Lindenwood University

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Lindenwood University
Established: 1827
Type: Private
Endowment: $64.3 million [1]
President: James D. Evans, Ph.D.
Faculty: 598
Students: 10,000
Undergraduates: 6,000
Postgraduates: 4,000
Location: St. Charles, Missouri, USA
Campus: Suburban
Affiliations: Presbyterian Church (USA)
Website: Lindenwood.edu

Lindenwood University is a four-year liberal arts institution in St. Charles, Missouri, just northwest of St. Louis and St. Louis County. Lindenwood offers many undergraduate and graduate degrees, including a newly authorized Doctor of Education program that began in January 2007.[2]

Lindenwood has a current enrollment of 15,000 students.[3] Programs of note are Education, Mass Communications, Fine and Performing Arts and Business.[4] The main St. Charles campus is currently at 1.8 km² (450 acres). Lindenwood also operates satellite campuses in Wentzville, O'Fallon, south St. Louis County, northwest St. Louis County, Moscow Mills, Washington, Weldon Spring, Belleville, Illinois, and the Daniel Boone Campus in Defiance.

Contents

[edit] History

Lindenwood University was founded in 1827 by George and Mary Easton Sibley. It is the second-oldest higher-education institution west of the Mississippi River. The story actually begins in 1812 at Fort Sibley, now known as the town of Arrow Rock, Missouri. The fort was established to help with the situation regarding the Native Americans. In 1826, Major George Sibley co-signed a $20,000 note, but his partner bailed out of the deal and left. Sibley, now left with next to nothing, took possession of everything his former partner owned--which happened to be little more than 0.5 km² (120 acres) of land in St. Charles, Missouri known as the "Linden Wood" because of the large amount of linden trees that grew there. In 1827, the Sibleys started the Linden Wood School for Girls, as Mary Sibley already had been running a school in St. Charles.

By 1989, though, Lindenwood was in trouble. Enrollment was around 800 students and the school was nearly broke. Dennis Spellmann took over and immediately began to implement changes. He eliminated co-ed dorms and put an emphasis on a "values centered" approach in the classroom. Some of his changes did cause controversy for the school, though. One such incident was the "Pork for Tuition" program that was started in 2002. The program was designed to help rural families pay for their tuition by accepting their livestock in return for discounts. The animals were then processed and used as pork sausage, sausage, and hamburger in the school cafeteria. The program became a topic on NBC's Today Show where host Matt Lauer called the school "Pork Chop U".[5] The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals later staged a small protest in Saint Charles.[6]

Lindenwood was also in the news briefly in February 2005 when Spellmann refused a National Park Service grant that would have provided $200,000 for the repair of a historic building (the Daniel Boone Home) owned by the university. Spellmann reportedly said that the bureaucracy involved in a federal grant was too great to be worthwhile, and requested that the government instead apply the money to paying down the federal budget deficit.

In 2006, Dennis Spellmann died after a long battle with cancer. At the time of his death, the school had more than $50 million in endowments. Dr. James Evans, who had been serving as the university's acting president since Spellmann's death, was chosen as Lindenwood's twenty-first president on February 9, 2007. [7]

[edit] Athletic teams

A member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the Lindenwood Lions compete within the Heart of America Conference and has teams in other organizations. The university boasts a total of 39 varsity sports teams. The university has been fully accredited by the North Central Association of the Higher Learning Commission since 1915 and received its ten-year renewal in 2003-2004. The Lindenwood University Department of Athletics sponsors

Men's Intercollegiate Sports

Women's intercollegiate athletic teams


[edit] Football

The current head football coach at Lindenwood is Patrick Ross, who has held the position since 2004. The program began in 1990 under David Schroeder and has accumlated an overall record of 86 wins, 107 losses, and 2 ties (as of conclusion of the 2007 season).[8]

Coach First Season Last Season Record
David Schroeder 1990 1991 11-8-1 (0.575)
Jeff Driskill 1992 1994 6-24-1 (0.210)
Dan Kratzer 1995 2000 29-35-0 (0.453)
Rick Gorzynski 2001 2003 7-26-0 (0.212)
Patrick Ross 2004 present 33-14-0 (0.702)

[edit] Notable graduates

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.petersons.com/UGChannel/code/instvc.asp?inunid=7178&sponsor=13&related=true
  2. ^ Kumar, Kavita. "Lindenwood gets OK to begin first doctoral program." St. Louis Post-Dispatch 20 Dec. 2006. STLtoday.com. 2 Jan. 2007 <http://www.stltoday.com>.
  3. ^ http://www.lindenwood.edu/about/exp_con.asp
  4. ^ College Search school bio http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=2454&profileId=7
  5. ^ Rock, Steve. "University accepts livestock for tuition." The South End 10 Sep. 2004. 25 Jan. 2007 <http://southend.wayne.edu>.
  6. ^ "Dennis Spellmann, 70, President who Remade Struggling College, Dies." New York Times 3 Sept. 2006. Nytimes.com. 25 Jan. 2007 <http://www.nytimes.com>.
  7. ^ Anthony, Shane. "Jim Evans is Lindenwood University's new president St. Louis Post-Dispatch 10 Feb. 2007. STLtoday.com. 17 Feb. 2007 <http://www.stltoday.com>.
  8. ^ Lindenwood University Football Coaching Records

[edit] External links

Official websites
Unofficial website
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Two year colleges
Four year colleges