Austin Sarat. Amherst is distinguished by one of the most open
curricula and intellectually rigorous academic programs in the United States. Amherst's strength across the curricula and among
the disciplines is illustrated by, among other indicia, the accomplishments of its alumni in various fields.
During the freshman year, the only course requirement mandated by the registrar is one of the First-Year Seminars (each is
limited to no more than 15 students). Although these First-Year Seminars have similar structures (focusing on critical analysis,
development of argument in writing and class discussion, and research), there are usually about twenty different topics from
which to choose. The common purpose of the Seminars is to introduce students to Amherst's rigorous academic culture. The focus on
critical analysis, development of argument in writing and speaking, and research continues for all four years of study across the
curricula.
The 31 other courses that must be completed in order to receive a degree from Amherst College can be elected by the individual
student. Faculty advisors guide students through the process. Personal attention is the priority. In the freshman year, each
faculty advisor works with no more than five students to ensure a course of study that has breadth and depth and is both
integrated across disciplines and intellectually fulfilling. Faculty advising continues for the remainder of each student's
undergraduate career. Other curricular guidance resources are available as needed from professors and class deans. First year
students can take advanced courses; seniors can take introductory courses (such as beginning study of a second, third or fourth
foreign language).
However, students must adhere to departmental course requirements to complete their major, including satisfactory performance
on comprehensive examinations in their major field. Thirty-two percent of Amherst students double major. A small number triple
major; many create, with faculty advice, an interdisciplinary major. Fifty percent write theses during their senior year. Those
students who choose to write a senior thesis have additional faculty advisors whose areas of expertise mirror each thesis topic.
Within five years of graduation, seventy-four percent of Amherst alumni attend graduate school and are accepted into top programs
around the country and the world.
Teaching
Amherst places a high priority on meaningful interaction between students and their professors. Faculty are leading scholars
and researchers in their fields, as well as effective teachers. The historic guiding principle is the Amherst dialogue between
professor and student. Amherst classes are characterized by a spirited interchange among students and acclaimed faculty skilled
at asking challenging and probing questions. Professors are accessible and responsive to their students (both inside and outside
the classroom ); offer alternative points of view, question students' assumptions; and build face-to-face, professor-to-student
learning into the campus culture. To this end, professors serve as mentors and advisors, as well as teachers.
Traditionally, Amherst has made intensive writing for students a priority for all four years of study at all levels of
instruction, throughout the curricula, and across disciplines. As a result, over the course of their undergraduate careers,
students refine the form, logic, depth, and substance of their writing for a variety of audiences (in the sciences, arts, social
sciences, and humanities). Amherst also has as priorities an emphasis on quantitative analysis across the disciplines and
fostering global comprehension. The faculty always is striving to develop better and more innovative ways to teach and for
students to learn, discover, and create. Professors find that their research often sheds new light on how they teach their
classes. The faculty, led by President Marx, is strengthening an already strong interdisciplinary studies program and the
practice of the arts.
Students are encouraged early to undertake independent or small group research or creative work, mentored by a faculty member,
that results in an original scholarly work or other product. Professors also draw students into faculty research. In the
sciences, students participate in sophisticated research, using state-of-art equipment and facilities. Students collaborate with
professors and are listed regularly as co-authors on faculty articles. Students often present the findings of their work, whether
self-directed or in collaboration with faculty, at regional or national conferences.
Amherst maintains a student-faculty ratio of 8:1 and has an average class size of fifteen students. The curriculum is
remarkably rich and diverse. Amherst offers 33 fields of study (with 850 courses) in the sciences, arts, humanities, mathematics
and computer sciences, social sciences, foreign languages, classics, several interdisciplinary fields, and premedical and prelaw
studies, plus the possibility of creating one's own unique interdisciplinary major. A substantial number of faculty hold
appointments in two departments, a traditional academic discipline and one of many interdisciplinary programs. Amherst pioneered
the interdisciplinary fields of American Studies; Law, jurisprudence and social
thought; and Neuroscience. The American Studies department at Amherst College is the oldest
department in the United States. Amherst College created the interdisciplinary study of Law, jurisprudence and social thought. In
1973, Amherst became the first institution to offer an undergraduate major in Neuroscience. Amherst helped pioneer other
interdisciplinary programs, including Asian languages and civilization, Black studies, European studies, and Women's and gender
studies. With such an array of academic and professorial resourses, students and their advisors can tailor a program of study to
a student's specific academic interests. As evidence of students' satisfaction with the effective teaching of Amherst professors,
nearly seventy percent of alumni finacially support Amherst annually through the Amherst annual fund (which supports financial
aid, among other things).
Students
Amherst's outstanding resources, accomplished faculty, and rigorous academic life allow the college to enroll students with an
extraordinary range of talents, interests, and commitments. Students represent all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto
Rico, fifty countries, a variety of tastes, sensibilities, and political ideologies, and a broad mix of socioeconomic, ethnic,
national, racial, and religious backgrounds, thus ensuring a diversity of viewpoints -- essential to developing the ability to
listen to and evaluate the positions of others. Students' varied experiences and backgrounds enrich discussion, debate,
conjecture, broaden learning, and make life at Amherst more interesting. Ninety-seven percent of students live on campus.
Ninety-seven percent of Amherst freshmen return for their sophomore year; ninety-six percent graduate, among the highest
retention and graduation rates in the country.
The Kirby Memorial Theater
Five College Consortium
Amherst is a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its
students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions. These include
Mount Holyoke College, Smith College,
Hampshire College, and the University of
Massachusetts. In addition to the 850 courses available on campus, Amherst students have an additional 6,000 classes to
consider through the Consortium (without paying additional tuition) and access to 8 million library volumes. The Five Colleges
are geographically close to one another and are linked by buses which run
between the campuses. The Five Colleges share resources and develop common programs, including the Museums10 program. The Consortium has two joint academic departments, Astronomy and Dance. The Dance
department is one of the largest in the nation. The Astronomy department is internationally renowned. The Pioneer Valley schools'
proximity to Amherst adds to its rich extracurricular and social life.
Five College Coastal & Marine Sciences Program
Amherst students also can take classes in The Five College Coastal & Marine Sciences Program. The program offers an
interdisciplinary curriculum to undergraduate students in the Five
Colleges. Through active affiliations with some of the nation's premier centers for marine study, students engage in
hands-on research to compliment course work. Faculty from the natural and social sciences teach courses in the program. The
disciplines represented include biology, botany, chemistry, ecology, geology, physics, wildlife management, and zoology in the
sciences, and economics, government, and public policy in the social sciences. Many students in the program go on to advanced
study or professional work in various areas of marine science.
Resources
Among the resources on the 1,000 acre campus at Amherst College are more than 100 academic and residential buildings, athletic
fields and facilities, a wildlife sanctuary, a forest for the study of ecology, and trails and areas for walking and cycling.
Notable resources include the Mead Art Museum (with over 16,000 works), the
Amherst Center for Russian Culture, four libraries (the main Robert
Frost Library -- having one million plus volumes, nearly 400,000 media materials, extensive Archives and Special Collections, and a media center and
language lab; as well as separate libraries dedicated to science, math, and music), the Amherst College Museum of Natural History (including the Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet), the Basset Planetarium, the Wilder Observatory,
state-of-the-art science facilities (including the Merrill Science Center and the 50,000 square foot McGuire Life Sciences
Building), the Center for Creative Writing, well-equipped art studios, ample rehearsal and performance facilities for music,
theater, and dance (including the Amherst College Ames Music Center, the Kirby Memorial Theater, and the Holden Experimental
Theater), the Center for Community Engagement, and a student run radio station (WAMH 89.3 FM). Nearly every academic building and
all residential buildings have been renovated or constructed in the past three years.
Internet access is available in all student residences (one connection for each student in every room), and wireless access is
available almost everywhere on campus. There are thirty-seven residence buildings, nine theme houses, and two language houses
(supporting four languages). Just off campus, Amherst is caretaker and owner of the Emily Dickinson Museum in downtown Amherst, in addition to about half of the poet's manuscripts.
Amherst maintains a relationship with Doshisha University in Japan, which was founded by Amherst alumnus Joseph Hardy Neesima. In
accordance with the will of Amherst alumnus Henry Clay Folger, Amherst College is
charged with the governance of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington,
D.C.; Amherst maintains a close relationship with the Folger.
Student groups
Students can pursue nearly any interest through more than one hundred autonomous, student-led organizations funded by the
student government, including a variety of student groups, cultural and religious groups, publications, fine and performing arts
and political advocacy and service groups. In that there is approximately one group for every 16 students at Amherst, leadership
opportunities abound. Numerous forms of community service exist at Amherst, and community service (locally - through the Center
for Community Engagement, nationally, and internationally) is a priority at Amherst and for President Anthony Marx (who helped start a secondary school for black students in apartheid South Africa).
Study abroad and off-campus
Forty-two percent of Amherst students, usually juniors, study abroad and can select from more than 260 study-abroad programs
in countries including Argentina, Egypt, England, France, India, New Zealand, Spain, and Senegal, as well as
Japan where Amherst maintains a special relationship with Doshisha University, founded in 1875 by an Amherst alumnus.
Off-campus, Amherst students have the opportunity to study at a number of institutions, from the National Theater Institute in
Connecticut to Amherst's own Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.
The Twelve College Exchange program, of which Amherst is a member, has special exchange arrangememts with Bowdoin, Connecticut,
Dartmouth, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Trinity, Vassar, Wellesley, Wheaton and Williams Colleges and Wesleyan University for programs
not available in the Five College area.
The Folger Shakespeare Library
The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. holds the world's
largest collection of the printed works of William Shakespeare, as well as
collections of other rare Renaissance books and manuscripts. The Folger is a primary
repository of rare materials from the modern period (1500-1750). The Folger is an internationally recognized research library and
center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. The Folger is also an innovator in the preservation of rare materials
and an award winning producer of cultural and arts programs, including theater, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family
programs.
Fellowships and internships
The Amherst Tom Gerety Fellowships for Action and the Winternship program allows more than 100 students to receive funding
from the college each year to do public service work around the country and the world. Students also can select internships
beginning as early as the first year, opting from among 15,000 opportunities nationwide through the Liberal Arts Center Network,
as well as the "Amherst 100" internships that are sponsored by alumni.
Historically, graduating seniors and recent graduates have competed successfully for the most prestigious fellowships in the
nation, including Fulbright, Goldwater, Watson, and Rhodes.
Tuition and financial aid
Amherst's total tuition, fees, room, and board for the '06-07 academic year was $43,360. About half (49%) of students receive
scholarship aid,[1] with
64% receiving some form of financial aid.[2]
In July 2007, Amherst announced that scholarships will replace loans (both from the college and federal loans) in all
financial aid packages beginning in the 2008-09 school year. Amherst had already been the first school to eliminate loans for
low-income students, and with this announcement it joins Princeton and Davidson as the only colleges to completely eliminate
loans from financial aid considerations.
Athletics
Although Amherst has always been a rigorous liberal arts college, Amherst's athletic program is the oldest in the nation.
One-third of the student body participates in sports at the intercollegiate level. A great number of other students participate
in a plethora of intramural and club sports teams. The school's twenty-seven intercollegiate sports teams are known as the Lord
Jeffs; women's teams are sometimes referred to as "Lady Jeffs", though the official title covers all teams.
The school participates in the NCAA's Division III, the Eastern College Athletic
Conference, and the New England Small College Athletic
Conference, which includes Bates, Bowdoin,
Colby, Connecticut College, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams.
Amherst is also one of the "Little Three," along with Williams and Wesleyan. This rivalry, over one hundred
years old, can be considered the oldest athletic conference in the nation. A Little Three champion is informally recognized by
most teams based on the head-to-head records of the three schools, but three-way competitions are held in some of the sports.
Amherst has placed in the top ten of the NACDA Director's Cup in the NCAA Division III in five of the last ten years. The 2007
"National Collegiate Scouting Association's Collegiate Power Ranking" ranked Amherst College second "overall", ahead of Duke,
USC-SD, Notre Dame, Stanford, Northwestern, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and MIT.
- The first intercollegiate baseball game was played between Williams and Amherst on July 1,
1859. Amherst won, 73-32.
- The first Harvard College loss on Soldiers Field was in 1903. They lost 6-0 to Amherst.
- The last tie in an NCAA football game was on November 11, 1995, when Amherst and Williams tied 0-0 on Weston Field in
Williamstown, Massachusetts.
- In 1999, the Amherst Women's Tennis team won the Division III National Championship, by a score of 5-2, over arch-rival
Williams College. It was Amherst's first team National Championship.
- In 2003, the Amherst Women's Lacrosse team won the Division III National Championship, by a score of 11-9, over NESCAC rival
Middlebury College. It was the second team National Championship for Amherst (in all sports).
- In 2007, the Amherst Men's Basketball team won the Division III National Championship, by a score of 80-67, over
Virginia Wesleyan College.
Music at Amherst
Nicknamed "the singing college," Amherst has many a capella and singing groups, some of them affiliated with the college music
department, including the Concert Choir, the Madrigal Singers, the Women's Chorus, and the Glee Club, which is the
oldest singing group on the campus. Some of the a capella groups are the Zumbyes, the Bluestockings, Route 9, the Sabrinas, and the DQ. Amherst's symphony orchestra with more than 70
members and no hired professional musicians is the only one of its size among national liberal art's colleges. A variety of other
instrumental groups also rehearse and perform regularly and include: Javanese gamelan, chamber music, South Indian, and jazz. The
Amherst College Ames Music Center has 25 listening and practice rooms (thirteen of which are equipped with pianos), an electronic
and recording music studio, separate rehearsal space for instrumental and vocal groups, classrooms, a library, and a 500-seat
recital hall that serves during the year as a performance venue for students and visiting artists.
Amherst trivia
- Edward Jones, the first African-American student to attend Amherst College and the second African-American to graduate from
an American college, was in the class of 1826. He was later a missionary to Sierra Leone.
- The Amherst Alumni Society was founded in July 1842.
- Amherst records one of the first uses of Latin honors of any American college, dating
back to 1881. Contemporaneous writings stated that the system was new.
- An asteroid, 516 Amherstia, is named after Amherst
College. The name was given by its discoverer, Raymond Smith Dugan in honor of his
alma mater.
- Alumni who financially support Amherst Annually: 68%.
- The number of Amherst students who study abroad: 42%.
Notable alumni
-
Even though Amherst College is a small institution having 1,648 undergraduates (and fewer students, approximately 900, when
Amherst admitted men only), the college has a small but distinguished group of alumni. Accomplished alumni include
Nobel and Crafoord Prize laureates, MacArthur Fellowship and Pulitzer Prize winners,
National Medal of Science and National
Book Award winners, and Academy, Tony, and
Emmy award winners; a U.S. President,
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, U.S. Poet Laureate, and the legal architect of
Brown v Board of Education; leaders in science, religion, politics, the
Peace Corps, medicine, law, education, communications, and business; as well as acclaimed actors, artists, astronauts, engineers,
human rights activists, musicians, and writers.
References
Bibliography
- W.S. Tyler, History of Amherst College during its first half century, 1821-1871 (C. W. Bryan, 1873).
- Debby Applegate, The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (Doubleday, 2006).
- Nancy Pick and Frank Ward, Curious Footprints: Professor Hitchcock's Dinosaur Tracks & Other Natural History Treasures
at Amherst College (Amherst College Presss, 2006).
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