| Grove City College | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Lux Mea (My Light) |
| Established | 1876 |
| Type | Private liberal arts |
| Endowment | $90.1 million[1] |
| President | Richard G. Jewell |
| Provost | William P. Anderson |
| Academic staff | approx. 210 |
| Students | 2,500 |
| Location | Grove City, PA, USA |
| Campus | Rural |
| Colors | Crimson and White |
| Nickname | Wolverines |
| Mascot | Willie the Wolverine |
| Affiliations | NCAA Division III |
| Website | http://gcc.edu/ |
Grove City College is a Christian liberal arts college in Grove City, Pennsylvania, about 65 miles (105 km) north of Pittsburgh. According to the College Bulletin, its stated three-fold mission is to provide an excellent education at an affordable price in a thoroughly Christian environment.[2] College president Richard Jewell has said, "The two tenets that this school [finds most important] are faith and freedom."[3]
The school emphasizes a humanities core curriculum, which endorses the Judeo-Christian Western tradition and the free market. While loosely associated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the college is non-denominational and does not require students to sign a statement of faith, though they are required to attend sixteen chapel services per semester.
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Founded in 1876 by Isaac C. Ketler,[4] the school was originally chartered as Pine Grove Normal Academy. It had twenty-six students in its first year.[5] In 1884, the trustees of Pine Grove Normal Academy in Grove City amended the academy charter to change the name to Grove City College.[6] By charter, the doors of the College were open to qualified students "without regard to religious test or belief." The founders of Grove City College, consciously avoiding narrow sectarianism, held a vision of Christian society transcending denomination, creeds, and confessions. Isaac Ketler was a devout Presbyterian who served as president until 1913. This was a span of 37 years altogether, and occurred during a very formative period for the school.[7]
Grove City was heavily supported by Joseph Newton Pew, founder of the Sun Oil Company. Pew was one of Ketler's grade-school teachers and a lifelong mentor and friend of the educator. Ketler and Pew would ultimately forge a remarkable relationship that would profoundly influence the purpose and character of Grove City College. Pew, like Ketler a devout Presbyterian and strong believer in the importance of good education, later accepted the presidency of the school's board of trustees. Pew and Ketler's influence continued with their sons, Weir C. Ketler (Grove City president from 1916 to 1956) and Joseph Howard Pew.
Joseph Howard Pew graduated from the college in 1900 and, like his father, became trustee-board president. J. Howard Pew continued his father's legacy, richly contributing to the school's programs. A Presbyterian as devout as his father, and a conservative, J. Howard Pew insisted that the college operate only on what it received in tuition and fees. In the 1930s, J. Howard Pew, who became the president of Sun Oil Company, was one of the nation's most outspoken critics of the New Deal, so it also was natural that Grove City College look unfavorably upon federal aid and involvement in education and that it would strive to remain the highly independent institution it is today.[8] Joseph Howard Pew once said that his two major philanthropic causes were GCC and The Pew Charitable Trusts. In October 2004, the college dedicated a statue to his memory outside of the college's Harbison Chapel.
Under President Dr. Charles S. MacKenzie, the college was the plaintiff-appellee in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case in 1984, Grove City College v. Bell. The ruling came seven years after the school's refusal to sign a Title IX compliance form, which would have subjected the entire school to federal regulations, even future ones not yet issued. The court ruled 6–3 that acceptance by students of federal educational grants did fall under the regulatory requirements of Title IX, but limited the application to the school's financial aid department.
In 1988, new legislation subjected every department of any educational institution that received federal funding to Title IX requirements. In response, Grove City College withdrew from the Stafford loan program entirely beginning with the 1988–89 academic year, and established its own loan program with PNC Bank.
Grove City is one of a handful of colleges (along with Hillsdale College, which did likewise after the aforementioned 1984 case) that does not allow its students to accept federal financial aid of any kind, including grants, loans and scholarships.
Since 1963, the American Association of University Professors has placed Grove City under censure for violations of tenure and academic freedom. In fact, Grove City has the distinction of having been on the AAUP's list of censured administrations longer than any other college that is currently censured. In its report, the AAUP Investigative Committee at Grove City concluded that "the absence of due process [in the dismissal of professors at Grove City] raises...doubts regarding the academic security of any persons who may hold appointment at Grove City College under existing administrative practice. These doubts are of an order of magnitude which obliges us to report them to the academic profession at large."[9][10]
In 2005, Grove City founded its Center for Vision and Values,[11] further advancing its programs in the humanities. The Center aims to educate the world about faith and freedom by giving its faculty members the opportunity to share their scholarship with a community beyond Pennsylvania. The Center for Vision & Values won a 2010 Templeton Freedom Award for Excellence in Promoting Liberty, in the category of “Special Achievement by a University-based Center.” Instituted in the fall of 2003, and named after the late philanthropist and pioneering investor—Sir John Marks Templeton—the Templeton Freedom Awards were the result of a partnership between the John Templeton Foundation and the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, which administers the prize.[12]
In recent years, the college has engaged in many new construction projects, including an expansion to its music and arts center in 2002, a new academic building in 2003, a new student union/bookstore in 2004, and new apartment-style housing in 2006. Grove City's Student Union building was honored with the International Masonry Institute's Golden Trowel Grand Prize for excellence in masonry design and construction in 2005.[13][14] On February 9, 2011 Grove City College announced that it will break ground for construction of a science, engineering and mathematics building—-key components of Grove City Matters: A Campaign to Advance Grove City College, which at $90 million is the largest capital campaign in the college's history. The $37.2-million science, engineering and mathematics building is designed to support new modes of teaching, particularly flexible laboratories and small-group interactions. It will help ensure that Grove City College continues to prepare students for future careers in an increasingly competitive work force, officials said.[15] Even more construction projects, and renovations of existing buildings are planned for the next few years.
The college acquired an observatory from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in February 2008 that will be utilized for astronomy classes as well as faculty and student research. The observatory's telescope will be operated more than 60 miles (97 km) away remotely from the college's main campus. The purchase of the property, three buildings and equipment inside will pave the way for the addition of an astronomy minor on campus. Through this observatory, the college's physics department plans to work with area public schools as well as other colleges and universities on educational and research projects and draw prospective students who are looking for strong physics programs and astronomy coursework.[16]
Grove City offers 55 majors in the liberal arts, sciences and engineering.[17] The college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education,[18] the unit of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools that accredits degree-granting colleges and universities in the Middle States region of the United States. The college's electrical and computer and mechanical engineering programs are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET).[19] The Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) a United States organization of degree-granting colleges and universities, includes Grove City College among its list of accredited colleges recognized by U.S. accrediting organizations.[20]
Grove City has an acceptance rate around 74%.[21] About 14% of its most recent freshman class are either high school valedictorians or salutatorians.[17] The average GPA of entering freshmen is 3.74 unweighted and 3.98 weighted.[22] The average ACT score of the 2011 incoming freshmen class was 28.[23] The average SAT score of the 2011 incoming freshman class was 1269.[23] The average SAT scores were as follows: Math—644; Critical Reading—635; Writing—not reported.[24]
Grove City was ranked as the nation's second most politically conservative college by US News and World Report.[25] Human Events Magazine ranks it as one of the cream of the crop in America's conservative colleges.[26] Among all colleges, the widely-followed US News and World Report college rankings place Grove City in the first tier of liberal arts colleges.[27] The conservative think tank Free Congress Foundation, includes Grove City among its list of top colleges that provide excellent liberal arts.[28] For two consecutive years (2006 and 2007), The Young America's Foundation placed Grove City in its Top 10 Conservative Colleges list. The schools on this list offer coursework and scholarship in conservative thought and emphasize principles including smaller government, strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.[29] Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College concurs and lists Grove City among its top 10 conservative colleges.[30] Consumers Digest Magazine's Top 100 College Values ranks Grove City College, the top value in private liberal arts schools throughout the nation in May 2011.[31]
According to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's 2007 publication of Choosing the Right College, the 2007 US News and World Report college guide ranks Grove City the number one "best value" among northern comprehensive colleges—the fifth year running the school has earned that distinction. The school has a total cost (including tuition, room, and board) of $19,414 a year. Similarly, Barron's Educational Series has called Grove City College a "Best Buy"[32] and USA Today ranks Grove City among the top 100 best value colleges in the nation for 2009.[33] It has also been positively reviewed in the Intercollegiate Studies Institute's guide Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth about America's Top Schools. Princeton Review also ranks Grove City College as among the Top 20 in career/job placement services based on satisfaction of students who graduate from the school.[34] It is considered one of the most home school friendly colleges in the Northeast.[35][36] Grove City College is also considered one of the most selective Christian colleges in the nation.[17] Barron's Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges - 2004 also lists Grove City College as one of the 65 Most Competitive Colleges and Universities in the nation.[37] College Data's Online College Advisor profile ranks Grove City as Most Difficult in terms of entrance requirement.[24] Peterson's College Guide also ranks its entrance requirement as Most Difficult.[38]
In two consecutive nationwide studies made by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) in cooperation with researchers from the University of Connecticut's Department of Public Policy to determine the extent of civic literacy in higher education,[39] Grove City College students ranked among the top 5 nationally in terms of knowledge of U.S. history, government, economy and international relations. The study was based on the results of a multiple-choice test given to 14,000 randomly chosen freshmen and seniors on 50 college and university campuses.[40] In two consecutive years of ISI's study, Grove City was ranked number 4 in 2006[41] and number 2 in 2007,[42] above most Ivy league universities.[43] The school's college debating team is ranked number 1 by the National Parliamentary Debate Association, the biggest intercollegiate debate league in the United States.[44]
College Prowler, the largest publisher of college content in the United States, gave Grove City College an "A+" rating for the safety and security of the campus, according to its latest released rankings. Only 12 schools in the USA received the highest rating.[45][46] The high grade "means that students generally feel safe, campus police are visible, blue-light phones and escort services are readily available, and safety precautions are not overly necessary," according to the College Prowler guide. The rating is a result of the recommendation of the guide’s student author, direct student feedback and other factors such as the presence and size of a police force and security staff, services provided, the area and campus crime reports, security of dormitories and the prevalence of campus theft.
Although it is a small liberal arts college, Grove City's faculty and administrators significantly influence and impact the ideas of various think tanks around the USA especially on issues involving the environment, education, minimum wage, and anything economic and conservative.[47] Grove City College has international ties, founded in 1955, and on the International Society for Individual Liberty (ISIL) Freedom Network.
Among them are the Shenango Institute for Public Policy, a Western Pennsylvania based non-partisan research and educational institute whose mission is to formulate and promote public policies at the local-government level based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom and responsibility, and a respect for traditional values.
The National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise[48] an organization that seeks to provide effective community and faith-based organizations with training and technical assistance, links them to sources of support, and evaluates their experience for public policy in order to address the problems of youth violence, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, homelessness, joblessness, poor education and deteriorating neighborhoods, publicizes events held at Grove City College.
The Lone Mountain Coalition part of the Property and Environment Research Center[49] America's oldest and largest institute dedicated to original research that brings market principles to resolving environmental problems, has ties to Grove City through Michael Coulter, Vice-President of the Shenango Institute for Public Policy, and associate professor of political science at Grove City College.
The college also has ties to the Mises Institute, a libertarian academic organization engaged in research and scholarship in the fields of economics, philosophy and political economy. Several members of the Ludwig von Mises Institute faculty are also faculty at Grove City. Jeffery Herbener is a senior fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and professor of economics at Grove City College. Shawn Ritenour is an associate professor of economics at Grove City College and an adjunct professor at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Ala.
Grove City also has ties to Michigan through Lawrence W. (Larry) Reed, president of Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy.[50] Reed received his B.A. in Economics from Grove City in 1975. Reed is also past president of the State Policy Network.[51] The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonpartisan research and educational institution devoted to improving the quality of life for all Michigan citizens. The Center assists policy makers, business people, the media and the public by providing objective analysis of Michigan issues and by promoting sound solutions to state and local policy questions from a free market perspective.
The Academic Advisory Committee of the John Locke Foundation, a free market think tank in North Carolina, which supports the John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, a nonprofit institute dedicated to improving higher education in North Carolina and the nation, includes Dr. Walter E. Williams, the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics, George Mason University, holder of a Doctor of Humane Letters from Grove City College and John Moore, Former President of Grove City College, who led the College through its withdrawal from federal student loan programs, which completed the College’s break from federal ties.
News about the e-newsletter published by The Center for Vision and Values consistently gets notice outside the college. For example, the Traditional Values Coalition website links to the center's e-mail publications.[52]
Many of the Grove City faculty are active in publishing, including in op-eds in newspapers, that promote conservative ideas. In addition, the college prominently posts links to its faculty's op-eds and articles, showing that it wants to spread its influence.
Students are required to take general requirements courses, with science, mathematics/reasoning, and several other courses. The base of the general requirements are centered around a humanities core, with courses on Western Civilization, Art, Literature, and Biblical Revelation. Requirements for majors differ, but typically a student is also required to gain mastery in a foreign language and reach some mathematical proficiency. Many Grove City students take one to three general requirements classes in their freshman, sophomore, and sometimes junior years, along with classes for their respective major.
Many students choose Grove City explicitly for its Christian environment and traditional Humanities curriculum. A three-year required Humanities sequence focuses on the origin, development and implications of civilization’s seminal ideas and worldviews. The courses cover content that includes religion, philosophy, history and philosophy of science, literature, art and music.[17] Because of its strong adherence to freedom and minimal government interference, Grove City College is considered to be one of America's foremost colleges that teach the ideas of the Austrian School of Economics.[53] The post-1938 personal papers of Ludwig Von Mises, are housed in the archive of Grove City College.[54] In addition to traditional business programs, Grove City also offers a degree in Entrepreneurship.[55]
Each Grove City College full-time student is given a Hewlett Packard Tablet PC and printer upon arrival, which is theirs to use and keep upon graduating a full time student .[56]
When it opened, Grove City College was one of the first institutions of higher learning in the United States to admit both male and female students.[5] The school currently maintains a one-to-one ratio of men to women, ensuring that the student body is approximately 50% men and 50% women.
Grove City College adopts a strong policy in regard to alcohol use on campus, with first time offenders receiving a one week suspension from all activities. Legal age students are permitted to consume alcohol off campus, provided that they do not appear inebriated upon their return. Current student organizations must agree to a strong policy regarding alcohol use both on and off campus, their violation resulting in the loss of their charter.
Along with alcohol use, the student handbook forbids any sexual conduct that violates historic Christian standards. The school's official stance on homosexuality has subtly changed over the years, from condemning homosexuality to focusing on same-sex activity, and currently only explicitly mentioning premarital sex (heterosexual or homosexual). Off-campus housing was disallowed in the 1980s, an early indicator of the school's change in organizational culture.
Chapel services are offered Tuesday mornings, Thursday mornings, and Sunday evenings ("vespers"). Students must attend a minimum of sixteen (16) chapel services each semester. Most chapel services are held in Harbison Chapel, but some take place in Crawford Hall. Occasionally, students are offered chapel credits for attending lectures which usually take place in Sticht lecture hall on Monday nights. Failure to attend the required number of chapel services results in a graduating student's diploma being withheld until the offending student has completed a corresponding number of single-page book reports.
GCC hosts approximately 150 Student Organizations and Activities.[57] Among them are:
Assigned its call letters in April 1920, the Grove City College radio station, WSAJ-AM, was one of the first radio stations in the country. The call-letters were predated by experimental stations at the college dating back to 1914. In 1968, WSAJ-FM was put on the air and currently broadcasts at 91.1 FM, functioning as a learning tool for all students, but especially those in the communication and engineering majors. The 100-watt AM station, operating from a longwire antenna on 1340 kHz, was one of the few remaining stations in the U.S. to share time. It surrendered its broadcast license in 2006. The 1,600-watt FM signal covers a 30-mile radius in Western Pennsylvania. The station broadcasts fine arts programming, college football and basketball games. It also airs community events and high school sports. Students host weekly music shows during the evening hours when school is in session.
Fraternities and sororities live on campus, in pre-selected upperclassman halls. Grove City's fraternities and sororities are not affiliated with any national groups. Over the years, many sororities and one fraternity, Chi Delta Epsilon, have permanently died out. The most recent sorority to become defunct was the short-lived Delta Chi Omega, which was founded in 1980 and lasted approximately one decade. Some fraternities have died out (meaning all their active members graduated or left the college) and been reinstituted via block classes.
Both fraternities and sororities are overseen by governing bodies. The fraternities each send delegates to weekly meetings of the Interfraternity Council. The sororities' counterpart organization, the Pan-Hellenic Council, also meets each week. In the spring, the two councils hold joint meetings to plan the annual Greek Games. The Greek Games, a multi-day event which involved such activities as water balloon tossing and egg dropping, have declined in notoriety at Grove City College along with the size of Greek organizations; until the 1990s they were well-known on campus, with the majority of the student body either participating or spectating.
Strict regulations apply to students joining a Greek organization. At the end of the year, all fraternities and sororities are required to fill out a Community Living Privilege (CLP) application, which proves community activities within the organization, activities for the whole campus, activities benefiting the community, and philanthropy.
Male students who do not join fraternities can obtain block housing privileges through one of nine organizations known as housing groups. Grove City College housing groups are collections of similarly-interested students which enjoy block housing, yet are not fraternal or Greek in nature. Such groups were founded in the 1970s and given permission to use Greek letters by the extant fraternities on campus and the Grove City College administration. The first of these organizations was Rho Rho Rho in 1973. There are no female housing groups at the college.
Housing groups, unlike fraternities and sororities, have no obligation to improve campus life and are not required to fill out a CLP at the end of the year. Some Greek organizations have taken issue with the purported failure of housing groups to abide according to the original founding stipulations, which include having a common purpose and limiting membership to those living in groups' respective dorm halls.
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Known as the Wolverines, Grove City College competes in the Presidents' Athletic Conference of NCAA Division III. On the varsity level, Grove City College has basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, cheerleading, swimming, tennis, and track teams for both men and women. Baseball and football are varsity sports available to men only, while softball, and water polo are varsity sports offered to women only.
Grove City also offers a number of club sports to men and women including but not limited to lacrosse, rugby, ultimate, and volleyball for men and field hockey, and rugby for women. These teams have be very successful, most notably the men's club volleyball team, which has finished in the top 10 in the country each of the last two years, and the men's lacrosse team, which finished in the top 10 in the country last year. Both men's volleyball and lacrosse were invited to compete at their respective national championship tournaments.
Intramural sports for men are as follows: basketball, bowling, dodgeball, football, soccer, softball, table tennis, tennis, ultimate, and volleyball. Women have badminton, basketball, bowling, flag football, indoor soccer, kickball, racquetball, ultimate, and volleyball.
Grove City has several teams with remarkable PAC Championship records. Grove City's women's tennis team has won 25 consecutive PAC championships from 1987 up to the present and the men's tennis team has won 21 consecutive PAC championships from 1991 through the present. In addition, the women's cross country team has won 22 consecutive PAC championships (1989–present).
Lying in the center of Grove City College Campus is the quadrangle, or "quad." Students have historically been prohibited by the administration from walking on the grass in this area. In recent years, restrictions have laxed, and the quad has been the subject of controversy among students and faculty. In the fall of 2005, the student government association voted to open the Upper Quad to "light athletic activities" and the administration established new policies for quad use. The Lower Quad remained off-limits - only used for such events as baccalaureate, commencement, and homecoming - until the fall of 2009, when it was also opened for use.
Each fall during Homecoming Weekend, the fraternities and sororities set up tents in which to meet, greet, and sometimes eat with their returning alumni. These tents make up Grove City College's Greek Village. The Greek Village has typically been set up on Lower Campus, near the football field, but in 2005 the tents were set up on Upper Campus, on the Quad. While most of the tents belong to fraternities and sororities, some other organizations also have been known to share a space in the Village.
The ritual of "creeking" takes place for two reasons: most primarily when a male Grove City student becomes engaged, and also when a fraternity man has been elected as the sweetheart of a sorority. The creeking is carried out by a group of men, typically the subject's friends, who subdue the man to be creeked and carrying him from his dorm building down to Wolf Creek in the center of campus while chanting, "Wolf Creek." Upon reaching the creek the friends toss the subject in, with some groups pausing for a speech by a senior member of the group. If the bride-to-be does not reach her fiancé with a towel when he is coming out of the creek, then he is allowed to throw her in as well.
Welcome Week (also known as "OB Week") is a series of events between the Thursday when new students arrive and the end of the first week of classes. Several events notable in campus culture occur during this week, including dances, a bonfire, student-led worship services, and a comedic stage production. The events are managed by the college's Orientation Board, and play a large role in introducing new students with Grove City's campus culture.
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