About
Just the Facts
History
Whittier College—a four-year, independent, liberal arts college distinguished by its small size, a nationally recognized liberal arts curriculum and innovative interdisciplinary programs—was founded by members of the Religious Society of Friends in 1887 and was chartered by the State of California in 1901. The college's founders named it in honor of Quaker poet and abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, who wrote of his pleasure at the honor but died in 1892 without ever having seen the college. Though it continues to honor its Quaker heritage, the college has been a secular institution since the 1940s.
Campus
Situated on 74 hillside acres, the campus houses 29 academic and administrative facilities, seven residence halls, a chapel, two 100+ seat auditoriums, an outdoor amphitheatre, an art gallery, a Cultural Center, and three Faculty Masters Houses.
Athletics facilities include four playing fields, a recently renovated track, an aquatics center, fitness center, and tennis and racquetball courts. Primary competitive spaces are Newman Memorial Stadium, with its seating capacity of 7,000, and the Donald Graham Athletics Center, which includes the 2,000-seat Dave Jacobs Court.
Recent additions to campus include the state-of-the-art Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Peforming Arts, with its mainstage and studio theatres, classroom and office space, scene and costume shops, and dressing rooms, and The Rose Hills Foundation Center for Information and Technology Resources, which includes Bonnie Bell Wardman Library. The Campus Center opened inSeptember 2008 and includes dining facilities, a nightclub and café, meeting space, offices, the student media center, and another small amphitheatre.
Curriculum
Approximately 85% of Whittier's undergraduates participate in the Liberal Education Program, which stresses the interconnectedness of fields of knowledge through paired and team-taught courses. The rest participate in the Whittier Scholars Program, which allows students to design their own majors under the guidance of faculty mentors. Graduate courses lead to the Masters of Arts degree in Education or a teaching credential.
Degrees Offered
Whittier College offers students a choice of 30 majors in 23 disciplines, or the option of a self-designed major through the Whittier Scholars Program—all of which lead to a bachelor of arts degree. The College also offers a master's degree in education, with or without a teaching credential; additionally, the affiliated Whittier Law School, located in Costa Mesa, offers programs leading to either a juris doctorate or a master's in law (LL.M.) degree.
Academic Year
The academic year consists of two semesters and the January Interim Session. Traditionally, Freshman Orientation begins over Labor Day Weekend, and Commencement Exercises take place on the Friday before Memorial Day.
Faculty
Of the college's 91 full-time professors, 90 hold terminal degrees in their fields. Of the full faculty membership, 59% are men and 41% are women, while close to 35% are people of color or are from foreign countries. The quality of Whittier College faculty members has been recognized by the National Association of Academic Advisors and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and honors earned by individual professors include Grammy Awards, Pushcart Prize in Poetry, Fulbright Awards, and grants from the National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. All courses at Whittier are taught by faculty, not teaching assistants. The student-faculty ratio is 12 to 1.
Students
As of fall 2009, Whittier College enrolls 1508 students from 40 states and 25 countries. There are 1367 undergraduates, four non-degree students, and 137 graduate and post-baccalaureate students; 46% are men; 54% are women; 45% are American minorities, and two percent are international students. Nearly 30% of Whittier's student body is Hispanic—one of the highest percentages among the 95 independent colleges in California.
Administration
Sharon D. Herzberger, president; Charlotte Borst, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty; James Dunkelman, vice president for finance and administration; Elizabeth Power Robison, vice president for advancement; Penelope Bryan, dean of Whittier Law School; Lisa Meyer, vice president for enrollment.
Alumni
Whittier College has 14,722 addressable alumni. Notable graduates of the college include President Richard M. Nixon '34 and author Jessamyn West '23. The college has graduated four Rhodes Scholars over the past four decades: J. Stanley Sanders '63, Darrell Walker '76, Pam (Hill) Park '89, and Malaika (Williams) Amneus '96.
Endowment
$79.9 million as of June 30, 2007.
Library Facilities
In addition to over 302,000 volumes, almost 44,000 microforms, 715 current periodical subscriptions and 13,000 full-text on-line periodicals, a growing number of electronic databases are also available in Bonnie Bell Wardman Library, part of the Rose Hills Foundation Center for Library and Information Resources. The Library also features a room housing Richard M. Nixon's vice-presidential memorabilia. Other special collections focus on the Religious Society of Friends and Quaker authors John Greenleaf Whittier, Jessamyn West '23, and Jan de Hartog. The renovated library also contains internet and wireless connectivity throughout the building, more computers for student use, and 12 rooms for group study.
Athletics
With its mascot as the "Poets," Whittier College fields teams in 21 intercollegiate sports. Women's teams compete in basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and water polo. The men's teams include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and water polo. Nineteen of Whittier's 21 varsity sports compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), while the two lacrosse programs are NCAA Division III independents. Several graduates of the Whittier athletic program have gone on to professional careers as coaches or athletes for the National Football League, Major League Baseball, and Major League Lacrosse, among others.
