North Central College
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| North Central College | |
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| Established: | 1861 |
| Type: | Private |
| Endowment: | $79,700,000 |
| President: | Harold R. Wilde |
| Faculty: | 125 |
| Undergraduates: | 2,500 |
| Location: | Naperville, Illinois |
| Campus: | Suburban |
| Mascot: | Cardinals |
| Affiliations: | United Methodist Church College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin |
| Website: | www.northcentralcollege.edu |
North Central College is a private, 4-year comprehensive liberal arts college located in Naperville, Illinois. Founded in 1861, it is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Comprehensive fees for the 2006-7 academic year total $30,150.
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[edit] Academics
North Central College is a private, four-year college featuring bachelors and masters degrees. At its core, it is a liberal-arts institution with a nearly 150-year tradition of education. Today, however, it is a comprehensive college offering more than 50 undergraduate majors leading to a bachelor's degree, as well as master's degrees in business administration, computer science, education, leadership studies, liberal studies and management information systems.
The academic calendar of North Central College is trimester-based, consisting of three 10-week terms.
[edit] History
North Central College was first founded in 1861 as Plainfield College in Plainfield, Illinois. Classes were first held on November 11 of that year. On February 15, 1864, the Board of Trustees changed the name of the school to North-Western College. The college moved to Naperville in 1870. The name was again changed in 1926 to North Central College.
[edit] Location
The North Central College campus is embedded in the Historic District of downtown Naperville, and is located blocks away from Naperville's 5th Avenue Train Station, the Riverwalk, and many restaurants and shops.
[edit] Athletics
North Central College's mascot is the Cardinal, in tradition of the bird's habitance in Illinois. The school competes in NCAA Division III and the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW). It sponsors 22 sports and has won 22 national championships - 18 NCAA and 4 NAIA. The total of number national championships puts the college eighth on the all time list for most national championships. North Central is the only school in the CCIW to win a national championship in four (4) different sports.
The college is best known for its Men's Track and Field and Cross Country teams, which have won many national championships. The campus has also hosted past NCAA Division III national events.
Men's Varsity Sports
Baseball
Basketball
Cross Country
Football
Golf
Soccer
Swimming
Tennis
Track and Field (Indoor/Outdoor)
Wrestling
Women's Varsity Sports
Basketball
Cross Country
Golf
Lacrosse
Soccer
Softball
Swimming
Tennis
Track and Field (Indoor/Outdoor)
Volleyball
Athletic Facilities
Benedetti-Wehrli Stadium, which seats 5,500, was completed in 1999, while the Jay and Dot Buikema track was resurfaced in 1997 and a Safeplay Plus artificial playing surface was installed in 2002.
The Stadium has hosted numerous high-profile events, including the Illinois high school boys and girls soccer state finals and the Wes Spencer Crosstown Classic, the annual showdown between Naperville North and Naperville Central high schools. It also served as the temporary home of the Chicago Fire for two seasons.
North Central College’s baseball facility, Zimmerman Stadium, which includes Alumni Field, was dedicated in 1999. The home of Cardinal baseball resembles a professional minor league facility, with permanent seating for 750 fans and a fully enclosed and wireless pressbox. The facility has hosted the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association summer state tournament and Major League Baseball’s RBI World Series and Area Code tryouts.
Cardinal softball plays at Shanower Family Field. In April 2002, the field was dedicated to honor the family of Don Shanower, beloved professor emeritus of speech communication and theatre and enthusiastic softball fan. The dedication took on added meaning after the Shanower’s son Dan, a commander in the U.S. Navy, was among the victims of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon. The field has been host to an NCAA III regional tournament and was part of Major League Baseball’s RBI World Series.
Merner Field House is home to all Cardinal indoor sports, with 2,000 seats in Gregory Arena for the basketball and volleyball teams. In 2006, a new running surface was installed to accommodate the indoor track teams.
On the second floor of Merner Field House is Nichols Gymnasium, home to the North Central College wrestling team. The College’s swimming pool is also located in the Field House.
 North Central cross country runners preparing for a race. |
[edit] Fine Arts
Pfeiffer Hall is North Central College's Fine Arts Building. It was built in 1926. Only six months after it opened, the Naperville Women's Club performed "Little Women" in Pfeiffer Hall. This structure was also used by the College to show movies. The first "talkie" was shown in 1930. Today Pfeiffer Hall is the main auditorium and home to the speech communication/theater and music departments as well as to the instrumental and choral performing groups and North Central's nationally ranked forensics team.
North Central College is moving forward with its plan to construct a $29 million Fine Arts Center and Concert Hall. Designed by the internationally acclaimed Chicago architectural firm of Loebl, Schlossman and Hackl, Inc., the 57,000-square-foot facility has been planned and sited with the needs of both the College and the Naperville community in mind. Plans have evolved over a 15-year period, driven by explosive growth in the College’s music, theatre and art programs, but also a parallel transformation of the City’s downtown, which has brought more than 50 restaurants, numerous national stores and the first four- and five-story buildings to within a few blocks of the North Central campus.
The Concert Hall will be named in honor of Dr. Myron Wentz, Class of 1963. Nearly $10 million in gifts from Wentz — a scientist, and entrepreneur and music lover — over the past two years have brought the facility to center stage. (Plans for a new Fine Arts Center were put on hold a decade ago when a devastating flood in Naperville forced the College to turn its attention to its damaged athletic complex instead.)
In addition to Wentz Concert Hall, the Fine Arts Center will house a spacious lobby, a kitchen facility and an art gallery (all supportive of major civic gatherings) as well as a 150-seat “black box” experimental theatre (that can double as a dance studio), and much needed music rehearsal space, practice rooms and offices.
North Central College has a very strong theatre program. Their 2000 production of "The Pirates of Penzance" was selected to perform at Kennedy Center American College Theatre's Region III Festival. Their productions of Ken Ludwig's "Moon Over Buffalo" and Schmidt and Jone's musical "Philemon" were both selected to perform at the festival's "Evening of Scenes" in 2004 and 2005. Both performances were very well received at the festival.
[edit] Media
North Central College is home to WONC-FM 89.1, one of the nation's premier college radio stations. At a count of 20, no other college radio station has garnered more Marconi College Radio Awards than WONC.
The Chronicle is the student newspaper of North Central College.
[edit] Notable Alumni
- James Henry Breasted, Egyptologist
- Joe Birkett, Illinois State Attorney
- Alvin C. Eurich, First President of the State University of New York
- Harris W. Fawell, Former U.S. Representative, Illinois 13th Congressional District
- Dennis Hastert, Former Speaker of the House (attended, but later graduated from Wheaton College). Hastert spoke at the College's graduation in 2004.
- David Rall, Former Assistant Surgeon General, United States Public Health Service
- John S. Stamm, American bishop of the Evangelical Church
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