DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, is a private liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the North Coast Athletic Conference. The Society of Professional Journalists was founded at DePauw.
History
A Look Inside the DePauw University School of Music - Dr. Mark McCoy, dean of the DePauw University School of Music, offers a look at the programs and its students. DePauw's music school is the USA's sixth-oldest. This aired during the national...
Indiana Asbury University was founded in 1837 in Greencastle, Indiana, and was named after Francis Asbury, the first American bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The people of Greencastle raised $25,000, equivalent to around $500,000 in 2007 terms, to entice the Methodists to found the college in Greencastle, which was little more than a village at the time. It was originally established as an all men's school, but began admitting women in 1867.
In 1884 Indiana Asbury University changed its name to DePauw University in honor of Washington C. DePauw, who made a sequence of substantial donations throughout the 1870s, which culminated in his largest single donation that established the School of Music during 1884. Before his death in 1887, DePauw donated over $600,000 to Indiana Asbury, equal to around $13Â million in 2007. In 2002, the school received the largest-ever gift to a liberal arts college, $128Â million by the Holton family.
Sigma Delta Chi, known today as the Society of Professional Journalists, was founded at the university in 1909 by a group of student journalists, including Eugene C. Pulliam. The world's first Greek-letter sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, was also founded at DePauw in 1870. DePauw is home to the two longest continually running fraternity chapters in the world, the Delta Chapter of Beta Theta Pi and the Lambda Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta. DePauw is home to Indiana's first chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.
Academics
DePauw University has an enrollment of about 2,300 students. Students hail from 42 states and 32 countries with a 20.4% multicultural enrollment. DePauw's liberal arts education gives students a chance to gain general knowledge outside their direct area of study by taking classes outside their degrees and engaging in Winter Term classes and trips.
National rankings
DePauw is ranked in the top tier of national liberal arts colleges by 2016 U.S. News & World Report as #51 in the United States. DePauw is ranked #78 on Forbes magazine's 2016 rankings, which include all colleges and universities in the United States, and #14 in the Midwest.
Academic calendar and winter term
DePauw University's schedule is divided into a 4â€"1â€"4 calendar: besides the 15-week Autumn and Spring Semesters, there is also a 4-week Winter Term. Students take one course during the Winter Term, which is either used as a period for students to explore a subject of interest on campus or participate in off-campus domestic or international internship programs, service trips, or international trips and field studies. One survey of DePauw students found that over 80% of DePauw graduates studied abroad. Past internships for Winter Term include ABC News, KeyBanc Capital Markets, Riley Hospital for Children, and Eli Lilly and Company. Past off campus study and service projects include "The Galapagos: Natural Laboratories for Evolution", "Ghost Ranch: Abiquiu, New Mexico", and A Winter-Term In Service Trip that builds an Internet Facility in El Salvador while learning about public health and health care.
Faculty
DePauw University has a student-faculty ratio of 10:1 and has no classes with more than 35 students. The average class size is 15. All courses are taught by adjunct or permanent professors; there are no teaching assistants.
Prominent faculty members include:
- Mona Bhan, associate professor of anthropology and author of Counterinsurgency, Democracy, and the Politics of Identity in India: From Warfare to Welfare?
- Jeffrey M. McCall, professor of communication and widely quoted source in articles on media matters in the Los Angeles Times and other outlets
- Sunil Sahu, professor of political science and author of Technology Transfer, Dependence, and Self-Reliant Development in the Third World: The Pharmaceutical and Machine Tool Industries in India
- Erik Wielenberg, professor of philosophy and author of Value and Virtue in a Godless Universe and God and the Reach of Reason: C. S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell
School of Music
DePauw University has one of the oldest private institutions for post-secondary music instructions in the country. Founded in 1884, the school has about 170 students. The student to teacher ratio is 5:1 with an average class size of 13 students.
Honors and Fellows Programs
DePauw students can apply for entry to five Programs of Distinction. There are the Honor Scholars and Information Technology Associates programs as well as three fellowships in Management, Media, and Science Research.
The Honor Scholar Program is an interdisciplinary journey for talented students who want the highest level of intellectual rigor. The program includes 5 interdisciplinary seminars and an 80â€"120-page honor thesis the student's senior year.
Management Fellows are the top students interested in business and economics. The program includes special seminars, speakers and a paid, semester-long internship during the junior year. Students have interned in private, public, and non-profit sectors. Past internship sites include: Goldman, Sachs & Co., Chicago; Partners in Housing Development Corp., Indianapolis; Ernst & Young Global, New York; Cummins Inc. in India; Independent Purchasing Cooperative, Miami, Florida, and Brunswick Group, an international PR firm based in London.
Media Fellows benefit from DePauw's media tradition. In addition to interacting with leading contemporary media figures â€" such as documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, Carl Bernstein and Jane Pauley, who presented Ubben Lectures on campus â€" students have hands-on access to sophisticated media equipment.
Science Research Fellows use state-of-the-art equipment, work one-on-one with faculty members, participate in internships, make presentations at scientific meetings, publish in scientific journals and, in essence, have graduate-level science opportunities as undergraduates.
Students participating in the Information Technology Associates Program (ITAP) enjoy an opportunity to link their liberal arts education with technology know-how through on-campus apprenticeships and on- and off-campus internships.
The Environmental Fellows Program is designed to foster an interdisciplinary understanding of environmental issues.
Technology
DePauw University ranked third among the "Top 50 Most Unwired College Campuses", according to a survey which evaluated all institutions of higher learning and their use of wireless technology. The survey was sponsored by Intel Corporation and was printed in the edition of October 17, 2005 of U.S. News & World Report. DePauw was also ranked the third most connected school in the United States in a 2004 Princeton Review analysis.
Media outlets on campus
The student radio station (WGRE), was ranked as the #1 college radio station in 2010 by Princeton Review's book, "America's Best Colleges".
The student newspaper (The DePauw) is Indiana's oldest college newspaper.
(D3TV) is the campus television station and broadcasts newscasts and student productions.
The Pulliam Center for Contemporary Media houses all the media facilities and is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Campus
DePauw University consists of 36 major buildings spread out over a 695-acre (2.7 km²) campus that includes a 520-acre (2.06 km²) nature park, and is located approximately 45 miles (72 km) to the west of Indianapolis, Indiana. There are 11 residence halls, 4 theme houses, and 31 University-owned houses and apartments spread throughout the campus. The oldest building on campus, East College, was built in 1877 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. DePauw also owns McKim Observatory.
East College
A historic structure located at the center of campus, East College is known to many as the architectural symbol of the university. The cornerstone for the building was laid on October 20, 1871. The building hosted commencement exercises in June 1874, and in September 1875 all college classes were moved to the building, according to the book, DePauw Through the Years. But work on East College continued until 1882, when the building's basement was completed. East College was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
Libraries
DePauw has three libraries: Roy O. West Library (main library), Prevo Science Library (located in the Julian Science Center, named for alumnus Percy Julian), and Music Library (located in the Green Center for Performing Arts). Library holdings include approximately 350,000 books; 22,000 videos; 1,000 print periodical titles; access to over 20,000 electronic titles; 450,000 government documents; newspapers; and online databases.
Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts
The School of Music is housed in the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts; the Communication and Theater Department is also located here. The GCPA has 29 soundproof practice rooms, three performing venues, a music library, teaching studios for large and small ensembles, multiple recording studios, Cafe Allegro, and an organ. Kresge Auditorium seats 1,400 and has a balcony to host big events, speakers, and ensembles. Moore Theater seats 400 and is the stage for musicals and theater productions. Thompson Recital Hall seats 200 and is for small ensembles and chamber music concerts.
Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics
Since 2007, the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics has served as a place for reflection, discussion, and education at DePauw. Prindle sponsors events related to ethics and provides opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage in thoughtful discussions. The institute also publishes ethics related content through The Prindle Post and the Examining Ethics podcast.
Campus life
There are more than 100 organizations on the DePauw campus that students can be involved in. DePauw students also participate in on-campus intramurals, university and student sponsored musical and theatrical productions, and create local chapters of national organizations such as Circle K.
Many students engage in community service and other volunteer activities. Putnam County Relay For Life is organized by students, and brings together the college and community. In May 2006, the Putnam County Relay for Life raised more than $215,000 for the American Cancer Society.
On August 2, 2010, Princeton Review ranked DePauw as the #10 party school in the US for the 2010â€"2011 school year, which includes all colleges and universities.
Greek organizations
DePauw's Greek system began just eight years after the founding of Indiana Asbury College in 1837. The Delta Chapter of Beta Theta Pi fraternity was established here in 1845, Phi Gamma Delta (commonly known as Fiji) in 1856, Sigma Chi in 1859, Phi Kappa Psi in 1865, Delta Kappa Epsilon in 1866, Phi Delta Theta in 1868, Delta Tau Delta in 1871, and Delta Upsilon in 1887.
Women were first admitted to Indiana Asbury in 1867. The first Greek letter fraternity for women soon followed. In January 1870, Kappa Alpha Theta was founded at DePauw as the world's first Greek letter fraternity known among women. Kappa Kappa Gamma established a chapter at DePauw in 1875. Notably, Alpha Chi Omega became the second Alpha Chapter established at DePauw, after Theta, when it was founded here in 1885.
Nationally, DePauw's Greek community makes up one of the largest percentages of a college student body.
Greek life
For 2014, DePauw University was again ranked #1 in Greek Life by the Princeton Review. U.S. News & World Report ranked DePauw #3 in the nation for highest percentage of male students belonging to fraternities and #4 in the nation for highest percentage of female students in sororities.
The Greek community consists of fourteen national social fraternities (eleven of which have houses on campus) and ten sororities (six of which have houses on campus). DePauw has an extensive and substantial Greek history, with both Kappa Alpha Theta, the first Greek-letter organization for women, and Alpha Chi Omega being founded at the school. The Lambda Chapter is the longest continuing chapter of Phi Gamma Delta.
Formal IfC (North-American Interfraternity Conference) recruitment for men and Panhel (National Panhellenic Conference) recruitment for women is held early second semester. Membership intake for National Pan-Hellenic Council organizations (historically black Greek-lettered organizations) and Multicultural Greek organizations usually occurs in the fall and/or the spring. First-year students are not permitted onto fraternity or sorority property for a period of time at the beginning of each school year.
Greek-letter organizations that formerly maintained chapters on DePauw's campus include the fraternities Delta Chi, Delta Kappa Epsilon, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Lambda Chi Alpha, and the sororities Delta Zeta, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi and Alpha Gamma Delta.
Controversy
In 2006, the national organization of the Delta Zeta sorority reorganized the DePauw chapter, reducing twenty-three of its thirty-five current members (including the chapter president) to alumna status and giving them six weeks to vacate the sorority house. Of the twelve remaining members, six chose to take alumna status. The Delta Zeta national organization explained that its decisions were based on member commitment, but the evicted members said that they were forced to take alumna status because the chapter members were perceived as physically unattractive and "brainy". Subsequently, on Monday, March 12, 2007, DePauw President Robert G. Bottoms announced that the University would sever its ties with Delta Zeta's national organization, effective at the end of the 2006â€"2007 academic year. President Bottoms was quoted as saying, "I came to the conclusion that our approaches to these issues are just incompatible."
Athletics
The DePauw Tigers compete in the NCAA Division III North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Every year since 1890, DePauw University has competed in American football against its rival Wabash College in what has become the Monon Bell Classic. The traveling trophy, a 300-pound train bell from the Monon Railroad, made its debut in the rivalry in 1932. The DePauw-Wabash series is one of the nation's oldest college football rivalries.
In 1933, head coach Ray "Gaumey" Neal led the DePauw Tigers football team to an unbeaten, untied, and unscored opening season. The Tigers compiled a 7â€"0â€"0 record and outscored their opponents 136â€"0. Neal nearly duplicated this feat in 1943, but DePauw, 5â€"0â€"1, finished the season with one scoreless tie and six points allowed in a different game. The only points surrendered that season were in a 39â€"6 victory over Indiana State and the only non-win was a 0â€"0 tie against Oberlin. The Tigers outscored their opponents, 206â€"6.
DePauw had been a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference from 1997 to 2011, and won numerous conference championships, most notably in women's basketball, where the school is a Division III power. DePauw's program had also won the conference's overall "President's Trophy" seven times in that span, including six consecutive President's Trophies from 2005 to 2006 to 2010â€"11. In 2007, the Tigers defeated Washington University in St. Louis to win the Division III title in women's basketball. The women's softball team won the regional title, advancing to the Division III College World Series for the first time in school history.
In 2012â€"2013, the women's basketball team won its second Division III National Championship with a 69 to 51 victory over the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, in the title game in Holland, Michigan. The Tigers finished 34â€"0 on the season, which was the best basketball season at the Division III level for men's or women's basketball.
Over the years, DePauw has sent several players to the NFL, including Dave Finzer (1982), a punter for the Chicago Bears and Seattle Seahawks, and Greg Werner (1989), a tight end for the New York Jets.
Traditions
Music
The DePauw University School of Music presents regular recitals by students and faculty and concerts by visiting artists, most of which are free and open to the public.
DePauw students also organize concerts for the campus community. Performers in recent years have included Dave Matthews, Train, The Black Eyed Peas, Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, and Guster. Past guests have included Billy Joel, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Carpenters, America, Yo-Yo Ma, and Harry Chapin.
Society of Professional Journalists
On May 6, 1909, Sigma Delta Chi was founded by a group of DePauw University student journalists. The organization officially changed its name to the Society of Professional Journalists in 1988. Today it is the nation's most broad-based journalism organization, encouraging the free practice of journalism and stimulating high standards of ethical behavior. SPJ promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. In 2012, SPJ returned to the DePauw campus with the assistance of Eugene S. Pulliam Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism Mark Tatge "
Rector Scholarships
Since 1919, the Rector Scholar Program has recognized DePauw students of exceptional scholarship and character. To be named a Rector Scholar is to join a prestigious tradition more than 4,000 graduates strong. Rector Scholarships are offered to the top academic applicants offered admission to DePauw. A limited number of full tuition Presidential Rector Scholarships are available.
Ubben Lecture series
Endowed by a gift from Timothy H. and Sharon (Williams) Ubben, both 1958 graduates of DePauw, the speakers' series "brings the world to Greencastle". Begun in 1986 and presented free of charge and open to all, Ubben Lecturers have included Bill Clinton, Benazir Bhutto, Margaret Thatcher, Jane Goodall, Tony Blair, TV's Jimmy Kimmel, Elie Wiesel, Colin Powell, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, Spike Lee and Mikhail Gorbachev.
The 2016â€"17 academic year hus far has presented Leslie Odom Jr., Vernon E. Jordan Jr., a 1957 DePauw graduate, and David Cameron, who made his first public address since resigning as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at DePauw on December 8, 2016.
The Ubben Series has hosted 107 events in its 30-year history.
Monon Bell Classic
Voted "Indiana's Best College Sports Rivalry" by viewers of ESPN in 2005, DePauw University and Wabash College play each Novemberâ€"in the last regular season football game of the year for both teamsâ€"for the right to keep or reclaim the Monon Bell. The two teams first met in 1890. In 1932, the Monon Railroad donated its approximately 300-pound locomotive bell to be offered as the prize to the winning team each year. Wabash leads the all-time series, 59â€"54â€"9; since the Monon Bell was introduced, Wabash leads 40â€"38â€"6. The game routinely sells out (up to 11,000 seats, depending upon the venue and seating arrangement) and has been televised by ABC, ESPN2, and AXS TV (where it has appeared for the past 11 years, 2006â€"2016, as well as in 2003). Each year, alumni from both schools gather at more than 60 locations around the United States for telecast parties, and a commemorative DVD (including historic clips known as "Monon Memories") is produced (there are discs of the 1977, 1984, 1993, 1994 and 2000â€"2016 games).
Boulder Run
The Boulder Run has become a tradition at DePauw University. Students, streaking from their respective residences, run to and from the Columbia Boulder, located in the center of the campus near the East College building. Students today perform the Boulder Run for a variety of reasons, though it was originally performed on the day or night of the first snowfall on campus by Phi Kappa Psi, the Greek house nearest the boulder. This tradition was mentioned in Playboy magazine's September 1972 issue. The DePauw police are usually tolerant of the tradition, but students have been arrested when caught.
Campus Golf
It is not unusual to see students playing a game of Campus Golf when the weather is nice. The game of campus golf requires a golf club and a tennis ball. Players attempt to hit their golf ball against various targets on campus within a number of strokes. The game is similar to frisbee golf, where players attempt to hit targets ranging from trees to buildings with a frisbee.
World War II
During World War II, DePauw University was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
Notable alumni
References
External links
- Official website
- DePauw University Athletics website