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Cornell College is a private
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 ...
in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Originally the Iowa Conference Seminary (Methodist), the school was founded in 1853 by George Bryant Bowman. Four years later, in 1857, the name was changed to Cornell College, in honor of iron tycoon William Wesley Cornell.


Academics

Cornell students study one course at a time (commonly referred to as "the block plan" or "OCAAT"). Since 1978, school years have been divided into "blocks" of three and a half weeks each (usually followed by a four-day "block break" to round out to four weeks), during which students are enrolled in a single class; what would normally be covered in a full semester's worth of class at a typical university is covered in just eighteen class days. While schedules vary from class to class, most courses consist of around 30 hours of lecture, along with additional time spent in the laboratory, studying audio-visual media, or other activities. Cornell formerly operated on a calendar of 9 blocks per year but switched to 8 blocks per year beginning in the fall of 2012. Since its inception, Cornell has accepted women into all degree programs. In 1858, Cornell was host to Iowa's first female recipient of a baccalaureate degree, Mary Fellows, a member of the first graduating class from Cornell College. She received a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1871, Harriette J. Cooke became the first female college professor in the United States to become a full professor with a salary equal to that of her male colleagues.


Campus buildings

Among the most widely recognizable buildings on Cornell's campus is King Chapel. The chapel is the site of the annual convocation at the commencement of the school year as well as the baccalaureate service in the spring for graduating students. The chapel contains a large organ (over 3000 pipes) and is often the site of musical performances. Religious services are held in the nearby Allee Chapel. Old Sem, for a short while, was the second building of the original college and now houses administrative offices of the college. Armstrong Hall houses the college music department Cornell contains 9 academic buildings. College Hall (also sometimes called "Old Main"), the oldest building on campus, houses classrooms and offices of several social science and humanities departments. South Hall, originally a male dormitory, houses the Politics and Creative Writing Departments. Prall House contains offices and classrooms of the Philosophy and Religion Departments. The Merle West Science Center houses the Physics, Biology, and Chemistry Departments. West Science contains one of the school's two stadium seating lecture-style classrooms, with a capacity around 100. These have since been relocated to the new science building, Russell Science Center. It opened for classes for the 2019–2020 academic year. The Norton Geology Center contains both an extensive museum and classrooms for geological sciences. Law Hall includes the Math, Computer Science, and Psychology Departments, and is the computing hub of the campus. McWethy Hall, formerly a gymnasium, was remodeled and now contains the studios and offices of the Art Department. Armstrong Hall and Youngker Hall are adjoining fine arts buildings. Armstrong Hall is the location of the Music Department, while Youngker Hall contains the Theatre Department, including Kimmel Theatre. In addition, the Small Sports Center and the Lytle House contain classrooms of the Kinesiology Department. Cole Library serves both the college and the Mount Vernon community. Cornell has several residence halls. Pfeiffer Hall, Tarr Hall, and Dows Hall together form the "Tri-Hall" area. Tarr was once an all-male residence hall, but now is co-educational. Likewise, Dows, once an all-female residence hall, joins Pfeiffer and Tarr in providing co-ed housing. Tarr and Dows are both primarily freshmen dorms, while Pfeiffer houses upperclassmen as well as first-years. Pfeiffer was extensively renovated in 2008 and is co-ed by room. Bowman–Carter Hall is an all-female hall for upperclassmen, situated in a former hospital building. Pauley–Rorem Hall (commonly referred to as PR) is a combination of two residence halls that are joined in the middle by a common set of stairs. Female first-years resided in Pauley, and male first-years resided in Rorem until 2012–2013 when both residence halls became co-ed by floor. Pauley Hall was once home to the Pauley Academic Program, a community of male and female students with strong academic backgrounds. Pauley Hall was co-ed by floor as early as 1986, and in 1987–1989, the second floor Pauley was home to the Academic Program and was co-ed by room. Olin and Merner Hall are co-ed upper-class residence halls. New and Russell Hall (the latter commonly known as Clock Tower) were opened in 2005 and 2007, respectively, and provide suite-style living. Students may choose more independent living options in apartments at Wilch Apartments, 10th Avenue, Armstrong House, and Harlan House, and even at the Sleep Inn. Nearly all Cornell students are required to live on-campus or in campus apartments, so most students do not rent non-college housing. The Cornell campus is centered on a modest hill, the feature noted in the moniker "Hilltop Campus." Several campus buildings are grouped on the hilltop, while the athletic facilities and some residential buildings are located farther downhill on the campus's northwest side.


Greek life

From 1853–1927 over twenty literary societies and secret societies emerged as the backbone of social life at Cornell. In 1927, these groups voluntarily disbanded, and in 1929, faculty voted to allow groups to organize as Greek organizations, provided that they renounced all ties to national Greek organization. Cornell College has 11 recognized local fraternities and sororities.


Athletics

left, 100px, Cornell athletics monogram Cornell College fields 19 intercollegiate athletic teams, all of which compete in
NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...
sports. Formerly a member of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC), Cornell rejoined the
Midwest Conference The Midwest Conference (MWC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Confe ...
(MWC) in the fall of 2012. Cornell has achieved its greatest success in
wrestling Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves di ...
. Cornell wrestlers have won eight individual national titles, and in 1947, the wrestling team won the NCAA Division I and AAU national championships. Sixty-two Cornell wrestlers have been named NCAA All-Americans, and seven have been elected to the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Seven wrestlers have also competed at the
Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...
. In 2011, the women's
volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
team captured the IIAC title and went on to take part in the national tournament for the first time in school history. Since then, the women's volleyball team has moved to the Midwest Conference (MWC) and won the MWC title seven times consecutively—six of those seven years making it to the national tournament. Twenty-five Cornell students have earned NCAA Postgraduate Scholarships, awarded annually to students in their final year of eligibility who excel both athletically and academically. Cornell ranks in the top 15 Division III colleges in recipients of this award. Cornell's
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
rivalry with Coe College dates to 1891, making it the oldest intercollegiate rivalry west of the Mississippi. Coe currently holds the lead in the series, 60-51-4. Cornell's
mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...
is a
ram Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...
. In 1949, the Royal Purple, the school's yearbook, offered a $5 prize for whomever could come up with a new mascot to replace either the "Purples" or "Hilltoppers." A sophomore proposed the idea for the ram.


Notable alumni

* Ralph O. Allen (1965) – professor of chemistry at the
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...
* Frank Jeremiah Armstrong (1900) – first African American graduate of the college * Rob Ash (1973) – head football coach at
Montana State University Montana State University (MSU) is a public land-grant research university in Bozeman, Montana, United States. It enrolls more students than any other college or university in the state. MSU offers baccalaureate degrees in 60 fields, master's d ...
* Henrietta Ash Bancroft (1886) – professor of English and dean of women at
Albion College Albion College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Albion, Michigan. The college was founded in 1835 and its undergraduate population was approximately 1,500 students as of Fall 2021 ...
(1892–1898) * Leo Beranek (1936) – co-founder of
Bolt, Beranek and Newman Raytheon BBN (originally Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Inc.) is an American research and development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1966, the Franklin Institute awarded the firm the Frank P. Brown Medal, in 1999 BBN received the ...
* Chris Carney (1981) – U.S. congressman from Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional district * Robert Cousins (1881) – U.S. congressman from Iowa (1893–1909) * Emma Amelia Cranmer (late 19th century) – temperance reformer, woman suffragist, writer * James Daly (1941) –
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
-winning actor * Lester J. Dickinson (1898) – U.S. congressman (1919–1931) and Senator from Iowa (1931–1937) * Lee Alvin DuBridge (1922) – President of the
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
, science advisor to
U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
* Don E. Fehrenbacher (1948) – Pulitzer Prize for History winner * Michael J. Graham (1975) – former President of
Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier had an enrollment of approximately 5,600 undergraduate an ...
* Orin D. Haugen (1925) – Colonel in the United States Army during World War II *
David Hilmers David Carl Hilmers (born January 28, 1950) is a former NASA astronaut who flew four Space Shuttle missions. He was born in Clinton, Iowa, but considers DeWitt, Iowa, to be his hometown. He has two grown sons. His recreational interests include p ...
(1972) –
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astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
and
medical doctor A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis ...
* Duane Garrison Hunt (1907) – Roman Catholic Bishop of Salt Lake City from 1937 until his death in 1960 * Rupert Kinnard (1979) – cartoonist, known for creating the first ongoing gay/lesbian African-American comic characters * Franklin Littell (1937) – Holocaust scholar * Elinor Levin (late 2000s) – 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 ...
* Maryann Mahaffey (1946) – Detroit City Council member * Erwin Kempton Mapes (1909) – renowned scholar of Spanish-American Literature * William Wallace McCredie (1885) – Judge, U.S. congressman from Washington (1909–1911) and Baseball Executive * Deb Mell (1990) – member of
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* Jack Norris (1989) – President and co-founder of Vegan Outreach * Grimes Poznikov (1969) – street performer in San Francisco, California * Harper Reed (2001) – CTO of Obama for America 2012 campaign * Leslie M. Shaw (1874) –
Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
of
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
, U.S. Secretary of Treasury * Ruby Sia (1910) – first Chinese graduate of Cornell College; missionary educator in Fuzhou * Burton E. Sweet (1895) – U.S. Congressman from Iowa (1915–1923) and unsuccessful Senate Candidate (1922, 1924) * Dale O. Thomas (1948) – wrestler and coach * Walter Thornton (1899) –
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
player * John Q. Tufts (late 19th century) – Congressman from Iowa's 2nd Congressional district (1875–1877) * Hubert Stanley Wall (1924) – mathematician *
Elizabeth Wilson Elizabeth Welter Wilson (April 4, 1921 – May 9, 2015) was an American actress whose career spanned nearly 60 years, including memorable roles in film and television. In 1972 she won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for ...
– 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 ...
* Thomas Zinkula (1979) – Roman Catholic Bishop of Diocese of Davenport (Iowa)


Notable faculty

* Joseph M. Bachelor – author * Ann R. Cannon – fellow of the
American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 27, 1839, and is the second-oldest continuous ...
, Assistant Chief Reader for the AP Statistics exam * Glenn Cunningham – silver medalist 1500 meters run, 1936 Olympics * Robert Dana – Poet Laureate of Iowa * Charles Wesley Flint, President (1915–1922) – Methodist bishop * Bruce Frohnen – academic * Leroy Lamis – American sculptor *
Jim Leach James Albert Smith Leach (October 15, 1942 – December 11, 2024) was an American academic and politician. He served as ninth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2009 to 2013 and was a member of the U.S. House of Representat ...
– former Republican congressman, taught as a visiting professor * David Loebsack – Congressman from Iowa's 2nd District * William Harmon Norton – geologist, also alumnus * Charles L. Phillips – professor of military science and tactics


Notable staff

* Lisa Stone – Head Coach,
Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...
Women's Basketball


Notes

#As of June 30, 2013. p. 44. #


References


External links

*
Athletics website
{{coord, 41, 55, 34, N, 91, 25, 33, W, type:edu_region:US, display=title Mount Vernon, Iowa Universities and colleges established in 1853 Education in Linn County, Iowa Buildings and structures in Linn County, Iowa Tourist attractions in Linn County, Iowa 1853 establishments in Iowa Private universities and colleges in Iowa