1871 Graduating class of McDaniel College
About McDaniel College
October 2002
This material is from the web site of McDaniel College.
McDaniel College 2 College Hill Westminster, Maryland 21157 USA
410-848-7000
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For more information, please go to: http://www.mcdaniel.edu/
About McDaniel Updated November 1st, 2006:
McDaniel College is a private, selective college of the liberal arts and sciences offering a life-changing education to undergraduate and graduate students. One of the first things you'll notice is the sense of community that defines McDaniel. Professors are first and foremost teachers and mentors: you'll see them cheering from the sidelines of a soccer match or chatting with students over lunch in the Pub...
Other life-changing opportunities: classes that average 17 students; more than 100 clubs, organizations, and athletics teams; and the opportunity to study at the only U.S. college campus in Budapest, Hungary.
Just wait until you see our campus in Maryland: a spectacular hilltop setting with a view of the Catoctin Mountains, yet close to the vast resources of the nation's capital in D.C. and the city of Baltimore.
Questions? Please contact us.
About McDaniel College
October 2002
McDaniel College is a private, selective college of the liberal arts and sciences offering a life-changing education to undergraduate and graduate students. One of the first things you'll notice is the sense of community that defines McDaniel. Professors are first and foremost teachers and mentors: you'll see them cheering from the sidelines of a soccer match or chatting with students over lunch in the Pub...
Other life-changing opportunities: classes that average 17 students; more than 100 clubs, organizations, and athletics teams; and the opportunity to study at the only U.S. college campus in Budapest, Hungary.
Just wait until you see our campus in Maryland: a spectacular hilltop setting with a view of the Catoctin Mountains, yet close to the vast resources of the nation's capital in D.C. and the city of Baltimore.
Questions? Please contact us.
McDaniel College is a private, selective college of the liberal arts and sciences where students from 23 states and 19 countries prepare for lives of leadership and service. Flexible programs of study at both undergraduate and master’s degree levels, strong teaching, and ideal location—near Baltimore and Washington, D.C.—provides students with an outstanding learning experience. A two-year branch campus in Budapest, Hungary, gives McDaniel College a unique, global perspective.
The First Principles
McDaniel College believes that liberally educated men and women think and act critically, creatively, and humanely. They take charge of their lives and develop their unique potentials with reason, imagination, and human concern.
McDaniel College accepts the challenge to provide an academic and social environment that promotes liberal learning. We strive to place students at the center of a humane environment so that they may see and work toward their personal goals while respecting others and sharing responsibility for the common good. We provide a foundation of knowledge about the past and present so that students may be informed about the world. We provide various approaches to knowledge and personal achievement so that students can think critically about, respond creatively to, and form sensitive, intelligent decisions concerning the world and its future. We provide instruction in fundamental skills so that students can express themselves for their own satisfaction and to the larger community.
We provide solid and respected professional programs for the committed student, and, more important, we provide a liberal arts education as an integral part of professional training so that students will be more flexible, more successful, and happier in the world of work. In the classrooms, in the residence halls, in the laboratories, on the playing fields, and in the lounges, McDaniel College works to disseminate these First Principles.
Our History
Shortly after the Civil War, Fayette R. Buell, a Westminster teacher, embarked on his dream of founding a small private college. He purchased a tract of land — a hill overlooking the town — and issued a prospectus in search of support for his dream. Although financing was slow to materialize, he did receive generous support from two of the community leaders: the Reverend J. T. Ward, of the Methodist Protestant Church, who would become the College’s first president, and John Smith, president of the thriving Western Maryland Railroad and a resident of nearby Wakefield Valley.
Mr. Smith, who became the first president of the College’s board of trustees, suggested that the College be named after the railroad, which maintained an important terminal in Westminster. On the day in 1866 that the cornerstone was laid for the Western Maryland College’s first building, free rail passage was granted to everyone who attended the ceremonies. Eventually, the Western Maryland Railroad became extinct after merging with another company.
The first building on the Hill was completed in September, 1867; 37 men and women were enrolled in eight areas of study. Already, the new college was in many ways ahead of its time. In the original Charter, the founders and the first board of trustees clearly reflected their intentions that the College be an innovative and independent institution.
The College was founded "upon a most liberal plan for the benefit of students without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national or ethnic origin, which students shall be eligible for admission to equal privileges and advantages of education and to all social activities and organizations of the college, without requiring or enforcing any sectarian, racial or civil test, and without discrimination on the basis of sex, national or ethnic origin, nor shall any prejudice be made in the choice of any officer, teacher, or other employee in the said college on account of these factors."
The College was the first coeducational college south of the Mason Dixon line, and one of the first coeducational colleges in the nation. Since its inception, it has been an independent liberal arts college with an autonomous Board of Trustees. A voluntary fraternal affiliation with the United Methodist Church existed from 1868 until 1974; today there are no ties to any denominational body. Control and ownership are fully vested by the Charter in the trustees, under Maryland state law.
On January 11, 2002, the trustees announced their unanimous decision to change the name of the College. The decision came after decades of discussion and surveys that confirmed the confusion surrounding the name. The College often was not perceived as what and where it is: a private institution within an hour's drive of Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
On July 1, 2002, WMC officially became McDaniel College. The new name honors William Roberts McDaniel, whose 65-year association with the College helped shape its destiny and today personifies its mission.
In its 135-year history, the College has had only eight presidents: Dr. Ward, Dr. Thomas Hamilton Lewis (1886-1920), Dr. Albert Norman Ward (1920-1935), Bishop Fred G. Holloway (1935-1947), Dr. Lowell S. Ensor (1947-1972), Dr. Ralph C. John (1972-1984), Dr. Robert H. Chambers (1984-2000), and Dr. Joan Develin Coley (2000-present). Under their guidance, the College has assumed a place among the quality liberal arts colleges in the nation, developing programs and material and physical assets that fulfill the vision of its founders.
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