Spooky Season Reads

Beginning in 1974 with 504 students, Atlanta Junior College (AJC) became the 31st institution of the University System of Georgia and the only public two-year college within Atlanta's city limits. The college has evolved during its 50-year history. AJC grew into Atlanta Metropolitan College in the 1987-1988 academic year. The school underwent another name change in 2012, becoming Atlanta Metropolitan State College (AMSC), an institution that offers bachelor's degrees alongside associate degrees and certificate programs. The college reached its highest enrollment (to date) of 3,129 in 2013. With a championship-winning intercollegiate men's basketball team, AMSC became the first Georgia institution to rank among the nation's top five Division I junior colleges for academic performance. Although it has grown from one building to seven facilities on 65.4 acres, the institution remains committed to its mission of being a gateway to an affordable, accessible, and quality college education for students in the Atlanta area and beyond.

The legacy of Arcadia University began in 1853, when Sylvania (Jones) Stevens and Juliet A. (Poundstone) Avery, along with several other students, left their family homes and accompanied Rev. Sheridan Baker to the Beaver Female Seminary in Beaver, Pennsylvania. After graduating in 1856, they were the first students to receive diplomas from the seminary. This book concentrates on the Glenside, Pennsylvania, campus up until the school’s name and status change to Arcadia University in 2001 and covers the many shifts in the school’s name and location.

Kenneth Samen graduated in 1992 with a bachelor of arts degree in communications from Beaver College/Arcadia University. For the past 27 years, Samen has worked for Prudential Insurance Company of America. This is Samen’s third title with Arcadia Publishing. His research for this book led him into his personal postcard collection and the university’s archives and, externally, to historical societies and institutional collections to locate images and items that have not been seen in years. Dr. Ajay Nair is a nationally recognized expert in student affairs and an accomplished scholar of social justice, race, and ethnicity. Dr. Nair was appointed president of Arcadia University in April 2018 and inaugurated in October 2018.

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. 

On September 25, 1873, Dr. Nathan Jackson Morrison, the first president of Drury College, stood in the second-story window of an unfinished building and rang a borrowed boardinghouse dinner bell to announce the opening of the school. The six faculty members and thirty-nine students in attendance that day had to share the simple brick structure with carpenters and plasterers, and the isolated campus consisted of a few hardscrabble acres of prairie dotted with hazel brush and hickory saplings. Today, Drury University sits upon a 90-acre campus and has over 2,200 undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education students. The school has a vibrant and innovative academic program, a strong tradition in athletics, and over 30,000 living alumni. For 150 years, Drury University has stood as an institution that blends liberal learning and professional studies in the heart of the Missouri Ozarks.

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.

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.

Iowa Wesleyan University was founded in 1842, four years before Iowa's statehood. Pioneer Hall, in use by students and faculty by 1846, is among the oldest academic buildings in continuous use west of the Mississippi River. Abolition and women's enfranchisement were key hallmarks of this pioneer Methodist school. Iowa Wesleyan graduated its first female student, Lucy Killpatrick Byrkit, in 1859. Iowa Wesleyan's president, James Harlan, entered the national spotlight when he was elected to the US Senate in 1855. He was a stalwart abolitionist and supporter of Pres. Abraham Lincoln. Just after the Civil War, Iowa Wesleyan produced the first female attorney in the United States, Arabella Babb Mansfield (1866), who passed the bar exam in 1869. This small-town Iowa university also produced two explorers of space: James Van Allen (1935), discoverer of the magnetic belts that radiate around the planet, and Peggy Whitson (1981), the first female to serve as commander of the International Space Station. Today, Iowa Wesleyan University has the most diverse student body campus in Iowa, with young scholars hailing from small towns, big cities, and many nations abroad.

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.

The rich history of Tallulah Falls School mirrors the story of northeast Georgia, from a rural, remote past to a bright, boundless future.

The school, established in 1909 in response to the unmet educational needs of area children, has evolved through the decades, now meeting the needs of students both near and from countries around the world. Today, the school serves more than 500 students in grades 5 through 12, representing 20 countries. With a robust college-preparatory curriculum delivered with an equal focus on character development, students leave Tallulah Falls School well prepared for future success. The imprint of those who attended the school in the past is still visible today, with vintage structures alongside modern classroom buildings and new athletic facilities. Weathered rock walls wind through campus, reminders of those formative years. They mark the way for those who will pass through these historic gates, adding their contributions to the storied history of Tallulah Falls School. This book builds on the history established in these early records of the school, adding the exponential significance of the past 15 years to the archives.

E. Lane Gresham serves as the director of communications and media for Tallulah Falls School. Passionate about local history, Gresham brings her talent for storytelling to this project and the many roles she plays within the school community and beyond.

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.

In 1873, Spring Arbor Seminary, founded by early pioneers of the Free Methodist Church, opened to meet a distinct need for a school that would teach sound Christian doctrine. Students that attended this school were enriched by the values of the Free Methodist Church. Originally, Spring Arbor Seminary was a private school for elementary and secondary students. In the 1920s, Spring Arbor Seminary added a junior college. In 1963, Spring Arbor High School and Junior College became Spring Arbor College, which attained university status in 2001. One hundred fifty years after the school's original conception, Spring Arbor University maintains its original dedication to impart the sound Christian doctrine of the Free Methodist Church to its students. This dedication is embodied by the university's mission statement, which is better known as "the Concept."

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.