Washington College

History

Washington College evolved from the Kent County Free School, an institution of more than 60 years' standing in "Chester Town," which by the college's founding date of 1782 had reached considerable strength and importance as a port city. George Washington consented to the fledgling college's use of his name, pledged the sum of 50 guineas to its establishment, and extended his warm wishes for the "lasting and extensive usefulness" of the institution. He later served on Washington College's Board of Visitors and Governors — his only such involvement with an institution of higher learning during his lifetime.

The college's first president, the Reverend William Smith, was a prominent figure in colonial affairs of letters and church, and he had a wide acquaintance among the great men of colonial days, including Benjamin Franklin. Joining General Washington on the Board of Visitors and Governors of the new college were such distinguished figures as U.S. Senator John Henry, Congressman Joshua Seney and his Excellency William Paca, Governor of Maryland. The Maryland legislature granted its first college charter upon Washington College in May 1782. The following spring, on May 14, 1783, the college held its first commencement.

President Smith had envisaged Washington College as the Eastern Shore Campus of a public University of Maryland with St. John's College as its Western Shore counterpart, a proposal incorporated into the later institution's 1784 state charter, but the Maryland General Assembly's reluctance to provide funding meant this was never more than a paper institution and the relationship ended with Smith's return to Philadelphia in 1789.

With his election as first President of the United States, General Washington retired from the Board of Visitors and Governors and accepted the honorary degree of doctor of laws, which a delegation from Chestertown presented to him on June 24, 1789, in New York, then the seat of Congress. Since Washington’s last visit to campus, Washington College has hosted five U.S. presidents: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and George H. W. Bush.

The original college building cornerstone was laid in May 1783, it opened in 1788 after selling off acreage and starting a lottery to fund the project. The hall was still incomplete by 1794 and was destroyed by a basement fire January 11, 1827. The oldest existing building, Middle Hall, was erected in 1844 on the site of the original college building. By 1860, Middle Hall was joined by East and West Halls. All three structures, known as the Hill Dorms, are on the Maryland Register of Historic Places.

Student body and admissions

For the 2011-2012 academic year, 56.6% of applicants were accepted to the college. Approximately 1,400 undergraduates and 100 graduate students attend Washington College, 47 percent from Maryland and the balance from 35 other states and forty foreign nations. Approximately 8 percent of the American undergraduates are minority students and approximately 8 percent are international citizens. Approximately 5 percent of the college's student body is "non-traditional" (25 years old or older). Approximately 80 percent of all students live in college residence halls; the rest commute either from off-campus housing or from home.

Tuition for the 2012-2013 year is $39,208 and total expenses per annum (including room, board, and fees) are $48,768. Approximately 85 percent of the student body receives some form of need-based financial aid or merit-based scholarship award. The cost of attendance has been rising in recent years, with the overall costs (including room and board) increasing by roughly $2,000 per year.

Rankings

In 2015, Washington College was ranked by The Princeton Review as 16th in the United States among "Colleges With The Happiest Students In 2015-16". In the 2011 edition of U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges, Washington College rose 19 positions to 93rd in the nation in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category.

Literary prizes

Each year, Washington College awards the nation's largest undergraduate literary prize. Since 1968, the Sophie Kerr Prize has been presented to one graduating senior who demonstrates the greatest literary promise. The endowment created by Sophie Kerr, a writer who published 23 novels and dozens of short stories, has provided more than $1.4 million in prize money to young writers. At a ceremony held at the Poets House in New York City on May 17, 2011, Lisa Jones was selected as the winner of the $61,000 Sophie Kerr Prize.

In 2005, Washington College inaugurated another literary prize, the George Washington Book Prize, administered by the college's C.V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and awarded in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mount Vernon. The prize is awarded annually to the most significant new book about the founding era. At $50,000, the prize is one of the most generous book awards in the United States. Richard Beeman won the 2010 George Washington Book Prize for his work, Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution.

In 2015 the Rose O’Neill Literary House, Washington College’s center for literature and the literary arts, established the Douglass Wallop Fellowship as a nationwide competition, with the first fellowship going to playwright Sheri Wilner. The award will be granted biennially to a playwright.

Student life

The school has over 90 student clubs.

Freshmen, unless local, are required to live on-campus. On-campus housing is available for approximately 900 students. Most students (70-75 percent) stay on-campus over the weekend to participate in various social and recreational activities.

Approximately 30 percent of students attend graduate school in the first year following graduation and approximately 45 percent do so within five years.

The student to faculty ratio is 12:1. The average class size is 17.

The school confers the degrees of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, and Master of Arts (in English, psychology and history).

Washington College has joined American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment with a Campus carbon neutrality goal. The Center for Environment and Society oversees the Chesapeake Semester program, four interdisciplinary courses that use the College's location in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to explore environmental issues and advocacy.

Washington College is host to the Harwood Series, which includes speeches by national politicians and media pundits. Because of its reputation as a liberal arts school with creative writing being a strength, writers such as John Barth, Ray Bradbury, Bobbie Ann Mason, Colum McCann, Neil Gaiman, Tim O'Brien, Junot Diaz, and Robert Pinsky have given readings at the campus.

Greek life

Greek life at Washington College comprises four men's fraternities and three women's sororities. Fraternities are mainly housed on the "quad", and sororities line the Western Shore housing.

Men's fraternities:

Sororities:

Traditions

George Washington Birthday Ball: A college-wide dance where students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends of the college come together to celebrate George Washington's birthday. The event usually takes place on, or around, the actual date of George Washington's birth.

War on the Shore: The annual men's lacrosse game, held in late spring between Washington College and Salisbury University, two of Maryland's Eastern Shore's undergraduate schools. Beginning in 2004, the winner of the game has been awarded the Charles B. Clark Cup.

May Day: Started in 1968 by Professor Bennett Lamond of the English Department, who retired in 2004. He brought a class out onto the green, where they read poetry and drank wine. Later that night some of the students returned, and Washington College's May Day celebration was born. Since then, May Day has become a two-day festival on April 30 and May 1, often involving public nudity by some of the student body. The event draws many students as spectators.

Varsity sports

Washington College has competed in intercollegiate athletics since the 19th century. Its oldest current varsity sports are the baseball team, which dates back to at least the early 1870s, and the men's basketball team, which plays its 100th season in 2011-12. Men's teams are known as the Shoremen; women's teams are known as the Shorewomen.

While men have been playing varsity sports at Washington College for well over a century, varsity opportunities for women have been a more recent development. The first varsity sports for women – rowing, tennis, and volleyball – were added in the mid-1970s and were followed by the additions of softball, lacrosse, field hockey, and swimming by the mid-1980s. Varsity women's basketball began play during the 1993-94 season, while co-ed sailing was elevated to varsity status four years later. The women's soccer team is the college's newest varsity sport; it began play during the fall of 1998.

Washington College fielded a varsity football team through 1950, a men's track and field team through 1982, and a men's cross country team through 1989. The college previously sponsored varsity men's golf and varsity wrestling.

14 of Washington College's 17 varsity teams compete in the Centennial Conference. The men's and women's rowing teams compete in the Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (MARC), while the sailing team competes in the Middle Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association (MAISA), a part of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA).

The rowing and sailing teams host regattas on the Chester River and call the college's Truslow Boat House and Lelia Hynson Boating Park home.

The college's 17 varsity teams are:

Lacrosse

The college is known for its men's lacrosse team. It won the 1998 NCAA Division III National Championship and a share of the 1954 USILA Laurie Cox Division National Championship. The men's lacrosse team has participated in the NCAA Division II or III Tournament 28 times since 1974 and the NCAA Division III Championship game eight times. Washington College Men's Lacrosse players have earned All-America honors 226 times.

The men's and women's lacrosse teams, men's and women's soccer teams, and field hockey teams, compete on Kibler Field at Roy Kirby, Jr. Stadium. Completed in 2006, the stadium was named one of the top 10 venues for collegiate lacrosse by Lacrosse Magazine.

Tennis

The college's men's tennis team emerged as a national power in the 1980s and won the 1994 and 1997 NCAA Division III National Championships. It has competed in 18 NCAA Division III Tournaments and won 20 conference championships since 1986. From 1985 until 2005, the team won 122 consecutive conference dual matches. Washington College men's tennis players have earned All-America honors 42 times, while their female counterparts have earned All-America honors 11 times. The women's tennis team competed in the 1992 NCAA Division III Tournament.

Both tennis teams play their home matches outdoors at the Ellen Bordley Schottland Tennis Center. During inclement weather, matches are played indoors at the Johnson Lifetime Fitness Center.

Rowing

Washington College Crew has seen significant improvement in both men's and women's programs in recent years. The Shorewomen are ranked nationally and finished sixth overall at the NCAA Division III Championships in Indianapolis in 2014. John Leekley, a gold medalist in USRowing Master's National Championships, joined as head men's coach in 2007 and in 2014 the Washington College men's rowing team won its fourth championship in five years in the annual Mid-Atlantic Rowing Conference (MARC) Championships. In 2014, nine Washington College rowers were named to the MARC All-Conference team. The teams frequently compete against larger colleges; in the 2014 Navy Day Regatta, for example, the Shoremen's two fours were the only two boats from non-Division I schools to finish in the top 17 spots in the race, taking 8th and 11th places.

Sailing

The sailing team competed in the ICSA Co-Ed National Semifinals in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. They advanced to the ICSA Co-Ed National Championship Finals in 2009.

Swimming

The swim teams have enjoyed a history of success, sending individual swimmers to the NCAA Division III Championships. Female swimmers have earned All-America honors 21 times, while male swimmers have achieved that feat three times. Home swim meets are held inside Casey Swim Center.

Baseball

Eight baseball players who played at Washington College have gone on to play in the Major Leagues, including two-time National League home run leader and four-time All-Star "Swish" Nicholson. Athey Baseball Park, renovated in 2009, is the home of the baseball team.

Basketball

The men's basketball team has made four appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament, most recently in 1990, when it advanced to the national semifinals. It also posted a perfect 20-0 record during the 1924-25 season. The men's and women's basketball teams and the women's volleyball team play their home games at Cain Athletic Center.

Field hockey

The field hockey team advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament in 1996 and 1997, while the men's soccer team played in the NCAA College Division Tournament in 1973.

Club sports

Recent club sports offerings at Washington College have included Dance Club, Equestrian, Lacrosse, Rugby, Trap and Skeet, Wakeboard and Waterski Club.

Facilities

Despite the economic downturn, Washington College recently invested $70 million in its physical plant. In the fall of 2009, the college opened two major new facilities: the Gibson Center for the Arts and the Hodson Hall Commons.

After undergoing a $24 million renovation and expansion of the original structure, the Gibson Center for the Arts now accommodates a recital hall, an art gallery, a mainstage theatre and a small experimental theatre, in addition to classrooms, practice rooms and faculty offices.

Hodson Hall Commons, another renovation/expansion project, reflects the historic features of adjoining Hodson Hall while accommodating the interests of today's students. The Commons' first floor offers a central entertainment and performance space alongside café-style dining options and the Hodson Student Center. The main dining hall is located on the Common's second floor, providing scenic views of the surrounding campus.

Residence halls

Middle, East and West Halls stand on the crest of a low hill (the terrace) at the center of campus. Middle Hall (built 1844) and East and West Halls (built 1854) hold a special place in the history of Washington College, as they are the oldest surviving campus buildings. They serve as monuments to the original Common Building (completed in 1789), whose site they occupy. They are all three-story buildings constructed of brick.

They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

They now function as follows:

Other residence halls include:

Academic buildings

Athletic facilities

Administrative buildings

Notable alumni and affiliates

These people served on the original Board of visitors and governors, including:

Notable alumni