Category:Historically Dutch-American universities and colleges
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The founding of the following institutions was influenced by Dutch-Americans, Dutch Canadians, historically Dutch Reformed denominations, and Dutch Calvinism. Many of these schools are in major Dutch settlement areas in North America, such as New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Ontario, and Alberta.
Despite its name, this category includes universities, colleges, seminaries, and theological schools, both in the United States and Canada.
The oldest of these schools, Rutgers University (officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey), was chartered in 1766 as Queen's College to train young men for the ministry in the Dutch Reformed Church (later the Reformed Church in America). New Brunswick Theological Seminary was established in 1784 and began its long association with Rutgers University in 1810.
Union College of Schenectady, New York, founded in 1795 as a non-denominational college, has important Dutch-American roots given its location. To this day, Union College's nickname for its student-athletes is the Dutchmen/Dutchwomen, and the school competes for the Dutchman's Shoes trophy in their annual football game against archrival Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. (Central College's athletic teams are known as the Dutch, and Hope College's team nickname is the Flying Dutchmen/Flying Dutch.)
It should be noted three prestigious U.S. universities (included here for interest) were established or endowed by wealthy Americans of Dutch descent. Stephen Van Rensselaer III, once the largest landholder in America, founded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1824; in 1873, shipping magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt bequeathed US$1 million for the establishment of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee; and in 1935 Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, was named after lumber baron William Hofstra and his second wife, heiress Kate Hofstra, as the Hofstras' estate funded the establishment of the college. William Hofstra was born in Holland, Michigan, to Dutch immigrant parents. Hofstra University's sports' nickname was the Flying Dutchmen until 2005.
Several of these institutions have stubs only and need to have articles written, and the Theological College of the Canadian Reformed Churches does not have a stub or article.