Upsala College: Difference between revisions

For the Swedish university, see Uppsala University.

Upsala College in 1902

Upsala College was a private college in East Orange, New Jersey, USA, founded in 1893. Construction of the campus started in 1900. The college closed in 1995, after several years of financial problems.

History

Early history

The school was founded on the initiative of the Swedish-American Augustana Synod and immigrant Swedes, and received its name partly in reference to the historic University of Uppsala in Sweden and partly in memory of the Meeting of Uppsala, which had taken place in 1593 – exactly 300 years before the founding of the college – establishing Lutheran Orthodoxy in the country after the attempts of King John III to reintroduce Roman Catholic liturgy. (Upsala is an archaic spelling variation of Uppsala, replaced in the early part of the 20th century by the version with two Ps, except in some proper nouns which have retained the old spelling.)

The college originally opened in Brooklyn, New York City, New York and later moved to Kenilworth, New Jersey in 1898 before settling in East Orange in 1924.

The school maintained high academic standards for many years, gaining a reputation as an excellent small college, with a vibrant campus life. After the passage of Title IX, Audrey Donnelly became the school's Women's Tennis Coach.

In 1989, Upsala hosted the National Forensics Association national collegiate speech championship, which featured over 1,100 competitors over five days of competition.

However, the surrounding community's crime rate increased, and student enrollment declined throughout the late 1970s and 1980s.

Wirths Campus in Wantage

Before it closed in 1995, Upsala operated a 245 acres (99 ha) satellite campus in Wantage Township in northwestern New Jersey which it named the "Wirth Campus." In 1978, the land had been donated by Wallace "Wally" Wirths (1921–2002), a former Westinghouse Corporation executive, author, local newspaper columnist and radio commentator. The school had considered moving to Sussex County as East Orange's crime problem and social conditions deteriorated in the 1970s but chose to remain committed to East Orange. However, declining enrollment and financial difficulties forced the school to close. The Wirths family bought back their farm in Wantage from the college for $75,000.

After closing

The college's campus in East Orange was later sold to the East Orange School District, which built a high school on the site's eastern half and sold the western portion to the city.

The East campus became East Orange Campus High School, a public secondary school operated by the East Orange School District. Former East campus buildings Beck Hall, Puder Hall, Viking Memorial Hall (gymnasium) and College Center survived to be incorporated into the new high school. The property and buildings on the West Campus were neglected, left to deteriorate and became a serious eyesore. All structures suffered acts of looting and vandalism and one building was lost to fire. The surviving West campus buildings were demolished in the Spring of 2006. Today, the Western site has been redeveloped for upscale housing.

The campus was featured as a demolition project – used resources recovery – in the "Coal Miner" episode in season 2 of Dirty Jobs, a popular show on the Discovery Channel. It initially aired on August 8, 2006.

Upsala's campus radio station, WFMU, remains in operation; a nonprofit company known as Auricle Communications purchased WFMU's license shortly before Upsala went bankrupt.

The 2001 film Riding in Cars with Boys was filmed on the campus.

Notable people

Presidents of Upsala College

The Presidents of Upsala College were

• Lars Herman Beck (1893-1910)
• Rev. Peter Froeberg (1910-1920)
• C.G. Erickson (1920-1936)
• Rev. Evald Benjamin Lawson (1938-1965)
• Carl Gustaf Fjellman (1966-1976)
• Rodney Felder (1976-1984)
• David E. Schramm (1986-1988)
• Robert E. Karsten (1988-1994)
• Paul V. DeLomba (1994-1995) (hired by the board's trustees to close the college)

Alumni

• John Bobowicz, Sun Microsystems Executive and Founder of Java.net.
• Okianer Christian Dark, B.S. 1975, law professor, dean at Howard University's School of Law
• Kay Gardella, New York Daily News television critic.
• Nia Gill, B.A. 1971, New Jersey state senator
• John Langston Gwaltney, B.A. 1952, anthropology professor
• Don Kirshner, songwriter, rock music producer
• Allen Klein, B.S. 1956, the businessman whose controversial career involved him with both The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and Vin Scelsa, the radio DJ who created the "Idiots Delight" freeform radio program. Scelsa did his first broadcasting at Upsala's campus radio station, WFMU, which began in 1958. The volunteer staff bought the broadcasting license from the bankrupt school in 1995 and continues to operate the freeform station independently.
• Karen Mitchell, Ottawa University (Kansas) Dean of Education and political science professor
• Jerry Recco, (did not graduate) radio personality (WFAN, WHTG, WINS)
• Richie Roberts, (did not graduate) former New Jersey police detective and defense attorney. He is most widely recognized for the arrest, prosecution and later defense of Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas. He is portrayed by Russel Crowe in the film American Gangster.

• Tim Walsh, Brooklyn Nets Head Athletic trainer, who grew up on Hawkins Street in Newark, NJ. His father was a highly decorated Newark fire fighter.

Fictional alumni

• The protagonist of Philip Roth's novel American Pastoral (1997), Seymour "Swede" Levov, and his wife, Dawn Levov, are graduates of Upsala.

External links

• Upsala College Alumni Page
• Jim Coleman's website on Upsala College
• Bill Taebel's website on Upsala College
• Upsala photographs on Flickr.com
• I nya Uppsala. Bref från Carl Sundbeck (Swedish, "In New Uppsala. Letter from Carl Sundbeck"), article in the Swedish periodical Hvar 8 Dag, 3:36 (1902).
• City of East Orange - Press Release: Groundbreaking Ceremonies for Woodlands at Upsala
• Website of former Upsala College radio station

See also

• Augustana Evangelical Lutheran Church
• List of colleges and universities in New Jersey
• List of Lutheran colleges and universities in the United States