8 Colleges Related to Episcopal Church
Diocesan Press Service. August 3, 1966 [45-8]
Bard. Hobart. Kenyon. St. Augustine's. St. Paul's. Shimer. Trinity. The University of the South.
These names should evoke a response for each Episcopalian as does Swarthmore for the Quaker; S. M. U. for the Methodist or Notre Dame for the Roman Catholic. They are the eight institutions of higher learning related to the Episcopal Church.
The truth is, however, that these names are not familiar to many Episcopalians. Perhaps the reason is that they are small. Trinity, in Hartford, Conn., with 1,100 students is the largest. Shimer, in Mount Carroll, Ill., has only 480 students and is the smallest.
As Presiding Bishop Hines points out, "They are small enough to foster real academic discipline and independent study. They all have liberal arts programs which concentrate on educating the whole person. And they all insist on maintaining dialogue between the Church and the contemporary intellectual community."
As a group, these eight colleges offer education of the highest quality. Both Kenyon, in Gambier, O. and the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. are among the top 10 colleges in the U. S. in Woodrow Wilson Fellowships this year.
And you must have something going for you when the combined student body, less than two-thirds of one per cent of the national total, provides the Episcopal Church with 22 per cent of all living clergy and one-quarter of all bishops!
Support has come from the 1964 General Convention in St. Louis, and from Presiding Bishop Hines and his two predecessors, Bishop Sherrill and Bishop Lichtenberger. It is now being sought from the man in the pew by the eight members of Association of Episcopal Colleges.
The AEC estimates that only one per cent of individual Episcopalians give to their colleges. Parishes do a little better, with 10 per cent contributing. Most of this support is to the University of the South, however, which is owned by 21 southern dioceses.
As a group, the eight colleges have enrollment of slightly more than 6, 000 students, nearly one-quarter of them receiving scholarships and a few less participating in loan programs. These scholarship amount to more than one million dollars each year. Five hundred and twenty three teachers are employed, with half of these faculty members holding Ph. D. degrees. The faculty-student ratio is small, assuring an emphasis on the individual, and varies from 1:10 to 1:17.
A detailed look at the eight colleges will be included in future issues of ____________ but a brief glimpse of the schools is appropriate here.
BARD COLLEGE, founded in 1860, is located on a 525-acre campus 100 miles north of New York City, at Annandale-on-Hudson. Classes follow the seminar form and stress the exchange of ideas between students and faculty. Independent projects are emphasized.
HOBART COLLEGE, oldest of the eight Episcopal institutions, was founded in 1822 and is located in Geneva, New York. Offering B. A. and B. S. degrees, the M. A. degree in education and a five-year combined program with Columbia University leading to the Bachelor of Science in engineering, Hobart enrolls 1, 000 men. A cognate college, William Smith, serves 350 women.
KENYON COLLEGE, located in Gambier, O., was founded in 1824 by the Rt. Rev. Philander Chase, first Episcopal Bishop of Ohio. With about 750 students, Kenyon retains the emphasis on the individual by small classes, independent study and honors work. The College also publishes the internationally known literary quarterly, The Kenyon Review.
ST. AUGUSTINE'S COLLEGE serves 800 students and is located in Raleigh, N. C. Founded in 1867, the College boasts a distinctive honors program, and a science training program for high-ability secondary school students.
ST. PAUL'S COLLEGE, located in Lawrenceville, Va., was founded in 1888 as an industrial school and training institute. Today it offers 500 men and women a full liberal arts curriculum leading to B. A., B. S., or B. S. in education degrees. Over 1,000 graduates of the College now teach in Virginia schools.
SHIMER COLLEGE, in Mount Carroll, Ill., was founded in 1853 as a seminary and became a four-year liberal arts college in 1950. Among Shimer's particular strengths are the early entrance program and placement tests which permit a student to advance at his own rate across the fields of humanities, natural sciences and social sciences.
TRINITY COLLEGE, founded in 1823, is a liberal arts college for men in Hartford, Conn. Its flexible academic curriculum, is part of a total sense of community, moral, social and physical, as well as intellectual.
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, Sewanee, Tenn. is the largest educational investment of the Episcopal Church in the United States, owned by 21 southern dioceses and valued at $50 million. The University includes a school of theology, a college of arts and sciences and a military prep school.
For further information about the eight colleges write the Association of Episcopal Colleges, 815 Second Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10017, and request a copy of Their Precious Power, or write the individual college.