Wheaton College (Illinois)
| Motto | "For Christ and His Kingdom" |
|---|---|
| Type | Private Evangelical Protestant |
| Established | 1860 |
| President | Duane Litfin |
Academic staff | 191 full-time, 81 part-time |
| Undergraduates | 2440 |
| Postgraduates | 450 |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Suburban, 80 acres |
| Endowment | $304 million |
| Colors | Blue Orange |
| Mascot | Thunder |
| Website | www.wheaton.edu |
Wheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college located in Wheaton, Illinois. It was founded in 1860.
Wheaton has an enrollment of approximately 2,400 undergraduate and 500 graduate students. Students typically come from all 50 U.S. states and many other countries. Its motto "For Christ and His Kingdom" is displayed on two large signs, one on its front lawn, another in the middle of campus outside the new Todd Beamer Memorial Student Center.
Upon entrance into the college's society, undergraduate students are required to sign a "Community Covenant," which affirms the college's basic Christian doctrine and affirms refrainment from alcohol and tobacco use, as well as extra-marital sexual activity. Graduate students may partake of alcohol and tobacco, but not on campus or in the presence of undergraduate students.
History
Wheaton College has had only seven presidents in its nearly one-and-a-half century history. They are, in order: Jonathan Blanchard (1860-1882), Charles Albert Blanchard (1882-1925), Rev. Oliver James Buswell (1925-1940), V. Raymond Edman (1940-1965), Hudson T. Armerding (1965-1982), J. Richard Chase (1982-1993), and A. Duane Litfin (1993-present).
Academics
Students may choose from about 40 majors in the undergraduate college in many liberal arts disciplines. The most popular in recent years have been Business, Communications, English, and Psychology. Wheaton also includes a nationally-regarded Conservatory of Music where students may study Music Performance, Education, Composition, or History/Literature. There is also a Music with Elective Studies program.
Students come from all over the world to attend the Wheaton College Graduate School and may study for an M.A., M.A.T., Ph.D. in Biblical and Theological Studies, or Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology.
Wheaton maintains a strong academic record with an average of 37 National Merit Finalists. U.S. News and World Report has noted that Wheaton is often called the "Harvard of evangelical colleges."[1]
In 2005, the magazine ranked Wheaton College 52nd out of 217 Best National Liberal Arts Colleges and Wheaton College ranked 9th in the nation in the total number of graduates (all fields) who went on to earn doctorates according to Franklin and Marshall University's latest survey, which included more than 900 private colleges and universities.
Conservatory of Music
Wheaton College is home to a internationally-recognized Conservatory of Music, fully accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. The Conservatory offers two professional music degrees: the Bachelor of Music (with emphases in performance, composition, history and literature, or elective studies) and the Bachelor of Music Education. 100% of the teaching faculty in the Conservatory hold doctorates. There are approximately 220 music majors in the Conservatory, with a student:faculty ratio of 7:1. Music majors and liberal arts majors alike perform in the Conservatory's six large ensembles: Concert Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Men's Glee Club, Symphonic Band, Symphony Orchestra, and Women's Chorale.
Campus facilities
Wheaton's most recognizable and oldest building is Blanchard Hall, named after the school's first president, Jonathan Blanchard, who hoped to create a building much like ones seen on the campus of Oxford University. Blanchard, a former president of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and a staunch abolitionist with ties to Oberlin College, was also responsible for the school's new name (given in honor of trustee and benefactor Warren L. Wheaton); it had been founded in late 1853 as the Illinois Institute, a college and preparatory school founded by Wesleyan Methodists.
The college's regular chapel services are held in Edman Memorial Chapel, which seats 2400. This facility is also used for many events of Wheaton's performing arts programs.
The campus includes the Billy Graham Center (BGC), named after the college's most well-known graduate. The BGC houses several evangelism institutes, a museum, a library, as well as the Wheaton College Graduate School.
Wheaton College hosts the Marion E. Wade Center, an extensive research library and museum of the books and papers of seven British writers, not all of them commonly associated with the conservative evangelical Protestantism of institutions like Wheaton: C. S. Lewis, G. K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, Dorothy L. Sayers, George MacDonald, and Charles Williams.
In the fall of 2004 the Todd M. Beamer Student Center was completed. Beamer was a Wheaton alumnus, part of a small group of passengers that most likely thwarted disaster by storming the suicide hijackers and bringing down United Flight 93 in rural Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.
Criticism and Controversy
Wheaton College has received criticism in recent years from some conservative evangelicals for progressive teachings by some of its faculty. Areas of controversy have included certain evolutionary theories being taught in at least one anthropology course (by a professor who has since left the college), some plays performed in the drama department, and issues regarding the gender of the Godhead. In 2003, at least one conservative Christian group was asked to leave campus by security personnel for displaying signs condemning the school's theology. Debate has continually arisen regarding an unofficial organization of gay, lesbian, and bisexual Wheaton alumni. Conservative critics have said that it has become increasingly difficult for the college to retain its conservative values, citing its location in what they consider to be the liberal suburbs of Chicago.
Conversely, more progressive alumni of Wheaton College have been troubled by what they perceive as a move away from a more open and inclusive community towards a more restrictive and fundamentalist structure. (Or a return to such a structure - the modus operandi of the college during the modernist debate of the early twentieth century [see Hamilton, Fundamentalist Harvard, below].) After a decade of the presidency of J. Richard Chase (1982-1993), who enjoyed great rapport with the faculty, the selection and early presidency of A. Duane Litfin (1993-present) met with its fair share of controversy. Litfin came to Wheaton from a pastorate in an evangelical church and with no experience in higher education administration. In this respect he differed from other short-listed candidates for the presidency of Wheaton College. Throughout the search for a new president of the college, both students, alumni, and faculty expressed through their publications and the Faculty Senate their concern that the college's Board of Trustees was not sufficiently incorporating them into the selection process.
The issues generating most controversy since that time have centered around academic freedom and religious conscience. The rôle of the college's president vis-à-vis academic departments (especially in the natural sciences and religious studies) has resulted in conflict over curriculum and new faculty hires and in the resignation/departure of several professors. E.g., the teaching of modern evolutionary biology, especially as it relates to the evolution of humans and other Hominina, was threatened by extra-departmental presidential pressure; and the hiring of at least one would-be faculty member by the religion deparment was prevented solely through the prerogative of the office of the president. The long-standing (and explicit) ban on Roman Catholic speakers during the college's chapel services has recently been extended to teaching faculty (though this was not the case when Thomas Howard, '57 [Professor of English (Emeritus) at St. John's Seminary, Boston] taught English Literature at Wheaton). See the comment on Joshua Hochschild below.
Alumni
Besides Billy Graham, notable alumni include Wes Craven, Bart Ehrman, Jim Elliot, Michael Gerson, Dennis Hastert, Nathan O. Hatch, Carl F. H. Henry, Thomas Howard, Walter Kaiser, Jr., Margaret Landon, Josh McDowell, Jim McDermott, David E. Aune, Steven Bass, Bryce Bell, Rob Bell, Jr., Mark Noll, John Piper, John Wesley Powell (famed nineteenth-century geologist and explorer of the American West), Violet Bergquist Redding, Nate Saint, David Steinmetz, and Todd Beamer (victim of the attacks of September 11, 2001).
Trivia
- Students who become engaged or celebrate an anniversary may ring the bell in Blanchard Tower to celebrate momentous occasions.
- Wheaton College was one of the first colleges in Illinois to graduate African-American students. Students of color began attending the college (then known as the Illinois Institute) soon after its founding.
- Wheaton College made national headlines on February 20, 2003 when it lifted its then 143 year-old ban on student dancing. In addition to allowing undergraduate students to dance, Wheaton granted "adult faculty members and grad students ... the freedom to choose whether they want to smoke or drink alcohol, at least while off-campus."
- The Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton College has memorabilia of the Inklings, including C.S. Lewis' wardrobe and writing desk (a feat Westmont College also claims...), Charles Williams's bookcases, J.R.R. Tolkien's desk, and Pauline Baynes's original map of Narnia.[2]
- Wheaton again appeared in the news when Joshua Hochschild, assistant professor of philosophy, was dismissed in 2004 for converting to Roman Catholicism.
- The official student newspaper at Wheaton College is the Wheaton Record, a weekly publication in existence since 1876. The Record is produced by students and published by the college and distributed each Friday after chapel free of charge. The Record was the recipient of the 2006 John David Reed General Excellence Award and 13 other awards from the Illinois College Press Association, of which it is a member. The Record is also a member of the Associated Collegiate Press. The college does not currently permit the Record to be published online.
External links and references
- T. A. Askew, "The Liberal Arts College Encounters Intellectual Change: A Comparative Study of Education at Knox and Wheaton Colleges, 1837-1925" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Northwestern University, 1969).
- M. S. Hamilton, "The Fundamentalist Harvard: Wheaton College and the Continuing Vitality of American Evangelicalism, 1919-1965" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 1995), advisor, Nathan O. Hatch.
- M. S. Hamilton, The Fundamentalist Harvard: Wheaton College, Evangelicalism, and American Higher Education (Oxford University Press or Columbia University Press, forthcoming).
- J. D. Lower, "An Evaluation of the Marion E. Wade Collection, Wheaton College, as a Research Collection" (unpublished A.M. thesis, University of Chicago, 1978).