Cornell College
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| Motto | DEUS ET HUMANITAS (God and Humanity) |
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| Established | 1853 |
| Type | Private |
| Endowment | $68.7 Million [1] |
| President | Leslie H. Garner, Jr. |
| Faculty | 119 |
| Undergraduates | 1,155 [2] |
| Location | Mount Vernon, Iowa, USA |
| Campus | rural, 129 acres (522,044 m²) |
| Colors | Purple & White |
| Nickname | Rams |
| Affiliations | United Methodist Church |
| Website | cornellcollege.edu |
- This article is about the liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa. For the unaffiliated university in Ithaca, New York, see Cornell University.
Cornell College is a 1,200-student Liberal arts college in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Originally called the Iowa Conference Seminary, the school was founded in 1853 by Reverend George Bryant Bowman. Two years later, in 1855, the name was changed to Cornell College, in honor of iron tycoon William Wesley Cornell, who was a distant relative of Ezra Cornell, who later founded Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in 1865.
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[edit] Overview
Cornell students study one course at a time (abbreviated to "OCAAT" or "the block plan"). Since 1978, school years have been divided into nine "blocks" of three-and-a-half weeks each (each followed by a four-day "block break" to round out to four weeks), during which students are enrolled in a single class; what would normally be covered in a full semester's worth of class at a typical university is covered in just seventeen-and-one-half Cornell class days. Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado,Tusculum College in Tusculum, Tennessee, and The University of Montana - Western are the only other colleges operating under this academic calendar.
From the very beginning, Cornell has accepted women into all degree programs. In 1858, Cornell was the first college west of the Mississippi to grant a baccalaureate degree to a woman. Mary Fellows, a member of the first graduating class from Cornell College, received a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1871, Harriette J. Cooke became the first female college professor in the United States to become a full professor with a salary equal to that of her male colleagues.
Cornell College is listed as one of the Princeton Review's Best 357 Colleges and in Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives.
[edit] Athletics
Cornell College fields 19 intercollegiate athletic teams, all of which compete in NCAA Division III sports. It is a member of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
Cornell has achieved its greatest success in wrestling. Cornell wrestlers have won eight individual national titles, and in 1947, the wrestling team won the NCAA and AAU national championships. Thirty Cornell wrestlers have been named All-Americans, and seven have been elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame.
Twenty-five Cornell students have earned NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships, awarded annually to students in their final year of eligibility who excel both athletically and academically. Cornell ranks tenth among Division III colleges in recipients of this award.
Cornell's football rivalry with Coe College dates to 1891, making it the oldest intercollegiate rivalry west of the Mississippi. Coe currently holds the lead in the series, 60-51-4.
[edit] Academic statistics
- Average GPA: 3.54
- Average SAT: 1244
- Average ACT: 26
- Student Faculty Ratio: 11:1
- Most Popular Majors: Economics, Education, Psychology
[edit] Notable alumni
- Leo Beranek 1936 -- acoustics engineer, co-founder of Bolt, Beranek and Newman
- Chris Carney 1981 -- Congressman-elect (elected to U.S. Congress in 2006 from Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional district)
- Mike Conklin 1969 -- feature writer and columnist, Chicago Tribune
- James Daly 1941 -- Emmy Award-winning actor[1]
- Lester J. Dickinson 1898 -- Congressman and Senator
- Lee Alvin DuBridge 1922 -- President of the California Institute of Technology, science advisor to U.S. President Richard Nixon
- Donald E. Fehrenbacher 1948 -- winner, Pulitzer Prize for History
- Michael J. Graham 1975 -- President of Xavier University
- Edgar J. Helms 1889 -- founder of Goodwill Industries
- Portis Hershey 2002 -- actor
- David Hilmers 1972 -- astronaut and medical doctor
- Marjorie Holmes 1931 -- author
- Richard Kirkham 1977 -- philosopher
- Maryann Mahaffey 1946 -- member of the Detroit City Council
- Nancy Price 1946 -- author, Sleeping with the Enemy
- Leslie M. Shaw 1874 -- Governor of Iowa, U.S. Secretary of Treasury
- William Taylor -- Chairman of the FDIC
- Dale O. Thomas 1948 -- wrestler, coach
- Walter Thornton 1899 -- Major League Baseball player
- Aleta Grillos Trauger 1968 -- Federal judge
[edit] Notable faculty
- Joseph M. Bachelor -- author
- Charles Wesley Flint, President (1915-1922), Methodist bishop
- Bruce Frohnen -- academic
- David Loebsack -- Congressman-elect (elected to U.S. Congress in 2006 from Iowa's 2nd Congressional district)
- Lisa Stone -- Head Coach, University of Wisconsin Women's Basketball
[edit] Lecturers, speakers, and performers
Despite Cornell's small size and location in a small town, many nationally and internationally prominent speakers and performers have visited Cornell, including the following:
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[edit] External links
- Cornell College web site
- A humorous article written by Dee Ann Rexroat '82 about the differences between Cornell College and Cornell University
- 2002 article about the Cornell-Coe rivalry
[edit] References
- 1 endowment Well Endowed. Cornell College. Retrieved on April 8, 2006.
- 2 enrollment Cornell College at a Glance. U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved on April 8, 2006.
| Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference |
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| Buena Vista • Central (Iowa) • Coe • Cornell (Iowa) • Dubuque • Loras • Luther (Iowa) • Simpson • Wartburg |
