From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beloit College
Established	1846
Type	Private University
Endowment	US$90 million
President	John Burris
Faculty	94
Undergraduates	1,300
Location	Beloit, WI, USA
Nickname	Buccaneers
Mascot	Buccaneers (Official) Turtles (Academic-Unofficial)
Website	www.beloit.edu

Beloit College is a liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin and a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest. Its current president is John Burris, and its enrollment stands at roughly 1,300 undergraduate students. The campus is notable for numerous prehistoric Indian mounds.

Contents 1 Founding 2 History 3 Present day 4 Prominent departments 5 Athletics 6 Prominent alumni 7 External links

Beloit College, the first post secondary education institution in Wisconsin, was founded by a group called Friends for Education, which was started by seven pioneers from New England who agreed that a college needed to be established soon after arrival in Wisconsin Territory. The group raised funds for a college to be founded in their new town and convinced the territorial legislature to enact their charter for Beloit College into law on February 2, 1846. The first building for the college (called Middle College) was built in 1847, and it remains in operation today. Classes began in the fall of 1847, and the college's first degrees were awarded in 1851.

The first president of Beloit was a Yale University graduate named Aaron Lucius Chapin, who served as president from December of 1849 until 1886, and under whose direction the college became widely known for scholastic achievement and for its willingness to experiment with new curricular approaches. The college remained very small for almost its entire first century with the enrollment only topping 1,000 students with the influx of World War II veterans in 1945-1946. The "Beloit Plan", an innovative year-round curriculum introduced in 1964, comprised of three full terms and a "field term" of off-campus study, brought the college increased national attention. The trustees decided to return to the two semester program in 1978.

Among Beloit's more notable alumni are Roy Chapman Andrews, Robert Lee Morris, Jim Zwerg, and Lorine Niedecker. Teresa Heinz Kerry holds an honorary doctorate from Beloit College.

One of the aforementioned Indian effigy mounds, in the shape of a turtle, inspired Beloit's symbol (and unofficial mascot).

Although independent today, Beloit College was historically related to the Congregationalist tradition, continuing to maintain a limited relationship with the United Church of Christ. [1]

Beloit College remains nationally known for its innovative curriculum, which retains many aspects of the "Beloit Plan" from the 1960s. Beloit has a good reputation in anthropology and geology, owing still to Roy Chapman Andrews's expeditions. Beloit's students have placed well in the Association for Computing Machinery annual programming competition: 1990, Beloit placed 11th; 1991, 19th. They have often received "Meritorious" certificates for exceptional solutions in the Mathematical Modelling Competition. In the 2006 college rankings by U.S. News & World Report, Beloit was shortlisted for "Study Abroad" (56% of students do) and "First-Year Initiative". It was also ranked highly for percentage of students living on-campus. In 2007, it was listed 35th for "Best Value", and overall, it ranked 61st among liberal arts colleges. In 2000, Beloit was included in the book Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools You Should Know About Even if You’re Not a Straight-A Student (ISBN 0-14-029616-6). The 1999 National Study of Student Engagement ranked Beloit in the top 20% of five benchmark categories measuring the quality of the student experience, one of just four schools to achieve this ranking.

The college long hosted the Beloit Poetry Journal, but the editor, Professor Emerita Marion K. Stocking, has retired to Maine and now runs the journal there. In 1985 the complementary Beloit Fiction Journal began, and has published an annual collection of short contemporary fiction every year since. The establishment of the Mackey Chair in Creative Writing has brought a new nationally-known author to campus annually for several years, including Billy Collins, Bei Dao, Ursula K. Le Guin, Amy Hempel, Denise Levertov, and Robert Stone. Beloit biology faculty member John Jungck along with Nils S. Peterson, CEO of From the Heart Software, co-founded and run the BioQUEST, while Brock Spencer maintains ChemLinks. Both are special-interest groups on the reform of science education. Beloit has had a faculty and student exchange program with Fudan University in China since the 1980s.

The Beloit College Geology Department continues a tradition of excellence in geology that began with T.C. Chamberlin more than a century ago. Today the department combines a rigorous course load with mandatory field methods and mandatory field research. The department is currently a member of the Keck Geology Consortium. Started by the Keck Family, the philanthropic family most noted for forming the popular children's' show Sesame Street, the Keck Consortium is a research collaboration of several similar colleges across the United States, including Amherst College, Pomona College, and Washington and Lee University to name a few. The Consortium sends undergraduate students worldwide to research and publish their findings.

Two public museums are on Beloit's campus and are run by College staff and students. The Logan Museum of Anthropology and the Wright Museum of Art both contain collections dating back to the late 19th century. The Logan Museum has an extensive array of ceramics and textiles and the Wright's holdings include a large collection of original prints. Both museums feature year round temporary special exhibitions. Beloit College's campus also houses two sculpture works by renowned international public artist Siah Armajani, these are his "Gazebo for One Anarchist: Emma Goldman 1991" and "The Beloit College Poetry Garden."[2]

Extra-curricular activities at Beloit play an important role, with intramural Ultimate having a high level of participation among students. Recently, Beloit College students broke the world record for the longest game of Ultimate by playing for over 72 hours [3].

Beloit College also has a frisbee golf course contained almost entirely within the grounds of the college. Many students find this a relaxing way to spend time, during all hours of the day or night, regardless of pedestrians or inebriation. This course has undergone many changes with the expansion of dormitories and additions to the lovely grounds like the Poetry Garden [4]. Beloit students are ever flexible and have incorporated the garden into the course. There remains some debate as to whether the garden holes are too easy and merely a means of shooting an easy game below par.

Since 1998, the college has become known for the annual "Mindset Lists," written by Professor Tom McBride, summarizing pop culture references which are allegedly meaningless to incoming college freshmen or to their parents. In 2004, the college unveiled a renovation plan that would tie the campus more effectively to the community. In 2006, Beloit officially announced that it was attempting to raise $100 million. This campaign would fund a new science building, an increased endowment, and other campus improvements.

Justice Richard Goldstone was named the 2007 Weissberg Distinguished Professor of International Studies at Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin. From January 17–28, 2007 he visited classes, worked with faculty and students, participated in panel discussions on human rights and transitional justice with leading figures in the field and delivered the annual Weissberg Lecture, "South Africa's Transition to Democracy: The Role of the Constitutional Court" on January 24th at the Moore Lounge in Pearsons Hall.

On March 23, 2007 Congressman John Lewis delivered the keynote speech "Get In The Way" for the College's New Conscience/New Campus/New Community Conference.

• Anthropology
• Chemistry
• Creative Writing
• Economics
• Geology
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Political Science
• Sociology
• Dance http://www.beloit.edu/~dance/

Beloit College is a member of the Midwest Conference, NCAA in Div. III and fields varsity teams in football, baseball, softball, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track & field, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming. Beloit College also has a competitive rowing team that is sponsored by club funds and alumni support.

• Roy Chapman Andrews, naturist and archaeologist
• James Arness, actor
• Don Bolles, murdered journalist
• Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, geologist, professor, University of Wisconsin president, museum director
• Evan Montvel Cohen, co-founder of Air America Radio
• Jay Norwood Darling, editorial cartoonist and conservationist.
• Adolph Dubs, diplomat murdered in Afghanistan
• Clarence Ellis, computer scientist (first African-American Ph.D. in the field)
• Suzanne K. Hale, diplomat
• Tom Hulce, actor
• Teresa Heinz Kerry (honorary)
• Pat Kilbane, comedic actor
• Michael J. Koss, founder of Koss stereophones
• Judith A. Miller, attorney and defense expert
• Robert Lee Morris, jewelry designer
• Lorine Niedecker, poet
• Margie Planton, politician
• Jameson Parker, actor
• Walter Robinson Parr, Chicago pastor
• Alfred Regnery, publisher
• Ruth Smith, Highland Community College President
• John Thorn, sports historian
• Matt Tolmach, co-president of production at Columbia Pictures
• Peter Tufo, diplomat
• Willard Wirtz, U.S. Secretary of Labor (1962-1969)
• Amy Wright, actress
• James Woodward Strong, first president of Carleton College

• Beloit College's official web site
• Mindset Lists

Midwest Conference
Beloit • Carroll • Grinnell • Illinois College • Knox • Lake Forest • Lawrence • Monmouth • Ripon • St. Norbert

Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
Milwaukee Area: Alverno • Cardinal Stritch • Concordia • Marquette • Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design • Milwaukee School of Engineering • Mount Mary • Wisconsin Lutheran Greater Wisconsin Area: Beloit • Carroll • Carthage • Edgewood • Lakeland (WI) • Lawrence • Marian (WI) • Northland • Ripon (WI) • Silver Lake • St. Norbert • Viterbo