Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college in Meadville, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1815, Allegheny is the oldest college in continuous existence under the same name west of the Allegheny Mountains. It is a member of the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the Presidents' Athletic Conference and it is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

History

Early history

Allegheny College was founded in April 1815 but has not integrated religion into the classroom or pedagogy.

thumb|left|150px|alt=black-and-white picture of a US President William McKinley|[[William McKinley, Allegheny student for one year, eventual President of the United States]]

The first class, consisting of four male students, began their studies on July 4, 1816, without any formal academic buildings. Within six years, Alden accumulated sufficient funds to begin building a campus. The first building erected, the library, was designed by Alden himself, and is a notable example of early American architecture. Bentley Hall is named in honor of William Bentley, who donated his private library to the college, a collection of considerable value and significance. In 1824, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Alden, expressing the hope that his University of Virginia could someday possess the richness of Allegheny's library. Alden served as president of the college until 1831 when financial and enrollment difficulties forced his resignation. Ruter Hall was built in 1853.

thumb|left|alt=Black and white blurry photo shows Allegheny College campus in 1909 in winter with trees with no leaves|Allegheny College in 1909

thumb|150px|alt=black-and-white picture of a woman|Allegheny graduate [[Ida M. Tarbell, crusading muckraking journalist who exposed abuses by Standard Oil. Allegheny began admitting women in 1870]]

Allegheny began admitting women in 1870, By the time Ida Tarbell, future journalist, arrived in 1876, nineteen women had attended Allegheny and only two had graduated. Tarbell described Ruter Hall in her writing, "...looking out on the town in the valley, its roofs and towers half hidden by a wealth of trees, and beyond it to a circle of round-breasted hills. Before I left Allegheny I had found a very precious thing in that severe room--the companionship there is in the silent presence of books."

In 1905, Allegheny built Alden Hall as a new and improved preparatory school.

While the word "Allegheny" is a brand for the college, it is also the name of a county, a river, and a mountain range, and the school has tried to prevent other entities from using this word. For example, Allegheny objected in 2006 when Penn State tried to rename one of its campuses "Allegheny". Allegheny president Richard Cook said 'Allegheny' was "our brand."

Under president Richard J. Cook, Allegheny was reported to have had a "stronger endowment, optimal enrollment, record retention rates, innovative new programs and many physical campus improvements." These years were marked by significant growth in the endowment, marked by a $115-million fund-raising drive, bringing the endowment to $150 million. In 2008, James H. Mullen Jr. took office as the 21st president of Allegheny.

The college and the town cooperate in many ways. One study suggested the Allegheny College generates approximately $93 million annually into Meadville and the local economy.

Campus

The campus has 40 principal buildings on a central campus located just north of downtown Meadville, a outdoor recreational complex north of campus, called the Robertson Athletic Complex, and the Bousson nature reserve, protected forest, and experimental forest.

Non-residential buildings

  • The Pelletier Library (in 2008) had 922,540 volumes (491,284 microform titles). Another estimate was that the library had 420,000 bound volumes, 227,000 microform titles, 1,000 periodicals, and 261,000 U.S. government and Pennsylvania state documents. computer lab, audiovisual center, and music listening system are there too. The Learning Commons, which is located in Pelletier Library, assists students with writing, research, public speaking and study skills, and also offers disability services.
  • Newton Observatory houses a nine-inch refracting telescope and a computer-interfaced 10-inch Meade LX200 telescope with CCD camera. The Office of Public Safety and Security is also housed in the Newton Observatory.
  • The Allegheny College Center for Experiential Learning (ACCEL) coordinates career internships, off-campus study programs, service-learning, pre-professional advising, and leadership development. Allegheny won a $79,545 grant in May 2009 to buy equipment to help with composting food waste, including a shredder mill, screening plant, conveyor, skid-steer loader and leaf collection system.
  • The Center for Political Participation was founded at Allegheny in 2002 by political science professor Daniel M. Shea, following concerns about low youth voter turnout in the 2000 presidential election. The CPP conducts scholarly research related to youth political participation; sponsors on-campus events related to politics and the electoral process, such as panel discussions; and conducts community-outreach efforts, including the Model Campaign USA program, a campaign simulation designed to get high school students interested in electoral politics.
  • Henderson Campus Center was recently renovated and includes McKinley's food court, the bookstore, the game room, Grounds for Change—the student-run coffee house, the post office, and campus offices of college departments as well as student organizations. Also included in the Henderson Campus Center are the Bowman, Penelac & Megahan Art Galleries.
  • Sports facilities include the $13 million David V. Wise Sport & Fitness Center, which opened in 1997.
  • The college established the Center for Economic and Environmental Development in 1997.

<gallery caption= "Allegheny campus buildings" mode=packed heights=90>

File:Brooks side.jpg|alt=Picture of a four-story building with white columns|Brooks Hall

File:Bentley Hall.jpg|alt= Historic Bentley Hall which housed the college administration, including the Registrar and Office of the President, prior to its current renovations|Bentley Hall

File:Doane Hall of Chemistry and Envi Sci.jpg|alt=Picture of a three-story building with walkways on an autumn day, The Doane Hall of Chemistry and Steffee Hall of Life Sciences|The Doane Hall of Chemistry

File:Ravine hall.jpg|alt=Picture of a building with trees (leaves turning) in the foreground. Ravine Hall is a coed residence hall currently housing students of all class years|Ravine Hall

File:Wise center.jpg|alt=Picture of a campus building with a walkway on an autumn day|Student entrance to the Wise Center

File:Oddfellows building.jpg|alt=Picture of a building with a road leading up to it. The Oddfellows building houses the departments of English, Religious Studies, and Philosophy as well as the Meadville Community Theater and Child Care programs. Photo courtesy|The Oddfellows building

File:Ford Chapel outside.jpg|Ford chapel

</gallery>

Academics

Allegheny College's majors and minors fall into three spheres: Humanities, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences. There are some majors, such as Environmental Studies or International Studies, which fall into the interdisciplinary category. The college requires students to choose a minor as well as a major A student's major can be in the humanities, social sciences or natural sciences, but that student's minor must be in a different division than their major.

About 30% of the college's 2,100 students graduate in one of the STEM disciplines—science, technology, engineering, and math.

The most popular majors, in terms of 2021 graduates, were Biology/Biological Sciences (35), Psychology (34), and Environmental Science (33).

Total credits for graduation are 128 semester credit hours and no more than 64 credit hours can be from any one department.

The college requires all students to take a three-seminar series which "encourages careful listening and reading, thoughtful speaking and writing, and reflective academic planning and self-exploration," to be completed in their first two years. Sophomores typically meet with faculty advisers eight times a year.

Allegheny requires seniors to complete a senior project in their major.

Allegheny divides its academic calendar into two 15-week semesters. The school year typically runs from the last week of August to mid-May, with a short fall break in mid-October, a Wednesday-to-Sunday Thanksgiving break, a month-long winter break from mid-December to mid-January, and a week-long spring break in the third week of March.

It formerly had a Chinese language minor, which was discontinued with the Chinese program itself in 2022.

Study abroad

Allegheny offers direct enrollment programs at Lancaster University, England; James Cook University, Australia; University of Natal, South Africa; Capital Normal University, China; and Karl-Eberhard University, Germany. and Jefferson Medical College. Allegheny offers pre-professional programs in law and health. Faculty sometimes focus on the local area; for example, economics professor Stephen Onyeiwu conducted a study of manufacturing in the northwestern Pennsylvania region. Ninety percent of faculty have terminal degrees in their respective fields. to structural features of ribosomal RNA, to freshwater invertebrates. In 2018, Professor Shannan Mattiace won a Fulbright Award to teach and conduct research in Chile.

Admissions

There were 5,479 applications for admission to the class of 2022 (enrolling fall 2018): 3,485 were admitted (63.6%) and 474 enrolled (an admissions yield of 13.6%). The average high school GPA of enrolled freshmen was 3.51, and 35% had a high school GPA of 3.75 or higher.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Allegheny as tied for 80th among liberal arts colleges, 16th in "Best Undergraduate Teaching," tied for 38th in "Top Performers for Social Mobility", and 58th in "Best Value Schools" in the United States for 2025.

Washington Monthly, which rates schools based on the degree to which they "contribute to the public good" by improving social mobility, producing research, and promoting service, ranked Allegheny 42nd among 203 liberal arts colleges in 2022.

Student life

Students

thumb|alt=plaque which reads "Dedicated to all Alleghenians who served in the Vietnam War 1965–1975"|One of many war memorials on campus (some dating back to the time of the Civil War). This memorial honors Allegheny students who fought in the Vietnam War

Students generally are required to live on campus for all four years, and may reside in traditional dormitories, apartment-style housing, or college-owned houses.

Students participate in volunteer activities: in the fall semester of 2011, the student body contributed 25,000 hours of volunteer service to the community. Some Allegheny students volunteered to help restore businesses in hurricane-ravished New Orleans. Residence halls and classrooms are closed during summers. Accordingly, parents can not learn about their son's or daughter's grades unless a waiver is signed permitting release of such information. The privacy policy can sometimes lead to problems, particularly when students have mental health problems but the school is prevented legally from contacting parents. In 2002, one Allegheny student committed suicide, and his parents sued the school; a jury in 2006 found that the school was not liable or negligent.

Official college policy is to discourage underage drinking, although there have been incidents of violations at off-campus parties.

Media

Students run a campus radio station WARC 90.3 FM and a publication called "The Allegheny Review" of undergraduate literature. The college hosts outside speakers. Allegheny has numerous student groups and organizations such as an astronomy club, a College Choir, an Outing Club, and a Peace Coalition. There are over 100 clubs and organizations offered at Allegheny. Bill Clinton, W.D. Snodgrass, Adam Sandler, George Carlin, The Vienna Choir Boys, Rusted Root, Ben Folds, The Roots, Stephen Lynch, The Fray, Jimmy Fallon, and comedian Wayne Brady. There have been "live" art shows in which invited artists, over an eight-hour period, created 10-by-10-foot "drawings" on gallery walls while spectators watched.

Athletics

thumb|200px|Allegheny athletics wordmark

thumb|left|The Allegheny Gators men's [[lacrosse team in 2020]]

Allegheny, known athletically as the Gators, belongs to the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) and has NCAA Division III teams. The Gators returned to the PAC in 2022 after a 38-year absence spent in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC); the field hockey team remains in the NCAC because the PAC does not sponsor that sport. Men's sports are baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, Women's sports are basketball, track & field, 75 percent of students play intramural sports.

Green Initiatives

Allegheny College has undertaken several projects to become more a sustainable campus. One such project is the October Energy Challenge, in which students are encouraged to save electricity for a one-month period. The difference in cost between that month and the previous month's electrical power is then reinvested back into sustainable campus infrastructure. Previous energy challenge have resulted in the addition of water-bottle stations to encourage use of reusable water bottles and solar panels on the biology building.

Other projects include the Carrden, a student-lead garden that grows organic produce, multiple rain gardens, a green box program for reusable takeout containers, as well as the college itself becoming the first college in Pennsylvania to achieve Carbon Net-Neutrality

There are multiple student groups dedicated to environmental protection including SEA (Students for Environmental Action), AC Food Rescue, and Creek connections.

Traditions

One tradition is that a female student is not a "real co-ed" until she's been kissed on the thirteenth plank of the Rustic bridge over the stream. Legend states that there is a competition among residence halls during Orientation Week to steal the thirteenth plank and display it, though this rarely happens today; random students take the plank instead, with maintenance keeping a supply of replacement planks on hand.

Administration

Location and transportation

Allegheny is located in northwestern Pennsylvania north of Pittsburgh, east of Cleveland, and south of Erie, in the town of Meadville, Pennsylvania. In addition, part-time staff included 36 instructors, 23 other professionals, 10 secretaries, and 4 service and maintenance staff.

Notable people

References

Further reading

  • Athletics website
  • Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) documentation, filed under Meadville, Crawford County, PA: