Trinity College (Connecticut)

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Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut
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Trinity College at Hartford, Connecticut
Trinity College
Seal of Trinity College
Established 1823
Type Private
Endowment $380,409,784
President James F. Jones, Jr.
Dean Rena Fraden
Faculty 187
Students 2188
Location Hartford, Connecticut, United States
Campus Urban
Colors Blue & Gold
Mascot Bantam
Website http://www.trincoll.edu

Trinity College is a private liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it was the second college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University.

Contents

[edit] Campus

The first buildings completed on the current campus, to which Trinity moved in 1878, were Seabury and Jarvis halls which, together with Northam Towers, make up what is known as the "Long Walk." These buildings are the earliest, and often consider to be the best examples of Collegiate Gothic architecture in the United States.

Trinity's other landmark is its distinctive chapel. The Trinity College Chapel, referred to by Trinity students simply as "the Chapel," was built in the 1930's to replace Trinity's original chapel, located in Seabury Hall (now a lecture hall). The Chapel's facade is made almost entirely of limestone and it seamlessly blends into the adjacent Downes Memorial Clock Tower. The Chapel, due to its location on Trinity's Gallows Hill, is the highest (but not tallest) building in the city of Hartford. Its architects, Frohman Robb and Little, were also responsible for the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, and the two buildings share a resemblance.

Another distinctive feature of Trinity's campus is its central green known as the Main Quad, which is bound on the west by the Long Walk, on the east by the Lower Long Walk, on the north by the Chapel, and on the south by various dormitories. While a central green is a feature of many college campuses, Trinity's is notable for its unusually large size, running the entire length of the Long Walk and with no paved or unpaved walkways traversing it. This makes the Quad ideal for outside study and leisure. Steep hills on its north-eastern edge also make the Quad ideal for sledding in the winter months. Trees on the Quad have been planted in a 'T' configuration (for Trinity) with the letter's base located at the statue of Bishop Brownell and its top running the length of the Long Walk. Tradition holds that the trees were intended to distinguish Trinity's campus from Yale's. Also located on the Quad are two cannons used on the USS Hartford, flagship of Admiral David Farragut during the civil war.

The whole of Trinity's campus is set out on a 100-acre parcel of land that is bound on the south by New Britain Avenue, on the west by Summit Street, on the east by Broad Street, and on the north by Allen Place. Trinity's former northern border, Vernon Street, has been transferred from the city of Hartford to Trinity College and closed off at one end (Broad Street), creating a cul-de-sac within Trinity's borders. Each border street has a distinct character: Summit Street, cut off from the city by a 60-foot rock ledge and a park, almost has the feel of a country road; Allen Place is purely residential; New Britain Avenue is a typical inner-city street with shops and apartments. Broad Street, formerly a rundown haven for prostitutes and gangs, has been revitalized in recent years with the creation of the Learning Corridor. Completed in 2001, and located on what was formerly an abandoned bus depot adjacent to Trinity's campus, the Learning Corridor is a collection of K-12 public magnet schools co-created by Trinity and the governments of Hartford and Connecticut.

Trinity's campus is notable for having no through-streets running through it. The only exception until its recent closure was Vernon Street, at the north end of the campus. Since the street was transferred to the school from the city Trinity has done much to reinvigorate a street that was once fairly run-down. It has been widened and repaved, light posts have been installed about every ten feet (inviting the sutdent-bestowed nickname "Runway V") as well as granite crosswalks, curbs, benches, and fenceposts. Vernon Street is also considered to be the social heart of campus, it is the location of most of the campus cultural houses and Greek organizations, as well as the new Vernon Social Center.

[edit] Important buildings on campus

  • Mather Hall – located just south of Hamlin Hall (the southern terminus of the long walk), Mather Hall is the main student center of Trinity College. The building contains the main dining hall as well as “The Cave” dining hall, a post office and student mail boxes, a coffee house, as well as meeting rooms and a large auditorium.
  • Raether Library – This library was built in the 1950's to replace the library in Williams Memorial. It was renovated once in the 1970's and again in 2002. With the newest renovation a new atrium, a new grand reading room, and a coffee cafe (see Peter B's below) were added, as well as a new computing center and media center.
The Trinity College Raether Library in a December snow storm
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The Trinity College Raether Library in a December snow storm
  • Seabury Hall – This section of the Long Walk contains classrooms, professors offices, and four dance studios.
Trinity College Life Science Center in the Summertime
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Trinity College Life Science Center in the Summertime
  • Jarvis Hall – This section of the Long Walk contains single, double and quad freshman dorms. It is rumored that when the doubles were designed for students while the singles across the hallway were intended for their servants.
  • Northam Towers – This tower, with its distinctive archway, connects Jarvis and Seabury Halls. It contains upperclassman housing.
  • Austin Arts Center – The AAC was designed in the 1960’s and connects to the Gallows cafe and bookstore (see below). Some take the building to be inadequate, and it may be rebuilt in coming years.
  • Albert C. Jacobs Life Sciences Center – Built in the 1970s in the architectural style of Brutalism, LSC was designed to be an abstract representation of the Long Walk. The aging eyesore is slated for demolition and replacement by a state-of-the-art facility in the next decade.
  • Math, Computing, and Engineering Center – MCEC is located on the Life Sciences Quad (named for the Life Sciences Center, which dominates the quad) it is made of brick and sandstone. It housed the computing center until it was moved to the renovated library.
Burge's original plan for the campus of Trinity College
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Burge's original plan for the campus of Trinity College

[edit] Trinity College and Hartford

Location in urban Hartford affords Trinity advantages over other liberal arts colleges, which typically are located either in rural or suburban environments. Also, Hartford’s status as state capital of Connecticut (the capitol itself is within walking distance of campus) provides students with many opportunities for internships and special learning opportunities. Downtown Hartford is also in the process of revitalizing. With a new entertainment district and the Connecticut Convention Center nearing completion, downtown is slowly becoming popular again with Trinity students.

There has been some ongoing tension between Trinity and the surrounding neighborhoods, as has been the case with many wealthy colleges in less-affluent surroundings. Wesleyan University has similar tension with the residents of Middletown, CT. In either case, petty crime is the usual result: cars are broken into, preteens and teens on bikes shout epithets, and there is some theft. Violent crime is rare.

[edit] Trinity and the community

Along with Trinity, the Learning Corridor, Hartford Hospital, and the The Institute of Living make up the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, or SINA. SINA has been instrumental in creating affordable housing in Hartford’s Frog Hollow and Barry Square neighborhoods as well as in the creation of the Learning Corridor and the Trinity College Boys and Girls Club, the only Boys and Girls Club located on and run by a college or university.

Trinity students are actively involved in the community through outreach programs and community service projects. Many students work or volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club or at one of the Montessori Schools of the Learning Corridor. Trinity has made an effort, especially since the inauguration of current president James F. Jones, to include the community in its own internal improvements. The two most visible examples of this are the availability of Trinity’s library, computer resources and the new Community Sports Complex (currently under construction) to Hartford residents. The new sports complex will function both as a rink for Trinity’s ice hockey teams and as a public skating rink.

[edit] Academics at Trinity College

[edit] Selectivity

Trinity College is consistently ranked as one of the nation's top liberal arts colleges, with US News and World Report routinely ranking the school in its top 30. Recently the Wall Street Journal ranked Trinity as the 43rd highest "feeder school" for the top graduate school programs. Data compiled by the National Science Foundation lists Trinity as a liberal arts college that educates disproportionately high numbers of future scientists.

Trinity College is a highly selective and respected institution, which attracts students from all over the world with its reputation. Further, Trinity has established partnerships with premier academic institutions worldwide, along with global sites on every inhabited continent.

[edit] Areas of study

Trinity College currently offers the following majors:


[edit] Contributions to the Arts

A student run film festival, known for the stalwart efforts of its creators.
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A student run film festival, known for the stalwart efforts of its creators.

Cinestudio is one of the premier art cinemas in Connecticut, known for its diverse selection, 1930's-style design, and frequent rotation of the film schedule. A recent article in the Hartford Advocate described this non-profit organization, which depends solely on grants and the efforts of volunteer workers who are paid in free movies. Cinestudio has been located in the Clement Chemistry Building since it was founded in the 1970's, and was one of the few theaters to play A Clockwork Orange when it first came out.

Cinestudio is host to the annual Eyeball Film Festival, in which young film makers premier their latest works in front of their peers. The festival has judges, each schooled in film from a different perspective, who judge the student's films. The 2004 award went to Three Colors Green. There is also a runner up prize which is voted upon by the audience, the 2004 people's choice went to Homeless Casanova by Michael Caputo.

[edit] History of Trinity College

[edit] Early history

Trinity was founded in the spring of 1823 as Washington College, in downtown Hartford, receiving its current name in 1845. Because of the social dominance of rival Congregationalists in Connecticut and because Trinity's founder and first president, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Brownell, was an Episcopal bishop, the college had some early difficulties obtaining its charter from the state. A condition imposed by the charter was that, despite its Episcopal roots, the college must prohibit any imposition of religious standards on students, faculty members, or other members of the college. A year after opening, Trinity moved to its first campus, which consisted of two Greek Revival-style buildings, one housing a chapel, library, and lecture rooms and the other a dormitory. Within a few years the student body grew to nearly one hundred, a size that was rarely exceeded until the 20th century.

[edit] A new campus

In 1872 Trinity College was persuaded (the degree of free will at work in the college’s move is disputed) by the State of Connecticut to move from its downtown “College Hill” location (now Capitol Hill, the site of the state capitol building) to its current 100-acre campus a mile to the southwest. However, although the college sold its land overlooking the Park River and Bushnell Park in 1872, it did not complete its move to its Gallows Hill campus until 1878. Trinity’s first plan for the Gallows Hill site proved to be too ambitious (and too expensive) to be completely built. Only one section of the proposed campus plan, the Long Walk, was ever completed.

[edit] Trinity in the twentieth century

Trinity ended the nineteenth century as an institution primarily serving the Hartford area. The founding of the University of Hartford in 1877, however, allowed Trinity to focus on becoming a regional institution rather than a local one. The early years of the century were primarily growth years for Trinity. Enrollment was increased to 500 men and in 1932 under President Ramsen Ogilby the impressive gothic chapel which is the symbol of Trinity College was completed. The chapel replaced the Seabury chapel which had become too small for the student body. The late 1960’s were a time of great change for Trinity as well. In 1968 the trustees of Trinity College voted to make a commitment to enroll (with financial aid as needed) a much larger number of minority students. It is interesting to note that this decision was preceded by a siege of the administrative offices in the Downes and Williams Memorial buildings during which Trinity students would not allow the president or trustees to leave until they agreed to the aforementioned resolution. Less than one year later, in order to keep pace with sister institutions, Trinity became co-educational and admitted its first female students, as transfers from Vassar College. Today, women make up about 51 percent of Trinity's student body.

[edit] Trinity College presidents

  • James F. Jones. 2004 -
  • Borden W. Painter, Jr. '58, H'95 2003 – 2004
  • Richard H. Hersh 2002 – 2003
  • Ronald R. Thomas H'02, Acting President 2001 – 2002
  • Evan S. Dobelle H'01 1995 – 2001
  • Borden W. Painter, Jr. '58, H'95, Acting President 1994 – 1995
  • Tom Gerety 1989 – 1994
  • James Fairfield English, Jr., '48 1981 – 1989
  • Theodore Davidge Lockwood '48 1968 – 1981
  • Albert Charles Jacobs H'68 1953 – 1968
  • Arthur Howard Hughes, Acting President 1951 - 1953
  • George Keith Funston '32 1945 – 1951
  • Arthur Howard Hughes M'38, H'46, Acting President 1943 – 1945
  • Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby 1920 – 1943
  • Henry Augustus Perkins, Acting President 1915 – 1916
  • Flavel Sweeten Luther '70 1919 – 1920
  • George Williamson Smith H'87 1904 - 1919
  • Thomas Ruggles Pynchon '41 1883 - 1904
  • John Brocklesby, Acting President 1874 1874 - 1883
  • Abner Jackson '37 1867 - 1874
  • John Brocklesby, Acting President 1866 - 1867
  • John Barrett Kerfoot H'65 1864 - 1866
  • John Brocklesby H'45, Acting President 1864
  • Austin Bradd Kern 1863 - 1864
  • Samuel Eliot H'57 1861 - 1863
  • John Brocklesby, Acting President 1860 - 1861
  • Daniel Raynes Goodwin 1853 - 1860
  • John Williams '35 1848 - 1853
  • Silas Totten 1837 - 1848
  • Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton 1831 - 1837
  • Thomas Church Brownell 1824 - 1831

[edit] Trivia

  • The first WebZine ever published was started at Trinity College in 1992, the Trinity Journal.
  • Trinity's president since 2004 has been James F. Jones Jr. formerly of Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Among his accomplishments during his first year was the ground-breaking for a new community/college ice hockey complex on New Britain Avenue.
  • Trinity was a men's college until 1969 when it became coeducational. The first female students at Trinity were transfer students from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.
  • Trinity has one of the finest electron microscopy facilities of any small college in the nation. Trinity was one of the first academic institutions in the US to establish an undergraduate Neuroscience Program, a program initiated in 1992. It also was one of the first to establish undergraduate research as a staple of its science curricula.
  • The college mascot is the Bantam.
  • Trinity is a member of the New England Small College Athletic Conference or NESCAC.
  • The Trinity Football team (1877-present) is one of the oldest college football teams in America, and until their 40-16 loss to Williams College on September 30th, 2006, held the longest active winning streak in NCAA Football at 31 games.
  • The Trinity Men's Squash Team have held the CSA Potter's Cup National Championship title for eight consecutive years (1999 - 2006).
  • The catalytic converter was invented at Trinity College.
  • The Trinity campus lies 17 miles from a straight line drawn between Yale and Harvard.
  • The male character Cassidy in the famous opening sequence of Jaws (film) was a caricature of the stereotypical Trinity student. The College received its greatest mass media plug in the scene where Cassidy says, "Na, Hartford, I go to Trinity. My folks live in Greenwhich."
  • The anaerobic sealant Loctite was invented at Trinity College, by Vernon Krieble. [2]
  • Gallows Hill, now site of the Ogilby Hall dormitory on Vernon Street, was named for the loyalist executions that took place there during the American Revolution. The Gallows Hill Lounge, adjacent to McCook Academic Building, is named for this site.
  • Cinestudio, the only student-run, for-profit movie theater on a college campus, is located at Trinity College.
  • MyTunes was invented at Trinity by Bill Zeller [3]
  • In the 1800s, "Number Fifty" and "Number Forty-Nine" were Trinity College slang for privies, Jarvis Hall having forty-eight dormitory rooms.[1]
  • The Bistro (an a la carte dining facility) serves sandwiches named to honor past and present administrators.

[edit] Notable alumnae and alumni

[edit] Fraternities and sororities

Officially, approximately 20% of the student body are affiliated with a Greek organization. During the late 1980's and 1990s, under pressure from the college administration, many of the single-sex fraternities and sororities merged and formed co-educational Greek organizations. Trinity is now the last NESCAC school to recognize any fraternities. Among those currently on campus are:

Several other Greek organizations, while active, are not officially affiliated with the school. They include:

  • Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike). The Epsilon Alpha chapter was established in 1953. (not officially affiliated with the school)
  • Zeta Omega Eta: the Alpha chapter was founded at Trinity College in 2003.
  • Theta Delta Sigma The co-ed, multicultural Greek society was colonized at Trinity in 2005.

[edit] Areas of leisure

[edit] Coffee houses

  • The Underground Coffee House: Located below Mather, The Underground is populated by poets and musicians. Every Thursday night is Open Mic Night, which invites poets, musicians, and professors to perform in a friendly atmosphere. It is the only completely student-run business on campus and is well-known for its inviting atmosphere and friendly staff.
  • Gallows Hill Lounge: was a Barnes and Noble's coffee house with a miniature Barnes and Nobles attached. Currently it is a popular student lounge with a free coffee machine.
  • Peter B's Cafe: Located in the library, this cafe has an academic air with students constantly writing papers, or meeting with professors.

[edit] Restaurants

  • Alchemy Juice Bar: A restaurant 20 feet from campus, they serve more than juice; they have smoothies, vegan and vegetarian meals, coffee and soup. The restaurant is known for its Oxygen bar and delicious portabello mushrooms.
  • Timothy's: A restaurant just off of campus, which is known for its good food, particularly the black magic cake.

[edit] Cultural organizations

Trinity has many different cultural organizations on campus. Some of these are:

The Muslim Students Association (MSA), Asian American Student Association (AASA), The Biology Club, The Caribbean Students’ Association (CSA), Encouraging Respect of Sexualities (EROS), The French Club, The German Club, Hillel Society, IMANI, The International Student Organization (ISO), The Italian Club, La Voz Latina (LVL), The Multicultural Affairs Council (MAC), MOCA (Men of Color Association), The Polish Club, The Portuguese Club, The Russian Club, The Spanish Club, SUSHI (Students to Unite Science and Humanitarian Interests), The Trinity Chemistry Society, The Trinity College Black Women’s Organization (TCBWO), and The Venetian Club.

[edit] Dormitories

Trinity college houses its students in 25 dorms organized into 4 "areas", each with a local area coordinator, who is responsible for administering the area.

  • Area 1
    • Stowe
    • Clemens
    • Anadama
    • Wiggins
    • Little
    • Frohman-Robb
    • Crescent Street Housing Projects
  • Area 2:
    • Summit Suites
    • Jackson
    • Smith
    • Wheaton
    • Funston
    • Jones
    • Elton
  • Area 3:
    • Jarvis,
    • Northam Towers,
    • Cook,
    • Goodwin-Woodward
  • Area 4:
    • Boardwalk,
    • Park Place,
    • Vernon,
    • High Rise,
    • North Campus,
    • Hansen,
    • Doonesbury,
    • Ogilby

[edit] Notes and References

  1. ^ Hall, Benjamin Homer (1856). College Words and Customs. Cambridge (England): John Bartlett., also online at Project Gutenberg[1]

[edit] External links


New England Small College Athletic Conference
Amherst • Bates • Bowdoin • Colby • Connecticut College • Hamilton • Middlebury • Trinity • Tufts • Wesleyan • Williams
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