Вашингтон штатындағы Уитмен колледжінің тарихы

College in Walla Walla, Washington, U. S.
the college in Washington

Whitman College is a private liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. The school offers 53 majors and 33 minors in the liberal arts and sciences, and it has a student to faculty ratio of 9:1. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and competes athletically in the NCAA Division III as a member of the Northwest Conference. Alumni have received 1 Nobel Prize in physics, 1 Presidential Medal of Freedom, 5 Rhodes Scholarships, and 93 Fulbright Fellowships.

In 1859, soon after the United States military declared that the land east of the Cascade Mountains was open for settlement by American pioneers, Cushing Eells traveled from the Willamette Valley to Waiilatpu, near present day Walla Walla, where 12 years earlier, Congregationalist missionaries Marcus Whitman and Narcissa Whitman, along with 12 others were killed by a group of Cayuse Indians during the Whitman Massacre. While at the site, Eells became determined to establish a "monument" to his former missionary colleagues in the form of a school for pioneer boys and girls. Eells obtained a charter for Whitman Seminary, a pre collegiate school, from the territorial legislature. From the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, he acquired the Whitman mission site. Eells soon moved to the site with his family and began working to establish Whitman Seminary. Despite Eells's desire to locate Whitman Seminary at the Whitman mission site, local pressure and resources provided a way for the school to open in the burgeoning town of Walla Walla. In 1866, Walla Walla's wealthiest citizen, Dorsey Baker, donated land near his house to the east of downtown. A two story wood frame building was quickly erected and classes began later that year. The school's first principal, local Congregational minister Peasly B. Chamberlin, resigned within a year and Cushing Eells was called upon to serve as principal, which he did until 1869. After Eells's resignation in 1869, the school struggled—and often failed—to attract students, pay teachers, and stay open for each term.

Whitman's trustees decided in 1882 that while their institution could not continue as a prep school, it might survive as the area's only college. Alexander Jay Anderson, the former president of the Territorial University (now the University of Washington), came to turn the institution into a college and become its president. After modeling the institution after New England liberal arts colleges, Anderson opened the school, Whitman College, on September 4, 1882 (Marcus Whitman's birthday) with an enrollment of 60 students and three senior faculty (Anderson, his wife and son). In 1883, the school received a collegiate charter and began expanding with aid from the Congregational American College and Education Society. In 1920 Phi Beta Kappa installed a chapter, and Whitman had its first alum Rhodes Scholar. and have wide flexibility in designing independent study programs, electing special majors, and participating in internships and study abroad programs. In addition, Whitman is noted for a strong science program. Its three most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: Biological and Biomedical Sciences (33), Research and Experimental Psychology (32), and Economics (30). In early 2021, Whitman president Kathleen Murray proposed substantial cuts to a number of social science, humanities, arts, and other academic programs in anticipation of a $3.5 million budget deficit for the 2021–2022 academic year, prompting criticism from students, faculty, and alumni. Degrees are awarded after successful completion of senior "comprehensive exams". These exams vary depending on the students' primary focus of study, but commonly include some combination of (i) a senior thesis, (ii) written examination, and (iii) oral examination. The oral examination is either a defense of the student's senior thesis, or is one or multiple exams of material the student is expected to have learned during their major. The written exam is either a GRE subject test or a test composed by the department. For students who are interested in foreign policy, Whitman is one of 16 institutions participating in the two year old Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship program. The State Department pays for fellows to obtain their master's degree at the university of their choice in return for three years of service as a Foreign Service Officer. Whitman has a number of alumni who serve in diplomatic corps.

Whitman offers a "Semester in the West" program, a field study program in environmental studies, focusing on ecological, social, and political issues confronting the American West. During every other fall semester since 2002, 21 students leave Walla Walla to travel throughout the interior West for field meetings with a variety of leading figures in conservation, ecology, environmental writing, and social justice. Whitman also offers "The U. S. Mexico Border Program" every other June. The program is based in Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and exposes students to a wide range of competing perspectives on the politics of immigration, border enforcement, and globalization. Since 1982, "Whitman in China" provides Whitman alumni the opportunity to teach English at Northwestern Polytechnical University, Shantou University, or Yunnan University. Participants receive an immersion experience in urban Chinese culture, where they can witness the rapid modernization of the country. At the same time, Whitman alumni give Chinese university students the rare chance to study with an English native speaker. Whitman also offers a large range of year or semester long off campus study programs 88 programs across 40 countries, and a few short term, faculty led programs.

In 2010, under the leadership of (former) President George Bridges, Whitman centralized and integrated various programs intended to help students connect their in class learning to off campus work, volunteer, and internship opportunities in the Walla Walla Valley. The office that emerged, the Student Engagement Center (SEC), houses community service and career services in one place. Students and alumni can get assistance with resumes, cover letters, networking, internships, interviews, grad school applications, and civic engagement in the SEC.

Whitman's admission selectivity is considered "more selective" by U. S. News & World Report. For the Class of 2023 (enrolling Fall 2019), Whitman received 4,823 applications and accepted 2,697 (55.9%), with 425 enrolling. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen was 630 710 for evidence based reading and writing, and 610 740 for math.

Whitman holds membership in the NCAA's Northwest Conference (Division III) and fields nine varsity teams each for men and women. More than 20 percent of students participate in a varsity sport. In addition, 70 percent of the student body participates in intramural and club sports. These sports include rugby union, water polo, lacrosse, dodgeball, and nationally renowned cycling and ultimate teams. In 2016, the college adopted the new mascot for the school and its athletes of the "Blues", named after the local mountain range. Whitman's athletic teams had formerly used the nickname "Missionaries". As a junior in 2012–13, basketball player Ben Eisenhardt led the Northwest Conference (NWC) in scoring (442 points), became the first Missionary to be named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches Division 3 All American Third Team as a junior, and was named NWC Player of the Year. The club sport level Whitman cycling team has won the DII National Championships for two years, and four times in six years, making them the athletic team at Whitman with the most national championships. The women's ultimate team, also a club sports team, finished second to Stanford in Division I play in 2016. The football program began in 1892 and ended in March 1977; the last winning season was in 1969.

Of the 1,579 undergraduate students enrolled in Whitman College in the fall of 2019, 55.3% were female and 44.7% male. "K dub" as it is known to students, is located inside the Reid Campus Center on Whitman Campus. At a power of 160 watts, the station's range is approximately 15 miles (24 km), broadcasting as well as streaming online