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'''Shimer College''' is a [[liberal arts]] [[college]] in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], best known for its small discussion classes and [[Great Books]] curriculum. With fewer than 150 students, Shimer is one of the smallest liberal arts colleges in the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.insidecollege.com/reno/The-Smallest-Colleges/364/list.do|title=The Smallest Colleges|work=InsideCollege.com|accessdate=2010-04-16}}.</ref><ref name="coolcolleges"/> Shimer was founded in 1853, and adopted the current curriculum in 1950.<ref name="bigideas"/> Shimer is [[school accreditation|accredited]] by the Higher Learning Commission of the [[North Central Association of Colleges and Schools]].<ref name="HLC">{{cite web | title = Shimer College | publisher = Higher Learning Commission | url =http://www.ncahlc.org/component/option,com_directory/Action,ShowBasic/Itemid,184/instid,1155/lang,en/ | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> |
'''Shimer College''' (often shortened to '''Shimer'''; pronounced {{pron-en|ˈʃɑɪ.mɨr}} or {{respell|SHI|mer}}) is a [[liberal arts]] [[college]] in [[Chicago]], [[Illinois]], best known for its small discussion classes and [[Great Books]] curriculum. With fewer than 150 students, Shimer is one of the smallest liberal arts colleges in the [[United States]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.insidecollege.com/reno/The-Smallest-Colleges/364/list.do|title=The Smallest Colleges|work=InsideCollege.com|accessdate=2010-04-16}}.</ref><ref name="coolcolleges"/> Shimer was founded in 1853, and adopted the current curriculum in 1950.<ref name="bigideas"/> Shimer is [[school accreditation|accredited]] by the Higher Learning Commission of the [[North Central Association of Colleges and Schools]].<ref name="HLC">{{cite web | title = Shimer College | publisher = Higher Learning Commission | url =http://www.ncahlc.org/component/option,com_directory/Action,ShowBasic/Itemid,184/instid,1155/lang,en/ | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> |
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Sixty percent of Shimer graduates go on to graduate and professional schools.<ref>{{cite news | title = Long Road to Rebirth at Shimer College | last = Golab | first = Art | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = 1995-12-11 | format = subscription required | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4313285.html | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> In the early 90's, the Ph.D. rate for Shimer graduates was the highest in the nation among liberal arts colleges, and the third highest among all U.S. 4-year colleges and universities.<ref>{{cite news | title = Shimer College's graduates go far | last = Southwell | first = David | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = 1998-01-23 | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4432691.html | format = subscription required | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> Shimer also ranks in the top 1% of the 3,478 U.S. colleges and universities in doctorate productivity.<ref>{{cite news | title = Shimer Shines as Starter for PhDs. | newspaper = The Waukegan News-Sun | date = 1998-01-06| url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-0EB1F374E46C4D98.html | format = subscription required | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> |
Sixty percent of Shimer graduates go on to graduate and professional schools.<ref>{{cite news | title = Long Road to Rebirth at Shimer College | last = Golab | first = Art | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = 1995-12-11 | format = subscription required | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4313285.html | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> In the early 90's, the Ph.D. rate for Shimer graduates was the highest in the nation among liberal arts colleges, and the third highest among all U.S. 4-year colleges and universities.<ref>{{cite news | title = Shimer College's graduates go far | last = Southwell | first = David | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = 1998-01-23 | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4432691.html | format = subscription required | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> Shimer also ranks in the top 1% of the 3,478 U.S. colleges and universities in doctorate productivity.<ref>{{cite news | title = Shimer Shines as Starter for PhDs. | newspaper = The Waukegan News-Sun | date = 1998-01-06| url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-0EB1F374E46C4D98.html | format = subscription required | accessdate = 2010-04-21}}</ref> |
Revision as of 02:39, 30 April 2010
Torch with four vases on black background, in which circle with words Shimer College and year 1853, over motto Non Ministrari Sed Ministrare | |
Motto | Non Ministrari Sed Ministrare |
---|---|
Motto in English | To Serve Rather Than Be Served |
Type | Private, Coeducational, Undergraduate, Liberal arts |
Established | 1853 |
President | Edward J. Noonan (interim) |
Academic staff | 15 (spring 2010)[1] |
Students | 104 (spring 2010)[2] |
Location | , , 41°49′55″N 87°37′34″W / 41.832°N 87.626°W |
Campus | Urban |
Colors | Burgundy and gold |
Mascot | Flaming Smelt[3] |
Website | www.shimer.edu |
File:Shimer College Logo.PNG |
Shimer College (often shortened to Shimer; pronounced Template:Pron-en or SHI-mer) is a liberal arts college in Chicago, Illinois, best known for its small discussion classes and Great Books curriculum. With fewer than 150 students, Shimer is one of the smallest liberal arts colleges in the United States.[4][5] Shimer was founded in 1853, and adopted the current curriculum in 1950.[6] Shimer is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.[2]
Sixty percent of Shimer graduates go on to graduate and professional schools.[7] In the early 90's, the Ph.D. rate for Shimer graduates was the highest in the nation among liberal arts colleges, and the third highest among all U.S. 4-year colleges and universities.[8] Shimer also ranks in the top 1% of the 3,478 U.S. colleges and universities in doctorate productivity.[9]
Since 2006, Shimer College has been located on the 120-acre (49 ha) urban campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Previously, Shimer was located in rural Mount Carroll, Illinois until 1978 and in Waukegan, Illinois until 2006.
History
Shimer College was founded in 1853 in Mount Carroll, Illinois, by Frances Wood Shimer and Cindarella Gregory.[6] It was founded as the Mount Carroll Seminary,[10] a non-denominational coeducational seminary. In 1896, Frances Shimer arranged for the college to become affiliated with the University of Chicago. Shimer then became a junior women's college known as the Frances Shimer Academy[10], and served as a feeder school into the University of Chicago. At this time Shimer also adopted the University of Chicago's affiliation with the Baptist church.
Facing declining enrollment in the mid-20th century, Shimer again became co-educational in 1950.[11] Shimer also adopted the Chicago "Hutchins Plan" in 1950, becoming a Great Books school. In 1954, Shimer ceased to be affiliated with the University of Chicago, but continued with the Great Books program. The presidency was assumed in that year by F.J. Mullin, who began an aggressive fundraising campaign.[11] In 1959, Mullin established a new relationship with the Episcopal Church, which lasted until 1973.
In the early 1960s, Shimer gained national attention with a Time magazine article about the school highlighting its intellectual reputation.[11] The article cited a survey in the Harvard Educational Review that ranked Shimer as among the eleven liberal arts colleges in the United States with an "ideal intellectual climate".
In 1966 and 1967, the school underwent a severe internal crisis subsequently known as the "Grotesque Internecine Struggle".[6] The crisis led to the departure of most of the school's faculty and many of the students. Enrollment continued to fall in subsequent years, and in November 1973 the Board of Trustees voted to close the school.[6] Shimer was kept running through the 1970s by a small group of committed faculty and students. During this period, most college governance was performed by the community as a whole, through a purely democratic institution known as the "House".[12]
Mounting debts ultimately forced the college to leave its Mount Carroll campus and move to the northern Chicago suburb of Waukegan, Illinois in the winter of 1978-79. Shortly after the move, the House was replaced by the more structured Assembly; the first Assembly Constitution was adopted in 1980.[12]
On January 19, 2006, amid controversy, the Board of Trustees announced that it had accepted an invitation to move Shimer College to the Illinois Institute of Technology campus in Chicago.[13] The move was completed August 10, 2006.[citation needed] A month later, President William Craig Rice, who had pushed for the move, left for a position with the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was followed by interim president Ron Champagne, who was followed in 2009 by Thomas Lindsay.
On April 19, 2010, the Shimer College Board of Trustees voted to remove Lindsay from his post as president, following a lengthy struggle over college governance.[14][15] The move came shortly after unanimous votes of no confidence by the faculty and Assembly.[14] Lindsay was succeeded by interim president Edward Noonan.[15]
Academics
Shimer is one of only four US colleges that identify themselves as Great Books schools,[16] along with St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, California and Magdalen College in Warner, New Hampshire.[17] Shimer traces the roots of its curriculum to John Erskine,[18] one of the founders of the Great Books movement, who championed a "Socratic seminar" using the great books at Columbia University in 1919.[19] This seminar had a profound impact on Mortimer Adler, who came to believe that the role of education was to engage student's minds "in the study of individual works of merit ... accompanied by a disucssion of the ideas, the values, and the forms embodied in such products of human art."[20] Adler brought these ideas with him to the University of Chicago, where they were embraced wholeheartedly by Robert Maynard Hutchins,[21] President and later Provost of the University from 1929 to 1951.[22] Hutchins' 1931 "New Plan" (which quickly became known as the "Hutchins Plan"), implemented a standardized undergraduate curriculum with a series of mandatory survey courses in the humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences as the primary focus.[23] According to Hutchins' plan, "the core of a liberal arts education ought to rest in firsthand acquaintance with the books that shaped Western literary culture."[24]
Shimer, which had been affiliated with the University since 1896,[18] "adopted the Hutchins plan in toto in 1950, complete with Chicago syllabi, comprehensive examinations, and instructors."[25] When the University began to abandon the program in the late 1950s, Shimer continued it, modified it, and made the program its own. Hutchins' emphasis on small seminars in which everyone learns from one another remains at the heart of the Shimer education. This process, called co-inquiry, applies across the curriculum and even natural sciences are taught via discussion. "It is understood that, in an important sense, the text is the teacher, and thus the faculty member's role is to facilitate interaction between the text and the students."[25] Faculty are, for this reason, referred to as "facilitators", and classes, composed of no more then 12 students, read and discuss only original source material.[16] Readings are organized by broad historical and philosophical themes, rather than conventional fields. The reading list remains largely true to the original Hutchins plan but "new works are judiciously added to those forming the core curriculum, particularly in light of those voices originally overlooked in the formation of the canon." It now includes, for example, works by Virginia Woolf, Martin Luther King, Jr., Carol Gilligan, Frantz Fanon, and Michel Foucault, among others.[26]
Electives are generally taken in the junior and senior years, though many of them are open to first and second year students as well. Students also often take tutorials with their professors, either one-on-one or with up to two other students. At the end of each semester, students must either complete a semester project on a topic of the student's choosing, or take one of the comprehensive exams.
In order to graduate, students must complete all core courses, as well as both the basic comprehensive exam and the comprehensive exam for their major. A senior thesis is also required. Thesis writers have the option to present their work in a public thesis defense.
Core curriculum
Shimer's core curriculum comprises four courses of study in each of four fields: humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and transdisciplinary integrative studies. The humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences courses are numbered from 1 to 4, while the integrative studies courses are numbered 1, 2, 5, and 6.[28]
In the core humanities courses, topics of study include visual art, music, literature, philosophy and theology.[29] Visual art and music are reviewed in Humanities 1, where readings include Plato's Ion, "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka, and What to Listen For in Music by Aaron Copland. Literature is reviewed in Humanities 2, where the authors read include Homer, Shakespeare, and Dostoevsky. Humanities 3 and 4 form a unified survey of the historical development of Western philosophy and theology. Humanities 3 covers the development of philosophical and theological thought prior to the 18th century, including works by Plato, Augustine, Descartes, and Locke. Humanities 4 covers the development of philosophical thought from the Enlightenment to the present day, and includes works by Kant, Nietzsche, and Buber.
In the core natural sciences courses, the topics of study include chemistry, physics, and biology.[30] Natural Sciences 1 covers the history and development of chemistry; readings begin with the Presocratics and continue through subsequent authors including Lucretius, Francis Bacon and Lavoisier. Natural Sciences 2 focuses on biology and animal behavior, and surveys thinkers including Aristotle, Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, Konrad Lorenz and Jane Goodall. Natural Sciences 3 covers the historical development of physics, and includes works by Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. Natural Sciences 4 surveys the development of scientific thought in the 20th century,[31] with a focus on quantum physics and molecular biology; authors read include Heisenberg, Feynman and Freeman Dyson.
In the core social sciences courses, the topics of study include anthropology, psychology, political science and methodology. Social Sciences 1 is an introduction to anthropology, psychology, and political theory;[32] the authors read include Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Émile Durkheim and Ruth Benedict.[33] Social Sciences 2 covers the history of political thought, beginning with Plato's Republic and continuing through Aristotle, Machiavelli, Rousseau, The Constitution of the United States, and Mary Wollstonecraft. Social Sciences 3 covers modern theories of state and society; the authors read include Alexis de Tocqueville, Hegel, Freud and Hannah Arendt. In Social Sciences 4, participants study the methodology of the social sciences, and read authors including Max Weber, Michel Foucault, Karl Mannheim and Paulo Freire.
The integrative studies sequence is discontinuous, consisting of two entry-level courses and a two-part senior seminar. Integrative Studies 1 is a basic introduction to analysis, logic and rhetoric, and students have the option of testing out.[34] Readings in Integrative Studies 1 include Abbott's Flatland, Plato's Meno, and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Integrative Studies 2 is a historical survey of mathematics and logic, beginning with Aristotle and Euclid and continuing through Descartes to Gödel's incompleteness theorems. Integrative Studies 5 and 6 are usually taken by graduating seniors, and can only be taken after successful passage of the the Basic Comprehensive Examination.[34] These courses constitute a unified survey of the entire history of Western thought from Sumerian literature to modern times. Integrative Studies 5 begins with the Sumerian Inanna hymns and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and continues through authors including Homer, Hesiod, Sappho, Aquinas, and Dante. Integrative Studies 6 continues the survey with authors including Christine de Pisan, Copernicus, Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche.
Special programs
The Weekend Program, founded in 1981,[35] allows working adults to participate in an intensive schedule of classes, meeting every third weekend, that allows them to graduate in four years.[36] Students, who have ranged from twenty-three to seventy,[35] are drawn from all over the country; "weekend students have been known to commute from as far as Florida and New York."[37]
Shimer first offered a study abroad program in 1961 (at that time to Paris)[11] and has held the program in Oxford, England since 1963.[38] Under the Shimer-in-Oxford program, third or fourth year students spend one or two semesters in Oxford with a Shimer professor. Students take one course from the core curriculum and the remainder of their work as tutorials in subjects of their own interest with academics from in and around the University of Oxford.[39]
The Great Books + Law program, launched in 2007, is offered in conjunction with the Chicago-Kent College of Law (the Law School of the Illinois Institute of Technology) and allows students to count their first year of law school towards their Shimer degree and receive their J.D. in a total of five years instead of seven.[40]
The Teaching Fellows Program offers graduate-level Great Books course designed for kindergarten through 12th grade school teachers. Shimer does not award graduate degrees; teachers can earn professional development credit through the program. "The program is designed to complement traditional methods-focused education courses by giving teachers the background knowledge they need to deliver content-rich curricula."[41] The program was developed in conjunction with the Core Knowledge Foundation, which was founded in 1986 by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., author of Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know,[42] to promote a common core of learning in elementary school education.[43]
Admissions
"The goal of Shimer College is to accept students who will benefit from and contribute to its intellectual community."[44] Applicants are evaluated on their academic potential — there is no minimum grade average or tests score required. Applicants are asked to write an essay analyzing their academic experience, in which they are encouraged to display their creative talents. This, along with a personal interview, is the major criteria for admission.[45] Nearly 90 percent of applicants are admitted, [46] "but they counsel candidates closely to reduce frivolous applications."[5] The average grade point average of incoming students is 2.5 (on a four point scale).[47] The average score on the ACT and SAT, standardized college admissions tests widely used in the US, is 27 (at the 89th percentile) and 1840 (above the 83rd percentile), respectively.[48][49][50]
In 1950 Shimer launched its Early Entrant program, with support from the Ford Foundation, admitting students who had not yet graduated from high school.[6] Since then, the program has continued with support from the Carnegie Foundation and others.[51] Students enter after the 11th grade (around age 17), and sometimes 10th grade (around age 16), and follow the same curriculum as all other students. The college will consider the application of any interested student, and "motivation, willingness to learn, and intellectual curiosity are the most important qualifications."[44] Shimer also actively encourages applications from home-schooled students, and makes special accommodations for their credentials (for example, their lack of transcripts).[52] In 2008, 16 percent of new students were early entrants or home-schooled students of a similar age.[53]
Rankings and reviews
Shimer is one of the smallest liberal arts colleges in the United States;[5] too small to be included in college rankings surveys, such as those published by U.S. News and World Report. In 2007, Shimer joined a national effort by the Educational Conservancy to boycott participation in college rankings surveys altogether.[54] Said then President William Craig Rice, "what Shimer does well—educating ourselves in on-going dialogue with the greatest minds of the past—can’t be captured in the U.S. News measurements."[55]
Shimer has been highly reviewed in surveys of small liberal arts colleges. In 2006, Shimer was selected as one of the top fifty colleges in All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith, which highlights "programs that connect in a special way with the core values of the American founding and the vibrant intellectual traditions of the West."[56] Barron's named Shimer one of the 300 best buys in college education, noting that "the success of the Shimer curriculum depends a great deal on the knowledge and skill of the faculty facilitators, who receive accolades ranging from 'fanastic' to 'brilliant'".[57] In 2000, Insight Magazine named Shimer one of the most politically incorrect schools in the nation, a list which recognized "colleges that had strong and effective traditional curricula that were not obsessed with the recent educational fads and fetishes such as multiculturalism and diversity."[58]
Nearly all Shimer students take the Graduate Record Exam, a standardized test for graduate school admissions, their senior year, outscoring three of four potential graduate students[59] and "consistently rank among the best in the nation in scores on the verbal and analytical portions of the test".[60] In a 1998 study by the University of Wisconsin, Shimer was found to have the highest rate of doctoral productivity of any liberal arts college and the third highest of any undergraduate program in the nation. Studies using data from the Education Data Sharing (HEDS) Consortium found Shimer to have seventh-highest rate of Ph.D. production across all US colleges and universities[61] and the highest Ph.D. rate for linguistics.[62]
Campus
In September 2006, Shimer relocated to the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) after years of stagnating enrollment in the Waukegan, Illinois location the school had inhabited since 1979.[64] The move was meant in part to give students access to amenities such as dining and residence facilities and access to expanded amenities, including the library, athletic department and student health services,[65] as well as access to IIT academic offerings (for example, the pre-medical program).[66]
The 120-acre (49 ha)[67] IIT campus is centered around 33rd and State Streets, approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of the Chicago Loop in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago,[68] part of the Douglas community area. Also known as the Black Metropolis District, the area is a landmark in African-American history.[69] Following rapid growth during the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south between 1910 and 1920, it became home to numerous African-American owned businesses and cultural institutions and offered an alternative to the race restrictions that were prevalent in the rest of the city.[69] The area was home to author Gwendolyn Brooks, civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, bandleader Louis Armstrong, pilot Bessie Coleman and many other famous African-Americans during the mid-20th century.[70] The nine extant structures from that period were added jointly to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986[71] and designated a Chicago Landmark in 1998.[72]
In 1941, the Chicago Housing Authority began erecting massive public housing developments in the area.[73] By 1990, the IIT campus was encircled by high-rise housing projects rife with crime.[74] The projects were demolished beginning in the 1999,[74] and the area began to revitalize, with major renovations to King Drive and many of the historic structures and an influx of new, upscale, housing developments.[75] Neighborhood features include U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, Burnham Park and 31st Street Beach on the Lake Michigan waterfront, and historical buildings from the heyday of the Black Metropolis era, including the Chicago Bee Building, the Eighth Regiment Armory, and the Overton Hygienic Building. The campus is bordered on the east by the Chicago 'L'Red Line, which runs parallel to Lake Michigan north to Rogers Park and south to 95th street. The Green Line bisects the campus and runs north to the Loop and then west to the near west suburbs and south to the Museum Campus and the University of Chicago.[76]
The IIT Main campus, roughly bounded between 31st and 35th streets, Michigan Avenue and the Dan Ryan Expressway, was designed by modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, "one of the great figures of 20th-century architecture",[78] who chaired the IIT School of Architecture from 1938 to 1958.[79] Van der Rohe's master plan for the IIT campus was one of the most ambitious projects he ever conceived and the campus, with twenty of his works, is the greatest concentration of his buildings in the world.[80] The layout of the campus departs radically from "traditional college quadrangles and limestone buildings".[80] The materials are inspired by the factories and warehouses of Chicago's South Side[80] and "embod[y] 20th century methods and materials: steel and concrete frames with curtain walls of brick and glass."[81] The campus was landscaped by van der Rohe's close colleague at IIT, Alfred Caldwell,[82] "the last representative of the Prairie School of landscape architects."[83] Known as "the nature poet",[84] Caldwell's plan reinforced van der Rohe's design with "landscaping planted in a free-flowing manner, which in its interaction with the pristine qualities of the architecture, introduce[d] a poetic aspect."[85] In 1976, American Institute of Architects named the IIT campus one of the 200 most significant works of architecture in the United States.[86] S.R. Crown Hall, which houses the architecture school, was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2001.[63] The IIT Main Campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.[87] In 2010, IIT received the Princeton Review's highest sustainability rating among universities in Illinois, tied with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[88]
Shimer occupies 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2)[90] on the first and second floors of what was formerly the Institute of Gas Technology Complex just south of S.R. Crown Hall, as part of a long-term lease agreement with IIT.[90] The complex, designed by van der Rohe, consists of four buildings built between 1947 and 1955.[91] The South building was home to the first industrial nuclear reactor in the U.S.[91] Shimer students who choose to live on-campus reside in Gunsaulus Hall, which was converted into a fully-furnished apartment-style residence with studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments in 2008.[92][93] Shimer has access to the resources of the Paul V. Galvin Library, IIT's main research library, which contains 1.8 million volumes, more than 25,500 journal titles, and a wide range of digital resources.[94] The Kemper Room (also called art@IIT), a gallery for exhibiting the art of technology, is also housed in the library. Shimer's own collection of 15,000 books was moved to the Galvin library when the school relocated from Waukegan.[95]
Facilities available to Shimer students include the McCormick Tribune Campus Center (MTCC), which was designed by internationally acclaimed architect Rem Koolhaas,[89] and opened in 2003.[96] Built under the Green Line, which runs through a tube over the building to reduce the noise, the facility has been informally dubbed by students the "building under the tracks" or B.U.T.T.[89] The facility is the main student activity center, with food courts, a newsstand, lounge areas, conference centers, computer workstations, a bookstore, and an auditorium.[96] Students may take advantage of the Keating Sports Center the main athletic complex and home to IIT's varsity teams. The center offers racquetball courts, bowling, rock climbing, and a wide range of dance and exercise classes along with basketball, volleyball, soccer and other team sports.[97]
Governance
Shimer College is a not-for-profit corporation with a self-perpetuating Board of Trustees responsible for the affairs and the assets of the College. The Board delegates authority to the President of the College, who acts as the chief executive administrator, and to the the Dean of the College and the faculty regarding academic affairs.[98] As of December 2009, the Board had 36 members (three of them students),[99] with a target membership of 40,[100] and was chaired by Christopher B. Nelson, President of St. John's College.[101]
"As a function of its mission to promote active citizenship, Shimer College is devoted to internal self-governance to an extent that is rare among institutions of higher education." [102] Since 1977, Shimer has been governed internally by faculty, staff, and students working through a structure of committees and a deliberative body called The Assembly, through which "students can influence the operation of the College and participate in its responsibilities as well as benefits."[103] Begun informally in the years immediately prior to the move to Waukegan, the Constitution of the Assembly was formalized in 1980.[12] "The Assembly deliberates all matters which affect the integrity of the College as a community ... it defines and protects the basic moral law or essential ethos of the College."[104] The Assembly is a participatory democracy, which has no legal authority, but "governs by virtue of the moral suasion established by communal deliberation."[104]
Voting members of the Assembly include all students, faculty, administrators, staff and trustees. Alumni are also members but do not vote.[104] The Assembly advises the administration and conducts the business of the college through a system of committees with purview over matters of administration, academic planning, budgeting, admissions, grievances, financial aid, and quality of life. Committees are composed of faculty, staff, and students elected by the Assembly as a whole.[105] The Assembly also elects the student members of the Board of Trustees.
Student life
Shimer enrolled 100 students in 2009, from 22 states and two other countries, although the majority came from Illinois.[106] Over 80 percent of the students were white and 40 percent were over age 25.[107] Students tend to be "individualistic, creative thinkers, given to questioning — a quality Shimer encourages."[108] Of full-time students who attend their first year, 70 percent will return for their second. Fifty-five percent of first-time, full-time students will graduate within six years.[107] Students who "have not found personal satisfaction in more standard educational settings ... often flourish in Shimer’s unconventional atmosphere."[109] Fraternities, sororities and other organizations that promote exclusivity are not allowed.[110] The tradition of community meals dates back to the early days on the Waukegan campus, when the whole community would gather for potluck meals and discuss matters of general interest.[12] These gatherings, which eventually gave birth to the Assembly, live on in community lunches and dinners which all are invited to attend. The Orange Horse, Shimer's bi-annual talent show, a tradition dating back to the 1960s, invites students, faculty, and alumni to read poetry, sing, play music, or tell jokes, individually or in groups.[111]
The Shimer theater program has been under the direction of Humanities Professor Eileen Buchannan since 1967. Buchannan, also a professional actor and director, directs productions "complementing the curriculum and, at the same time, affording anyone on campus who wants to work in theatre the chance to do so."[112] Productions in the Chicago location have included Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya,[113] Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues,[114] and an adaptation of Raymond Chandler's "Trouble Is My Business".[115]
In addition to the resources of the MTCC and the athletic facilities, Shimer students are able to take part in the more than 150 student organizations sponsored by IIT,[116] including Liit Magazine, the student-run literary magazine of IIT,[117] and IIT's on-campus radio station, where they can host their own shows.[118] Shimer students are represented on, and free to participate in, the IIT Student Government Association (SGA),[119] which acts "as a liaison between the university administration and the student body and ... a forum to express student opinion."[120]
"Students do not necessarily graduate with the skills for specific career."[59] Most students go on to graduate studies: fifty percent of Shimer graduates earn master's degrees[60] and twenty one percent go on to earn doctorates.[121] Another ten percent attend law school and five percent go to business school.[57] Nearly twenty five percent of graduates are employed in education (at all levels), seven percent are lawyers, and seven percent work in computer software. The remainder occupy all walks of life, from "consulting to philanthropy."[57]
Notable people
This list includes graduates and non-graduate former students of Shimer College.
- Peter Cooley (1962). Published poet and Professor of English at Tulane University.[122][123]
- Heather Corinna. Author, activist, and internet publisher.[124]
- Alan Dowty (1959). Professor of Political Science Emeritus at University of Notre Dame.[125]
- Stephen Dobyns. Poet and novelist.[citation needed]
- Steve Heller (1971). Computer software author.[126]
- Robert Keohane (1961). Professor of Political Science at the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University.[123]
- C. Clark Kissinger. Activist and former National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).[citation needed]
- Ken Knabb (1965). Writer, translator, and political theorist.[123]
- Jesse Kraai (1994). Philosopher and chess Grandmaster.[123]
- John Norman Maclean. Writer and journalist, author of Fire on the Mountain.[123]
- Nick Pippenger (1965). Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College and former IBM Fellow.[127]
- Daniel J. Sandin (1964). Pioneer in computer graphics, electronic art, and visualization, Professor Emeritus in School of Art and Design at University of Illinois at Chicago.[123]
- Ron Schultz. State Representative in Florida House of Representatives.[citation needed]
- Laurie Spiegel (1967). Pioneering electronic music software developer.[123]
- Sydney Spiesel (1961). Medical inventor, columnist, and Professor at Yale University School of Medicine.
- Elizabeth Vandiver (1976). Professor of Classics at Whitman College.[123]
- Tucker Viemeister. Award-winning industrial designer.[citation needed]
- Catherine "Cat" Yronwode (née Manfredi) (1968). Award-winning comic book writer and editor.[123]
References
{{{inline}}}
- ^ "Faculty Bios". Shimer.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-24.. Listing includes some inactive, emeritus and adjunct faculty.
- ^ a b "Shimer College". Higher Learning Commission. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
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- ^ a b c Asher, Donald (2007). Cool Colleges: For the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late-Blooming and Just Plain Different (2nd ed.). Berkeley, California. p. 22. ISBN 1580088392.
{{cite book}}
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suggested) (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ a b c d e Henderson, Harold (1988-06-16). "Big Ideas: Tiny Shimer College has survived for 135 years on great books, high hopes, and very little money". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2010-04-16.
- ^ Golab, Art (1995-12-11). "Long Road to Rebirth at Shimer College" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ Southwell, David (1998-01-23). "Shimer College's graduates go far" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Shimer Shines as Starter for PhDs" (subscription required). The Waukegan News-Sun. 1998-01-06. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ a b Alice H. Songe. "Shimer College". American Colleges and Universities: A Dictionary of Name Changes. p. 72.
- ^ a b c d "Colleges: Unknown, Unusual & Unsung." Time Magazine, April 19, 1963. Cite error: The named reference "TIME" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ a b c d Shiner, David; Wikse, Jack. "On Not Knowing the Particulars: The Mission of the Assembly". Promulgates. 7 (1). Archived from [www.shimer.edu/particulars.html the original] on 2001-10-30. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
{{cite journal}}
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/|archive-url=
timestamp mismatch; 2001-03-07 suggested (help); Check|url=
value (help) - ^ Moran, Dan (19 January 2006). "Shimer bolts county" (PDF). News Sun.
- ^ a b Ron Grossman (2010-04-19). "Shimer College president fired". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-04-19.
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- ^ a b Ritter, Jim (2006-10-06). "A Bachelor's In Books?: Shimer College Brings Great Books Curriculum To City" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
- ^ Casement 1996, p. 34.
- ^ a b "What's So Great About the Great Books?". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
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- ^ a b Kavaloski, Vincent C. (1979). "Interdisciplinary Education and Humanistic Aspiration: A Critical Reflection". In Kockelmans, Joseph J. (ed.). Interdisciplinarity and Higher Education. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 224–243. ISBN 0271023260.
- ^ Casement 1996, p. 89.
- ^ "Marc Hoffman: The Prime Mover" (PDF). Shimer College Symposium. Fall 2006.
- ^ Shimer College Catalog 2009-2011. 2009.
- ^ "Humanities Courses". Shimer.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
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- ^ a b "Integrative Studies Courses". Shimer.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ a b "The Shimer Experience: 1995-1997 Catalogue". Shimer College. Archived from [www.shimer.edu/option1.html the original] on 1997-07-13. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
{{cite web}}
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value (help) - ^ Shimer 2009, p. 6.
- ^ "Weekend Program". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Shimer-at-Oxford". The Living Church. 155: 6. 1967. OCLC 17345342.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=
(help) - ^ "Shimer-in-Oxford" (pdf). pp. 5–6. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Shimer and Kent Create Joint B.A. + J.D. Program" (pdf). Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ Shimer 2009, p. 29.
- ^ E. D. Hirsch Jr. (1987). Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0394758439.
- ^ "Learn About Us". The Core Knowledge Foundation. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
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- ^ "Admission & Finance". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Shimer College". Best Colleges 2010. US News & World Report. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
{{cite news}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=
(help) - ^ "Shimer College Information". College State. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Shimer College Profile" (pdf). R.H. Perry & Associates. p. 6. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "ACT FAQ: Scores FAQ". Manhattan Review. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
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- ^ "Early Entrant Program". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "A Welcome to Homeschooled Students". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Entering Class by the Numbers" (pdf). Symposium. Shimer College. Fall 2008. p. 2. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Presidents' Letter". The Education Conservancy. 2007-05-10. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
- ^ "Shimer College Joins Anti-Rankings Effort". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
- ^ All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith. Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute. 2006. ISBN 71849223.
{{cite book}}
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value: length (help) - ^ a b c Barron's Best Buys In College Education (7th ed.). Hauppauge, New York: Barrons Educational Series. 2002. pp. 132–134. ISBN 0764120182.
- ^ Hussain, Rummana (2000-09-28). "Shimer College Proud Of Non-P.C. Rating". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-04-24.
- ^ a b Sweeney, Annie (2000-10-03). "Magazine Lauds Shimer College" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ a b Flink, John (1998-01-26). "Small Shimer College Ranks High In Sending Students On To Ph.D.s" (fee required). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Susan C. Bourque (1999). "Reassessing Research: Liberal Arts Colleges and the Social Sciences". Daedalus. 28 (1): 265. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "Where Linguistics PhDs Received Their Undergraduate Degrees". Inside College. Inside College. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
- ^ a b "S.R. Crown Hall". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 2001-08-07. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "College celebrates move to Chicago" (fee required). Chicago Tribune. 2006-09-06. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "Shimer College OKs move to IIT campus" (fee required). Chicago Tribune. 2006-01-20. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ Bell, Barbara (2005-11-23). "Struggling college may move ; Shimer considers relocating to IIT" (fee required). Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "IIT History - Inventing the Future". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "Visitor Information". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ a b "Excerpt from the National Register Nomination for Chicago's Black Metropolis". National Park Service. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
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- ^ National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: BLACK METROPOLIS THEMATIC NOMINATION (PDF), National Park Service, 1985-11-07, retrieved 2010-04-22
- ^ "Black Metropolis District". City of Chicago. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Hunt, D. Bradford (2009). Blueprint for Disaster: The Unraveling of Chicago Public Housing. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 3. ISBN 0226360857.
- ^ a b Hrya, Derek (2008). The new urban renewal: the economic transformation of Harlem and Bronzeville. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 89. ISBN 0226366049.
- ^ Severinsen, Kay (1995-05-26). "A Rebirth in Bronzeville; Housing Renovation Boom Sparks Community Spirit" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
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- ^ a b c "Original Master Plan". The Mies van der Rohe Society. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
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- ^ "Alfred Caldwell". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2100-04-22.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help) - ^ Domer, Dennis. "The Last Master" (PDF). Inland Architect Magazine. p. 69. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ Drell, Darienne (1997-09-28). "Rooted in design; Caldwell's Prairie-style landscapes are thriving" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2020-04-23.
- ^ Richards, J. M.; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Sharp, Dennis (2000). The Anti-Rationalists and the Rationalists. Oxford: Architectural Place. ISBN 187483164.
{{cite book}}
: Check|isbn=
value: length (help) - ^ Schweiterman, Joseph P; Caspall, Dana M; Heron, Jane (2006). The politics of place : a history of zoning in Chicago. Chicago, IL: Lake Claremont Press. p. 51. ISBN 1893121267.
- ^ National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Illinois Institute of Technology Academic Campus (PDF), National Park Service, 2005-08-12, retrieved 2010-04-22
- ^ "The Princeton Review's Guide to 286 Green Colleges" (pdf). The Princeton Review. p. 76. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ a b c Reed, Cheryl (2003-10-01). "IIT architect would love encore Designer of student center would like to build high-rise here" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ a b Epstein, David (2006-01-23). "Great Books and City Lights". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ a b "Institute of Gas Technology Complex (1947-1955)". Mies van der Rohe Society. Retrieved 2010-04-23.,
- ^ "Housing Choices for Current Gunsaulus Hall Residents". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "Gunsaulus Hall". Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "IIT Libraries 2007" (pdf). Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ Pagelow, Ryan (2007-01-11). "Mega Book sale; Shimer moves library to Chicago campus, selling 10,000 books; Get-out-of-town sale" (subscription required). The Waukegan News Sun. Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ a b "McCormick Tribune Campus Center, IIT, Chicago". galinsky. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ "Come to Keating for fitness and fun". Tech News. Illinois Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Shimer 2009, p. 31.
- ^ "Board of Trustees". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Isaacs, Deanna (2009-12-10). "The Conservative Menace". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ "About St. John's College". St. John's College. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- ^ Shimer 2009, p. 30.
- ^ Peterson's four-year colleges. Lawrenceville, NJ: Thompson/Peterson's. 2006. p. 2249. ISBN 0768921538.
{{cite book}}
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ignored (help) - ^ a b c Shimer 2008, p. 2.
- ^ Shimer 2008, pp. 9–11.
- ^ Peterson's Colleges in the Midwest. Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Peterson's. 2009. p. 61. ISBN 0768926904.
- ^ Peterson's Four-Year Colleges 2007. Lawrenceville, New Jersey: Thompson Peterson's. 2006. p. 2248. ISBN 0768921538.
- ^ Shimer 2009, p. 5.
- ^ "Student Life". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Orange Horse" (PDF). Shimer College. 2008-11-15. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "Faculty Bios". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Spring Theater - Uncle Vanya". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "IIT Today News Archives". Illinois Institute of Technology. 2006-10-17. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "Programs and Events, Spring 2008". Chicago Public Library. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "Quick Facts". Shimer College. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "IIT Today News Archives". Ilinois Institute of Technology. 2010-04-01. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "Shimer the Great Books College of Chicago" (pdf). Shimer College. p. 13. Retrieved 2010-04-28.
- ^ "Bylaws of the Student Government Association of Illinois Institute of Technology". 2009-09-22. pp. 11–12. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "About". Student Government Assocation. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ Southwell, David (1998-01-23). "Shimer College's Graduates Go Far" (subscription required). Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Peter Cooley". Retrieved 2010-04-22.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|site=
ignored (help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i Shimer College (2000). Shimer College Faculty & Alum Directory 2000.. Does not distinguish between graduates and non-graduates.
- ^ "Biography". Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "Alumni Board of Directors". Retrieved 2010-04-22.
- ^ "Steve Heller's Home Page".
{{cite web}}
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ignored (help) - ^ "Nicholas Pippenger". Hmc.edu. Retrieved 2010-04-25.
Works Cited
- Beam, Alex (2008). A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books (1st ed.). New York: PublicAffairs. ISBN 1586484877.
- Casement, William (1996). The Great Canon Controversy: The Battle of the Books In Higher Education. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 1557787425.
- Shimer College Catalog 2009-2011 (pdf). Chicago, IL: Shimer College. 2009. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
- Constitution of the Assembly of Shimer College (pdf). Chicago, IL: Shimer College. 2008. Retrieved 2010-04-23.