University School
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| University School | |
| |
| Responsibility, Loyalty and Consideration | |
| Established | 1890 |
| School type | Private |
| Religious affiliation | none |
| Headmaster | Stephen S. Murray |
| Location | Hunting Valley, OH, USA |
| Campus | Suburban, 257 acres upper: 221 acres lower: 36 acres |
| Enrollment | 807 total 405 upper 402 lower |
| Faculty | 64 upper |
| Average class size | 17 students |
| Student:Teacher ratio | 6:1 |
| Average SAT scores (2005) | 642 verbal 654 math |
| Athletics | 12 varsity sports |
| Color(s) | Maroon and Black |
| Mascot | Prescott the Prepper |
| Homepage | [www.us.edu] |
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History, headmasters, and notable facts
The school was established in 1890 by Headmaster Newton Anderson, (1890-1900), who deplored the practice of sending boys away from home for the purely classical education of an Eastern boarding school. He convinced 70 public-spirited Clevelanders to pledge $100,000 for his concept of a day school that would blend traditional education with a training in the manual arts and a rugged athletic program to produce well-rounded and practical leaders for industry and commerce. The School's first building was erected on 10 acres at the corner of Hough Avenue and East 71st Street.
Headmaster George D. Pettee (1900-1908) - notable for leading the entire student body to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo - first suggested the idea of moving the School to what later became the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.
The long legendary leadership of Harry S. Peters (1908-1947) piloted the School through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and in 1926 to the 36-acre campus in Shaker Heights.
Harold L. Cruikshank (1947-1963) oversaw the building of the Hanna Wing and husbanded the School through the comparatively stable, prosperous period from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Sixties.
Under the vigorous leadership of Rowland P. McKinley, Jr. (1963-1988) and again with the financial and moral support of US alumni and friends, the Upper School moved in 1970 to the more than 200 acres of meadows and woodlands in Hunting Valley.
A dedicated teacher and friend to students at University School since 1968, Richard A. Hawley (1988-2005) brought to the headmaster position a thorough knowledge of the School, a national reputation as author and educator, and his own freshness and enthusiasm. Dr. Hawley is the author of several books, including The Headmaster's Papers.
In 2005, Stephen S. Murray was appointed the seventh headmaster of University School. With degrees from Williams College and Harvard, Mr. Murray brings his experience as the Assistant Headmaster and Academic Dean at Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts.
Student life
In the Upper School, each school day begins at 8:05 with the morning assembly. Assemblies typically begin with introductory remarks about upcoming events, athletic competitions, and any other school-wide news that needs to be addressed. A long standing tradition also has every senior deliver a Senior Speech during assemblies throughout the year. Speeches may be about any subject that is important to the senior speaker, and they are a graduation requirement, as is a short senior project which takes place during the last months before graduation. Some seniors may, however,choose to exempt from a Senior Speech and project by pursuing a Strnad project or a Davey fellowship - intensive yearlong undertakings for students to explore a focused field of interest or produce a body of writing, respectively.
At the Upper School, students are required to wear to a uniform during school hours. Students must wear neutral or khaki-colored pants, and not jeans or cargo pants. Shorts are permissible in the early fall and spring. In the Lower School, students are expected to wear well-fitting tennis-shirts or button-downs. T-shirts are not permitted, unless in gym, where appropriate attire is provided to students. The uniform requirement for Upper School students is stricter: students must wear a button-down "Oxford style" white or blue button-down shirt, and tennis shoes and sandals are forbidden. Furthermore, students must wear a coat and tie during the morning assembly. The tie may be either the school tie (thick, diagonal alternating stripes in the schools colors, black and maroon), or that student's House tie. Some faculty members are notorious for not letting students into assembly if they aren't appropriately attired. Students are also prohibited from growing facial hair or letting their hair fall below shoulder's length. This is a matter of controversy among some students.
Clubs and Activities
Students at US enjoy numerous extracurricular activities. Community service is strongly encouraged, and the popular Cadmean Society is an outlet for students to serve the local community outside of the school's service requirements and House activities. The student-created Aurelian Society offers further community service opportunities. U.S. also requires that students help out with school events such as athletic contests, plays, and open-houses, and that they spend a week after school helping the maintenance staff clean the building.
U.S. is notable for its perpetually excellent Speech and Debate Team. Enthusiastic students are coached rigorously in Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, and Policy Debate techniques and annually compete against other schools in area tournaments. Numerous alumni have earned titles as district champions in various competitions. The Society of Skeptics serves as another intellectual forum, where students meet weekly to discuss and debate current events and world affairs. The Society of Skeptics encourages unbiased, free expression of thought and consideration of various points of view; students do not have to sign up to belong to the club, and they are not required to speak up to attend. The discussions are subsequently quite popular, and are attended by students and faculty alike.
Roughly one third of the student body participates in the school's Glee Club, the orchestra, or the jazz band. Historically, these groups have travelled to exotic places to perform, with the Glee Club visiting Sweden and Puerto Rico in just the last few years. In addition, the school prides itself on its top theater program, which is under the direction of renowned Cleveland director Carol Pribble. A number of alumni from the University School Theater Program have placed into top theater schools, including The Tisch School of the Arts at NYU and The Carnegie Mellon College of Fine Arts. Many former students have gone on to professional careers on Broadway.
Other popular student organizations include:
- The Multicultural Organization (MCO), which is an umbrella organization that promotes interest in and provides information on the diverse cultures represented in the school.
- The Environmental Awareness Society (EAS)
- French and Spanish Clubs
- Art Club
Publications
US publishes several publications. Most notable is the monthly school newspaper, The US News, which has been published for more than a century and is actually older than the more well known U.S. News and World Report. Another popular publication is the annual Record, the school's literary publication. Students may contribute their best work (done in or outside of school) in poetry, short stories, photography, and more recently, drawing. Faculty members frequently host a Writing Forum, where students can meet after school (typically over pizza) to work on their writing and discuss each other's work. The Upper School's yearbook, The Mabian, has been published every year since 1919, and is nearly entirely student run. '"The Tower'" is the Lower School's counterpart.Disciplinary Policies
US's Upper School has a demerit based system for disciplinary action: any faculty member may give a student one or more demerits for misbehavior. After a student has accrued five demerits, he receives an after-school detention. The number of demerits a student has continues to accumulate, and ten demerits is means for a suspension. After each semester is over, however, students are cleared of any outstanding demerits. Being late to school is customarily one demerit, and skipping a class is five. For conduct deemed especially unacceptable, teachers may issue immediate detentions.For severe matters, the school will deliberate punishments with the Student Disciplinary Committee. The SDC is a board of faculty members and two responsible students from each grade who speak to the offending student and consider what disciplinary action should be taken. Occasionally this results in expulsion.
In the Lower School, there is a merit and reminder system that begins in third grade. Merits are rewarded to a boy who has done something above and beyond what is expected of him; reminders are equivalent to demerits, and boys who earn three or more reminders in a week must serve a detention the day that they receive the third reminder. However, each boy receives a "clean slate" at the start of a new week. Marks are recorded (as "M"s and "R"s) in students' assignment notebooks, and boys with exceptional numbers of merits are rewarded annually.
House System
US is unique in that it observes a House System – a tradition historically associated with boarding schools. Each student belongs to a House that integrates students from kindergarten through grade twelve. At the Upper School, Houses are composed of roughly 40 students with even numbers of freshman, sophomores, juniors and seniors. In the Lower School, boys are assigned buddies with whom they participate in many activities. Faculty belong to Houses as well, and upcoming freshman students are assigned an individual faculty sponsor who belongs to the same House.
Houses are organized to encourage greater interaction between students, especially students in different grades. As such, the system is a large part of student life: House meetings occur weekly at the Upper School, in which faculty and students may plan activities and community service projects such as the annual Thanksgiving food drive. Each House elects a prefect from the senior class who acts as the House's leader. Upper School students are required to sit with members of their House during lunch as well.
House rivalry is not commonplace, however both the Upper and Lower schools do observe a traditional school sports day called Founder's Day, in which students have an inter-house sporting competition with the aim of winning the House Cup. Founder's Day often takes place in the early fall, and activities include Ultimate, tug of war and soccer.
Houses are typically named after former Headmasters or notable alumni, and each House has a color to represent it. The numbers, names and colors of Houses over the years have changed, but the current House names are Anderson, Cruikshank, Goodwillie, Hawley, McCarraher, McKinley, Peters, Pettee, Pickands, and Sanders.
Athletics
The school's athletic teams are known as the Preppers. US fields varsity teams in twelve sports, four per athletic season: football, soccer, cross country and golf in the fall, ice hockey, wrestling, swimming, and basketball in the winter, and in the spring, lacrosse, tennis, track and field, and baseball. In 2003, the 81,000 square-foot William S. Kilroy (Class of 1943) Field House was added to the Hunting Valley campus. The multi-purpose indoor practice facility features two basketball courts, three squash courts, a 200-meter cantilevered indoor track and practice areas for track events. The complex also includes a fitness center equipped with the latest in weight training and aerobic equipment. In addition, the Field House houses wrestling rooms, a gymnasium and an Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool with a separate diving well. Outdoor sports facilities include a football stadium, an all-weather track, four soccer and other practice fields, a football field, two baseball diamonds, and seven all-weather tennis courts. These outdoor facilities are spread over the 221 acre Hunting Valley campus.
Notable alumni
- Jim Backus, TV's Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell
- Townsend Coleman, Most notably the voice of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Michelangelo
- Jason Garrett, former NFL Quarterback
- Henry Meyer III, Vice President, CEO, and Chairman of the Board of KeyCorp
- Clark T. Randt, Jr., United States Ambassador to the People's Republic of China
- Chris Rose, television personality and one of the hosts of The Best Damn Sports Show Period on Fox Sports Net
- Kitao Sakurai, one of the stygian triplets from Dogma
- Chuck Seelbach, former Detroit Tigers pitcher
- Michael Seelbach, Broadway theatre Actor
- Jeff Terrell, Starting Quarterback for the Princeton University football team
External links
- [University School Web Site]
- [Upper School Intranet]
- [Lower School Intranet]
- Upper School
- *[Street Map]
- *[Satellite Image]
- *[Geological Map]
- Lower School
- *[Street Map]
- *[Satellite Image]
- *[Topographic Map]
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