Cornell College

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Cornell College


Motto	DEUS ET HUMANITAS (God and Humanity)
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 Ivy League 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 (founder of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York).

1 Overview
2 Athletics
3 Academic statistics
4 Notable alumni
5 Notable faculty
6 Lecturers, speakers, and performers
7 External links
8 References

[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 Division I 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.

Cornell's mascot is a Ram.

[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 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
Don Weiss 1949 -- Sports writer and NFL executive known as Mr. Super Bowl

[edit] Notable faculty

Joseph M. Bachelor -- author
Glenn Cunningham -- Silver Medalist 1500 meters run, 1936 Olympics
Charles Wesley Flint, President (1915-1922), Methodist bishop
Bruce Frohnen -- academic
Jim Leach -- former Republican congressman, taught as a visiting professor.
David Loebsack -- Congressman from Iowa's 2nd District
Lisa Stone -- Head Coach, University of Wisconsin Women's Basketball
Curt Lewis --Head Coach of Cornell Men's Soccer 2002-2005

[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: