Coe College is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...

Cedar Rapids, Iowa Cedar Rapids is a city in Linn County, Iowa, United States, and its county seat. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, second-most populous city in Iowa. The city lies o ...

. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the

Presbyterian Church (USA) The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PCUSA, is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination in the Religion in the United States, United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the United States too. Its th ...

. The college is a member of the

Associated Colleges of the Midwest Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) is a consortium of 14 private liberal arts colleges, primarily in the Midwestern United States. The 14 colleges are located in five states: Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. The ACM was esta ...

and the

Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities The Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities is a private, not-for-profit organization of colleges and universities associated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), a Mainline Protestant Christian denomination. Member schools *Agnes ...

History

Coe College was founded in 1851 by Rev. Williston Jones as the "School for the Prophets". While canvassing churches in the East to raise money for students to attend Eastern seminaries, Jones met a farmer named Daniel Coe, who donated $1,500 and encouraged Jones to open a college in Cedar Rapids. Coe's gift came with the stipulation that the college should offer education to both men and women, and when the Cedar Rapids campus opened in 1853 as the "Cedar Rapids Collegiate Institute", it was a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

institution. In 1875, the college was reestablished as "Coe College Institute" and in 1881, after a private donation from T. M. Sinclair, founder of the Sinclair Meat Packing Company, was finally founded as "Coe College". Coe was accredited by the

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), also known as the North Central Association, was a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states engaged in educational accreditation. It ...

in 1907. In 1910, Presbyterian clergyman John Abner Marquis became president and initiated a period of growth that lasted for several years; Marquis was a sought-after speaker and served as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church, its highest office.

Academics

left, Sinclair Auditorium Coe College awards the following degrees:

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(B.A.),

Bachelor of Music A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

(B.M.), and

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Nursing (B.S.N.). Coe offers more than 60 areas of study and provides the option for students to create their own major under the guidance of faculty members. Its three most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were Business Administration and Management (36), Psychology (35), and Biology/Biological Sciences (27).

Stewart Memorial Library

Stewart Memorial Library contains more than 202,000 books and other materials. The library also features gallery spaces showing work by Iowa artists Marvin Cone,

Conger Metcalf Conger Metcalf (1914–1998) was an American painter. He was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and died in Boston, Massachusetts. Metcalf began his art studies in 1932 at the Iowa Stone City Art Colony, headed by American Regionalist painter Grant Woo ...

, and

Grant Wood Grant DeVolson Wood (February 13, 1891February 12, 1942) was an American artist and representative of Regionalism (art), Regionalism, best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest. He is particularly well known for ''America ...

Student life

In 1972, a study found that Coe students had traditional values which were often in harmony with those of their parents. Coe has an active Greek social community with four fraternities and five sororities.

Writing center

Coe's Writing Center (CWC) is the largest undergraduate student-run writing center in the nation, with over 60 undergraduates on staff. It opened in 1986. The CWC now conducts over 2,000 student conferences a year. The CWC produces and distributes several small campus publications.

Notable alumni

Fran Allison Frances Helen Allison (November 20, 1907June 13, 1989) was an American television and radio comedienne, personality, and singer. She is best known for her starring role on the weekday NBC-TV puppet show '' Kukla, Fran and Ollie'', which ran fr ...

– actress *

Michael Boddicker Michael Lehmann Boddicker (born January 19, 1953) is an American film composer and session musician, specializing in electronic music. He is a three times National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (N.A.R.A.S.) Most Valuable Player "Synthes ...

– musicianWinter Courier 2004
, p. 22,

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

. Coe College. Retrieved on March 9, 2008. * Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier – political scientist *

Wilmer D. Elfrink Wilmer Dale Elfrink (December 27, 1893 – September 22, 1948) was an American college football and college basketball coach. Playing career Elfrink played sports while attending Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was a key player on the foot ...

– football and basketball coach *

Paul Engle Paul Hamilton Engle (October 12, 1908 – March 22, 1991), was an American poet, editor, teacher, literary critic, novelist, and playwright. He is remembered as the long-time director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and as co-founder of the Intern ...

– director of the

Iowa Writers' Workshop The Iowa Writers' Workshop, at the University of Iowa, is a graduate-level creative writing program. At 89 years, it is the oldest writing program offering a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in the United States. Its acceptance rate is between 2 ...

Bill Fitch William Charles Fitch (May 19, 1932 – February 2, 2022) was an American professional basketball coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He developed multiple teams into playoff contenders and won an NBA championship with the Bos ...

– basketball coach * Edgar S. Furniss – economist and educator *

Chris Funk Christopher Funk (born November 28, 1971) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist best known as a member of the Portland, Oregon, indie rock band The Decemberists. He plays guitar, pedal steel, piano, violin, dobro, hurdy-gurdy, mandol ...

– musician * James William Good – US Congressman and Secretary of War * Dora Jane Hamblin – journalist, editor *

Fred Hickman Frederick Hickman (October 17, 1956 – November 9, 2022) was an American sports broadcaster with CNN, TBS, YES Network, and ESPN. He was later an anchor and managing editor for the evening newscast of the African-American cable news channel Bl ...

– sportscaster * Timothy S. Hillman – U.S. District Court judge * Fred Jackson – football player *

Jason Kottke Jason Kottke (born September 27, 1973) is an American blogger, graphic designer, and web designer known for his blog Kottke.org. He won a Lifetime Achievement Award as a blogger. Design work Kottke attended Coe College on scholarship in Iowa ...

– blogger, designer *

Marv Levy Marvin Daniel Levy (; born August 3, 1925) is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the Buffalo Bills, lea ...

– football coach *

David McCosh David John McCosh (1903 Cedar Rapids, Iowa – 1981 Eugene, Oregon) was a Northwest American artist and art instructor. The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art has over 170 of his works in their permanent collection. McCosh graduated from the School ...

– painter and professor * Byron McKeeby – artist and professor *

Curt Menefee Curt Menefee (born July 22, 1965) is an American broadcaster who hosts the Fox Network's NFL pregame show ''Fox NFL Sunday''. He is also the co-anchor of '' Good Day New York'' on Fox's New York City flagship station, WNYW. Early life and edu ...

– sportscaster *

– painter *

Ronald Moon Ronald T. Y. Moon (September 4, 1940 – July 4, 2022) was the Chief Justice of the Hawaii State Supreme Court in Honolulu, Hawaii. He served his first term from 1993 to 2003, and his second term from 2003 until retiring in August 2010. Moon ...

– Chief Justice of Hawaii Supreme Court (1993–2010) * Dow Mossman – novelist * Edward A. Ross – sociologist * Bradley Marc Sherrill – nuclear physicist *

William Shirer William Lawrence Shirer (; February 23, 1904 – December 28, 1993) was an American journalist, war correspondent, and historian. His '' The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich'', a history of Nazi Germany, has been read by many and cited in schol ...

– author *

Judith Sims Judith Sims ( 1939March 25, 1996) was an American journalist, music critic, and magazine editor. She was the editor of the rock magazine '' TeenSet'' in the 1960s. Later she was the Los Angeles bureau chief for ''Rolling Stone''. Career Judith S ...

– ''TeenSet'' ''Magazine'' Editor, Writer, ''Disc'' (UK) Contributor, ''Rolling Stone'' L.A. Bureau Chief. *

Gary Allan Sojka Gary Allan Sojka (born July 15, 1940) is an American academic who was president of Bucknell University from 1984 to 1995. Biography Sojka received his bachelor of arts degree from Coe College and his master of science and doctor of philosophy deg ...

– university administrator * Lindsay Souvannarath – attempted mass murderer * Quentin Stanerson – politician, member of the

Iowa House of Representatives The Iowa House of Representatives is the lower house of the Iowa General Assembly, the upper house being the Iowa Senate. There are 100 seats in the Iowa House of Representatives, representing 100 single-member districts across the state, formed ...

Shelby Steele Shelby Steele (born January 1, 1946) is an American author, columnist, documentary film maker, and a Robert J. and Marion E. Oster Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. He specializes in the study of race relations, multicult ...

– author, sociologist, political commentator *

S. Donald Stookey Stanley Donald Stookey (May 23, 1915 – November 4, 2014) was an American inventor. He had 60 patents in his name related to glass and ceramics, some patents solely his and others shared as joint patents with other inventors. His discoveries and ...

– inventor *

Gregory Alan Williams Gregory Alan Williams (born June 12, 1956) sometimes credited as Gregalan Williams, is an American actor and author. He is best known for portraying LAPD Officer Garner Ellerbee in ''Baywatch''. From 2011 until 2013, Williams portrayed the role ...

– actor and author

Athletics

Coe Kohawks wordmark Coe College has 21 men's and women's athletic teams and is a member of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Third ...

. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and wrestling; women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field, and volleyball. Coe also supports five Co-Ed athletic teams. They include Archery, Cheer, Dance, Clay Target and Esports. Their athletic team name is the Kohawks, a stylized bird; the college mascot is known as Charlie Kohawk.

References

External links

*
Athletics website
{{Coord, 41, 59, 18, N, 91, 39, 25, W, type:edu_region:US-IA, display=title Universities and colleges in Cedar Rapids, Iowa Liberal arts colleges in Iowa Universities and colleges affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) Universities and colleges established in 1851 1851 establishments in Iowa Private universities and colleges in Iowa