Washington College

Washington College evolved from the Kent County Free School, an institution of more than 200 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 (the only institution of higher education in the United States with this claim), pledged the sum of 50 guineas to its establishment, and extended his warm wishes for the "lasting and extensive usefulness" of the institution.^[2] He later served on Washington College's Board of Visitors and Governors — his only such involvement with an institution of higher learning.

The college's first president, the Reverend

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.^[4]

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:

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.[5] 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.^[6]

Academics

Student body and admissions

Washington College offers 34 majors, and 35 minors or concentrations. The most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:^[7]

• Business Administration & Management (36)
• Psychology (36)
• Biology/Biological Sciences (32)
• Economics (21)
• English Language & Literature (18)
• Political Science & Government (16)

1,367

During the 2018–2019 academic year, 40.6 percent of incoming freshmen were from Maryland and the balance many other US states and 23 foreign nations.^[8] 18.8 percent of undergraduates are minority students with 9.2 percent identifying as African-American, 5.6 percent identifying as Hispanic-American, 3.2 percent identifying as Asian-American, and with .8 percent identifying as either Native American or Pacific Islander.^[8] 7.4 percent of undergraduates are international citizens.^[8] Approximately 5 percent of the college's student body is "non-traditional" (25 years old or older). 83% of students lived in an on-campus residence during the 2018 Fall term;^[8] the rest commute either from off-campus housing or from home.

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".[9] 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.^[10]

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.^[11]

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.^[12]

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.^[13]

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.

In Fall 2018, the student to faculty ratio was 10.5:1.^[8] 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

• Kappa Sigma Omicron-Phi – Chartered April 14, 2007
• Phi Delta Theta MD Gamma – Chartered April 25, 1992

Sororities:

• Alpha Chi Omega Beta Pi – Chartered May 21, 1937
• Alpha Omicron Pi Sigma Tau – Chartered May 14, 1938
• Zeta Tau Alpha Gamma Beta – Chartered April 30, 1938

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.^[15]

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.^[16]

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. Most students use paint, glitter, and other forms of art to cover their bodies at this festival. The event draws many students as spectators. The college's Public Safety officers stand at the perimeter of the campus green to prevent students from being publicly indecent off campus grounds.^[17]

Athletics

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,^[18] and the men's basketball team, which played its 100th season in 2011–12.^[19] 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.^{[citation needed]}

14 of Washington College's 18 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) 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.^[20]

The college's 18 varsity teams are:^[21]

• Baseball (m)
• Basketball (m, w)
• Field hockey (w)
• Lacrosse (m, w)
• Rowing (m, w)
• Sailing (co-ed)
• Soccer
  (m, w)
• Softball (w)
• Swimming (m, w)
• Tennis (m, w)
• Trap and skeet
  (co-ed)
• Volleyball (w)

Lacrosse

The college is known for its men's lacrosse team. It won the 1998

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.[25]

They were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.^[26]

They now function as follows:

• East Hall – The International House is a three-floor coed building that serves as a home for students interested in international relation and foreign language study. This theme house has a faculty advisor.
• Middle Hall – The Creative Arts House is a coed building for students interested in drama, music, visual art, literature, and the creative arts in general.
• West Hall – The Science House is a three-floor coed building that serves as a home for students interested in the natural sciences. This theme house has a faculty advisor.

People

Principals and presidents

At least 31 people have been the principal or president of Washington College since 1782, four of whom have been interim.

Alumni

Alumni of Washington College includes two

Citations

Bibliography

• Dumschott, Fred W. (1980). Washington College. Chestertown: Washington College. Retrieved 13 February 2020.
• Palmer, Pete; Gillette, Gary; Shea, Stuart; Silverman, Matthew; Spira, Greg (2006). The 2006 ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
  ISBN 9781402736254
  . Retrieved 30 January 2020.
• Thompson, William L. (2000). Landskroener, Marcia C. (ed.). Washington: The College at Chester. Chestertown: Literary House Press of Washington College. Retrieved 15 February 2020.
• Watts, Rowland (1894). "Washington College (1782–1894)". In Adams, Herbert (ed.). History of Education in Maryland. Washington: United States Bureau of Education.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Washington College.

• Official website
• Official athletics website