Berea College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Motto | God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth. |
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| Established | 1855 |
| Type | Private Undergraduate Liberal Arts |
| President | Dr. Larry D. Shinn |
| Faculty | 131 |
| Undergraduates | 1,514 |
| Postgraduates | 0 |
| Location | Berea, KY, USA |
| Campus | Rural |
| Athletics | Mountaineers |
| Colors | Blue █ and White █ |
| Affiliations | Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
| Website | www.berea.edu |
Berea College is a small liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky, south of Lexington, Kentucky with a full-time enrollment of 1514 students. Founded on the abolitionist principles of John Gregg Fee (1816-1901), Berea College admitted, from its beginning in 1855, both black and white students in a fully-integrated curriculum, making it the first non-segregated, co-educational college in the South, one of a handful of institutions of higher learning to admit both male and female students in the mid-1800s.
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[edit] History
The College began first in 1855 as a one room schoolhouse, that also served as a church on Sundays. While the school's first articles of incorporation were adopted in 1859, founder John Gregg Fee and the teachers were forced out of the area by pro-slavery supporters in that same year. Fee spent the Civil War years raising funds for the school, and returned afterward to continue his work. In 1869, the first college students were admitted, and the first bachelors degrees awarded in 1873.
In 1904, the state legislature's passage of the "Day Law" disrupted Berea's interracial education by prohibiting education of black and white students together. The college challenged the law in state court, and further appealed to the Supreme Court in Berea College v. Kentucky. When the challenge failed, the college had to become a segregated school and set aside funds to help establish the Lincoln Institute near Louisville to educate black students. In 1950, when the law was amended to allow integration of schools at the college level, Berea promptly resumed its integrated policies.
In addition to college level education, Berea also provided pre-college education until the 1960's. In 1968, the elementary and secondary schools (Foundation School) were discontinued in favor of focusing on undergraduate college education.
[edit] Academics and student life
For the past decade, Berea College has been consistently ranked by US News and World Report as the number one liberal arts college in the South. A high percentage of Berea graduates go on to graduate and professional schools, and the College is also active in international programs, with over 40% of Berea students studying abroad before graduation. The college provides significant funding to assist students in studying abroad. Berea students are also eligible to win the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship which provides funding for a year of study abroad following graduation. National surveys show that the stress level of Berea students is higher than the national average.[citation needed]
[edit] Scholarships and work program
Berea College provides all students with full tuition scholarships (valued at $21,000), and many receive support for room and board as well. Historically, the cost of admission to Berea College has varied from "a desire to learn" to "the price of one head of livestock." Admission to the College is granted only to students who need financial assistance (generally as determined by the FAFSA); in general, applications are not accepted from those whose family income does not fall within the bottom 40% of US households. By policy, at least 80% of the College's incoming class is drawn from the Appalachian region of the South and some adjoining areas, while about 7% are international students from the developing world--Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and Central and South America--with generally no more than one student admitted from a given country in a single year (with the exception of countries in distress such as Tibet and Liberia). This policy ensures that 70 or more nationalities are usually represented in the student body of Berea College. All international students are admitted on full scholarships with the same regard for financial need as American students.
In order to support its extensive scholarship program, Berea College has one of the largest financial reserves of any American college when measured on a per-student basis. The endowment stands at $862 million. The base of Berea College's finances is dependent on substantial contributions from individuals who support the mission of the College and donations from alumni, who have been the beneficiaries of Berea's largesse. A solid investment strategy lifted the endowment size from $150 million in 1985 to its current height.[1]
As a work college, Berea has a labor program in which every entering student is assigned a job on campus, from busing tables at the Boone Tavern Hotel, a historic business, which is owned by the College, to managing the hanging and focusing of lights for the productions at the Theatre Lab. Jobs are available Every student agrees to work 10 hours per week for the College in return for their full-tuition scholarship. Students all are paid a low hourly wage, but the work is also considered scholarship repayment.
[edit] Campus life
Technology is an important part of life at Berea College. Starting in 2000, Berea started a program to provide students with laptops. In 2002, all students received a laptop. All freshmen are given a laptop and at the end of their second year, are given a brand new laptop that they can take with them when the graduate. There are over 4,000 data ports on campus and they are working to establish a campus-wide wireless network.
Unlike many colleges, Berea does not offer 'flex dollars' in its meal plan, instead one is given a choice of signing up for 21, 14, or 10 meals per week in the cafeteria food service. The advantage to signing up for less than 21 meals is one gets more 'Berea Bucks' usable at the college Cafe. The company supplying the food for food service is Sodexho. Sodexho Marriott is also in charge of the services at Boone Tavern hotel.
Berea's sports teams are called the "Mountaineers." They compete in the NAIA's Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
[edit] Christian identity
Berea was founded by progressive, non-sectarian Christians, and it still maintains a Christian identity separate from any particular denomination. Using as its scriptural foundation "God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth" (Acts 17:26), the college does not limit enrollment to Christians. Instead, it welcomes people who support its values of "impartial love" regardless of faith tradition.[2]
[edit] Notable alumni
- John Fenn - winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in chemistry
- Rodney Griffin - award winning songwriter and baritone with Southern gospel group Greater Vision
- Julia B. Hooks - second African-American woman in the United States to graduate from college and paternal grandmother of Benjamin Hooks
- Juanita M. Kreps - U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Jimmy Carter
- Tharon Musser - Tony Award winning lighting designer known especially for her work on A Chorus Line
- Jack Roush - founder, CEO, and owner of Roush Racing, a NASCAR team
- Helen Maynor Scheirbeck - Assistant Director for Public Programs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian
- Naomi Tutu - daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and activist
- Muse Watson - American actor
- Carter G. Woodson - African-American historian, author, and journalist. Co-founder of Black History Month
[edit] References
- ^ Brull, Steven. (September 2005). "Appalachian spring". Institutional Investor, p. 35.
- ^ The Christian Identity of Berea College. Berea College (2002-05-11). Retrieved on 2006-12-08.
