Denison University

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Denison University

Image:DenisonUniversitySeal.gif
Established 1831
Type Private school
Endowment $570,000,000
President Dr. Dale T. Knobel
Staff 190 full-time faculty
Undergraduates 2,100
Postgraduates 0
Location Granville, Ohio, United States
Campus Rural, 1,200 acres including a 500-acre biological reserve.
Athletics 23 varsity teams, NCAA Division III, Member North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC),
Colors Red and White
Mascot Big Red
Website www.denison.edu

Denison University is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Granville, Ohio, approximately 30 miles (50 km) east of Columbus. Denison was founded in 1831. It has a current enrollment of about 2,000 students. Denison is a member of the Five Colleges of Ohio, the Great Lakes Colleges Association, and the North Coast Athletic Conference.

Contents

Denison was an exclusively male college at the time of its inception, but has since become coeducational. This began with the Granville Female Seminary, which was founded in 1831 by Charles Sawyer. It was sold to Daniel Shepardson in 1861. It was renamed to Shepardson College for Women and became a part of Denison University in 1900.

Denison previously offered some graduate programs leading to a master's degree; however, Denison was made into an exclusively undergraduate institution in the late 1920s. The university offers 35 majors, each leading to a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. In addition to such traditional majors as history, mathematics, and psychology, students can focus on less common subjects like cinema and black studies.

One aspect that makes Denison different from many other colleges is that it is entirely residential. This means that almost all of its 2,000 students must live in university-owned housing. This decision is popular with some students, but others, especially upperclassmen, get upset about this requirement. The university maintains that the residence requirement brings the campus together and gives the university a strong sense of community. Housing options include single, double, triple, and quadruple rooms, as well as suites and apartments.

The campus size is about 1,200 acres (4 km²). This includes a 500 acre (1.4 km²) biological reserve just east of campus, where professors of sciences like geology and biology can hold class. Denison's annual operating budget is about $69 million. It also has other funds including endowments that total $570 million. Denison has 190 full-time faculty, making the student-to-faculty ratio 11:1.

Denison University
Denison University

Denison offers three types of degrees: B.A., B.S., and B.F.A. Students can create their own major (called an interdepartmental major) or choose among the following. A few of these subjects are concentrations only and are not offered as majors.

  • Art History
  • Art Studio
  • Biochemistry
  • Biology
  • Black Studies
  • Chemistry
  • Cinema
  • Communication
  • Computer Science
  • Dance
  • East Asian Studies
  • Economics
  • Education
  • English Literature
  • English Writing
  • Environmental Studies
  • French
  • Geosciences
  • German
  • History
  • International Studies
  • Latin
  • Latin American and Caribbean Studies
  • Mathematics
  • Media Technology and Arts
  • Music
  • Philosophy
  • Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE)
  • Physical Education
  • Physics
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Religion
  • Sociology/Anthropology
  • Spanish
  • Theatre
  • Women's Studies

Denison is a member of the NCAA and the North Coast Athletic Conference(NCAC). Denison participates as a Division III institution which prohibits athletic scholarships. Denison has won nine (9) consecutive NCAC All-Sports Championships for a total of ten (10) since the founding of the conference in 1984-85. Denison's other All Sports Championship came in 1985-86, and both the consecutive championships streak and the total of ten represent conference records.

The most successful teams are led by the Men's and Women's Swimming programs. In 2001, the women won the NCAA Division III national championship, unseating perennial champion and local rival Kenyon College. In 2006, the men placed 2nd in the nation; the women finished in 6th. The squash program is also a perennial national contender. Other top ranked programs include lacrosse, soccer, baseball, and softball. The lacrosse and soccer games against Ohio Wesleyan University are the most widely attended "rivalry" games. Also, the Kenyon/Denison swimming rivalry is recognized in small-college sports.

Woody Hayes, later renowned as the head coach at Ohio State University, graduated from Denison in 1935, having served as captain of the football team the previous fall, and served as the university's head football coach from 1946 to 1950.

Denison has seven fraternities and six sororities. Fewer students participate in Greek life than did during the early 1990s, but the culture is still relevant, with just about one third of all students joining a house.

The fraternities are:

The sororities are:

During the mid-1990's, in an effort to re-brand the college as more of an academic, and less of a party, institution, the college's trustees elected to make Denison a "non-residential" Greek system. The decision led to student and alumni uproar, with a low-grade riot erupting on the campus' "Fraternity Row" as a result. While sorority members had never been allowed to live in their respective houses, the trustees' decision turned most of the formerly-residential fraternity houses into general college residential halls, and each chapter was given lounge space in the basement of each respective house for official fraternity functions (including chapter).

Since the decision, many of the formerly purely Greek houses were renamed:

  • The Delta Upsilon house became Taylor House, an "honors" residence hall
  • The Delta Chi house became Sunset House
  • The Lambda Chi Alpha house became the Erma and Clark Morrow House, an all-first-year student "living and learning" residence hall
  • The S. S. Chamberlin Lodge of Phi Gamma Delta became the Chamberlin House
  • The Phi Delta Theta house became the Preston House

Denison has some 28,000 alumni all around the world. Some notable alumni include:

There are 37 Denison Clubs throughout the United States, from Boston to San Diego, from Seattle to Tampa Bay.


Five Colleges of Ohio
Oberlin • Kenyon • Ohio Wesleyan • Denison • Wooster
Great Lakes Colleges Association
Albion • Antioch • Denison • DePauw • Earlham • Hope • Kalamazoo • Kenyon • Oberlin • Ohio Wesleyan • Wooster


North Coast Athletic Conference
Allegheny • Denison • Earlham • Hiram • Kenyon • Oberlin • Ohio Wesleyan • Wabash • Wittenberg • Wooster
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../d/e/n/Denison_University_a006.html"
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.