Champlain College is a

private college Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government grants. Depending on the count ...

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

, United States. Founded in 1878, Champlain offers on-campus undergraduate and online undergraduate courses through Champlain College Online, along with online certificate and degree programs and master's degree programs, in over 80 subject areas. Champlain enrolls 3,060 undergraduate students on its Burlington campus from 40 states and 18 countries.

History

Champlain was founded in 1878 as Burlington Business School, opened by G.W. Thompson, to prepare young men for "the business cares and responsibilities of life." In 1884, when E. George Evans acquired the school, it became

coeducational 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 ...

and changed its name to Queen City Business College. In 1905, it moved to Bank Street, and in 1910 it moved again to Main Street. A. Gordon Tittemore acquired the college in 1920, and renamed it Burlington Business College. In 1958, the College took on its current name and moved to its present location in the Hill Section of Burlington. That year, it offered associate degree programs and enrolled about 60 students. Champlain College opened its first dormitories, Jensen and Sanders Halls, in 1965. It started new programs in social services in the 1970s, opened the Willett Foster Hall, home to the Engineering Technology Division, in 1982, and added the Hauke Family Campus Center in 1989. Champlain offered its first bachelor's degree programs in Business and Accounting in 1990; three years later it began its first online education programs. In 2002, Champlain launched its first master's degree program in Managing Innovation & Information Technology. The College's library, the Robert E. and Holly D. Miller Information Commons, opened in 1998 and in 2004 the school dedicated the S.D. Ireland Family Center for Global Business & Technology, home to the Stiller School of Business. The following year, the IDX Student Life Center opened. Also in 2005, David F. Finney was inaugurated as the Champlain's seventh president, and the College added a Master of Business Administration as its second master's degree. In 2006, President David F. Finney launched several initiatives, including the Emergent Media Center; the Champlain College Center for Digital Investigation, now called the Senator Patrick Leahy Center for Digital Investigations; and the Conference and Event Center. Champlain also introduced two scholarship programs: the New American Student Scholarship, for students with refugee or asylum status, and the Vermont First Scholarship for first-generation college students from Vermont, and the College launched its BYOBiz program, which promotes student entrepreneurship. In 2007, the College opened a study-abroad campus in

Montreal, Canada Montreal is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest in Canada, and the ninth-largest in North America. It was founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", and is now named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

, followed by second study-abroad campus in

Dublin, Ireland Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

in 2008. Later that year, Champlain established the Core Division, followed by the Life Experience & Action Dimension (LEAD) program in 2009. In 2010, Champlain began offering an MFA in Emergent Media and a BS in Environmental Policy, and introduced the Center for Financial Literacy and the Champlain College Publishing Initiative. That same year, Roger H. Perry Hall was renovated. Perry Hall received LEED Platinum certification in 2012, and houses the Advising and Registration Center, Admissions, Financial Aid, Public Relations, and serves as a general purpose Student Welcome Center. In October 2012, Champlain College received the largest gift in its history, a gift of $10 million from the Stiller Family Foundation that established the Stiller School of Business and funded the Perry Hall Welcome and Admission Center, as well as to begin work on the Center for Communications & Creative Media, which opened in the fall of 2015. In fall of 2013, Champlain was featured in an article in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'', "What Would an Ideal College Look Like? A Lot Like This," as part of the magazine's "American Futures" series, which looked at American cities that are home to innovations and entrepreneurship. President David F. Finney retired in June 2014, and Donald J. Laackman, president of Harold Washington College, became Champlain's eighth president in July 2014.

Campus

Main campus

Champlain's campus consists of 42 buildings on about 2.5 city blocks in the residential Hill Section of Burlington, Vermont. Most of the student residence halls are renovated

Victorian-era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed th ...

houses. Champlain College also offers contemporary housing. In 2014, Champlain opened a new on-campus residence, Valcour Hall. In November 2018, the institution's first apartment-style residence hall, 194. St Paul St, opened. The hall is 0.5 miles away from the main campus and currently houses 314 upperclassmen. About 750 students reside on campus while others occupy off-campus college housing. There are 27 residence halls. The IDX Student Life Center houses the dining hall, gym, fitness center, lounge and game room. All Champlain students have access to campus computer labs, 3D animation and game production labs, multimedia classrooms and editing suites, a digital photography lab and darkroom, the Metz Studio Barn, the Emergent Media Center and the Senator Leahy Center for Digital Investigation. In 2014, Champlain opened its Makers’ Lab and opened the Communication & Creative Media building in 2015. Academic buildings include the Hauke Family Campus Center, the S.D. Ireland Family Center for Global Business & Technology, and the Miller Information Commons. Facilities available include 3D animation and game production labs,

multimedia Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms, such as Text (literary theory), writing, Sound, audio, images, animations, or video, into a single presentation. T ...

classrooms and editing suites, and a photo lab and

darkroom A darkroom is used to process photographic film, make Photographic printing, prints and carry out other associated tasks. It is a room that can be made completely dark to allow the processing of light-sensitive photographic materials, including ...

Lakeside campus

Located 1.5 miles southwest of the main campus is Miller Center and the residential student parking lot. Miller Center contains the Emergent Media Center, a collaborative work studio that acts as a student work space while also accepting commission work from the public. Miller Center also includes the Makerspace, where students access equipment such as 3D printers/scanners, laser and vinyl cutters, and power tools.

International campuses

Champlain College has campuses in Dublin, Ireland and Montréal, Canada, in addition to partnerships with institutions around the world. Students are encouraged to study abroad. Champlain College's Montréal campus opened its doors in 2007 with classroom space located at Rue Sherbooke Est. Students live in the Université du Québec à Montréal's (UQAM's) residence hall with local and international students. Champlain students in all programs are eligible to spend a semester in Montréal. Champlain's Dublin campus has been in use since 2008. The Academic Center is located at 43 Leeson Street Lower, near Dublin's Georgian Office District, and comprises four classrooms, a computer lab, and a lounge. Experiential courses teach students about Ireland's economy, music, cultural heritage, and history.

Academics

Ranking

The '' U.S. News & World Report''s annual university rankings ranked Champlain College tied for 91st in Regional Universities in the North and tied 10th in the most innovative schools. Forbes' Lists College Ranking for Champlain College: * #215 America's Best Small Employers 2023 * #560 Top Colleges 2021 * #297 in Private Colleges * #198 in Colleges in the Northeast

Undergraduate education

Champlain offers 29 undergraduate degree programs on campus, including associate and bachelor's programs, and 25 undergraduate certificates online. It also has 24 graduate degree programs that can be pursued either on campus or online. Starting with the class of 2011, general education was taught in the form of an interdisciplinary core curriculum. Each course brings together three or four discrete disciplines with the use of various literature and open-ended discussion topics. First-year courses focus on the self, second-year on the community, and third year on global topics. Through courses such as

Rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

, Concepts of the Self, and Concepts of Community, students gain a background in the

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

and sciences. One part of the curriculum is the mandatory "Global Module," a guided discussion forum between Champlain students and students from other countries. In the fall of 2008, incoming students began to participate in an out-of-the-classroom life skills program. This life skills program, called the Life Experience and Action Dimension or LEAD, is part of Champlain's Education in 3-D initiative. LEAD aims to build knowledge in four areas: understanding personality styles, building inclusive community, lifelong career management, and financial sophistication.

Champlain College Online

Champlain College Online was established in 1992 as a part of Champlain College. The college has over 60 online degree programs, including associate, bachelor's, and graduate degrees, as well as certificate programs, encompassing four areas of study: Business, Cybersecurity, Healthcare, and Information Technology. The programs and degrees delivered online have the same curriculum and accreditation as the traditional residential on-campus programs.

Student life

In addition to student-run clubs, the college also hosts intramural sports. The Center for Service and Sustainability is a community service and civic engagement based club that participates in a number of activities such as Tent City (a fundraiser to raise homeless awareness and money for COTS (Committee on Temporary Shelter), and the DREAM program (a mentoring program for underprivileged children). There is a

Student Government Association A students' union or student union, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, organization ...

Publications

'' Willard and Maple'' is an international literary magazine published by Champlain College, with the editorial board made up of faculty and students.

Student demographics

Champlain College enrolls 2,100 undergraduate students from 40 states and 18 countries. 64% of students are male and 36% female. The college has a 12:1 student/faculty ratio, and the average class size at Champlain is 14, with a maximum class size of 30.

Notable alumni

* Jeremy Bishop (attended 1999–2001), basketball player at Champlain and

Quinnipiac The Quinnipiac were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They lived in present-day New Haven County, Connecticut, along the Quinnipiac River. Their primary village, also called Quinnipiac, was where New Haven, Connect ...

Colleges * Clem Bissonnette (A.A., 1965), member of the

Vermont House of Representatives The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members, with each member representing around 4,100 citizens. Representatives a ...

Steven Crowder Steven Blake Crowder (; born July 7, 1987) is an American-Canadian conservative political commentator and Internet personality. Early in his career, Crowder worked for Fox News and posted videos on conservative media platforms. He then began h ...

(attended), conservative political commentator * Rusty DeWees (A.A., 1984), entertainer * Maxyne Finkelstein (M.S., 2015), non-profit organization executive * Volodymyr Heninson (graduated, 2001), president of soccer's

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( ) or UPL is a professional association football league in Ukraine and the highest level of the Ukrainian football league system. Originally known as the Vyshcha Liha ( , ) it was formed in 1991 during the 1992 in ...

* James McNeil (A.S. 1978), member of the

and

Vermont Senate The Vermont Senate is the upper house of the Vermont General Assembly, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The senate consists of 30 members elected from multi-member districts. Each senator repre ...

Jaime Peterson Jaime Peterson (born September 29, 1971) is a Dominican-American former professional basketball player. A forward-center, he was born in New York City to Dominican parents. After playing for three different high schools, including a postgraduate ...

(attended 1991–1993), professional basketball player * John E. Rouille (attended 1973), U.S. Marshal for Vermont * Laura Sibilia (attended), member of the

* Donald H. Turner (A.S. 1984), member of the

References

External links

* {{Coord, 44.475677, -73.205685, region:US_type:edu, display=title Education in Burlington, Vermont Private universities and colleges in Vermont Universities and colleges established in 1878 Education in Chittenden County, Vermont Educational buildings in Burlington, Vermont 1878 establishments in Vermont