}

Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of the The Episcopal Church. The campus is noted for its Collegiate Gothic architecture and rustic setting. Although suffering two serious fires (after which it was rebuilt), Old Kenyon Hall (1827) is believed to be the oldest Gothic revival building in the Americas. The 2005 Princeton Review and Fiske Guide to Colleges 2005 both ranked Kenyon's admissions as "most selective" and the college received top academic ratings. Kenyon College is accredited by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Academics

Kenyon's English Department is perhaps the best known among the college's academic departments. The English department first gained recognition with the arrival of the poet and critic John Crowe Ransom in 1937 as Professor of Poetry and first editor of The Kenyon Review, a literary journal. Perhaps the department's greatest influence on American literature derives from the role that it played in the development of a theory of literary study known as "the New Criticism." At a time when many scholars and teachers focused on the historical backgrounds of a literary text or probed authors' biographies for psychological clues, Ransom and his contemporaries argued for a method of literary analysis which took literature to be the most significant way humanity has ever devised for exploring reality, and which took texts themselves with corresponding seriousness, reading them closely and interpreting them intensively. Besides John Crowe Ransom, notable English faculty have included Jacques Barzun, Elizabeth Bishop, Eric Bentley, Cleanth Brooks, William Empson, Alfred Kazin, Robert Lowell, Arthur Mizener, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Yvor Winters, and more recently, John Kinsella and James Wood. Former English students at Kenyon include poets Robert Lowell, Randall Jarrell, Robert Mezey, James Wright, and Anthony Hecht, biographer and poet Daniel Mark Epstein, playwright Wendy MacLeod, and authors Peter Taylor, Fred Waitzkin, P. F. Kluge, William Gass, Laura Hillenbrand, and E. L. Doctorow.

Old Kenyon, 1827

Athletics

Kenyon's sports teams are referred to as the Lords and Ladies, and their colors are purple, white, and black with gold often added as an accent. The college's men's and women's swimming teams are generally considered among the best in NCAA Division III, with the men's team winning 27 consecutive national championships and the women's 20 (not consecutively). Swim Coach Jim Steen has coached the most conference titles in any sport in NCAA history.

Traditions

As Ohio's first private college, Kenyon takes pride in some traditions held more than 180 years. All students in each entering class are expected to take the Matriculation Oath and sign a Matriculation Book that dates back at least a century.

Another renowned tradition is the "Freshman Sing." Each year, entering freshmen gather on the steps of Rosse Hall to sing Kenyon songs before they are officially part of the Kenyon community. On the day before Commencement, seniors gather on the steps of Rosse Hall to sing Kenyon songs again.

Notable alumni

*Nick Bakay, television personality
*Jim Bellows, legendary journalist and newspaper editor
*Jim Borgman, political cartoonist
*Christopher Brose, speechwriter for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
*Caleb Carr, novelist and military historian
*James W. Ceaser, political scientist
*Jay Cocks, film critic
*Adam Davidson, Academy Award winning director
*David Davis, Senator, Supreme Court Justice
*Henry Winter Davis, U.S. Congressman for Maryland's 3rd and 4th District, 1855-1865.
*E. L. Doctorow, novelist and cultural critic
*Rolla Dyer, developer of the typhus-vaccine, and director of the National Institutes of Health
*Carl Djerassi, the creator of the birth control pill, winner of the National Medal of Science in 1973
*Graham Gund, architect
*John Hattendorf, maritime historian
*Rutherford B. Hayes, Nineteenth President of the United States
*Anthony Hecht, poet
*Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit: An American Legend (did not graduate; forced to withdraw after contracting chronic fatigue syndrome)
*Allison Janney, actress, four-time winner of the Emmy Award for work on The West Wing
*Robert Lowell, poet
*Thomas Stanley Matthews, Senator, Supreme Court, Associate Justice
*Paul Newman, actor, winner of the Emmy Award and the Academy Award
*Kris Osborn, CNN anchor
*Olof Palme, former Prime Minister of Sweden
*Alfred Humphreys Pease, composer
*Coles Phillips, artist
*Josh Radnor, actor
*William Rehnquist (attended one year), former Chief Justice of the United States
*Mark Rosenthal, MTV president
*John W. Snow, Secretary of the Treasury
*Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War during the Lincoln administration
*Peter Taylor, writer
*Bill Veeck (attended), flamboyant and innovative MLB owner and baseball Hall of Famer
*Bill Watterson, cartoonist, best known for Calvin and Hobbes
*Matt Winkler, editor, Bloomberg News
*Jonathan Winters, actor and comedian
*James Wright, poet
*Victoria Wyatt, art historian

Student organizations

*The Kenyon Observer (political magazine)
*The Kenyon Daily Jolt (student life website)
*Kenyon Collegian (student newspaper)
*Ascension Films (student filmmaking society)
*Kenyon College Ice Hockey (Ice Hockey Team)
*Hika Kenyon's oldest student-run literary journal. Contributors have included Robert Lowell, 1940; James Wright, 1952; and Allison Joseph, 1988 (all former staff members). Founded in 1925, it preceded The Kenyon Review.
*Horn Records (student record label)
*The Voice (social and political magazine)
*The Kenyon College Chasers The Kenyon College Chasers, founded in 1964, is the oldest group of a cappella singers on campus. This select ensemble of approximately 15 men and women perform contemporary, original arrangements of songs by many different artists.

External links

# Kenyon College: http://www.kenyon.edu# Kenyon College Profile: http://ir.kenyon.edu/profile.php# Kenyon Collegian (student newspaper): http://www.kenyoncollegian.com# Five Colleges of Ohio: http://www.ohio5.org# Great Lakes Colleges Association: http://www.glca.org# Colleges and Universities of the Anglican Communion/Association of Episcopal Colleges: http://www.cuac.org/53810_43981_ENG_HTM.htm?menupage=53912# Kenyon Ice Hockey: http://www2.kenyon.edu/orgs/Icehockey/welcome.htm

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Kenyon College: Encyclopedia BETA