Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Bennington College
Bennington College is a liberal arts college located in Bennington, Vermont.
| President | Elizabeth Coleman |
| School type | Private |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Location | Bennington, Vermont |
| Enrollment | 640 undergrad., 153 grad. |
| Campus surroundings | Suburban |
| Campus size | 550 acres (2.2 km²) |
| Contents |
History
Bennington College was founded in 1932 as a women's college focusing on arts, sciences, and humanities and became co-educational in 1969. The campus itself is a modified farmer's field - the administrative building is a converted dairy cow barn - but the architecture that has been erected since the land was donated by the Jennings family at the height of the Depression has made the campus look anything but farm-like.
Public image
In the early 1970s and 1980s, Bennington gained unexpected notoriety for being the most expensive college in the country, harboring an almost anarchic student and faculty body and leading trends in art and literature. Financial mismanagement almost destroyed the institution, but reforms in the early 1990s under the Board of Trustees and President Elizabeth Coleman tightened the financial picture but also instituted faculty reforms and the abolition of assumed tenure which led to student riots, blacklisting by the Association of Adventist College/University Presidents, and other difficulties. Low enrollment rates were countered by huge fundraising campaigns and a re-vamping of the college's image.
By the late 1990s, Bennington College was at its most stable point in 20 years. Rising enrollment, large donations by older alumni from the first 10 classes, especially recent multi-million donations made by the Merck family (owner of Merck Pharmaceuticals), and vigorous expansion have made Bennington again a school known for its non-traditional methodologies. Bennington maintains a holistic approach to learning and participates in student-directed education.
Education style
Educationally, Bennington exists on a system of Plans, where students and faculty jointly decide a student's course of study. Main subjects taught include: Social Sciences and Humanities, Dance, Drama, Theater Arts, Music Performance and Composition, Life and Physical Sciences, Literature and Writing, Teacher Education (Center for Creative Teaching), Foreign Language Arts (Regional Center for Languages and Culture), Visual Arts (ceramics, painting, sculpture, drawing, design), Video and Media Studies.
Bennington has, for the past several decades, offered written evaluations rather than a graded scale as the default option for undergraduate performance review. There are no competitive sports teams or fraternities/sororities.
Pop Culture
Bennington College has been home to many prolific authors, famous individuals and pop culture references. Famous faculty and alumni include Carol Channing, Jamaica Kincaid, Martha Graham, Helen Frankenthaler, Bernard Malamud, Bret Easton Ellis, Donna Tartt, and Mary Oliver.
Mentions of Bennington College exist in:
- Igby Goes Down - Claire Danes's character attends Bennington College
- The Cosby Show and The Simpsons - mentions of characters' daughters going to Bennington College
- Cheers - character has attended Bennington College
- The Blue Man Group
- The Rules of Attraction
See also
External links
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