Earlham College
Earlham College
| Established | 1847 |
|---|---|
| School type | Private, Coed |
| President | Douglas C. Bennett |
| Location | Richmond, IN, USA |
| Enrollment | 1,190 |
| Faculty | 114 |
| Campus | 800 acres |
| Sports | 16 Division III NCAA teams |
| Website | www.earlham.edu |
Earlham College is a highly selective Quaker liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 and has about 1,200 students. Its current president is Doug Bennett. In keeping with Friends belief in equality, students address all faculty at Earlham by their first name, without the use of Doctor or Professor.
Earlham College sits on an 800 acre campus, the majority of which is undeveloped forest and meadow. The undeveloped 'back campus' area is criss-crossed by trails for the enjoyment of the student body as well as serving as a readily accessible outdoor classroom for the biology and arts programs. Earlham is nationally recognized for its unique Biology, Japanese, and Peace and Global Studies programs. Notably, Earlham ranks 8th in the nation (out of 1302 colleges and universities) in percentage of graduates who go on to receive a PhD in the Biological Sciences.
Earlham also has an extensive Outdoor Education program. Tucked in Earlham's 'back campus' there is a high and low ropes challenge course. Earlham was one of the first colleges in the country to send students on backpacking trips or other wilderness adventures during freshman orientation. Today many colleges run such programs, something Earlham began in 1971. Earlham also has a state-of-the-art equestrian center that is student run.
With a student to faculty ratio of 10:1, a diverse student body and strong programs abroad, Earlham ranks high among liberal arts schools of its size. Earlham has sizable black and Jewish populations, as well as a large student population from outside the US. Earlham has recently established a formal exchange program with Waseda University in Japan, which had existed informally for decades. Each year a dozen or so Waseda students study at Earlham. While students come from a range of ethnic groups, there is a noticable lack of American born East and South Asian students. While there are small numbers of Catholics, Muslims, Evangelical Protestants, and Bahai students, many students affiliate with mainline protestants.
Earlham College is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association. Earlham is also a member of the North Coast Athletic Conference. While not an outstanding athletic school, Earlham has won its host of championships, most recently in men's cross country.
Earlham College is notable in that it has the only student-run Hash House Harriers running group, founded in 1989 and still continuing at present (2005). While only loosely connected with national organizations, the student group maintains weekly runs and has been described by visitors as the "Galapagos of Hashes" for the creativity and development of hashing practices. The Hash run takes place on the 'back campus' during all seasons. The "Hash" as it was known to students, was briefly suspended when a student died after suffering injuries during the run.
Controversy at Earlham
Earlham's dry campus policy is extremely controversal among members of the student body and some faculty members. Violations of this policy, however, are unevenly enforced by campus security.
Tension usually arises between students and the Quaker Indiana Yearly Meeting over issues of sexuality. Indiana Yearly Meeting tends to be more conservative on issues involving condom distribution, pregnancy issues and homosexuality.
Earlham College only recently adopted a pregnancy policy, dispite is progressive reputation. Before this there was no explicit guidelines in the event that a student became pregnant.
Despite the majority of the student body being liberal regarding issues of sexuality, Health Services is the only place where students can obtain condoms on campus. Some resident assistants also provide free condoms in the dorms.
Other controversies were political, mostly involving conservative speakers invited to campus. While many students are hostile to these speakers because of their political views, other students enjoyed the chance to hear speakers with diverse points of view. Earlham is not unlike many other colleges where the majority of speakers come from a liberal point of view.
In the spring of 2005, William Kristol, editor of the 'Weekly Standard' was hit in the face with a pie by a student during a lecture on campus [1]. Many students and faculty at the lecture "booed" the pie-thrower and applauded when Mr. Kristol resumed his talk. The "pie-ing" quickly became a divisive issue among Earlham students and faculty. Some of the main areas of contention included whether or not thowing a pie is a violent act (a particularly hot topic on a Quaker, peace-oriented campus), how or if the student that threw the pie should be punished for that action, the importancec of free speach, how to improve political diversity on campus, and whether Earlham's being a peace-oriented campus implies that war-supporters should not be invited (or paid) to speak there at all.
Other conservative speakers have been welcome to Earlham in the past, in spite of the trend for students and faculty at Earlham to have more "liberal" political leanings. Conservative speaker Christina Hoff Summers and Ward Connolly recieved warm receptions despite their different perspective from many students. In the spring of 2002, columnist Ann Coulter spoke at Earlham campus, and in spite of the fact that durring her talk, tensions mounted on both sides, she was not in any way barred from speaking. However, while there have been some notable exceptions, it is true that the majority of speakers that come to Earlham tend to reflect the liberal outlook of the majority of students, which has become a divisive issue in itself.
Notable alumni
- Thomas Gottschalk - General Motors, Executive Vice President
- Michael C. Hall- Actor on HBO's Six Feet Under
- John Loose - Corning, CEO
- Jana Matthews - Boulder Quantum Ventures, CEO
- Steve Miller - Former Associated Press bureau chief in Germany.
- Frances Moore Lappé - activist and author of Diet For a Small Planet
- Larry Overman - Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Member of the National Academy of Sciences
- Steve Paulson - Radio Producer, Peabody Award winner
- Robert Quine - influential punk guitarist and member of the Voidoids
- David Rasmussen - Dean, College of Social Sciences, Florida State University.
- Stephen Schutt - President, Lake Forest College.
- Andrea Seabrook - reporter for National Public Radio
- Wendell Stanley - winner of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Kenneth Wollack- President of the National Democratic Institute
- Thomas J. Hochstettler - President, Lewis and Clark College.
Notable Faculty
- Peter Suber - Research Professor of Philosophy. Suber is best known to some as the creator of the game Nomic and to others as a leader in the open access movement. *[2]
- John Iverson - Professor of Biology. Turtle Expert. *[3]
- Paul Lacey - Professor Emeritus of English. Literary executor to the late poet Denise Levertov.