Colgate University

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Colgate University

Colgate University Seal
Motto Deo Ac Veritati (For God and Truth)
Established 1819
Type Private
Endowment $650 million
President Rebecca S. Chopp
Staff 300
Undergraduates 2,800
Location Hamilton, New York, USA
Campus Rural, 1,550 acres (2.6 km²)
Colors Maroon and gray
Nickname 'gate
Mascot Raider
Website http://www.colgate.edu
Colgate in fall.
Colgate in fall.

Colgate University is a private liberal arts college located in the Village of Hamilton in Madison County, New York. It was originally founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary, but has since became non-denominational.

As of 2007, Colgate is ranked 16th (up one from the previous year) in U.S. News and World Report's rankings of liberal arts colleges in the United States. It is also listed as one of thirty Hidden Ivies. Colgate students compete in 23 NCAA Division I sports.

Colgate has a distinct architectural style. Its first building, West Hall, was built by students and faculty from stones from Colgate's own rock quarry, and a majority of the newer buildings are built in a similar fashion. The most distinctive building on campus is the Chapel (Colgate Memorial Chapel), which is used for lectures, performances, concerts, and religious services.

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In 1817, the Baptist Education Society of the State of New York was founded by thirteen men (six clergymen and seven laymen). Two years later, in 1819, the state granted the school's charter, and in 1820, the school was opened. In 1823, Baptists in New York City (including soapmaker William Colgate, who created Colgate-Palmolive) move their seminary to Hamilton, NY to form the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution. This was the beginning of the Colgate family's involvement in the school.

The school changed its name to Madison University in 1846. In 1850, the Baptist Education Society planned to move the university to Rochester, but was halted by legal action. Dissenting trustees, faculty, and students found the University of Rochester.[1]

After seven decades of the Colgate family's involvement in the school, Madison University changed its name to Colgate University. The theological side of Colgate merged with the Rochester Theological Seminary in 1928 to become the Colgate Rochester Divinity School, leaving Colgate to become non-denominational. In 1970, Colgate became coeducational.[2]

Colgate offers 51 undergraduate concentrations [3] leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree, all of which are registered officially with the New York State Department of Education. The three most common majors are biology, economics, and political science. In addition, Colgate has strong foreign language, physics, history, psychology/neuroscience and geology departments.

The University has a small graduate (Master of Arts) program for Education, which graduates 3-7 students each year.

In addition to regular campus courses, the university offers some 20 semester-long off-campus study groups each year, including programs in Australia, China, Japan, India, several Western European countries, Washington, DC, and the National Institutes of Health. Approximately two-thirds of Colgate undergraduates study abroad, the highest proportion of any university in the United States. About 95% of seniors graduate, and most alumni proceed to graduate schools in law, administration, engineering, medicine, the arts and the sciences, as well as to financial, administrative or scientific occupations. There is hardly a walk of life where alumni of Colgate University are not represented. However, a significant clustering occurs in business, the media, and the life and earth sciences.

Colgate founded the Upstate Institute in 2003. The Institute was created to be a center of information and knowledge about upstate New York. Currently, they do research on counties in the area, as well as support outreach and volunteer organizations.

The school has also provided assistance to the town of Hamilton in its attempts to revitalize and renovate its buildings and businesses. Colgate was one of the initial sponsors of the Partnership for Community Development, which seeks economic development and growth in the area.

All first-year students are required to live 'up the hill' in dorms located close to the academic buildings. West Hall, the oldest building on campus (it was built in 1827), is still used as first-year housing. Second-year students can live in dorm housing on campus or apartments off the hill. Upperclassmen can choose to live in campus housing, including apartments, 'townhouses' built down Broad Street, or theme houses. Around 250 seniors can choose to live in off-campus homes or apartments.

Students involved in Greek life have the options of living in their organization's house. As of the Fall 2005 semester, there are six fraternities and four sororities recognized on campus.

Colgate's student newspaper, The Colgate Maroon-News, is the oldest college weekly in America. The Colgate Maroon was founded in 1868 as the 'Madisonesis', and merged with The Colgate News in 1991 to form the newspaper in its current form. The Maroon-News covers campus news and activities, sports, as well as a number of columns on the arts and other features.

WRCU, Colgate's radio station, broadcasts on 90.1 FM. During the semesters, the station broadcasts a wide variety of student programming, and during the breaks, it simulcasts WRVO (SUNY Oswego), the local NPR affiliate.

CUTV is Colgate's closed-circuit television channel that airs a number of student-produced shows, as well as movies.

Colgate has four a cappella groups.

The Colgate Thirteen, an all-male a cappella group, was founded in 1942 in a split from the University Glee Club and is the country's third oldest. Known as the "thirteen," they notably performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl XIII.

The Swinging 'Gates, Colgate's all-female a cappella group, was founded in 1974. The group has built many traditions with the Colgate Thirteen over the years and roam the country singing for alums. The 'Gates were complimented by columnist Peter King in Sports Illustrated.

Colgate has two coed a cappella groups: The Colgate Resolutions, and The Colgate Dischords. The former was founded in 1992; the latter in the fall of 2001, making it the newest a cappella group on campus. They perform at Colgate and other schools at both formal and informal venues. [4]

Konosioni, Colgate's senior honor society, honors outstanding achievement in co-curricular activities and the spirit of Colgate. Each year 26 students are peer-selected for membership.

The 1932 Colgate football team was the only team in history to be undefeated, untied, and unscored upon. They finished the season 9-0. [5]

In 1936, the Colgate swim team made its first trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for spring break training at the Casino Pool. This became a regular tradition for Colgate that caught on with other schools across the country, and proved to be the genesis of the college spring break trip.[6]

The Colgate University Rugby Football Club is the oldest club sport at Colgate, founded in 1967. They participate in the New York State Rugby Football Conference, Division II. Their games are played on Academy Field, near Oak Drive on campus.

Ellis Island National Monument displays an anti-immigration statement by George Cutten, Colgate's eighth President, warning that "The danger the 'melting pot' brings to the nation is the breeding out of the higher divisions of the white race...." [7]

Colgate is listed as one of America's 25 "new Ivies" by Newsweek magazine.[8] It is also on the list of "100 best campuses for LGBT students."[9]

  • Acceptance rate: 28%
  • 2217 accepted out of 7873 applications
  • SAT middle 50%: 650-740 verbal, 660-740 math
  • The admissions office is not looking at the writing section of the new SAT until they can see if it is an accurate predictor of academic achievement in college.
  • ACT middle 50%: 29-33
  • Students from public/private high schools: 68%/32%
  • Tuition / Tuition, Fees, Room and Board - $34,795/$43,560
  • Student-Faculty Ratio - 10:1
  • Average class size - 19

Colgate's athletic logo

80% of Colgate students are involved in sports on three different levels, varsity, club and intramural. Approximately 25% of students are involved in varsity athletics. There are 23 varsity teams, over 40 club sports teams, and 18 different intramural sports.

Colgate is part of NCAA Division I for all varsity sports except football, which is Division I-AA. The athletic teams are called the "Raiders," and the traditional team colors are maroon and white, with a more recent addition of gray in the 1970s. Colgate plays as part of either the Patriot League or the ECAC Hockey League, depending on the sport.

For much of its history, Colgate's sports teams were called the "Red Raiders." The origin of the name is disputed -- some claim it was in reference to the school color, maroon, while others say that it was a reference to the team's ability to defeat its much larger rival, the Cornell University "Big Red." In the 1970s, the school debated changing the name because of concerns that it was offensive to Native Americans. At that time the name was kept, but the mascot was changed from a Native American to a hand holding a torch. In 2001, a group of students approached the administration with the concern that the name "Red Raiders" still implied a Native American mascot. The school agreed to drop the word "Red" from the team name starting in the 2001-02 school year, due to concerns about the lingering association of "Red" with previously used Native American iconography (whether or not the use of the term "Red" was intended as such). Maroon News editorial, 27 April 2001 Some local TV outlets still use the logo with "Red Raiders" on it. A new mascot was introduced in 2006-07.

In 1989-90, Colgate became the smallest school in NCAA Division I history to reach the NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship Tournament Final, where they lost to the University of Wisconsin.

Colgate University's football team has a rich history. The team was given a Division I first place ranking by Parke Davis in 1875 and 1932, and appeared in the Associated Press Division I polls in 1942 and 1977. Colgate began playing in NCAA Division I-AA in 1982, and made the Division I-AA football playoffs in 1982, 1983, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003, and 2005. [10],[11]

In the 2003 season, for the first time, the Raiders made it to the NCAA I-AA championship game in football, where they lost to the University of Delaware. Their season record was 15-1. At the time, they had the longest winning streak in all of Division I football, including one win over a Division I-A team, SUNY Buffalo. The team received a second place ranking by Sports Network at the conclusion of the season.

Cornell is a common rival in all sports, while most of the teams other than football, golf, and hockey also compete annually against Syracuse University. Hockey games against Cornell are major events on campus, with students lining up for hours before the game in order to secure tickets. Cornell and Syracuse are both within two hours of Colgate's campus. Colgate and Syracuse were once fierce rivals in football (there are some old traditions related to their game), but a variety of factors, including the splitting of Division I football into Division I-A and Division I-AA (wins against I-AA opposition do not help a I-A team gain BCS eligibility) helped end the annual football rivalry after 1961, with the exception of games taking place in 1981, 1982 and 1987. Their lacrosse rivalry resumed in 2006, after the teams had not met for a few years.

Colgate has a very strong Outdoor Education program. Courses are taught by student instructors who undergo a rigorous six-month training program including Wilderness First Responder certification. Trainees are chosen by an application process in the early fall that is open to all first-year and sophomore students. Courses include hiking, backpacking, sea kayaking, whitewater kayaking, canoeing, rock climbing, caving, geo-caching, outdoor cooking, cross-country skiing, ice climbing, telemark skiing, x-country ski touring, and winter camping. Each August before first-year orientation, OE takes between 160 and 300 first-year students on 8-person, week-long back country canoeing, backpacking, and kayaking trips (called 'Wilderness Adventure') to the Adirondacks.

In 2005, the Colgate administration required the Greek organizations to sell or donate their houses to the University, under the threat of being unrecognized by the school. Supporters of this plan see it as an appropriate response to a "pattern of behavior that included repeated alcohol abuse, violent fighting, sexual assault, hazing" and the deaths of four persons in a 2000 car crash in which the driver had been drinking at both a fraternity and a local bar. [12] Opponents see these actions as part of a plan to eliminate Greek life at Colgate altogether. As of August 2006, Colgate fraternities and alumni have filed four lawsuits against Colgate; three have been dismissed. Opponents have also sought, unsuccessfully, to have the University charged with criminal coercion in pressuring Greek organizations to transfer their properties to Colgate. Colgate's Delta Kappa Epsilon chapter lost recognition when it refused to sell, and its alumni led supporters of the unsuccessful lawsuits[13], but every other active fraternity and sorority has sold its house and is part of Colgate's current Greek system. Three other Greek organizations were given houses in order to participate in the initiative.

  • Nathaniel Kendrick (1836 — 1848)
  • Stephen William Taylor (1851 — 1856)
  • George Washington Eaton (1856 — 1868)
  • Ebenezer Dodge (1868 — 1890)
  • George William Smith (1895 — 1897)
  • George Edmands Merrill (1899 — 1908)
  • Elmer Burritt Bryan (1909 — 1921)
  • George Barton Cutten (1922 — 1942)
  • Everett Needham Case (1942 — 1962)
  • Vincent MacDowell Barnett, Jr. (1963 — 1969)
  • Thomas Alva Bartlett (1969 — 1977)
  • George D. Langdon, Jr. (1978 — 1988)
  • Neil R. Grabois (1988 — 1999)
  • Charles Karelis (1999 — 2001)
  • Rebecca Chopp (2002— )

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Colgate University has produced a remarkable number of alumni who have made important contributions in areas such as journalism, business, entertainment, government, science, and sports. There are easily recognizable names, such as 60 Minutes commentator and columnist Andy Rooney ’42, and others that are less so. Trivia buffs, for example, might not know that two Colgate alumni – Ed Werner ’71 and John Haney ’72 – were part of a group of four friends who invented the Trivial Pursuit game.

  • (D) Charles Addams ’33, New Yorker cartoonist known for macabre drawings
  • Bob Balaban, television and movie actor
  • Joe Berlinger ’83, producer (Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2; documentary Brother’s Keeper)
  • George Davis ’61, writer/teacher
  • Andrew Hill '70, composer, jazz pianist (Point of Departure) on the Blue Note label
  • (D) John Marks ’31, creator of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” etc.
  • Martin Ransohoff ’49, film producer (Martin Ransohoff Productions)
  • Mel Watkins ’62, writer, editor, social commentator
  • Francesca Zambello ’78, opera director, manager
  • Jay Chandrasekhar '91, director (Super Troopers, "Arrested Development", Club Dread)
  • Kevin Heffernan '90, actor/comedian (Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beerfest)
  • Broken Lizard, comedy troupe (Super Troopers, Club Dread, Beer Fest)
  • Jeffrey Sharp, '89, producer (Boys Don't Cry, You Can Count On Me, Proof)

  • (D) Oswald Avery 1900, helped lead groundbreaking DNA research
  • Dr. Martin Dudziak '71, CEO, TETRAD Technologies Group, physicist, mathematician
  • H. Guyford Stever ’38, former head of National Science Foundation/NASA


Patriot League
Bucknell • Colgate • Holy Cross • Lafayette • Lehigh
Non-football members: American • Army • Navy
Football-only members: Fordham • Georgetown
Women's Lacrosse-only member: Villanova
ECAC Hockey League
Brown • Clarkson • Colgate • Cornell • Dartmouth • Harvard • Princeton • Quinnipiac • Rensselaer • St. Lawrence • Union • Yale
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