Washington College

Washington College is a private, selective, independent liberal arts college located on a 112 acre (45.3 ha) campus in Chestertown, Maryland on the Eastern Shore. Maryland granted Washington College its charter in 1782. George Washington supported the founding of WC by consenting to have the "College at Chester" named in his honor, through generous financial support, and through service on the College's Board of Visitors and Governors. Washington College is the tenth oldest college in the United States and was the first college chartered after American independence was gained. The school became coeducational in 1891.

Washington College campus

Approximately 1,300 undergraduates and 100 graduate students attend Washington College, 47% from Maryland and the balance from 35 other states and forty foreign nations. Approximately 8% of the American undergraduates are minority students and approximately 8% are international citizens. Approximately 5% of the WC student body is "non-traditional" (25 years old or older). Approximately 80% of all students live in college residence halls; the rest commute either from off-campus housing or from home.

Annual tuition is $29,640 and total expenses per annum (including room, board, and fees) are $36,650. Approximately 85% of the student body receives some form of need-based financial aid or merit-based scholarship award. Tuition has been rising in recent years, with the overall tuition (including room and board) increasing to roughly $37,000.

The school has over 50 student clubs. Freshmen, unless local, are required to live on-campus. On-campus housing is available for approximately 900 students. Most students (70-75%) stay on-campus over the weekend to participate in various social and recreational activities. Approximately 30% of students attend graduate school in the first year following graduation and approximately 45% do so within five years. Student/faculty ratio: 12/1. Average class size is 17. The school confers the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Master of Arts (in English, Psychology & History).

The college awards the Sophie Kerr prize, the second-largest monetary undergraduate award in the country. The graduating senior with the greatest literary potential is chosen by a faculty committee for this honor each year. The award has grown to over $50,000 annually.

In 2005, Washington College inaugurated another literary prize, the George Washington Book Prize, administered by the college's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and awarded in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon. The prize is awarded annually to the most significant new book about the founding era. At $50,000, the prize is one of the most generous book awards in the United States.

Washington College is host to the Harwood Series, a collection of speaking engagements by national politicians, media pundits, and so forth. In recent years, Haley Barbour, Howard Dean, John McCain, James Carville, and Karl Rove have appeared on campus. Recreationally speaking, WC attracts decent talent to entertain the student body: the Counting Crows, Bruce Hornsby, Wayne Brady, and Larry Hagman have all appeared on campus in one capacity or another recently.

There are three fraternities and three sororities on campus: male Greek life includes Kappa Alpha Order, Theta Chi, and Phi Delta Theta. The female organizations are Alpha Chi Omega, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Alpha Omicron Pi. Recently, a colony of Kappa Sigma has appeared on campus.

The campus newspaper of record is The Elm. Other campus newspapers include The Collegian (features) and The Navigator.

It is a Washington College tradition to celebrate May Day (May 1) by liberating oneself from one's restrictive and oppressive clothing and partying desnudo with fellow students mostly by the flagpole. The celebration takes place over two nights with hundreds participating.

Academic Departments and Programs

*American Studies
*Anthropology
*Archaeology
*Art
*Behavioral Neuroscience
*Biology
*Business Management
*Chemistry
*Chesapeake Regional Studies
*Creative Writing
*Drama
*Earth and Planetary Sciences
*Economics
*Education
*Engineering
*English
*Environmental Studies
*Foreign Languages (French, German, Japanese, Spanish)
*Gender Studies
*History
*Human Development
*Humanities
*International Studies
*Math and Computer Science
*Music
*Nursing
*Pharmacy
*Philosophy and Religion
*Physical Education
*Physics
*Political Science
*Pre-Law
*Premedical
*Psychology
*Sociology

Honorary Societies

*Alpha Kappa Delta - Sociology
*Beta Beta Beta - Biology
*Society of Junior Fellows - undergraduate research colloquium
*Lambda Alpha - Anthropology
*Nu Delta Alpha - Dance
*Omicron Delta Epsilon - Economics
*Omicron Delta Kappa - Leadership
*Phi Alpha Theta - History
*Phi Sigma Tau - Philosophy
*Pi Lambda Theta - Education
*Pi Sigma Alpha - Political Science
*Psi Chi - Psychology
*Sigma Beta Delta - Business
*Sigma Tau Delta - English
*Sigma Xi - Science/Engineering

Varsity Athletics

Washington College is perhaps best known athletically for its men's lacrosse team. It has advanced to the NCAA Division III championship game eight times, winning the title in 1998.
*Baseball (M)
*Basketball (M, W)
*Field Hockey (W)
*Lacrosse (M, W)
*Rowing (M, W)
*Sailing (M, W)
*Soccer (M, W)
*Softball (W)
*Swimming (M, W)
*Tennis (M, W)
*Volleyball (W)

Facilities

*William Smith Hall
*Dunning Hall
*Bunting Hall
*Daly Hall
*Louis Goldstein Hall
*Miller Library
*Rose O'Neill Literary House
*Hodson Hall
*Casey Academic Center
*Benjamin Johnson LIfetime Fitness Center
*Roy Kirby Stadium
*Athey Field
*Schottland Tennis Pavilion
*Casey Swim Center
*Truslow Boat House
*Larabee Art Center
*Hynson Pavilion
*Gibson Center
*Hynson-Ringgold House
*Custom House
*Spanish House
*Kent House
*Queen Anne's House - Substance-Free Housing
*Caroline House
*St. Mary's House
*Calvert House
*Charles House
*Anne Arundel House
*Prince George's House
*Montgomery House
*Howard House
*Carroll House
*Frederick House
*Allegany House
*Garrett House
*Cecil House
*Harford Hall
*Dorchester House
*Talbot House
*Wicomico Hall
*Somerset Hall
*Worcester Hall
*Minta Martin Hall
*East Hall - International Students/Studies Housing
*Middle Hall - Creative Arts Housing
*West Hall - Science/Mathematics Housing
*Reid Hall
*Sears House
*White Cottage
*Nussbaum House
*Brown Cottage
*Alumni House

Past Washington College Presidents

*William Smith 1782-1789
*Colin Ferguson 1793-1805
*Hugh McGuire 1813-1815
*Joab G. Cooper 1816-1817
*Gerard E. Stack 1817-1818
*Francis Waters 1818-1823
*Timothy Clowes 1823-1829
*Peter Clark 1829-1832
*Richard W. Ringgold 1832-1854
*Francis Waters 1854-1860
*Andrew J. Sutton 1860-1867
*Robert C. Berkeley 1867-1873
*William J. Rivers 1873-1887
*Thomas N. Williams 1887-1889
*Charles W. Reid 1889-1903
*James W. Cain 1903-1918
*Clarence P. Gould 1919-1923
*Paul E. Titsworth 1923-1933
*Gilbert W. Mead 1933-1949
*Daniel Z. Gibson 1950-1970
*Charles J. Merdinger 1970-1973
*Joseph H. McLain 1973-1981
*Douglass Cater 1982-1990
*Charles H. Trout 1990-1995
*John S. Toll 1995-2004
*Baird Tipson 2004-

Notable Alumni/Students

*John W. Crisfield, Congressman for Maryland 6th District, 1847-1849; Congressman for Maryland 1st District, 1861-1863. Town of Crisfield, MD named in his honor.
*Alonzo G. Decker, Jr., co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of the Black and Decker Corporation.
*Charles H. Gibson, U.S. Senator for Maryland, 1891-1897; Congressman for Maryland 1st District, 1885-1891.
*Louis L. Goldstein, (1935), Comptroller of the Treasury for Maryland, 1959-1998.
*Linda Hamilton, actress.
*Laura San Giacomo, actress.
*John A. Moag Jr., (1977), Vice Chairman of Legg Mason, brought Ravens to Baltimore from Cleveland while Chairman of Maryland Stadium Authority.
*Scott Newman, Paul Newman's late son.
*Bishop John Emory, 1805, a lawyer and a minister of the Methodist Church. Emory helped in the organization of several colleges and universities, including New York University, Wesleyan University and Dickinson College. Emory University, founded in 1836, was named in his honor.
*George Avery Bunting, 1891, entered Washington College at the age of 16, pursued a career in pharmacology and invented the facial cream known as Noxzema. He founded the company in 1917 and served as its president until 1948.
*Colonel Hiram Staunton Brown, 1900, New York banker, businessman, multimillionaire and president of the RKO Movie Corporation.
*James M. Cain, 1910, journalist, screenwriter and novelist, best known for three novelsā€"The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierceā€"which firmly established the film noir genre.
*Gilbert Byron, 1923, author, best known as the "Chesapeake Thoreau" or "Voice of the Chesapeake" for such regionally-flavored works as The Lord's Oysters and Done Crabbin'.
*William O. Baker, 1935, chairman of the board of Bell Telephone Laboratories, served as vice-chairman of the New Jersey Board of Higher Education and co-authored A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (1983).
*"Swish" Nicholson, 1936, two-time National League home run and RBI leader. After a short stint with the Philadelphia Athletics and in the minors, Nicholson joined the Chicago Cubs in 1939.
*Joseph A. McLain, 1937, chemist in the field of pyrotechnics who held more than 30 patents for devices such as pyrotechnic actuation devices for stage separation in spacecraft and smoke grenades for camouflaging troop movements.
*Benjamin H. Vandervoort, 1938, famed officer in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, portrayed by John Wayne in the 1962 movie, The Longest Day. Vandervoort was one of the few soldiers to be awarded three Distinguished Service Crosses for Bravery in combat, in addition to three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star with Valor. Renowned for his heroics during the Normandy Invasion.
*William B. Johnson, 1940, captain of industry, CEO and chair of Illinois Central Gulf Railroad, brought his company and his investors out of the "railroad blues" of the late 1960s through diversification and the creation of a multi-billion dollar conglomerate that included businesses such as the Abex Corporation, Pepsi bottlers, Midas Muffler, Pet Foods, Hussman refrigeration equipment, Pneumo Aircraft Systems and the Illinois center corporate office complex in downtown Chicago.
*Theodore Kurze, 1943, brain surgeon credited with bringing the microscope into the practice of neurosurgery.
*Betty Brown Casey, 1947, philanthropist, chair of the Eugene B. Casey Foundation, created the Casey Trees Endowment Fund to restore the tree cover of the District of Columbia.
*Ralph Snyderman, MD, 1961, past Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System, served as President of the Association of American Physicians and Chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
*David Ritz, 1969, CEO of Ritz Camera Centers.
*Marcia Invernizzi, 1972, Professor and Program Coordinator of Reading Education in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Special Education at the Curry School of Education in Charlottesville, Virginia, and clinical director of the McGuffey Reading Center at the University of Virginia.
*Michael Ludden, 1973, journalist and editor, led The Orlando Sentinel to a Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for an investigation of racial profiling and the abuse of no-arrest seizures laws by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office.
*H. Lawrence Culp, 1985, President and CEO of Danaher, a Fortune 500 company and a world leader in the development and manufacture of process and environmental instrumentation.
*Walter Baker and Robert Dean, Maryland State Senators.
*Mary Adele France, 1900, principal of St. Mary's Female Seminary, establishing it as a junior college that later became St. Mary's College of Maryland.
*Christine Lincoln, 2000, African American writer, winner of the Sophie Kerr Prize, and author of the critically-acclaimed short-story collection Sap Rising (Pantheon Books, 2001).
*Bob Jackson, lacrosse All-American.
*Theodore Simonson, 1949, scriptwriter of the 1958 sci-fi horror classic, The Blob.

External links

*Washington College Home Page
*The Elm Newspaper
*Washington College Archaeology Lab
*Washington College Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lab
*Washington College Center for the Environment and Society
*C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience
*George Washington Book Prize
*The Rose O'Neill Literary House at Washington College
*Sophie Kerr Prize