Connecticut College is a coeducational private liberal
arts college located in New London, Connecticut. It is located on the
Thames River, on which the College's crew and sailing teams practice.
Connecticut College's riverside location and its wooded campus are reflected in the College seal.
Connecticut College's fourth strategic plan (2004) introduced the College's new mission
statement: Connecticut College educates students to put the liberal arts into action as citizens in a global society.
About Connecticut College
Chartered in 1911 as a women's
college, Connecticut College began admitting men in 1969. The founding of the college was a
response to Wesleyan University's decision to stop admitting women. Female Wesleyan
alumnae, notably Elizabeth C. Wright, convinced others to found this new college, espousing the increasing desire amongst women
for higher education. Several large gifts of land gave the college its hilltop location overlooking Long Island Sound. Financial assistance from the city of New
London, its residents, and a number of wealthy benefactors gave the college its initial endowment. According to an Oct.
12, 1935 article in the Hartford Daily Times, marking the College's 20th anniversary:
"On September 27, 1915, on this beautiful site, the college opened its doors to students. The entering class was made up of 99
freshmen students, candidates for degrees, and 52 special students, a total registration of 151. A fine faculty of 23 members had
been engaged and a library of 6,000 volumes had been gathered together. It was an auspicious start for this new undertaking."
Connecticut College has been continuously accredited since 1932 by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. In a typical year, the
College enrolls about 1,900 men and women from 40-45 states, Washington D.C., and 40-45 countries. Approximately forty percent of
students are men. The College is now particularly known for interdisciplinary studies,
international programs and study abroad, funded internships, student-faculty research,
service learning, and shared governance. Under the College's system of shared
governance, faculty, staff, students, and administrators are represented on the major committees that make policy regarding the
curriculum, the budget, and the campus and facilities.
Students live under the College's 84-year-old student-adjudicated Honor Code and without a
Greek system. The Honor Code, which distinguishes Connecticut College from
its peers, underpins all academic and social interactions at the College and creates a palpable spirit of trust and cooperation
between students and faculty. Other manifestations of the Code include self-scheduled, unproctored final exams.
According to The Princeton Review 2005 and Campus Compact, Connecticut College is one of the nation’s best colleges for
fostering social responsibility and public service. A January 2006
ranking noted that Connecticut College is among the 25 top small colleges in terms of the number of graduates who serve in
the Peace Corps.
Connecticut College is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Watson Foundation List, the Annapolis Group and the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).
A reciprocal exchange agreement with the United States Coast Guard, allows
cadets from the nearby USCG Academy to take some courses at the
college, and Connecticut College students can take courses at the Academy.
Connecticut College Statistics
- The College received an all-time high 4,741 applications for the Class of 2011 (the entering fall 2007 class). 34% of these
applicants were accepted.
- In "America's Best Colleges 2008" published by U.S. News and World
Report, Connecticut College was ranked 44th out of 215 national liberal arts colleges. In subcategories, the College was
ranked No. 28 for graduation and retention rates, No. 41 for financial resources, and No. 55 for admission selectivity. In the
Washington Monthly's 2007 rankings,
Connecticut College ranked 33 out of 201 institutions.
- Connecticut College had 163 full-time professors in Academic Year 2006-07; 89 percent hold a doctorate or equivalent. All
classes are taught by professors. The student-faculty ratio is below 10:1.
- For the 2006-07 academic year, domestic students of color accounted for about 16% of all full-time and part-time students.
International students accounted for about another 2% of the student body. The countries from which the most international
students come are Turkey, China, Bulgaria, Germany, and India.
Academics at Connecticut College
The College offers more than 1,000 courses in 29 academic departments and 7 interdisciplinary programs, and students can
choose from 54 traditional majors plus opportunities for self-designed courses of study. The 10 most common majors over the last
five years have been English, Economics, Psychology, Government, History, Biological Sciences, International Relations,
Anthropology, Human Development, and Art. About 30% of Connecticut College students graduate with double majors. The most common
double-major combinations are Government/History, Economics/International Relations, and Economics/Government, but graduates in
recent years have also chosen interdisciplinary combinations such as Art/Computer Science, Film Studies/Latin American Studies,
Biological Sciences and Religious Studies, and Art History/Italian.
In fall 2005, the College inaugurated its First-Year Seminar Program, which provides student-faculty engagement in a small,
intellectually stimulating setting in their first semester.
Connecticut College has four Interdisciplinary Centers that administer certificate programs, plus a fifth center that facilitates the teaching and
researching of race and ethnicity across the curriculum. If accepted into one of the College's four certificate programs,
students of any major complete a self-designed series of courses that relate to their academic interest, complete a
College-funded summer internship, and complete an integrative project in their senior year. These four centers routinely attract
the college's best students and are a model for the kinds of integrated educational pathways the college offers its students.
- Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology (CAT) Through the Ammerman Center, faculty and students can shape the study, use and creation of new technologies, probe the
forefront of their fields and work in new markets with innovative products.
- Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts (CISLA) The CISLA mission is to encourage students to become public intellectuals: those who are
politically concerned, socially engaged, and culturally sensitive and informed. CISLA prepares them to internationalize their
majors and become responsible citizens in a global community.
- Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy (PICA) The Holleran Center orchestrates
College and community resources to build on assets, respond to needs, and facilitate community revitalization and problem
solving.
- Goodwin-Niering Center for Conservation Biology and Environmental Studies (CCBES) The Goodwin-Niering Center is a comprehensive,
interdisciplinary program that builds on one of the nation's leading undergraduate environmental studies programs. The Center
fosters research, education, and curriculum development aimed at understanding contemporary ecological challenges. The Center is
named in honor of Richard H. Goodwin, Katharine Blunt Professor Emeritus of Botany, and William A.
Niering, Lucretia L. Allyn Professor Emeritus of Botany. Professor Goodwin was among the early leaders of the
Nature Conservancy, serving as its president from 1956-58 and 1964-66.
Students can also earn Connecticut teacher certification and certificates in the College's Museum Studies
program.
Between 50 and 55% of the student body studies abroad at some point during their four years. Connecticut College offers
several ways for students to study abroad, including traditional study away programs, semester-long Study Away, Teach
Away (SATA) programs, and shorter Traveling Research and Immersion Programs (TRIPs) that are typically related to specific
courses.
Students' classroom learning at Connecticut College is supplemented by a wide variety of service learning courses and
volunteer work in the New London area. Many of these opportunities are coordinated by the Office of Volunteers for Community Service. OVCS
facilitates student involvement in the community by running the Camel Van shuttle service, which transports students to and from
sites in the area.
Connecticut College has a history of undergraduate research work and students are encouraged to make conference presentations
and publish their work under the guidance of a professor.
Connecticut College graduating seniors are regularly awarded prestigious fellowships and grants such as the U.S. Student Fulbright Program grant and Thomas J. Watson
Fellowship. In 2007, five Connecticut College students received Fulbright grants--four for travel and research and one for
teaching.
Campus and facilities
Tourists in the Arboretum
The main campus has three residential areas. North Campus (Morrisson, Wright, Lambdin, Park, Marshall, and Hamilton -
collectively known as "The Plex") contains the newest residential halls, all of which are connected to each other and Harris
Dining Hall. South Campus (Harkness, Addams, Freeman, and Knowlton) is along the side of the main green, across from the academic
buildings. Central Campus (Windham, Warnshuis, Burdick, Smith, Larrabee, Plant, Branford, Blackstone, Blunt, and Lazrus) contains
the oldest residence halls and is the closest to the student center and the library. There are also several places where students
can live in less traditional housing, including the 360 Apartments, River Ridge Apartments, Earth House, and Abbey House. A few
students also live off-campus in New London or Waterford.
The College's science facilities include a rooftop observatory, lab for NMR
spectroscopy, a digital transmission electron microscope, a
scanning electron microscope, a greenhouse, a channel flow laboratory, and
a GIS lab. Its computer facilities include standard UNIX and PC labs as well as specialized labs in robotics, networks, virtual reality and digital signal processing. The
robotics lab is equipped with Sun workstations, PCs, robots, and overhead cameras. The virtual reality and signal processing lab
(which is also part of the Ammerman Center for Arts and Technology) has high-end graphics PCs, head-mounted displays, 3-D
trackers, force feedback devices, spatialized audio devices, and software for producing high-end animations and graphics.
The departments of the fine arts are spread out in three places around campus. The Cummings Arts Center contains two concert
halls, the Center for Electronic and Digital Sound, pianos, practice rooms, a pipe organ. The Art and Music departments and their
classrooms and studios are also housed in Cummings. Surrounding the Arts Center are numerous sculptures, especially in the
courtyard known as Castle Court. This lies between Cummings and the largest of the College's performance spaces, Palmer
Auditorium. The Theater department has offices in Palmer, and has classes on the main stage, in a smaller classroom in Palmer,
and in Tansill Theater, which is further north, near the main entrance. The Dance department is housed on the third floor of the
student center, and includes 3 dance studios.
There are two libraries on the campus. Shain Library houses a collection of more than 500,000 books and bound periodicals,
along with an extensive collection of microforms, computer files, audio and video tapes. The library is also home to the Charles Chu
Asian Art Reading Room, a space used for studying, public lectures, and receptions. In 2004, the "Blue Camel Cafe" opened in
the library basement, selling coffee, tea, pastries and other items to studying and socializing students. The Greer Music Library
in Cummings Arts Center holds books and periodicals about music and musicians, printed music, and numerous recordings on
cassette, CD, and vinyl, as well as digital media.
- The Connecticut College Arboretum is a 750-acre (3 km²)
arboretum and botanical garden. Students frequently
go to the Arboretum to walk, study, or otherwise enjoy nature. The Arboretum is also open to the community, and its staff host
frequent workshops, guided hikes, and other interpretive activities.
- Harkness Chapel is a fine example of noted architect James Gamble Rogers'
colonial Georgian style, with twelve stained glass windows by G. Owen Bonawit. The
building is used for several denominational religious services each week, as well as for ceremonies, concerts and recitals,
weddings, and other public functions.
- The Lyman Allyn Art Museum[1] is located on campus, although it is not connected to the campus proper. The
museum's web site describes it as follows: "Housed in a handsome Neo-Classical building designed by Charles A. Platt, the permanent collection includes over 10,000 paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints,
furniture and decorative arts, with an emphasis on American art from the 18th through 20th centuries."
Notable Connecticut College graduates
- Amanda Clark ('06): member of U.S. sailing team
- Nikki Palmieri ('04): Winner of the 2004 Miss Connecticut pageant; competed for the title of
Miss America 2005
- Christof Putzel ('02): Winner of a Student Academy Award, producer on Current TV
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah : indie rock band: Alec Ounsworth ('00), Tyler Sargent ('00), Robbie Guertin ('02), Lee Sargent ('00), Sean Greenhalgh
('01)
- Joshua Green ('94): senior editor of the Atlantic Monthly and a
contributing editor of the
Washington Monthly
- Hannah Tinti ('94): Author, runner-up for the 2005 Hemingway Foundation/PEN award
- Peter Som ('93): Fashion designer, winner of the 2002 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation
prize
- Jeffrey Finn ('92): Broadway producer, nominated for 2005 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play for On
Golden Pond
- Leslie King ('92): Executive Producer, CNN Headline
News
- Tim Young ('92): Olympic
silver medalist in quadruple sculling
- Charles Chun ('90): Hollywood film and television actor
- Karen Church ('90): Vice President for Talent and Casting, CBS
Television
- Kimberly Williams ('90): Senior Vice President of Finance for the National Football League
- Martha Witt ('90): novelist
- Mark Stepper & David Stepper ('87): Sculptors and co-owners of
Sculptures by Stepper
- Jeffrey Idelson ('86): Vice President of Communications and Education for the
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
- Ned Colt ('79): NBC News correspondent
- Vance Gilbert ('79): singer-songwriter folk musician
- David R. Foster ('77): Director of the Harvard Forest ecological research site, Harvard University
- Luanne Rice ('77): novelist
- Michael Collier ('76): Poet Laureate of Maryland, 2001-2004; Professor of English,
University of Maryland
- Bruce Hoffman ('76): terrorism expert, Corporate Chair in Counterterrorism and
Counterinsurgency, Director of the RAND Corporation's Washington Office
- Trish May ('75): "venture philanthropist" and founder of Athena Partners; former director of marketing
and strategic planning at Microsoft
- James Berrien ('74): President and Publisher of Forbes
Magazine Group
- Anita DeFrantz ('74): former Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, member of bronze medal U.S. women's eight-oared shell,
1976 Montreal Summer Olympics.
- Allen Carroll ('73): chief cartographer, National Geographic magazine
- Drew Ketterer ('71): Attorney General of Maine, 1995-2000
- Dorcas Hardy ('68): former Commissioner of Social Security Administration, author, public policy expert
- Judy Irving ('68): Emmy and Sundance award-winning filmmaker
- Shelley Taylor ('68) Social psychologist, pioneer in health psychology, winner of
Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from APA
- Kimba Wood ('66): Federal judge, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York
- Cecelia Holland ('65): novelist
- Mary Lake Polan ('65): Professor and Chair of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department at
Stanford University
- Ellen Vitetta ('64): Director, Cancer Immunobiology Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
- Amy Gross ('63): Editor-in-Chief, O, The Oprah
Magazine
- Cynthia Enloe ('60): research professor of international relations and women's
studies, Clark University
- Agnes Gund ('60): former President of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, recipient of the 2005 Andrew Carnegie
Medal of Philanthropy
- Marie L. Garibaldi ('56): first woman to serve on the New Jersey Supreme Court (served from
1982-2000) or to serve as President of the New Jersey State Bar Association.
- Suzi Oppenheimer ('56): New York State Senator
- Joan Rivers: Actress, comedian; Attended CC briefly then transferred to Barnard College
- Estelle Parsons ('49): Stage, film, and television actor; winner of 1967
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Bonnie and Clyde (film)
- Patricia McGowan Wald ('48): U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
judge; member of International Criminal Tribunal for
the Former Yugoslavia; member of the Iraq Intelligence
Commission
Other highlights
- The Honor Code is signed by all students upon matriculation. It allows a strong student voice in shared governance through
the Student Government Association, and the luxury of self-scheduled, unproctored exams. Because of the Honor Code, students are
treated by faculty, staff, and the administration as mature adults. A student-run Judicial Board adjudicates alleged infractions
of the Honor Code.
- Study Abroad - many opportunities for conventional study abroad are available, as well as the special programs CISLA (one of
the academic centers), which allows students to "internationalize" their major, and SATA (Study Away Teach Away), in which a
Connecticut College professor takes a small group of students for a semester to a country that the professor has experience with,
and there the students take classes at a local university, and one with the Conn professor.
- Through a generous gift from an alum, Connecticut College students may take music lessons during the semester at no
charge.
Programs and Offices
- Career Enhancing Life Skills (CELS) is a four-year program through which students explore career options, assess
interests and skills, learn to consider lifetime goals when planning coursework and activities, look for a career-related
junior-year internship, and get help with a job search as seniors.
- Unity House is the college's multicultural center. Unity House promotes, supports, educates, and implements
multicultural awareness programs on campus. It also houses a library and group meeting room, open to all. It also hosts many
intercultural organizations, including but not limited to Umoja (African Diaspora club), SOUL (Sexual Orientations United for
Liberation), and CCASA (Connecticut College Asian/Asian American Student Association).
- Office of Volunteers for Community Service (OVCS) helps students find volunteering opportunities in the community.
Also provides a student-staffed van service (the Camel Van) to drive students to their community service.
- Floralia The annual spring concert festival on the library green, with musical performances and socializing. See
Floralia.
Campus publications
- Daily CONNtact (newsletter)
- Friends of CC Library
- Inside Information
- Source (faculty/staff newsletter)
- College Voice (newspaper)
- Confluence Magazine (student-run literary, political, travel publication)
- Koiné (yearbook)
- Expose (interdisciplinary academic
journal)
- Speakleft! (campus radical publication.
distributed at student center, library, and one other location)
Connecticut College presidents
- 1913-1917: Frederick H. Sykes
- 1917-1928: Benjamin T. Marshall
- 1929-1943: Katharine Blunt
- 1943-1945: Dorothy Schaffter
- 1945-1946: Katharine Blunt
- 1947-1962: Rosemary Park
- 1962-1974: Charles E. Shain
- 1974-1988: Oakes Ames
- 1988-2001: Claire L. Gaudiani
- 2001-2006: Norman Fainstein
- 7/1/2006- : Leo I. Higdon, Jr.
External links
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