Washington & Jefferson College
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Washington & Jefferson College |
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| Established | 1781 |
| Type | Private liberal arts college |
| President | Dr. Tori Haring-Smith |
| Undergraduates | 1,400 |
| Location | Washington, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Campus | Small Town |
| Colors | Red and Black |
| Mascot | Presidents |
| Website | www.washjeff.edu |
Washington & Jefferson College (W&J) is a private, coeducational, liberal arts college located in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, in the city of Washington, Pennsylvania, USA. The college has an enrollment of approximately 1,355 students in the 05-06 academic year.
It is noted primarily as a good Pre-Med and Pre-Law institution due its fine liberal arts curriculum and as an excellent
preparatory school for graduate level studies in general, but especially in
The school has been ranked at no. 94 among the top 100 liberal arts colleges in the US according to the "America's Best Colleges 2006" issue of US News and World Report, and the Princeton Review recently named W&J the 14th fittest college in the US. It has also been highlighted as a strong liberal arts institution by the college search website Colleges of Distinction. [1]
History
W&J was founded in 1781 and is the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Allegheny Mountains, making it the eleventh oldest college in the United States. W&J was originally two distinct schools, Washington College and Jefferson College, which were each founded by Presbyterian ministers seeking to introduce higher education to what was then the American West.
In 1865, decreased enrollment due to the Civil War forced Washington College and Jefferson College to combine to form Washington & Jefferson College. The new, combined college traces its roots back to the original Washington College charter, hence the founding date of 1781. The college campus is 51 acres large and its architecture is mostly colonial[2] in a small city which serves as the county seat.
Perhaps the college's highest national sports honor is that the football team, coached by
Founded as men's college, it became a coeducational institution in September of 1970.[4]
Recent campus improvements
Beginning in the late 1990s, W&J embarked upon a massive building campaign. First, the campus' Rossin Campus Center was completely renovated, complete with a new "ski lodge" and coffee shop. For student housing, two new apartment-style residence halls were added by the fall of 2004, and more than half a dozen "special interest," colonial-style, duplexes and triplexes were completed by the fall of 2005.
The two newest academic buildings are the Howard J. Burnett Center and the Technology Center (formerly known as the "Vilar Technology Center" - see news report about alleged scandal that initiated the name change). These buildings were opened in 2002 and 2004, respectively, and added multiple advanced "smart classrooms", computer labs, and seminar rooms. However, funding issues have prevented completion of the Technology Center's interior; only rooms on the ground, first and second floors are finished. A timetable for completion has not been set.
The college also added a modern radio studio and broadcast tower to expand and improve the WNJR student radio station. This once was licensed under the call letters WXJX and WJCR.
The focus on student life improvement continued with the re-opening of the "Hub" student center in the fall of 2006. The building was originally opened in the 1960s as a student center but later used as a home for information technology offices. The renovated Hub includes lounge areas, a game room, and continues the traditional Monticello's student-run coffee house on weekends.
On May 18, 2007 the college unveiled a new statue commemorating the institution's namesakes, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. It is approximately 10 feet tall and cast in bronze, located at the corner of Lincoln St. and Beau St. Also unveiled was a statue of a coal miner reading a book in front of the Technology Center. The sculptor for both pieces is Alan Cottrill.
Academics
W&J follows a different academic schedule than most institutions. The Fall and Spring semesters are somewhat abbreviated in order to accommodate a one-month intersession semester during January. This schedule is referred to as "4-1-4" to indicate that the terms last four months, one month (of intensive study), and four months, respectively.
The intersession term was developed to enable students to pursue different opportunities, such as internships, study abroad, or general electives. During intersession, professors offer specialized elective classes, such as "Politics of the Developing World," "Basic Robotics," "Ballroom Dancing," "The Dialogs of Plato," "Literature of J.R.R. Tolkien," or "Vampires & Other Bloodsuckers."
Areas of study
Majors: Accounting, Art, Art Education, Biochemistry, Biological Physics, Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Child Development and Education, Economics, English, French, German, History, Industrial Chemistry and Management, Information Technology Leadership, International Business, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Spanish, Theatre, Thematic Major.
Minors: Accounting, Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Communication, Economics, Environmental Studies, French, Gender and Women's Studies, German, History, Mathematics, Music, Neuroscience, Philosophy, Physics, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Spanish, Theatre.
Concentrations: Graphic Design, Professional Writing.
Pre-Professional and Special Programs: Teacher Certification; Engineering; Entrepreneurial Studies; Mind, Brain, and Behavior; Pre-Health Professions; Pre-Law.
Electives: Chinese, Earth and Space Science, Japanese, Physical Education, Russian, Science.
Student life
Athletics
W&J competes in 23 intercollegiate athletics at the NCAA Division III level. W&J's sports teams, named the "Presidents," have experienced great success; W&J has won more than 30 PAC Championships and produced 17 Academic All-American athletes.[5]
W&J also offers variety of intramural sports, and its athletic facilities (including tennis and racquetball courts, swimming pools, and weight facilities) are open to recreational student use.
Greek life
W&J also has a Greek community consisting of six national fraternities and four national sororities. Approximately 44% of W&J's campus is active in the Greek communities [citation needed]. Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Kappa Psi were both founded at Jefferson College prior to its merger with Washington College.
Notable alumni
Distinguished alumni include:
- Ernest F. Acheson, owner/editor of the Washington Weekly Observer and US Representative from PA's 24th congressional district from 1895 - 1909
- John Astin, actor of The Addams Family and Batman fame (transferred to Johns Hopkins University)[6]
- Carl G. Bachmann, US Congressional Representative from West Virginia
- Thomas W. Bartley, 18th
Governor of Ohio - Henry H. Bingham, Medal of Honor recipient and U.S. Congressional Representative
- James G. Blaine, United States Secretary of State and a candidate for President of the United States
- Samuel Steel Blair, US Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania
- Benjamin Bristow (1851), Solicitor General of the United States and as a United States Secretary of the Treasury
- Richard Clark, (1968) President, CEO of Merck 2006-Present
- Harvey W. Cook, pilot of the first continental airmail liner
- Nicholas P. Dallis, creator of the newspaper comic strip "Rex Morgan, M.D."
- John Hoge Ewing, a Whig member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and delegate to the 1860 Republican National Convention
- Stephen Foster, famed nineteenth-century songwriter of American folk classics "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Old Black Joe", "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Old Folks at Home", among others. Foster attended W&J but never finished; he is said to have been kicked out. [7]
- John Rankin Franklin (1836), US Congressional Representative from Maryland
- Edgar Garbisch, Member, College Football Hall of Fame [8]
- John W. Geary, mayor of San Francisco, governor of the Kansas Territory, governor of Pennsylvania, and Union general in the American Civil War.
- Roger Goodell, NFL Commissioner 2006 - present
- Louis E. Graham, US Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania
- Melissa Hart, former US Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania
- William Thomas Hamilton, 38th Governor of Maryland, 1880 - 1884, U.S. Senator from Maryland, 1868 - 1874, member United States House of Representatives from Maryland, 1849 - 1855.
- John Hemphill (1825), Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court and a United States Senator
- Wilbur "Pete" "Fats" Henry, Member, College Football Hall of Fame [9] , Member, Pro Football Hall of Fame. [10]
- John S. Horner (1819), acting Governor of Michigan Territory from 1835 to 1836 and Secretary of Wisconsin Territory from 1836 to 1837
- Rev. George Junkin, D. D., LL. D., first president of Lafayette College
- Buddy Jeannette, professional basketball player and coach, Member of the Basketball Hall of Fame [11]
- Dr. Jesse Lazear, who discovered that yellow fever was transmitted via mosquito [12]
- Dr. Francis Julius LeMoyne, M.D. (1815) nationally known abolitionist, philanthropist, founder of the Washington Female Seminary, and benefactor of LeMoyne-Owen College, a historically-black college in Memphis, Tennessee
- William Henry Letterman and Charles Page Thomas Moore, founders of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity.
- John Livingston Lowes (1888), American scholar of English literature
- Walter B. Massenberg, (1970) Vice Admiral, US Navy
- William Holmes McGuffey (1826) Educator, best known as the author of McGuffey Readers
- Henry Christopher McCook (1859), member of the celebrated Fighting McCooks
- Thomas M. T. McKennan, 2nd United States Secretary of the Interior and US Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania
- William Sutton Moore, delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention; United States Congressman 1873
- John Murtha, attended but left in 1952 to join the Marines. US Congressional Representative from Pennsylvania and current chair of the House Appropriations Defense Committee.
- John J. Patterson (1848), United States Senator from South Carolina (1873 - 1879)
- Joe Philbin (1984), Offensive Coordinator for the Green Bay Packers (2007-Present)
- Matthew Quay (1850), United States Senator from Pennsylvania (1887–1899;1901–1904) and Chairman of the Republican National Committee
- Luke Ravenstahl (2003), current Mayor of Pittsburgh
- John S. Reed, interim president of the New York Stock Exchange and former CEO of Citigroup
- Johnson C. Smith, co-founder of the McKeesport Tin Plate Company and director of the People’s Bank in McKeesport. Johnson C. Smith University, a Historically Black College in Charlotte, North Carolina, is named after him.
- Henry Stanberry, United States Attorney General
- Bill Steen, Major League Baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers, 1912-15
- David Peck Todd (1888), American astronomer
- Clement Vallandigham, US Congressional Representative from Ohio
- Alberto Vilar, former billionaire and founder of Amerindo Investment Advisors, now charged with fraud in federal court. His multi-million pledges to the college never materialized.
- Joseph A. Walker, NASA test pilot
- Charles S. West, Texas jurist and politician (Jefferson College)
- Ephraim King Wilson II, U.S. Senator from Maryland, 1885-1891.
- Jesse White, State Representative for the 46th Legislative District of Pennsylvania
Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under
Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- W&J's Old Main is home to the plaster model used to sculpt the head of Jefferson for the Jefferson Memorial.
- In 1990, the film based on the Stephen King novel The Dark Half was filmed in part on W&J's campus. [13] The primary locations used in the film were the Chapel in Old Main and the large office next to it, currently used by the chair of the W&J Religion Department.
- W&J was granted a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in 1937.
- W&J's traditional college cheer is "Whichi Coax!"
- Library archives show that W&J's student literary society, named after Benjamin Franklin, included honorary members such as Horace Mann, John Quincy Adams, and Edgar Allan Poe.
- The doorknob used in the 1939 film "Gone With The Wind" for the front door of Tara is now a part of the library in Lazear Hall.
- Coach John Heisman, of whom the Heisman Memorial Trophy Award is named after, coached at Washington and Jefferson College.
External links
| Presidents' Athletic Conference |
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| Bethany • Chatham • Geneva • Grove City • Saint Vincent • Thiel • Thomas More • Washington & Jefferson
• Waynesburg • Westminster |
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