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Whittier College

{{lead too short|date=December 2022}}

{{Short description|Private liberal arts college in Whittier, California, US}}

{{Infobox university

| name = Whittier College

| native_name =

| image = WhittierCollegeSeal.png

| image_size =

| motto = Lux, Poesis, Veritas, Pax, Amor Eruditionis

| mottoeng = Light, Creativity, Truth, Peace, and Love of Knowledge

| established = {{start date and age|1887}}

| type = Private liberal arts college

| religious_affiliation = Secular (historically Quaker{{Cite web|url=https://www.whittier.edu/about/facts|title=Facts & Figures | Whittier College|website=www.whittier.edu}})

| endowment = $112.9 million (2019)As of June 30, 2019. {{cite web |url=https://www.nacubo.org/-/media/Nacubo/Documents/EndowmentFiles/2019-Endowment-Market-Values--Final-Feb-10.ashx? |title=U.S. and Canadian 2019 NTSE Participating Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2019 Endowment Market Value, and Percentage Change in Market Value from FY18 to FY19 (Revised) |publisher=National Association of College and University Business Officers and TIAA |access-date=September 26, 2020}}

| chancellor = Harshaan Gill

| president = Kristine Dillon

| provost =

| head_label =

| head =

| students = 815 (2024){{Cite web|url=https://whittier.edu/about/facts |title=Whittier College facts and figures}}

| undergrad =

| doctoral =

| city = Whittier, California

| country = U.S.

| coordinates = {{Coord|33.9780|-118.0296|region:US_type:edu|display=inline,title}}

| campus = Suburban, {{convert|75|acre|ha}}

| free_label =

| free =

| colors = {{color box|#481073}}{{color box|#F7AD00}} Purple & gold

| sports_nickname = The Poets

| mascot = Johnny Poet

| athletics_affiliations = NCAA Division III – SCIAC

| website = {{URL|http://www.whittier.edu}}

| logo = Whittier College logo.svg

| footnotes =

| former_name = Whittier Academy (1887–1901)

| administrative_staff =

| faculty = 103 full-time, 36 part-time (Fall 2022){{Cite web|url=https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=whittier&id=125763|title=College Navigator – Whittier College}}

| academic_affiliations = Oberlin Group, CLAC

}}

File:Whittier college.jpg

Whittier College is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. It is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and, as of spring 2024, had 815 undergraduate and graduate students. It was founded in 1887. Whittier offers one graduate degree{{snd}}a master's degree in education.

History

Whittier College, founded in 1887, was named for the Quaker abolitionist and poet John Greenleaf Whittier.{{cite web|url=https://www.whittier.edu/giving/whittierfund|title=John Greenleaf Whittier Society|website=Whittier College|access-date=28 February 2018}} Since that time, the institution has grown into a distinctive, national liberal arts college. The college campus has about 800 students and more than 100 faculty. It emphasizes small, interactive classes led by full-time faculty members.

Academics

Whittier College is a four-year liberal arts institution. Nearly half of the student body is Latino, and students of color constitute about 70% of the college's campus population. A majority of students hail from California. As of 2017, there are students from at least 27 states and 14 countries.{{Cite web |title=About Whittier College |url=https://www.whittier.edu/about |access-date=September 18, 2019 |publisher=Whittier College}}

Whittier offers over 30 majors and 30 minors in 23 disciplines, emphasizing interdisciplinary learning. Students may also apply for entry into the Whittier Scholars Program, in which each student, under the guidance of a faculty member, designs their major and course of study based on individual interests and career goals. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were{{cite web |url=https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Whittier&s=all&id=125763#programs |website=nces.ed.gov |publisher=U.S. Dept of Education |title=Whittier College |access-date=February 21, 2023}}

  • Business Administration and Management (62)
  • Exercise Science and Kinesiology (52)
  • Biology/Biological Sciences (40)
  • Psychology (38)
  • Social Sciences (29)
  • English Language and Literature (24)

Whittier College hosts a Faculty House Program, which is modeled after similar programs at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. In this program, faculty are selected as faculty-in-residence for a multi-year term, live in houses located on-campus, and create and host in their homes educational and social programs around a specific theme, such as health and society, writers and writing, alumni connections, and Spanish culture.

Additionally, the college's graduate program in education offers both credential and Master of Arts in education degree programs. Broadoaks Children's School – a private, non-profit demonstration school on the Whittier campus – serves as a learning laboratory for Whittier faculty and undergraduate and graduate students.

=Whittier Law School=

Whittier Law School was located on a satellite campus in Costa Mesa, California.{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.whittier.edu/|title=Whittier Law School – A Southern California ABA Accredited Law School|website=www.law.whittier.edu}} It started in the Hancock Park section of Los Angeles in 1966 as Beverly Law School. In 1975, Beverly College joined Whittier with the law school, moving to Costa Mesa in 1997. Whittier Law School has 4,500 alumni practicing in 48 states and 14 countries. The school was accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) beginning in 1978 and was a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) beginning 1987.{{Cite web|url=https://www.law.whittier.edu/index/experience/history|title=History|website=www.law.whittier.edu}}

On April 19, 2017, the law school announced that it would stop admitting students and begin the process of shutting down.{{Cite news| url =https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/20/whittier-colleges-law-school-wont-enroll-new-students |title=Whittier Law School Won't Enroll New Students |publisher=Inside Higher Ed |date = April 20, 2017}} The school ceased operations in July 2020.{{Cite web|url=https://www.whittier.edu/about/lawschool|title=Former Whittier Law School | Whittier College|website=www.whittier.edu}}

{{Infobox US university ranking

| Forbes = 430 of 500

| USNWR_LA = 95 (tie) of 185

| Wamo_LA = 64 of 199

}}

Enrollment

Whittier College has traditionally enrolled 1000–1500 undergraduate students, allowing most classes to be seminars. Since 1984, Whittier College has averaged an undergraduate population of 1329 students, but the average student body size increased to over 1600 students during the 2010s. Enrollment dropped significantly during the tenure of former President Linda Oubre (2018–2023) from more than 1750 students in 2017 to 815 in spring 2024.

Student life

class="wikitable floatright sortable collapsible"; text-align:right; font-size:80%;"

|+ style="font-size:90%" |Student body composition as of May 2, 2022

Race and ethnicity{{cite web |title=College Scorecard: Whittier College |url=https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/school/?125763-Whittier-College |publisher=United States Department of Education |access-date=8 May 2022}}

! colspan="2" data-sort-type=number |Total

Hispanic

|align=right| {{bartable|53|%|2

background:green}}
Asian

|align=right| {{bartable|7|%|2

background:purple}}
Foreign national

|align=right| {{bartable|4|%|2

background:orange}}
White

|align=right| {{bartable|23|%|2

background:gray}}
Black

|align=right| {{bartable|5|%|2

background:mediumblue}}
Other{{efn|Other consists of Multiracial Americans & those who prefer to not say.}}

|align=right| {{bartable|7|%|2

background:brown}}
colspan="4" data-sort-type=number |Economic diversity
Low-income{{efn|The percentage of students who received an income-based federal Pell grant intended for low-income students.}}

|align=right| {{bartable|36|%|2

background:red}}
Affluent{{efn|The percentage of students who are a part of the American middle class at the bare minimum.}}

|align=right| {{bartable|74|%|2

background:black}}

File:Whittier 006a.jpg

Whittier College has approximately 80 registered, student-run organizations. The college also has societies, which are similar to fraternities and sororities. Other campus groups include student publications, the Quaker Campus newspaper and television, the student-run radio station KPOET Radio, Video Productions Studios, and the Whittier College Sports Network. {{citation needed|date=October 2014}}

Athletics

{{refimprove section|date=November 2016}}

File:Whittier Poets WC logomark.svg

The Whittier Poets compete in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) of NCAA Division III. The school has fielded sports teams for over 100 years. Its current teams include men's and women's basketball, cross country, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, lacrosse and water polo, women's softball and volleyball, and men's baseball and golf. In November 2022, Whittier announced that it was discontinuing its football team, men's lacrosse, and men's and women's golf.{{cite press release |last1=Santana |first1=Miguel |title=Whittier College Makes Changes to Poet Athletics |url=https://www.whittier.edu/news/tue-11152022-340-pm/whittier-college-makes-changes-poet-athletics |access-date=14 December 2022 |work=Whittier College |date=November 15, 2022}}{{cite news |last1=Jaschik |first1=Scott |title=Whittier Will Discontinue Football |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/11/28/whittier-will-discontinue-football |access-date=14 December 2022 |work=Inside Higher Ed |date=28 November 2022 |language=en}}

The history of the Whittier football program began in 1907, and since the inception of the SCIAC in 1915, the Poets have won 26 conference titles. From 1957 to 1964, Whittier won eight straight SCIAC football titles under the direction of coaches George Allen (1951–1956), Don Coryell (1957–1959), and John Godfrey (1960–1979). Their most recent championships came back-to-back in 1997 and 1998. Twenty-three Poets have earned All-American honors, the most recent coming in 2007. The football program plays out of Newman Memorial Field, which seats 7,000. Whittier maintained a century-long football rivalry with Occidental Tigers. The two schools play for the shoes of 1939 All-American Myron Claxton. In November 2022, the school announced it would discontinue the football program.

The Whittier men's lacrosse program was established in 1980. In 1980, the Poets became a member of the Western Collegiate Lacrosse League (WCLL). From 1980 to 1999, Whittier won ten championships. In 1990, they were recognized by the NCAA but continued to compete in the WCLL. The Poets were the team to beat throughout the 1990s, and it was not until 2000 that Whittier decided to make their mark on the national scene by leaving the WCLL and focusing on being selected for the NCAA tournament. On November 15, 2022, it was announced that Whittier College would discontinue its men's lacrosse program after the conclusion of their season.

The Whittier men's and women's swimming and diving teams earned Academic All-American status—the women for the fourth straight year and the men for the first time after the College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) announced the programs who achieved this honor for the 2015 Fall Semester. Five hundred forty-seven swimming and diving teams representing 354 colleges and universities have been named College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-American Teams. The awards recognize teams with a grade point average of 3.0 or higher during the 2015 fall semester.

The termination of football, lacrosse, and golf in the fall of 2022 was greeted with controversy and protests.{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Emily |date=2022-11-28 |title=Community Protests Against Cancellation of Athletics Programs |url=https://thequakercampus.org/featured/whittier-college-community-protests-against-cancellation-of-multiple-athletics-programs/ |access-date=2022-12-05 |website=The Quaker Campus |language=en-US}}

Notable alumni

{{Main|List of Whittier College alumni}}

File:Whittier College Turner Residence Hall View.jpg

Notable alumni include former U.S. President Richard Nixon;{{Cite web |title=Richard M. Nixon |url=https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/richard-m-nixon/ |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=The White House |language=en-US}} actress Andrea Barber, known from the television comedy Full House and Fuller House;{{Cite web |title=Fuller House's Andrea Barber Says She Thought She'd Never Act Again After Full House |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/fuller-house-andrea-barber-says-150000048.html |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=www.yahoo.com |date=2 November 2017 |language=en-US}} video blogger Cassey Ho;{{Cite web |last=Narins |first=Elizabeth |date=2017-08-28 |title=Blogilates Cassey Ho Reveals Why She Hid Her Relationship From Fans for 9 Years |url=https://www.cosmopolitan.com/health-fitness/a12106314/cassey-ho-secret-relationship/ |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=Cosmopolitan |language=en-US}} actors and brothers Geoff Stults,{{Cite web |title=Poet Actor on New Hulu Series {{!}} Whittier College |url=https://www.whittier.edu/news/fri-04032020-359-pm/poet-actor-new-hulu-series |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=www.whittier.edu}} and George Stults; and author Jessamyn West.{{Cite web |title=Jessamyn West Collection: Jessamyn West dies of stroke at age 81 |url=http://www.yorbalindahistory.org/gsdl/cgi-bin/library?e=d-000-00---0tescol--00-0-0--0prompt-10---4------0-1l--1-en-50---20-home---00031-001-1-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL1&d=HASH01adc0ecb5d6c027d34eca25.11&v=1&hl=0#start |access-date=2022-08-07 |website=www.yorbalindahistory.org}}

Notable people

=Faculty=

=Coaches=

Notes

{{notelist}}

References

{{reflist}}

External links

{{Portal|Greater Los Angeles}}

  • {{commons category-inline}}
  • {{Official website|http://www.whittier.edu}}
  • [http://www.wcpoets.com Official Athletics Website]
  • [http://kpoetradio.com KPOETradio student radio station]

{{Whittier, California}}

{{Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference navbox}}

{{Oberlin Group}}

{{CLAC}}

{{Colleges and universities in Los Angeles County}}

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Category:Quaker universities and colleges

Category:Whittier, California

Category:Universities and colleges established in 1887

Category:Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges

Category:Universities and colleges in Los Angeles County, California

Category:Liberal arts colleges in California

Category:1887 establishments in California

Category:Private universities and colleges in California