Gordon College (Massachusetts)

Gordon College is a non-denominational Christian college of the liberal arts and sciences located in Wenham, Massachusetts, United States, north of Boston, Massachusetts. Gordon College offers 38 majors, 42 concentrations and 11 interdisciplinary and pre-professional minors as well as graduate programs in education and music education. Gordon has an undergraduate enrollment of 1,700 students representing more than 50 Christian denominations.

History

In 1889 Adoniram Judson Gordon founded the school, Boston Missionary Training Institute,^[2] in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston at the Clarendon Street Baptist Church^[3] to train Christian missionaries for work in what was then the Belgian Congo.^[4] Progressive at its inception in 1889, the school admitted both men and women of various ethnicities. It was renamed Gordon Bible College in 1916^[3] and expanded to Newton Theological Institution facilities along the Fenway, into a facility donated by Martha Frost in 1919. Frost, a widowed Bostonian with several properties in the city, provided a significant philanthropic gift.^[5] In 1921, the school was renamed Gordon College of Theology and Missions.^[3]

In the early 1950s, a Gordon student named James Higginbotham approached Frederick H. Prince about selling his 1,000-acre (4.0 km²) estate to the College after learning of recent property viewings by the United Nations and Harvard University. In 1955, Gordon developed into a liberal arts college with a graduate theological seminary and moved to its present several-hundred-acre Wenham campus north of Boston.^[5] Gordon sold its Boston campus on Evans Way to Wentworth Institute of Technology. The Prince Memorial Chapel on the Wenham campus (since replaced) was named for Frederick Prince, and the Prince residence was named Frost Hall after Martha Frost.

In 1958, Gordon College instituted a Core Curriculum. In the 1950s it launched its first study abroad program, European Seminar.

In 1962, the school changed its name to Gordon College and Divinity School.^[3] In 1970, the Gordon Divinity School separated from the College to merge with the Conwell School of Theology, once part of Temple University, to form the Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts.^[5]

Barrington College, founded in 1900 as the Bethel Bible Institute in Spencer, Massachusetts, later relocated to Dudley, Massachusetts, and then to Providence, Rhode Island. It took the name Barrington after the campus was moved to Barrington, Rhode Island, in 1959. Barrington merged with Gordon College in 1985, forming a United College of Gordon and Barrington.

Academic associations

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Inc. (NEASC) has accredited Gordon since 1961.^[6] The music program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) and the social work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). The Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts recognizes Gordon College's teacher-education program under the Interstate Service Compact.^[7] Gordon is a member of the Annapolis Group and of the Christian College Consortium. It is also a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU).

Academics

Jenks Library

Gordon College offers BA, BM, BS, MEd, and MMEd degrees.^[7] It offers undergraduate degrees from 38 majors, 42 concentrations and 15 interdisciplinary and preprofessional minors.^[8] Gordon offers both a graduate degree in education and music. The Graduate Education program offers the MEd degree. The Graduate Music program offers an MMEd degree, licensure-only options, and workshops.^[9]

Student life

There were a total of 2,109 students enrolled at Gordon College in 2013, of whom 1,707 were undergraduates.^[10]

Student body and demographics

Frost Hall

Gordon is a Christian multidenominational college. Students are required to sign the school's Statement of Faith,^[11] though the religious conclusions and commitments among students and faculty remain diverse. Students must also sign a Life and Conduct Statement agreeing to the standards of behavior that Gordon values. Gordon College prohibits alcohol, tobacco, and narcotic or hallucinogenic drugs on campus^[12] and continues to uphold a dorm visitation policy that allows for male-female visitation only during particular hours.^[13] Chapel services are held on Mondays and Wednesdays, and an academic convocation takes place on Fridays; attendance of chapel, convocation or other events (lectures, debates, presentations, films, exhibitions, etc.) is required to graduate. All full-time students must obtain 30 "Christian Life and Worship Credits" per semester. This policy is strictly enforced. Students who do not meet the requirement for one semester will be placed on academic probation, and a second semester of non-compliance will result in suspension from the college.^[14]

In the fall of 2013, the College’s undergraduate enrollment of 1,707 was drawn from 43 states and 41 foreign countries. Approximately 22 percent of enrollment—including international students—were of Asian, African American, Hispanic, Native American, or other non-Caucasian descent.

Extracurriculars

Gordon College has a student association, student ministries, intramural sports, and a Campus Events Council. There are student-led community service and outreach organizations ranging from drama troupes to Big Brothers Big Sisters and Habitat for Humanity.

Many other Gordon College outreach programs are based at other sites, such as Lynn, Massachusetts, where the school has more than 30 partners for community development. Several student-led groups organize spring break, winter break and summer break community service trips and mission trips to different sites around the country and the globe.

Athletics

Gordon College's varsity sports compete in the NCAA Division III, primarily in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC) and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). The Gordon College teams, known athletically as the Fighting Scots, sponsor baseball, basketball, cross-country, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field (indoor and outdoor), volleyball.

Fighting Scots Basketball

Head coach Tod Murphy has led the Fighting Scots to 5 Commonwealth Coast Conference appearances in his 5 years of coaching at Gordon College.^[15] One of these five years he led the team to an NCAA conference appearance.^[16]

Campus

A. J. Gordon Memorial Chapel
in Wenham, Massachusetts

Benefactors

In 2007, Gordon College dedicated its 450-acre campus property in the name of benefactors Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler following an unrestricted endowment promise of $60 million from their estate, which the College would receive at an undetermined future date. As of 2007, the Fowler gift (once received) was projected to triple the current endowment for Gordon College. In 2014 the Gordon endowment was $44,008,437.^[17] The Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler Campus at Gordon College is minutes away from the beaches of Massachusetts's North Shore and 25 miles north of Boston. The campus is situated on 450 acres (180 ha) of wooded property.

The Gordon College Bennett Center^[18] is a 78,000 square feet (7,200 m²) athletics and recreational sports facility. The Bennett Center is a gift to the Gordon community from the George and Helen Bennett family. The $8 million center was completed in October 1996 and in 1997 won the Athletics Business Magazine Top Ten New Facilities Award for its design and usability.

The Ken Olsen Science Center, named for the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation and long-time Gordon College Board member, Ken Olsen, is an 80,000 square feet (7,400 m²) science and technology center at the heart of the campus.

Gordon IN

The semester-long "IN" programs developed by the Global Education Office are intended to be more than “trips” that allow students to treat the host culture as something to be “sampled” or “consumed.”

Gordon IN Aix is a semester-long program offered both Fall and Spring (as numbers warrant), with a year-long option for advanced students of French. The program provides an immersion experience in French language and culture in the heart of southern France, with a particular thematic focus on the challenges facing the contemporary Christian church in a largely post-Christian Europe. Gordon IN Aix continues its longstanding collaboration with the Institut d'études de français pour étudiants étrangers (a sector of the University of Aix-Marseille), and enjoys close association with the John Calvin Seminary—one of only two seminaries in the tradition of French Protestantism.

The Gordon IN Orvieto semester program aims to foster an attitude of responsive looking and listening for signs of new life in the traditions inhabited by artists, poets, saints, and mystics of the past, especially those of pre-modern Europe in Italy.

Gordon IN Lynn (GIL), a service-learning program, is a partnership between Gordon College and the neighboring city of Lynn. Through relationships with various community organizations in Lynn, students can engage, learn and serve in a diverse, urban community.

Discrimination controversy

On July 1, 2014, Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay was one of 14 leaders of religious and civic organizations who signed a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama about an executive order he was contemplating that would prohibit federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.^[19] The letter asked the President to include language that would exempt religious organizations from the executive order's requirements, suggesting he "find a way to respect diversity of opinion ... in a way that respects the dignity of all parties". They suggested the exemption be based on language the U.S. Senate had recently added as an amendment to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).^[20][21] Obama did not use the ENDA amendment's language when he issued his order on July 21, but left in place a narrower exemption established with respect to federal contractors in 2002 by President George W. Bush's Executive Order 13279.^[22]

In response, on July 9, Salem, Massachusetts, Mayor Kimberley Driscoll ended Gordon College's contract to manage and maintain the city's Old Town Hall, citing a city ordinance that prohibits Salem from contracting with entities that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation.^[23] Gordon's contract with the city would otherwise have expired on September 1.^[24] For similar reasons, in August, the Lynn Public School's ended its relationship with the College, which had provided students to work without pay in the schools as part their training toward degrees in education and social work.^[25]

In late July, the Peabody Essex Museum ended its academic relationship with the Gordon's museum studies program. A museum official said: "We don't want to do anything that hurts the college or hurts their museum studies program. It's just as simple as not being able to collaborate with an institution whose core values conflict with our own." The museum later withdrew its support for Gordon's grant application to the National Endowment for the Humanities that aimed at funding an expansion of its museum studies program.^[26] In mid-September the New England Association of Schools and Colleges gave the college a year to report on how its non-discrimination policies met the organizations standards for accreditation.^[27]

Conservative legal organizations have offered to represent the college in lawsuits that would argue that severing ties to the school constituted retaliation for the exercise of free speech and the practice of religion. Lindsay declined those offers and later said he would not have signed the letter had he anticipated the reaction and the impact on Gordon. The school is reviewing its code of conduct which, in addition to banning sex outside of marriage, bans "homosexual practice".^[28]

Notable alumni

• Edwin David Aponte, historian, author, Presbyterian minister, and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dean of the Faculty, and Professor of Christianity & Culture at Christian Theological Seminary
• Pete Holmes, comedian, member of the Gordon College campus comedy group, The Sweaty-Toothed Madmen.
• Christian Smith, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society and the Center for Social Research at the University of Notre Dame.
• John-Manuel Andriote, journalist. Writer for the Washington Post specializing reporting on HIV and AIDS.
• Roy A. Clouser, Professor Emeritus of The College of New Jersey. He has served as professor of philosophy and religion at the College since 1968.
• James Davison Hunter, sociologist who is currently the LaBrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia.
• Meredith G. Kline, theologian and Old Testament scholar. He also had degrees in Assyriology and Egyptology.
• George Eldon Ladd, Baptist minister and professor of New Testament exegesis and theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California
• Kenneth Lee Pike, linguist and anthropologist. He was the originator of the theory of tagmemics and coiner of the terms "emic" and "etic".
• Ralph Richardson (chancellor), former chancellor of Atlantic Baptist University (now Crandall University) in Canada.
• Gary D. Schmidt, children's writer of nonfiction books and young adult novels.
• Doug Worgul, novelist, attended from 1971-72.
• Rob Graves, Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer, double majored in pre-medical biology and theology, and graduated in 2000.^[29]

Notable faculty

• Marvin R. Wilson, author and Old Testament translator and editor of the New International Version Bible
• Bruce Herman - Professor of art, visual artist and author
• President D. Michael Lindsay - Pulitzer Prize nominated author and sociologist

References

External links

• Official website
• Official athletics website