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Wheaton College (Massachusetts)

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This article is about the college in Norton, Massachusetts. For the evangelical-affiliated school, see Wheaton College (Illinois).
Wheaton College is a four-year, private liberal arts college with an approximate student body of 1,620. Wheaton's [residential campus] is located in Norton, Massachusetts, between Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1834 as a female seminary, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education for women in the United States. Wheaton became a college in 1912. The school began admitting men in 1987, after more than 150 years as a female-only institution. Classes are relatively small: the student-faculty ratio is 11-to-1 and the average class size is between 15 and 20.

Contents

History

The history of Wheaton College is rooted in the affectionate regard and strong personal commitment of a small New England family. In 1834, Eliza Wheaton Strong, the daughter and favorite child of Judge Laban Wheaton, died at the age of thirty-nine. Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, the Judge's daughter-in-law, persuaded him to memorialize his daughter by founding a female seminary.

The family called upon noted women's educator Mary Lyon for assistance in establishing the seminary. Miss Lyon created the first curriculum with the goal that it be equal in quality to those of men's colleges. She also provided the first principal, Eunice Caldwell. Wheaton Female Seminary opened in Norton, Massachusetts on 22 April 1835, with 50 students and three teachers.

Mary Lyon and Eunice Caldwell left Wheaton to open Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837 (now Mount Holyoke College). Following their departure, Wheaton endured a period of fluctuating enrollment and frequent changes in leadership until 1850, when Caroline Cutler Metcalf was recruited as the new prinicpal. Mrs. Metcalf made the hiring of outstanding faculty her top priority, bringing in educators who encouraged students to discuss ideas rather than to memorize facts. The most notable additions to the faculty were Lucy Larcom, who introduced the study of English Literature and founded the student literary magazine The Rushlight; and Mary Jane Cragin, who used innovative techniques to teach geometry and made mathematics the favorite study of many students.

Mrs. Metcalf retired in 1876. A. Ellen Stanton, a teacher of French since 1871, served as principal from 1880 to 1897. She led the Seminary during a difficult time, when it faced competition from increasing numbers of public high schools and colleges granting bachelor's degrees to women.

Campus View in 1898
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Campus View in 1898

In 1897, at the suggestion of Eliza Baylies Wheaton, the Trustees hired the Reverend Samuel Valentine Cole as the Seminary's first male president. Preparing to seek a charter as a four-year college, Cole began a program of revitalization that included expanding and strengthening the curriculum, increasing the number and quality of the faculty, and adding six new buildings.

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts granted Wheaton a college charter in 1912. The Student Government Association was organized to represent the "consensus of opinion of the whole student body", and to encourage individual responsibility, integrity, and self-government. Wheaton received authorization to establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1932, only twenty years after achieving college status.

President Samuel Valentine Cole died suddenly, following a brief illness, in 1925. During his remarkable career as Wheaton President, Cole oversaw the expansion of the campus from three to twenty-seven buildings, the growth of enrollment from fifty to four hundred fourteen, and the establishment of an endowment.

The Reverend John Edgar Park, who became president in 1926, continued Cole's building program, and saw the College through the Great Depression, the celebration of its centennial in 1935, and World War II. He retired in 1944, and was succeeded by Dartmouth College Professor of History Alexander Howard Meneely. During his tenure, the Trustees voted to expand the size of the college from 525 to 800-1000 students, and construction of "new campus" began in 1957.

President Meneely died in 1961, following a long illness, and was succeeded in 1962 by William C.H. Prentice, a psychology professor and administrator at Swarthmore College. In the early 1960s, Wheaton successfully completed its first endowment campaign. The development of new campus continued, and student enrollment grew to 1200. Wheaton students and faculty joined in nationwide campus protests against United States actions in Indochina in 1970.

In 1975, Wheaton inaugurated its first woman president, Alice Frey Emerson, Dean of Students at the University of Pennsylvania. During her tenure, Wheaton achieved national recognition as a pioneer in the development of a gender-balanced curriculum. Wheaton celebrated its Sesquicentennial in 1984/85 with a year-long series of symposia, concerts, dance performances, art and history exhibits, and an endowment and capital campaign. In 1987, the Trustees voted to admit men to Wheaton. The first coeducational class was enrolled in September 1988.

Dale Rogers Marshall, Academic Dean at Wellesley College, was inaugurated as Wheaton's sixth president in 1992. She led the college in "The Campaign for Wheaton", to build endowed and current funds for faculty development, student scholarships, and academic programs and facilities. The highest enrollments in Wheaton's history in recent years encouraged the construction of the first new residence halls since 1964, and the improvement and expansion of classroom buildings.

President Crutcher (2004-present)
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President Crutcher (2004-present)

Wheaton's Board of Trustees appointed Ronald A. Crutcher at the seventh president of Wheaton College on March 23, 2004. President Crutcher came to Wheaton from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of music.

Presidents

The following is a list of Wheaton College presidents with the years of their presidential tenures.

Curriculum

Wheaton offers a liberal arts curriculum leading to a bachelor of arts degree in more than 36 majors and 50 minors. Students choose from courses in subjects from physics to philosophy, political science to computer science, art history to theater, English to economics. In addition, Wheaton offers highly specialized courses typically found only at large universities. The course selection is extended further through the college's [cross-registration] programs with Brown University and nine local colleges involved in SACHEM (Southeastern Association for Cooperation in Higher Education in Massachusetts). Wheaton also offers dual-degree programs, enabling its undergraduates to begin graduate-level study in studio art, communications, engineering, business, theology and optometry. It is commonly considered one of the top 20 Liberal Arts colleges in the United States, although does not rank highly in the US News List of Colleges due to its extremely small endowment.

Beginning with the Class of 2007, all Wheaton students take sets of courses that approach a topic from the perspectives of different disciplines. These connected courses are intended to encourage students to explore and think beyond their primary academic interests. [link] For instance, the Connection entitled "Communication through Art and Mathematics" links Arts 298 (Graphic Design I) with Math 127 (Advertising Math).

[Foundations] courses focus on writing, quantitative analysis, foreign language study and non-Western perspectives. In their first semester at Wheaton, all freshmen take a [First Year Seminar] in which they explore contemporary issues and gain academic skills needed for college-level study. The [Major concentration] and [elective courses] are also central to the Wheaton Curriculum, which culminates in a senior capstone experience—a thesis, research project, seminar or creative project.

The intent of a formal curriculum seldom coincides with its effects. Frequently, interdisciplinary and exploratory subjects fail to provoke the mental response their inventors expect. In this connection, see Benson Snyder's The Hidden Curriculum (1970).

Honor code

Wheaton is also one of a select number of schools to use the honor code system in both academic and social settings. Incoming freshmen sign the honor code during orientation. The focus at Wheaton has been particularly upon plagiarism, specifically through the decision to require students to write and sign the Honor Code upon their work. This decision, reached in 2003, was done through the work of both students and faculty.

Arts

Wheaton's arts buildings, with newly expanded space for study, exhibition and performance, have set the stage for the [Evelyn Danzig Haas '39 Visiting Artists Program]. Launched in 2003, the program brings distinguished writers, musicians, actors, directors, dancers and artists to campus for short-term residencies to share their work through lectures, master classes, concerts and exhibitions. [Arts in the City] complements the visiting artists program by taking students and faculty members on trips to Boston, Providence and elsewhere to explore the arts and cultural offerings of the region.

Athletics

Students can participate in intramural activities, club sports, and intercollegiate teams. Wheaton fields 21 intercollegiate teams for women and men, including baseball, softball, basketball, soccer, track and synchronized swimming. The school's teams play within the NCAA Division III and in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). The women's track and field program has been the most successful team at Wheaton. They won the NCAA Division III National Championship in Winter Track 5 straight years from 1999 to 2003 and the 2001, 2002, and 2003 Outdoor Track championships. They were also the first Division III program to win the indoor and outdoor titles 3 years in a row. In 1975, Deborah Simocerian won a share of the AIAW individual collegiate golf championship.

Publications and media

Films

The following films have been recorded, at least in part, on the Wheaton campus.

Notable alumni

 

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