Lake Erie College

Lake Erie College is a private liberal arts college founded in 1856 that is located in Painesville, Ohio, approximately 30 miles (48 km) east of Cleveland. As of the 2012-2013 academic year, the enrollment was approximately 1200 undergraduates and graduate students.

Lake Erie is best known for its equine studies program, which attracts students from across the country, and around the world, and is the most popular major at the college. The George M. Humphrey Equestrian Center is located 5 miles (8.0 km) to the south of the main campus, in Concord Township. In 2011, the Lake Erie College IDA (Intercollegiate Dressage Association) team won champion honors at the 9th annual IDA National Championship held at the Canterbury Equestrian Show Place in Newberry, Florida.

Prior to 1986, it was one of three remaining women's colleges in Ohio, along with Ursuline College and Notre Dame College, the latter of which is also now co-educational.

New President and Rapid Growth

Under the Michael T. Victor administration Lake Erie College has experienced record growth.^[4]

Academic Achievements

• Enrollment in Lake Erie College's MBA program increased 35%
• 22 new majors were added
• Student applications increased 93%
• Introduction of 6 new athletic programs (women's golf, men's and women's track, men's and women's lacrosse, women's and men's swimming and diving, wrestling,and football)

Fund raising

• Since July 1, 2006 the College has received more than $40 million in gifts and pledges

Campus Upgrades

• Rebuilt Austin Hall of Science with a stately Georgian façade, creating state-of-the-art science laboratories and classrooms; an adjacent new courtyard and fountain creates a dominant entrance for the front of campus
• Built and dedicated the new equestrian learning center at the George M. Humphrey Equestrian Center, creating a new entrance façade, classrooms, offices, locker rooms and student activity spaces
• Renovated Kilcawley Hall, the main floor of College Hall, Mathews House and all of the Manor House (including the Rathskellar) to showcase their beauty, history and functionality
• Repaved sidewalks and parking lots and spruced up the landscaping on the entire campus
• Reacquired the property previously known as the Andrews Osborne Academy; renovated the main building to house the Center for Entrepreneurship and classrooms; transformed the upstairs of the Ritchie Gymnasium into a workout facility for football players; and renovated the basement pool for recreational swimming
• Rebuilt the locker room at the Jack Britt Stadium for use by Lake Erie’s home and visiting football teams; replaced the grass turf on the field with a synthetic surface
• Created a wireless campus in the spring of 2007; students can now receive wireless internet service in any of the campus buildings, residence halls and apartments
• Acquired off-campus apartment complexes – Founders Court and Lydia Sessions Apartments – in order to accommodate increasing numbers of residential students

Campus

The college is approximately thirty miles east of downtown Cleveland in downtown Painesville. Students under the age of 22 whose official residence is outside a 50-mile (80 km) radius of Lake Erie College's campus are required to live on campus during the academic year.^[5]

College Hall, built in 1857, on the campus of Lake Erie College in Painesville, Ohio

Students can rely on their own transportation or the Lake County Laketran bus system that has stops near the campus. Parking one personal vehicle on campus is available upon registering with the college.^[6]

In October 2007, CSX Transportation opened a temporary outreach center at Lake Erie College to assist evacuees after a local train derailment.

Facts and Figures

• Undergraduate Tuition (2012–2013): $27,368
• Faculty to Student Ratio: 15:1
• Average class size: 17
• Full Time Faculty with Ph.D. or terminal degree: 74%

Racial Makeup

• Caucasian: 81%
• Minority: 11%
• Unknown, International or more than two races reported: 8%

• Female: 48%
• Male: 52%

Past presidents

Athletics

Known as the Lake Erie College Storm, the College is a member of NCAA Division II and the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).^[7] Lake Erie College was formerly a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) of Division III through the 2007-08 academic year and completed the process of moving to Division II at the conclusion of the 2008-2009 academic year.^[8]

Lake Erie College fields 21 varsity sports teams at the NCAA Division II level and joined the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) prior to the start of the 2010-11 academic year. [7] Prior to moving to Division II and joining the GLIAC, Lake Erie was a member of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) of Division III from 1997-98 through the 2007-08 academic year and completed the process of moving to Division II at the conclusion of the 2008-2009 academic year.[8]

The official nickname of the College’s athletics teams is the Storm. The name was chosen to replace the nickname Unicorns when the College added men’s intercollegiate athletics beginning in 1988. Their mascot is Stormy.The College offers basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, indoor and outdoor track & field, lacrosse and volleyball for women and baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, lacrosse, indoor and outdoor track & field and wrestling for men. 20 teams participate in the GLIAC while men's lacrosse competes in the Eastern College Athletic Conference. A newly heated rivalry has begun with Ashland University, a two-hour drive away in Ashland, Ohio.

At various times in its history prior to joining the AMCC, Lake Erie competed as a member of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the National Small College Athletic Association (NSCAA). The College’s softball team won the 1991 NSCAA National Championship.

In the spring of 2010 the Lake Erie track and field team boasted the first NCAA Division II All-Americans in school history when Ethan Snyder finished 7th in the nation in the 400 meter intermediate hurdles and Chris Burrows finished 8th in the nation in the 200 meter dash. Since that time, Lake Erie has had a successful run of individual accomplishments at the national level. Edward “Jamil” Dudley became the school’s first national champion when he won the high jump at the 2012 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Dudley was also a national champion in the high jump and teammate Joe Postwaite was a national runner-up in the triple jump at the 2014 NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships. In 2013, wrestler Zak Vargo was the national runner-up at 157 pounds at the Division II Wrestling Championships. Vargo repeated his All-American performance at the 2014 Championships again in the 157 pound weight class and was joined by freshman teammate Evan Rosborough, at 197 pounds. Swimmer Julian Milinkovskyi also earned All-American status in 2014 by finishing in the top eight at the NCAA Swimming & Diving National Championships in both the 200-yard breaststroke and 400-yard individual medley. The Storm men’s lacrosse program is a founding member of the East Coast Athletic Conference Division II Lacrosse League which formed in 2012 and played its first competitive season in 2013. In 2013, just its fourth year in competition, the men's lacrosse team reached the NCAA Division II Quarterfinals and junior Trevor Tarte led the nation in goal scoring. Through the 2013-14 academic year, Lake Erie student-athletes had earned 43 DII All-American honors and 19 individual conference championships. One of those All-Americans, baseball player Ryan Rua, was a 17th round draft pick of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball in 2011 – the first professional draft pick in school history. Rua made his major league debut with the Rangers on August 29, 2014 and ended his first call-up with a .295 batting average, two homeruns, and 14 runs batted in, in 28 appearances. The 2013-14 academic year has proved to be the most successful in the institution's history with six teams (baseball, men's lacrosse, men's swimming, men's indoor and outdoor track & field, and wrestling) earning top 25 national rankings or NCAA tournament bids. The program also recorded its highest-ever finish in the Learfield Directors' Cup Standings (79th), which paced it near the top 25% of all D-II programs in the country.

In 2010, Lake Erie College engaged in a legal dispute with a professional football club in Erie, Pennsylvania after that team took on the moniker "Erie Storm."^[9] As a result of the dispute, the professional team was rechristened the Erie Explosion, a name that remains with the team as of 2015. Lake Erie College Storm recruited a strong 2015 football class and that will soon translate to wins in the GLIAC.

References

External links

• Lake Erie College official website
• Lake Erie College official athletics website
• Lake Erie College Papers at Mount Holyoke College