Lycoming College

Lycoming College
Motto Ἀλήθεια (Truth)
Type Private coeducational liberal arts college
Established 1812
Affiliation United Methodist Church
Endowment $207 Million[1]
President Kent C. Trachte
Academic staff
 90
Undergraduates 1400
Postgraduates 0
Location Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA
Campus Suburban
Colors Blue and Yellow (or Gold)
Athletics NCAA Division III
Middle Atlantic Conference
athletics.lycoming.edu
Nickname Warriors
Website www.lycoming.edu

Lycoming College is small undergraduate liberal arts college located in Williamsport, Pennsylvania accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Founded in 1812, Lycoming College is one of the 50 oldest colleges in America. Lycoming College is affiliated with the United Methodist Church but operates as an independent institution.

Rankings and Recognitions

In 2013 Forbes ranked 925 private colleges and universities for financial strength and operational soundness, and Lycoming was ranked 112 (top 12%), ahead of such highly regarded institutions as Georgetown (181), Villanova (190), New York University (194), Boston University (198) and Duquesne (458).

In 2014, Lycoming was recognized as a Tier 1 institution by U.S. News & World Report in its 2014 edition of “America’s Best Colleges.” According to U.S. News, the nation’s 248 liberal arts colleges emphasize undergraduate education and award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the arts and sciences. It also ranks Lycoming 32nd in the nation among liberal arts and sciences institutions in graduation rate when comparing actual graduation rate with the predicted rate.

In 2014, Lycoming was also recognized as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the Northeast by Princeton Review. The education services company selected Lycoming as one of 226 institutions it profiles in the “Best in the Northeast” section of its 2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region feature.

In 2015, The Chronicle of Higher Education named Lycoming as one of the best colleges in the nation to work for. The college took honors in two categories, collaborative governance and confidence in senior leadership. The Chronicle’s 2015 Great Colleges to Work For survey is one of the largest and most respected workplace-recognition programs in the country. It recognizes the colleges that get top ratings from their employees on workforce practices and policies. In 2015, around 281 institutions participated and only 86 institutions were recognized as a “2015 Great College to Work For.”

Enrollment

Lycoming enrolls approximately 1400 undergraduate students from more than 28 states and 12 foreign countries. Eighty percent of the college's students live on campus.

The Class of 2019 was Lycoming’s most diverse class in the College’s history. Domestic students of color compose almost 26% of the class and includes 24 students from Texas and 6 from California. 53 percent of the class is a Pennsylvania resident. The class includes 20 international students, which is almost 6 percent of the class. When combined with our 7 exchange students, the 27 students represent 15 countries.

Partnerships

Lycoming has partnerships with KIPP, YES PREP, MOSTE, NOBLE Charter Schools, and SAY YES to Education which allows us to enroll students from around the country: California, Chicago, San Antonio, Houston, Nashville, Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, Newark, and Memphis.

Academics

Majors and programs

Lycoming College confers both Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees in more than 36 major fields of study offered and over 50 minors including: Accounting, Actuarial Mathematics, American Studies, Archeology and Culture of the Ancient Near East, Art History, Art (Studio), Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biblical Languages, Biology, Business Administration, Chemistry, Corporate Communication, Computer Science, Creative Writing, Digital Communication, Economics, Education, Engineering, English, Environmental Science, French, German, History, International Studies, Literature, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Pre-Health, Pre-Law, Pre-Medicine, Pre-Ministry, Psychology, Religion, Sociology/Anthropology, Spanish, Theater, and Women's and Gender Studies.

Interdisciplinary program

With the Lycoming College interdisciplinary program, students have the opportunity to design their own programs of study. By combining courses from more than one department, students become active participants in creating his or her own major with support from their faculty advisor(s) and with a panel of faculty members from each of the sponsoring departments.

Special academic programs

The Lycoming Scholars Program is a special program designed to meet the needs and aspirations of highly motivated students of superior intellectual ability. Lycoming Scholars participate in special, semester-long, interdisciplinary seminars on topics chosen by the faculty and students on the Scholars Council.

Lycoming offers a number of paid and unpaid internship opportunities including: the Williamsport Internship Summer Experience, the Philadelphia Center, Washington Semester Program, and Semester of the United Nations.

Pre-law, medicine and health advising to help students gain the necessary skills and tools to pursue these professions.

Lycoming College’s cooperative program with Duke University's Environmental Science & Forestry program allows qualified students to earn the baccalaureate and master degrees in five years, spending three years at Lycoming and two years at Duke.

Lycoming’s accelerated MBA program with the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology allows students to waive 6 foundation courses in the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) MBA program so that it is possible to complete and MBA in one calendar year.

Enhanced Academic Experiences

Study abroad

Working with the study abroad office and various academic departments, students travel to about X countries every year. In recent years, students have traveled to Italy, Greece, Sweden, Cyprus, Israel, China, Egypt, Honduras, Belgium, Vietnam, Venezuela, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Lycoming maintains study abroad programs with the following affiliates:

CUEF Grenoble - France (Grenoble)

Estudio Sampere - Spain (Madrid, Salamanca, Alicante)

Estudio Sampere - Ecuador (Cuenca)

Estudio Sampere - Costa Rica (San José, Quepos)

Regent's American College London - England (London)

Westminster University - Westminster Business School - England (London)

Otto-Friedrich-Universitat - Germany (Bamberg)

Students can choose to study abroad in fall and spring terms, over the summer and the college’s May term, specially designed for this enhanced experience.

May Term

Following the conclusion of each spring semester, students have the opportunity to participate in May Term. This term is a four-week voluntary session that provides students with classes not regularly offered during Fall and Spring semesters. Many May Term courses involve traveling abroad and are open to majors and non-majors alike.

Clean Water Institute

The Clean Water Institute brings a Pennsylvania community together to solve environmental problems. The Institute collects and assesses historical water quality, bottom-dwelling aquatic insects and fish data from the lower West branch Susquehanna River as well as Pine, Lycoming, Loyalsock and Muncy creeks.

Affinity Housing

As of fall 2015, Lycoming now offers affinity housing communities where students with shared intellectual or academic interests can choose to live together. This style of housing offers students the opportunity to build their own community with its own practices, traditions, and budget for special event programming.

Fraternity & Sorority Life

Students are not eligible to join Greek life until the second semester of their first year if they achieve the necessary grade point average, but approximately 35% of current students are members of the school's 4 national fraternities, 2 national sororities and 3 local sororities.

Active national fraternities:

·        Lambda Chi Alpha

·        Phi Kappa Psi

·        Kappa Delta Rho

·        Tau Kappa Epsilon

Active national sororities:

·        Alpha Sigma Tau

·        Alpha Xi Delta

Active local sororities:

·        Beta Phi Gamma

·        Alpha Rho Omega

·        Gamma Delta Sigma 

Campus

Buildings

Twenty-three buildings sit on Lycoming's 42-acre campus. Most buildings have been constructed since 1950. Pre-Georgian. A 12-acre athletic field and football stadium lie a few blocks north of the main campus.

Lycoming's campus consists of academic facilities that include Wendle Hall, Fine Arts, Communications, Heim Science Center, Clarke Music Building, Honors Hall and the Lynn Science Center which opened in the Fall of 2015.

Unique facilities include Detwiler Planetarium, Mary L. Welch Theatre, Snowden Library, a digital media lab, an electronic music studio, HOPE Early Learning Center, a radio station and a greenhouse.

Students live in nine residence halls and 20 apartment units.

Athletic facilities include Lamade Gymnasium, the Keiper Recreation Center, an outdoor intramural field and the Shangraw Athletic Complex with football, soccer, lacrosse and softball fields.

The Lycoming College Art Gallery is located at 25 West Fourth Street in downtown Williamsport.

Athletics

Today, Lycoming fields men’s and women’s teams in basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, and tennis, men’s teams in football, golf and wrestling, and women’s teams in softball and volleyball. Lycoming is a member in the Middle Atlantic Conference, with the basketball, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, golf, softball and volleyball teams competing in the MAC Commonwealth.

The Warriors have won 40 Middle Atlantic Conference titles, with football and wrestling winning 15 each,  men’s soccer, women’s swimming, volleyball and men’s basketball two each and men’s tennis and softball each winning one.

Lycoming College celebrated its 125th year of varsity athletics in 2015, as a baseball team was first formed at Dickinson Seminary in 1890. Football followed soon after in 1895 along with track and field and basketball made it to the Seminary in 1907, just 16 years after the sport was invented in 1892. The athletic program at Dickinson Seminary and Dickinson Seminary & Junior College remained small, although tennis, swimming and girls’ basketball did begin and stop to compete during the 1920s and ’30s.

After World War II, with the school’s move to a four-year institution, Lycoming College chose a new nickname – Warriors – for all of their athletic teams based on a survey given in the Williamsport Sun newspaper. In 1948-49, the athletic program officially adopted the Warriors moniker and an Indian head logo was designed. The logo was dropped in 2004 as the NCAA encouraged athletic programs to remove American Indian mascots. In 2013, a new graphic identity was announced for the athletic department, utilizing a sword as the primary athletic department logo. Later that fall, a mascot for use at athletic events – Lycos the Warrior, portrayed as a wolf – was unveiled at the college’s Homecoming.

By 1952, Lycoming was an established four-year college and was invited to join the Middle Atlantic Conference.

College History

The origins of Lycoming College date back to 1812 and the founding of the "Williamsport Academy for the Education of Youth in the English and other Languages, in the Useful Arts, Science and Literature". At the time, Williamsport's population was approximately 350 persons. Attendance was by subscription, although a state grant ensured that a number of poor children would be taught free of charge. The institution also has educated both genders from its inception.

By 1847, Williamsport had a public school system in place. Rev. Benjamin H. Crever, a Methodist preacher based in Milton, heard the Academy was for sale. Upon his recommendation, the Baltimore Conference purchased the school which opened in the fall of 1848 as the Williamsport Dickinson Seminary, a preparatory school for Dickinson College, another Methodist school.

Rev. Crever is considered to be the founder of Lycoming College as he was the one to transition the high school into its collegiate beginings. After turning the Williamsport Academy into an institution of higher learning, Crever moved on to serve as a chaplain in the Civil War and founded a total of four schools. Only Lycoming College remains as his educational legacy.

By 1921, the Seminary had gained a reputation for excellence, when Dr. John W. Long took office as its ninth president. Under Long, the institution added junior college courses and, in 1929, became the first accredited junior college in Pennsylvania.

In 1947, the institution, again under Dr. Long, became a four-year college of the liberal arts and sciences. In 1948, it officially changed its name to Lycoming College, taking the name from that of the local county. The name "Lycoming" comes from the Native American word lacomic meaning "great stream." In 1949, the College conferred its first baccalaureate degrees.

Dr. James E. Douthat became the 14th president in 1989. Under his leadership, the College's enrollment grew by 27 percent, and its endowment and other funds under management increased from 17 million to more than 185 million. Since his arrival, the campus has been involved in strategic planning process to continually evaluate student needs and adapt the colleges programs to those needs. Under his leadership, the college saw the establishment and implementation of a new faculty governance structure, a major capital campaign to build the endowment, improved facilities, and the adoption of a revised curriculum for the College that responds to changing skill set needs.

Dr. Kent C. Trachte became Lycoming’s 15th president in 2013. Continuing the tradition of liberal arts degree, small classroom settings, and strong mentoring by professors. Building on tradition, with an eye to the future. Continue to adapt programs to meet industry needs.

Notable alumni

The following have attended Lycoming College or its predecessor institutions:

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lycoming College.

Coordinates: 41°14′44″N 77°00′00″W / 41.2456°N 77.0001°W / 41.2456; -77.0001

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, February 10, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.