Building on tradition
The 1970s also saw the inauguration of Wheaton’s first woman president: Alice F. Emerson, former dean of students at the University of Pennsylvania. During her 16-year tenure, President Emerson continued the tradition of campus improvement and curricular innovation. Physical changes included a major addition to the library; a complete renovation and restoration of Mary Lyon Hall (the oldest classroom building still in use); and the creation of the Balfour-Hood Campus Center. The latter two initiatives were part of a major fund-raising campaign that the college conducted from 1983 to 1986. Alumnae, parents, friends, corporations and foundations contributed more than $26 million for student scholarships, faculty development, library acquisitions and other priorities. Such support was characteristic of the renewed sense of purpose and pride with which Wheaton celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1984 to 1985.
Additions to campus facilities since the mid-1980s include the $10 million Haas Athletic Center, which opened in 1991 and supports Wheaton’s growing array of intercollegiate, intramural and recreational sports programs; Gebbie Hall, a residence for about 50 students, funded by a $1.2 million grant from the Gebbie Foundation of Jamestown, N.Y.; and a new bookstore, housed in a restored historic building and expanded to serve the local community as well as the college.
In January 1987 Wheaton trustees recommended, in principle, that the 152-year-old women’s college open its doors to young men. After several months of discussion among alumnae, parents and friends, the board approved the move in May of that year. Wheaton’s first coeducational class—412 young men and women—arrived on campus in September 1988.
On July 1, 1992, Dale Rogers Marshall became Wheaton’s sixth president. The former Wellesley College academic dean succeeded President Emerson, who left office in November 1991; Hannah Goldberg, Wheaton's provost and academic vice president since 1983, served as acting president during the interim. Dr. Marshall, a political scientist who specializes in urban politics, holds degrees from Cornell University, the University of California at Berkeley and U.C.L.A.
In addition to the appointment of a new president, 1992 brought two other milestones: the graduation of Wheaton’s first coeducational class and the enrollment of the largest freshman class in the college’s history. The latter propelled total enrollment to an all-time high.
At Dale Marshall’s inauguration ceremony on October 3, 1992, trustees urged her to “heed the proud history of Wheaton College, recognizing the promise of the future in the strengths of the past.” The new leader also was charged with engaging the whole of the Wheaton family—students and their parents, alumnae/i, faculty, staff members and friends—in articulating and pursuing the mission of the college.
Toward that end, a strategic planning effort began in the fall of 1992 to identify and prioritize goals for the coming decade. The effort involved the entire college community, including alumnae/i and friends, and resulted in the adoption of a plan, Excellence and Equilibrium: Wheaton in the 21st Century, for ensuring the institution’s strength for the future.
Central to the plan was the Campaign for Wheaton, successfully concluded in June 2000 with $90 million raised in support for the college. The final total, which far exceeded the original $65 million goal, included a $10 million gift from Trustee Adrienne Bevis Mars '58 and her husband, John—the largest gift to Wheaton in its history. The effort created a wealth of new resources in diverse areas, including more than 70 new student scholarship funds, 12 new endowed faculty chairs, new programs such as the Davis International Fellows program and the Jane E. Ruby Lecture Series, and a host of new facilities. The campaign was capped by the largest building project in Wheaton history, the renovation of Mars Arts and Humanities and the expansion of Watson Fine Arts Center and Meneely Hall.
Following the Campaign, the college’s faculty conducted a comprehensive review of the curriculum, which resulted in the adoption of an innovative new educational program. The Wheaton Curriculum reaffirms the college’s commitment to the traditional breadth and depth of the liberal arts and sciences while encouraging students to explore connections among their academic, co-curricular and work experiences, and to think, learn, analyze, evaluate, understand and express themselves within and about all aspects of their lives.
On July 15, 2004, Ronald A. Crutcher became Wheaton’s seventh president. A national leader in higher education and an accomplished cellist, President Crutcher shares the college community’s commitment to active engagement with the world, and a core belief in the power of education to change lives. During his inauguration on April 16, 2005, the president observed that, “The world is a wonderful place, but surely it can be better—and Wheaton can help. Our students can be a force for creating a more tolerant society, one that is more respectful of difference and open to all perspectives and viewpoints.”
Under President Crutcher’s leadership, the college community drafted a strategic plan, Wheaton 2014: Transforming Lives to Change the World, that builds on the college’s strength in providing a transforming liberal arts education to intellectually curious students. The plan envisons the college as an institution that prepares graduates to live purposeful lives, be engaged in their communities, be scientifically and technologically literate, and act effectively to promote change. Wheaton’s mission statement sums up those goals by stating: “Wheaton College provides a transformative liberal arts education for intellectually curious students in a collaborative, academically vibrant residential community that values a diverse world.”
The young women and men now on campus share with past generations the rich academic tradition of the liberal arts and sciences. At the same time, today’s students benefit from a host of curricular initiatives begun during the past two decades—new programs that help undergraduates explore ideas and concepts across academic disciplines, link academic study with learning outside the classroom, appreciate diversity in all its forms, and see themselves as active members of a global community.
Despite the diversity of the courses and programs that constitute the Wheaton curriculum, all draw on the college’s historic commitment to the liberal arts and sciences. And all help us meet the challenge confronting every institution of higher learning: to prepare young people for lives of consequence in the 21st century and beyond. Wheaton students and alumnae/i continue to embody Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton’s dream, that “the world shall be better for their having lived in it.”