Spooky Season Reads

For the past 150 years, since its founding in 1870 as St. Ignatius College, Loyola University Chicago has served and educated both the immigrant and established residents of Chicago, excelling in providing a comprehensive liberal arts education. One of the largest Jesuit universities in the United States, Loyola Chicago offers over 80 undergraduate and 170 graduate and professional programs in the humanities, sciences, medicine, nursing, social work, law, business, and communications on four campuses--three in Chicago and one in Rome, Italy. Now in its second century of service, and with an enrollment of over 17,000 students and 150,000 alumni, half of whom live in Chicago, Loyola continues its mission of preparing people to lead extraordinary lives.

Wells College, founded in 1868 by businessman Henry Wells, boasts a storied history that spans over a century and a half. Using images and ephemera from the Wells College Archive and Special Collections, Tiffany Raymond, MLIS, and Daniel G. Renfrow, PhD, illustrate the college's rich history and the unique traditions that continue to inspire generations of students to pursue knowledge, leadership, and positive change in the world.

Established as a women’s college in Aurora, New York, Wells fulfilled the founder’s dream of making a “College Home” for students while simultaneously pioneering women’s education, providing opportunities for intellectual growth and leadership long before women’s rights were fully recognized. Throughout this history, the college has adapted to the evolving needs of the students and the wider society, including transitioning to coeducation in 2005 to better serve a diverse student body. Wells College’s commitment to academic excellence, social responsibility, and community engagement remains unwavering, making it a beacon of higher education in the picturesque Finger Lakes region.

 

Tiffany Raymond, MLIS, is director of the Louis Jefferson Long Library at Wells

College and a member of the class of 2010. Daniel G. Renfrow, PhD, is an associate professor of sociology and chair of the Social Science Division at Wells College. 

High Street and Wesleyan University (founded in 1831) share a fascinating, intertwined history. From this major inland port on the Connecticut River, Middletown's sea captains and merchants made fortunes in the 18th and early 19th centuries trading with the West Indies, South America, and China. Others enjoyed wealth amassed from the local manufacture of swords, firearms, and marine hardware. These prominent families built fashionable villas of the latest architectural designs on High Street. Many of their homes remain, and two have been designated national historic landmarks. With spectacular views of the river valley below, its avenue of arching elms, and the addition of Wesleyan's formidable "Brownstone Row," the street has attracted many to the hill. Dignitaries, including George Washington, the Marquis de Lafayette, William Howard Taft, and Martin Luther King Jr., came to High Street.

Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, celebrated its centennial anniversary in 2018.

Begun in 1918 as the Eastern Division of the Indiana State Normal School, Ball State remained a branch campus of Indiana State until 1929 when it became Ball State Teachers College, Indiana's fourth public institution of higher education. In 1965 the teachers college became Ball State University. Throughout its history, Ball State's distinguishing characteristic has been the positive interactions between students, faculty, and members of the community. This book will show how these interactions have worked out at Ball State in the classroom, on the athletic field, and in social organizations such as student government, fraternities, sororities, and clubs throughout the region. The book will also show how the members of the Ball family have played a major role in the growth and development of the university.

Located in the Central Valley in the city of Stockton, California, the University of the Pacific has thrived. Founded in Santa Clara in 1851, the university moved to College Park in 1871 and then Stockton in 1924, and it now has campuses in Sacramento and San Francisco. Pacific is considered to hold many firsts in California, including being the first chartered university, the first music conservatory, and the first university to open its doors to women. University of the Pacific's mission is to provide a superior, student-centered learning experience integrating liberal arts and professional education and preparing individuals for lasting achievement and responsible leadership in their careers and communities.

Princeton is only the fourth American college to celebrate a 275th anniversary.

Founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it has long Presbyterian roots. The scene of notable events in the American Revolution, it was a classical college for another century. Then, at its 1896 sesquicentennial, it became Princeton University and in succeeding decades developed into a world-leading research university. Long an institution of males of European descent, its gender and ethnic makeup has changed dramatically in the last half-century. Today's Princeton combines a robust collegiate culture with a research profile near the top of international league tables--truly a rare combination.

Author W. Bruce Leslie is a New Jersey native and a 1966 alumnus of Princeton University. As the grandson of a Scottish immigrant, studying at an institution with deep Scottish roots was a natural path. The author fell in love with liberal education thanks to Princeton's wonderful faculty and fellow students. Inspired by them, he taught history for a half-century at the State University of New York at Brockport, seeking to bestow a similar affection for learning, especially about the past, on his students. Returning to his roots in retirement, he is rediscovering the richness of this cultural and intellectual community.

The University of San Francisco began in 1855 as a one-room schoolhouse named St. Ignatius Academy. Its founding is interwoven with the establishment of the Jesuit Order in California, European immigration to the western United States, and the population growth of California and San Francisco as a result of the California Gold Rush. For 159 years, the University of San Francisco has enriched the lives of thousands of people. The institution has graduated students who went on to become leaders in government, education, business, journalism, sports, the sciences, and the legal and medical professions. Among its alumni, the university counts three San Francisco mayors, a US senator, four California Supreme Court justices, a California lieutenant governor, two Pulitzer Prize winners, three Olympic medalists, several professional athletes, and the former president of Peru.

Montana State University (MSU) was founded in 1893 in Bozeman, Montana. Bozeman is in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, near Yellowstone National Park, and surrounded by blue-ribbon trout waters, world-class skiing, and unspoiled wilderness in every direction. MSU is the state's land-grant university, with a mission to educate students, create knowledge and art, and serve communities by integrating learning, discovery, and engagement. Over its 125-year history, the university has grown from its original class of eight students to today's more than 16,000 from across the United States and over 70 nations. Sports, MSU's annual American Indian Council Pow Wow, and outdoor recreation facilitate avenues for education, exercise, and entertainment for faculty, staff, and students, creating invaluable experiences that last a lifetime.

Fresno Pacific University (FPU) is the only accredited Christian university in California's Central Valley. Founded in 1944, FPU offers more than 100 areas of study to about 4,000 traditional undergraduate, adult degree completion, graduate, and seminary students at its main campus in Southeast Fresno and throughout the Central Valley at regional campuses in North Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield, and Merced, as well as online. FPU students chase big ideas and explore deep faith through five schools: the School of Business; the School of Natural Sciences; the School of Humanities, Religion, and Social Sciences; the School of Education; and Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. The university also reaches about 10,000 students through professional development studies. Innovative programs encourage academic and professional excellence, peacemaking, social justice, ethical leadership, holistic wellness, and spiritual vitality. Its graduates have gone on to perform important leadership and service roles around the world.

The story of Lander University is the story of the struggles and successes associated with providing college-level education to women in a rural Southern town after the Civil War and surviving through more than a century of change and growth.