- For other universities with a similar name, see Northwestern
University .
Northwestern University
(NU) is a private research university located
primarily in Evanston,
Illinois
, USA. Northwestern is a comprehensive
research institution consisting of eleven undergraduate, graduate,
and professional schools and colleges: the
Judd A. and Marjorie
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the
Feinberg School of Medicine, the
J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of
Management, the
Robert
R. McCormick
School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Graduate School,
the Medill School of
Journalism, the Bienen School
of Music, and the Schools of Communication,
Law
, Education
and Social Policy, and Continuing
Studies.
Northwestern was founded in 1851 by
John Evans to serve the people of what
had once been the
Northwest
Territory. Instruction began in 1855, and women were first
admitted in 1869.
Today, Northwestern's main campus is a
240-acre (97 ha) parcel in Evanston, along the shore of Lake Michigan
. The university's campus in downtown Chicago
is the
location of its law and medical schools. The Medill School of
Journalism and School of Communication also have a campus in
Education
City
, Doha
, Qatar
.
In 2008 Northwestern enrolled 8,476 undergraduate and 9,955
graduate and professional students. The
Northwestern Wildcats compete in 19
intercollegiate sports in the
NCAA's
Division I, primarily in the
Big Ten Conference.
History
The history of Northwestern University can be traced back to a May
31, 1850 meeting of prominent Chicago businessmen who shared a
desire to establish a university to serve what had once been the
the
Northwest Territory. On
January 28, 1851, the
Illinois
General Assembly granted a charter to the
Trustees of the
North Western University making it the first recognized
university in Illinois. The school’s nine founders were all
Methodists (including three
ministers in the
church) and were committed to
non-sectarian admissions for the
entire population of the territory.
John Evans
purchased of land along Lake Michigan in 1853 and Philo Judson
began developing the plans for what would become the city of
Evanston. The first building,
Old College, opened on
November 5, 1855. As a private university that had to raise funds
for construction, Northwestern sold $100 "perpetual scholarships"
that entitled the purchaser and his heirs to free tuition. In 1873,
the
Evanston College for
Ladies merged with Northwestern, and
Frances Willard, who later
gained fame as a
suffragist, became
the school's first dean of women. Northwestern admitted its first
female students in 1869 and the first female student graduated in
1874.
Northwestern first fielded an intercollegiate football team in 1882
and later became a founding member of the
Big Ten Conference. Northwestern became
affiliated with professional schools of law, medicine, and
dentistry throughout the Chicago area in the 1870s and 1880s.
Enrollments grew through the 1890s and under
Henry Wade Rogers these new programs were
integrated into a modern research university combining
professional, graduate, and undergraduate programs, and emphasizing
teaching along with research. The
Association of American
Universities invited Northwestern to become a member in 1917.
Under
Walter Dill Scott's presidency
from 1920–1939, Northwestern began construction of an integrated
campus in downtown Chicago designed by James Gamble Rogers to house the
professional schools, the establishment of the Kellogg School of Management,
as well as opening new buildings on the Evanston campus like
Dyche
Stadium
and Deering Library
. A proposal to merge Northwestern with the
University of
Chicago
was considered in 1933 but rejected by both
schools. Northwestern hosted the first-ever NCAA Men's
Division I Basketball Championship game in 1939 in the original
Patten
Gymnasium
, which was
later demolished and relocated farther north in order to make room
for the Technological
Institute.
University Hall, the second building
constructed on the campus, and the oldest building still
standing.
Like other American research universities, Northwestern was
transformed by
World War II.
Franklyn B. Snyder led the university from 1939 to
1949 and during the war nearly 50,000 military officers and
personnel were trained on the Evanston and Chicago campuses. After
the war surging enrollments under the
G.I.
Bill drove drastic expansion of both
campuses. In 1948, prominent anthropologist
Melville J. Herskovits founded the Program of
African Studies at Northwestern, the
first center of its kind at an American academic institution.
J. Roscoe Miller's tenure from 1949–1970 was
responsible for the expansion of the Evanston campus with the
construction of the Lakefill on Lake Michigan, growth of the
faculty and new academic programs, as well as polarizing
Vietnam-era student protests. In 1978, the first and second
Unabomber attacks occurred at Northwestern
University. Tensions between the Evanston community and
Northwestern were strained throughout much of the post-war era
given episodes of disruptive student activism, disputes over
municipal zoning, building codes, and law enforcement, as well as
restrictions on the sale of alcohol near campus until 1972.
Northwestern's exemption from state and municipal property tax
obligations under its original charter was a particular source of
town and gown tension and led to a
federal lawsuit between the city and university which was settled
out-of-court in 2004.
As government support of universities declined in the 1970s and
1980s, President
Arnold R. Weber oversaw the stabilization of
university finances and revitalization of the campuses. As
admissions to colleges and universities grew increasingly
competitive throughout the 1990s and 2000s,
Henry S. Bienen's tenure oversaw the increase in the
number and quality of undergraduate applicants, continued expansion
of the facilities and faculty, as well as renewed athletic
competitiveness. In 1999, Northwestern student journalists
uncovered information that exonerated Illinois death row inmate
Anthony Porter two days before his
scheduled execution and the Innocence Project has since exonerated
nine more innocent men. On January 11, 2003, in a speech at
Northwestern School of Law's Lincoln Hall,
Governor of Illinois George Ryan announced that he would
commute the sentences of more than
150
death row inmates.
The
Latin phrase on Northwestern's seal
Quaecumque sunt vera ("Whatsoever things are true") is
drawn from
Philippians 4:8.
Also on Northwestern's seal is a
Greek
phrase inscribed on the pages of an open book:
ho logos pleres
charitos kai aletheias, which translates as "The Word... full
of grace and truth" from the
Gospel of
John 1:14.
Both the Latin and Greek phrases express the values of the
University's Methodist founders.
Purple
became Northwestern's official school color in 1892, replacing
black and
gold after a
university committee thought that the colors were common to too
many other universities. Today, Northwestern only has one official
color, royal purple although white is a
de facto official
color mentioned in both the university's
Alma Mater ("Hail
to purple, hail to white") and some university guidelines.
Campuses
Evanston
Northwestern's Evanston campus, home to the undergraduate program,
graduate school, and business school, runs north-south in between
Lake Michigan and
Sheridan Road from
Clark Street to
Central
Street.
The north side of campus is home to the
campus' fraternity
quads, the Henry Crown
Sports Pavilion and other athletic facilities, the Technological Institute, Dearborn
Observatory
, and other science-related buildings including Ryan
Hall, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering Design Center.
The south
side of campus is home to the University's humanities buildings,
music buildings (such as Pick-Staiger Concert Hall), art buildings
(such as the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of
Art
), and sorority quads.
This
division in building location, along with the fact that the south
end of campus is closer to the downtown center of Evanston, creates a cultural difference between the students
typically found on either end of the campus. In the 1960s, the
University expanded its campus boundaries by constructing a
lakefill in
Lake
Michigan.
The
additional are now home to the Northwestern
University Library
, Norris University Center, and Pick-Staiger Concert
Hall, among other facilities.
The
Chicago Transit
Authority's
elevated train running
through Evanston is called the
Purple Line, taking
its name from Northwestern's school color.
The Foster
and Davis
stations are
within walking distance of the southern end of the campus, while
the Noyes
station is
close to the northern end of the campus. The Central
station is close to Ryan Field
, Northwestern's football stadium.
The
Evanston
Davis Street
Metra station serves the
Northwestern campus in downtown Evanston and the Evanston
Central Street
Metra station is near Ryan Field.
Chicago
The Montgomery Ward Building at the
Feinberg School of Medicine—America's first academic
skyscraper.
Northwestern's Chicago campus is located in
the city's Streeterville
neighborhood. The Chicago campus is home to
the medical school and hospital, the law school, the part-time
business school, and the
School of
Continuing Studies, which offers evening and weekend courses
for working adults.
Northwestern's professional schools and
hospital in downtown Chicago are about four blocks east of the
Chicago
station on the CTA Red Line. The
Chicago Transit Authority
and
Pace Suburban Bus Service have
several bus routes that run through both campuses.
Northwestern's professional schools had been founded or affiliated
with the university at various times in its history and
consequently their facilities were scattered throughout Chicago.
In
connection with a 1917 master plan for a central Chicago campus and
President Scott's capital campaign, of land were purchased at the
Corner of Chicago Avenue and Lake Shore
Drive
for $1.5 million in 1920. George McKinlock
donated $250,000 to have the campus named in honor of his son,
Alexander McKinlock Jr. who died in World War I, but his financial
losses during the
Great Depression
prevented him from fulfilling his pledge, so the university forgave
his debt and the name defaulted to the Chicago campus instead.
James Gamble Rogers was given a
commission to create a master plan for the major buildings on the
new campus which he designed in a
collegiate gothic style. In 1923, Mrs.
Montgomery Ward donated $8 million
to the campaign to fund the construction of the
Montgomery Ward Memorial
Building to house the medical and dental schools and create
endowments for faculty chairs, research grants, scholarships, and
building maintenance. The building would become the first
skyscraper housing academic facilities in the United states. In
addition to the Ward Building, Rogers designed
Wieboldt
Hall to house facilities for the School of Commerce and
Levy Mayer Hall to house the School of Law. The new campus
comprising these three new buildings were dedicated during a
two-day long ceremony in June 1927. The Chicago campus continued to
expand with the addition of
Thorn
Hall in 1931 and
Abbott
Hall in 1939.
Qatar
In fall
2008, Northwestern opened a campus in Education City, Doha,
Qatar
joining five other American universities: Carnegie
Mellon University
, Cornell University
, Georgetown University
, Texas A&M University
, and Virginia Commonwealth
University
. The
Medill School of Journalism and
School
of Communication offer
bachelors
degrees in journalism and communication respectively. The
Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community
Development provided funding for construction and
administrative costs as well as support to hire 50 to 60 faculty
and staff, some of whom will rotate between the Evanston and Qatar
campuses.
Sustainability
In 2009 The Sustainable Endowments Institute awarded Northwestern a
“C+” on its College Sustainability Report Card. In January 2009,
the Green Power Partnership (GPP, sponsored by the EPA) listed
Northwestern as one of the top 10 universities in the country that
purchase the most energy from renewable sources. A total of 40
million kWh, or 20% of the energy supplied to Northwestern’s
Evanston and Chicago campuses is offset through the purchase of
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
Northwestern requires that all new buildings will be
LEED-certified. Currently there are two LEED Certified buildings on
campus: The Wieboldt School of Continuing Studies was awarded Gold
LEED Certification in 2007, and the Ford Motor Company Engineering
Design Center was awarded Silver LEED Certification in 2006. New
construction and renovation projects will be designed to provide at
least a 20% improvement over energy code requirements where
technically feasible. The university also released the Evanston
Campus Framework Plan at the beginning of the 2008-2009 academic
year, which outlines plans for future development of the Evanston
Campus. The plan not only emphasizes the sustainable construction
of buildings, but also discusses improving transportation by
optimizing pedestrian and bicycle access. Northwestern has had a
comprehensive recycling program in place since 1990. Annually more
than 1,500 tons are recycled at NU, which represents 26% of the
waste produced on campus. Additionally, all landscape waste at NU
is composted.
Organization and administration
Northwestern is owned and governed by a privately-appointed
board of trustees. The current
board, with 70 members and chaired by
Patrick G. Ryan, delegates its power to an elected
President to serve as the chief executive officer of the
university. Northwestern has had
sixteen presidents in
its history (excluding interim presidents) and the current
president,
Morton O. Schapiro succeeded
Henry Bienen's fourteen year tenure on August
31, 2009.. Former President Bienen's total compensation for
2006–2007 was $1,742,560. The president currently has an immediate
staff of 21 vice presidents, directors, and other assistants for
administrative, financial, faculty, and student matters. The
Provost,
Daniel I. Linzer since September 2007, serves under
the President as the chief academic officer of the university and
is the office to which the deans of every academic school, leaders
of cross-disciplinary units, and chairs of the 17 standing faculty
committees report.
The University Senate is composed of all full-time faculty and
makes recommendations on matters of educational policy, recommends
candidates for honorary degrees, and can elect special committees
such as the 22-member General Faculty Committee which serves as a
liaison between the faculty and administration. The Associated
Student Government and Graduate Student Association are likewise
the elected, representative liaison bodies for undergraduate and
graduate students respectively to the university
administration.
Northwestern University is composed of 11 schools and colleges. The
faculty for each school consists of the university president,
provost, the dean of the school, and the instructional faculty.
Faculty are responsible for teaching, research, advising students,
and serving on committees. The admission requirements, degree
requirements, course of study, disciplinary and degree
recommendations are determined by the voting members of each
school's faculty (assistant professor and above).
In 2007, Northwestern's endowment increased by 11.4% to $7.243
billion, making it the 8th-largest endowment of all American
universities. In the eleven year period between 1997 and 2007, the
endowment grew by an average rate of 13.4%. $187.9 million is gifts
and other voluntary support were made to Northwestern in 2006–2007.
In 2003, Northwestern finished a five-year capital campaign which
raised $1.55 billion, $150 million more than its goal. In 2007, the
university sold its royalty interest in the pain relief drug
Lyrica (developed at Northwestern by
Professor
Richard Bruce
Silverman) for $700 million, the largest royalty sale in
history, and the proceeds placed in the endowment to support
financial aid, research, and construction.
Undergraduate and
Graduate Programs
|
Graduate and
Professional |
| Evanston Campus
|
Evanston Campus
Chicago Campus
|
| Chicago Campus
|
Academics
Northwestern is a large, highly residential research university.
Accredited by the
North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools and the respective national
professional organizations for chemistry, psychology, business,
education, journalism, music, engineering, law, and medicine, the
university offers over 130 undergraduate programs and 70 graduate
and professional programs. NU granted 2,089 bachelors degrees,
2,665 masters degrees, 462 doctoral degrees, and 416
professional degrees in 2006–2007.
The four year, full-time undergraduate program comprises the
majority of enrollments at the university and emphasizes
instruction in the "arts & sciences/professions." There is no
required common core curriculum; individual degree requirements are
set by the faculty of each school. Northwestern's full-time
undergraduate and graduate programs operate on an approximately 10
week
academic quarter
system with the primary three academic quarters beginning in
late September and ending in early June. Although undergraduates
are required to complete at least 12 quarters on campus to
graduate, Northwestern offers honors, accelerated, and joint degree
programs in medicine, science, mathematics, engineering, and
journalism. The comprehensive doctoral graduate program has high
coexistence with undergraduate programs.
Undergraduates with
grade point
averages in the highest 3 percent of each graduating class are
awarded degrees
summa cum
laude, the next 5 percent
magna cum laude, and
the next 8 percent
cum laude. Northwestern also has
chapters of academic honor societies such as
Phi Beta Kappa,
Eta
Kappa Nu,
Tau Beta Pi, and
Lambda Pi Eta. Since 1951, Northwestern has
awarded 520
honorary degrees to
distinguished individuals.
Undergraduate tuition for the 2008–2009 school year was $37,125.
Northwestern awards financial aid solely on the basis of need
through loans, work-study, grants, and scholarships. $213.8 million
was offered in financial aid across the university's undergraduate
and graduate programs, including $81 million from university funds,
federal and state aid, and outside sources awarded to 3,380
undergraduates in 2007–2008. Beginning in fall 2008, Northwestern
replaced loans with grants for students with the greatest financial
need, although only 9% of students qualify for
Pell Grants. 46% of Northwestern undergraduates
graduate with student debt and the average debt is $18,393.
Among the six undergraduate schools, 51.2% of undergraduate
students are enrolled in the
Weinberg College of Arts
and Sciences, 17.2% in the
McCormick School of
Engineering, 14.7% in the
School of
Communication, 8.4% in the
Medill School of Journalism,
5.0% in the
Bienen School of
Music, and 3.4% in the
School of
Education. The five most commonly awarded degrees are in
economics, journalism, communication studies, psychology, and
political science. While professional students are affiliated with
their respective schools, the Graduate School rather than home
schools is responsible for enrolling and administering the
full-time graduate students pursuing advanced academic degrees.
With 2,075 students enrolled in science, engineering, and health
fields, the largest graduate programs by enrollment include
chemistry, integrated biology, material sciences, electrical
engineering and computer science, neuroscience, and economics.
The
Kellogg School of
Management, School of Law, and Feinberg School of Medicine are
the three largest professional programs by enrollment.
Libraries and museums
The
Northwestern library system consists of four libraries on the
Evanston campus including the central University
Library, three on the Chicago campus, and two affiliated
with the Garrett-Evangelical and Seabury-Western seminaries
respectively. The library contains over 4.6 million volumes,
4.5 million microforms, and 45,000 periodicals making it (by
volume) the 30th-largest university library in North America and
the 10th-largest library among private universities. Library
expenditures totaled $26.3 million in 2006 and over 100,000 volumes
were added in the same year. Notable collections in the library
system include the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African
Studies, one of the largest
Africana collections in the world, an
extensive collection of early edition printed music and manuscripts
as well as late-modern works, and an art collection noted for its
19th and 20th-century
Western
art and
architecture
periodicals. The library system participates with twelve other
universities in digitizing its collections as a part of the
Google Book Search project.
The
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of
Art is a major art museum
within Chicagoland and contains over 4,000 works in its
permanent collection in addition to dedicating a third of its space
to temporary and traveling exhibits as a kunsthalle.
Research
Ford Design Center
Northwestern was elected to the
Association of American
Universities in 1917 and remains a research university with
"very high" research activity. Northwestern's schools of
management, engineering, and communication are among the most
academically productive in the nation. Northwestern manages
research and development budgets that totaled $420.0 million in
2006, 34th among all universities and 13th among private
universities in the United States. $250.0 million originated from
the federal government, $12.2 million from industry, $5.1 million
from state and local governments, $44.5 million from other sources,
and $108.2 million from Northwestern's own institutional funds, the
third most among private universities nationwide. Northwestern
dedicates to science and engineering research space, predominately
in the medical and biological sciences. Northwestern spent $29.8
million on research in non-science and engineering fields like
management, education, law, communication, and journalism in 2006,
12th most among all American universities. $61.56 million in
congressional
earmarks were
appropriated to Northwestern between 1990 and 2003 and $4.98
million in appropriations were granted in 2008. Northwestern
researchers disclosed 184 inventions, filed 158 patents
applications, received 32 patents, started 9 companies, and
generated $776 million in license income in 2008, although the
latter is distorted by the $700 million sale of
Lyrica to
Pfizer, the largest
royalty sale in history.
NU is home to the Northwestern Institute for Complex Systems,
Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, Materials Research
Center, Institute for Policy Research, International Institute for
Nanotechnology, Center for Catalysis and Surface Science, Buffet
Center for International and Comparative Studies, the Initiative
for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern and the
Argonne/Northwestern
Solar Energy Research Center.
Campus life
Traditions
The Rock in front of University
Hall
Northwestern University is home to a number of student traditions.
Painting
The Rock
(originally a fountain that was donated by the Class of 1902) is a
way to advertise Greek organizations, student groups, and on-campus
events.
Dance
Marathon, a 30-hour philanthropic event, raises several hundred
thousand dollars every winter.
Primal Scream is held at 9
p.m. on the Sunday before finals week every quarter. For the event,
students lean out windows or gather in court yards and scream at
the top of their lungs. Armadillo Day, or more commonly
Dillo Day, is held on Northwestern's
Lakefill every Spring on the weekend after
Memorial Day.
Northwestern has several traditions for football games. Students
perform the Wildcat Growl when opposing teams control the ball,
while making "claws" with their hands. Also, students jingle their
keys at the beginning of each kickoff. Students used to throw
marshmallows during football games, but this unusual tradition was
discontinued at the behest of former football coach
Gary Barnett. The Rebecca Crown Center Clock
Tower glows purple (instead of its usual white) after a winning
game, announcing the results to a large part of the Evanston
community. The Clock Tower remains purple until a loss or the end
of the sports season. The Clock Tower is now lit for football,
men's basketball, and women's lacrosse victories; important wins in
other sports may also prompt a lighting. This is a recent change
from the original tradition of lighting the Clock Tower purple only
after winning football games, and keeping it purple during the
off-season if the football team won its last game of the
season.
Media
The Daily
Northwestern is the main student newspaper at
Northwestern. It is published on weekdays during the academic year.
Established in 1881, it is run entirely by undergraduates. Although
it serves the Northwestern community, the
Daily is not
affiliated with the university and is supported entirely by
advertisers. It is owned by the
Students Publishing Company.
Current circulation is in excess of 7,500.
North by Northwestern is an
independent, online magazine founded and run entirely by
Northwestern undergraduate students. It was established in
September 2006 by Medill students and is not affiliated with
Northwestern University. It is published weekdays, with updates on
breaking news stories and special events throughout the day and on
weekends.
WNUR
(89.3
FM) is a 7200 watt radio station that broadcasts to Chicago and its
northern suburbs. However, music is not the only part of
WNUR's programming. Students broadcast Northwestern's varsity
athletics (football, men's and women's basketball, baseball,
softball, and women's lacrosse) live, produce news updates on
weekdays, and discuss politics, current events, and
literature.
The
Northwestern News
Network, commonly known as NNN, is the student television news
and sports operation at Northwestern. It broadcasts news and sports
programming three days of the week during the academic year on NU
Channel 1, online at nnntv.org and weeknights at 10 p.m. on
Evanston cable access channel 6.
The Northwestern Syllabus Yearbook, known as Syllabus, is the only
official yearbook on campus. Founded in 1885, the yearbook contains
all of the priceless moments that occur in any given year at
Northwestern. Published by
Students Publishing Company and
run by Northwestern students, Syllabus seeks to include all
memorable events of that specific year. The book covers events in a
spring quarter through winter quarter cycle, and as such, is
released every year in late May.
The Northwestern
Flipside is a satirical publication at Northwestern
University. Founded in 2009,
The Flipside publishes a
weekly issue both in print and online.
Performing arts
Student theater enjoys a highly visible presence on campus. Two
annual productions are especially notable: the Waa-Mu show, and the
Dolphin show. Waa-Mu is an original
musical, written and produced almost entirely by students.
Children's theater is represented on campus by
Griffin’s Tale and
Purple Crayon Players. Its umbrella
organization—the Student Theatre Coalition, or StuCo—organizes the
9 fully-functioning student theatre companies, plus some other
performance groups. Students produce over sixty independent
productions each year. Many Northwestern alumni have used these
productions as stepping stones to successful television and film
careers. Chicago's Lookingglass Theatre was founded by several
alumni, including
David Schwimmer,
and began in the Great Room in
Jones Residential College.
Northwestern also has a variety of improv groups. The improv and
sketch comedy group
Mee-Ow lists
Julia Louis-Dreyfus,
Ana Gasteyer,
Dermot
Mulroney,
Seth Meyers,
John Cameron Mitchell, and
Kristen Schaal among its alumni. Mee-Ow,
Titanic, and Out da Box, a multicultural comedy show, along with
Northwestern's theatre department, have brought attention to
Northwestern's improv comedy training and performance.
There are ten a cappella groups and a variety of dance companies on
campus. The dance companies include Fusion Dance Company,
Northwestern's premiere Hip-Hop Dance Crew; Graffiti Dancers, a
dance group that focuses on jazz and modern; and Boomshaka,
Northwestern's premiere drum and dance ensemble, combining body
rhythm, drumming, and dance. Radio drama featuring student voice
actors is a staple of WNUR's programming.
Service
Many Northwestern students are also heavily involved in community
service. Annual events include
Dance Marathon, a
30-hour event that raised over $917,000 for charity in 2009.
Another annual event, Project Pumpkin, is a
Halloween celebration hosted by Northwestern
Community Development Corps (NCDC), where over 800 local children
are invited to campus for an afternoon of games and candy. NCDC
connects hundreds of NU student volunteers to over 20 volunteer
sites in Evanston and Chicago communities throughout the year. Many
students have assisted with the
Special
Olympics and have taken
alternative spring break trips to hundreds
of service sites across the United States. Northwestern students
also participate in the
Freshman
Urban Program, which is a special program for students who are
interested in community service. A large and growing number of
students participate in the university's Global Engagement Summer
Institute (GESI), a group service-learning expedition in Asia,
Africa, or Latin America, in conjunction with the
Foundation for
Sustainable Development. Internationally recognized
non-profit
organizations have also been born at NU such as the
World Health Imaging, Informatics and Telemedicine
Alliance, which spun off from an engineering student's
honors thesis.
Housing
Northwestern has diverse student housing options, including both
regular residence halls and specially-themed "Residential
Colleges." Some residential colleges include business-themed Ayers
College of Commerce and Industry, Jones Residential College,
dedicated to the arts, multi-themed Willard Residential College,
science and engineering themed Slivka Residential College, the
International Studies Residential College and the Communications
Residential College (CRC) for students interested in
communications.
In fall 2007, 27% of students were affiliated with a
fraternity or a
sorority. Northwestern recognizes 21 fraternities
and 18 sororities.
Athletics
Northwestern is a charter member of the
Big Ten Conference and the only private
institution in the conference. Currently, Northwestern fields 19
intercollegiate athletic teams (8 men's and 11 women's) in addition
to numerous club sports. Current successful athletic programs
include men's
soccer,
wrestling,
swimming, golf, tennis and women's tennis,
softball,
fencing and
lacrosse. The
women's lacrosse team
won five consecutive
NCAA national championships
between 2005 and 2009, went undefeated in 2005 and 2009, and holds
several scoring records. The men's
basketball team is recognized by the
Helms Athletic Foundation as the
1931 National Champion. In the 2008–2009 school year, a total of
184 athletes received Academic All-Big Ten honors: 75 athletes in
the fall season, 41 in the winter season, and 68 in the spring
season.
The
football team plays at Ryan Field (formerly known as Dyche Stadium); the basketball
and volleyball teams play at Welsh-Ryan Arena
. Northwestern's athletic teams are nicknamed
the Wildcats. Before 1924, they were known as "The Purple" and
unofficially as "The Fighting Methodists."
The name Wildcats was
bestowed upon the university in 1924 by Wallace Abbey, a writer for
the Chicago Daily Tribune who
wrote that even in a loss to the University of Chicago, "Football players had not come down from Evanston;
wildcats would be a name better suited to [Coach Glenn] Thistletwaite's boys." The name
was so popular that university board members made "wildcats" the
official nickname just months later. In 1972, the student body
voted to change the official nickname from "Wildcats" to "Purple
Haze" but the new name never stuck.
The Northwestern Athletics' mascot is
Willie the Wildcat.
However,
the team's first mascot was not Willie, but a live, caged bear cub
from the Lincoln Park
Zoo
named Furpaw. In fall 1923, Furpaw was
driven to the playing field to greet the fans before each game.
After a losing season, the team decided that Furpaw was the
harbinger of bad luck and banished him from campus. Willie made his
debut ten years later in 1933 as a logo, but did not actually come
to life until 1947, when members of the Alpha Delta fraternity
dressed up as him during the Homecoming parade. The
Northwestern
University Marching Band performs at all home football and lead
cheers in the student section and the
alma
mater at the end of the game.
Northwestern's football
team has a history of futility; its all-time record is
468-614-44 (0.435) giving it the all-time record for Division I-A
losses. Other dubious distinctions include being on the losing end
of
the greatest
comeback in Division I-A history and holding the record for the
longest losing streak in Division I-A, losing 34 consecutive games
between 1979 and 1982. In 2004, Northwestern broke a 33-year losing
streak (46 years at home) by defeating No. 7-ranked
Ohio State 33-27.
Although the team was
invited to the 1996 Rose Bowl, 1997
Citrus
Bowl
, 2000 Alamo Bowl,
2003 Motor City Bowl, 2005 Sun Bowl, and 2008 Alamo Bowl, the last bowl game
Northwestern won was the 1949 Rose
Bowl. Following the sudden death of football coach
Randy Walker in 2006,
31-year old and former
All-American
Northwestern
linebacker Pat Fitzgerald assumed the position becoming
the youngest
Division I
FBS coach at the time.
In 1998, two former
Northwestern
basketball players were charged and convicted for sports
bribery as a result of being paid to
shave
points in games against three other Big 10 schools during the
1995 season. The
football
team became embroiled in a different betting scandal later that
year when federal prosecutors indicted four former players for
perjury related to
betting on their
own games. In August 2001, Rashidi Wheeler, a senior
safety, collapsed and died during
practice from an
asthma attack. An
autopsy revealed that he had
ephedrine, a
stimulant banned by the
NCAA, in his system which prompted Northwestern to
investigate the prevalence of stimulants and other banned
substances across all of its athletic programs. In 2006, the
Northwestern women's
soccer team was
suspended and coach Jenny Haigh resigned following the release of
images of alleged
hazing.
People
Student body
Northwestern enrolled 8,284 undergraduate, 8,249 graduate, and
1,495 professional students in the 2006–2007 academic year. The
undergraduate population is 51.6% female and represents 50 states
and 50 countries. Admissions are characterized as "more selective,
lower transfer-in". There were 21,930 applications for the
undergraduate Class of 2011 (entering 2007): 5,872 were admitted
(26.8%), 1,981 enrolled (33.7%), and 96.3% rematriculated as
sophomores. The
interquartile
range on the
SAT was 2010–2270 and 85%
ranked in the top ten percent of their high school class. In 2007,
Northwestern enrolled 249
National Merit Scholars as freshmen,
the third-largest total in the nation. 86% of students graduated
after four years and 93% after six years.
Faculty
The
university employs 2,925 full-time faculty members and
approximately 5,600 staff members among its eleven schools,
including 26 members of the National Academy of Sciences
, 74 members of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences
, 21 members of the National Academy of
Engineering, and 6 members of the Institute of Medicine. Notable
current faculty include NSF Career Award winning computer
scientists Bryan Pardo and Jason Hartline, sexual psychologist
J. Michael Bailey;
Holocaust denier Arthur Butz; former-
Weatherman Bernardine Rae Dohrn;
ethnographer Gary
Alan Fine;
Kyoto Prize-winning
philosopher
Jurgen Habermas;
Templeton Prize-winner
Charles Taylor;
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
Garry Wills; genetic
circadian clock discoverer
Joseph Takahashi; and
MacArthur Fellowship recipients
Stuart Dybek,
Aleksandar Hemon,
Jennifer Richeson, and
Mary Zimmerman. Notable former faculty
include artist
Ed Paschke, writer
Charles Newman,
Nobel Laureate chemist
John Pople, and military sociologist and
"
don't ask, don't tell" author
Charles Moskos.
Alumni
Northwestern totals approximately 190,000 alumni, including many in
business, government, law, science, education, medicine, media, and
the performing arts. Among Northwestern's notable alumni are U.S.
Senator and presidential candidate
George McGovern, Nobel Prize-winning
economist
George J. Stigler, and Nobel Prize-winning author
Saul Bellow. U.S.
Supreme Court
Associate Justice John Paul
Stevens, former Supreme Court Justice and Ambassador to the
United Nations Arthur Joseph
Goldberg, and politician Adlai
Stevenson are among the graduates of the Northwestern
University School of Law. Many Northwestern alumni play or have played
important roles in Chicago
and Illinois
, such as former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, and theater director
Mary Zimmerman. Northwestern
alumni
David J. Skorton and Graham Spanier currently serve as president
of Cornell
University and Penn State University
, respectively. Rahm
Emanuel, an American politician and White House Chief of Staff,
earned his Masters in Speech and Communication from Northwestern
1985.
The film and theater programs of Northwestern's School of
Communication have also produced a number of actors, actresses, and
film and television writers and directors. Alumni who have made
their mark on film and television include
Ann-Margret,
Warren
Beatty,
Paul Lynde,
David Schwimmer,
Anne
Dudek,
Zach Braff,
Marg Helgenberger,
Julia Louis-Dreyfus,
Jerry Orbach,
Jerry
Springer,
Megan Mullally,
Charlton Heston,
William Daniels,
Paula Prentiss,
Richard Benjamin,
Mara Brock Akil,
Greg Berlanti,
Zooey Deschanel,
Seth
Meyers,
Stephen Colbert and
Garry Marshall. Directors who
graduated from Northwestern include
Gerald Freedman,
Stuart Hagmann,
Marshall W. Mason, and
Mary
Zimmerman. Microbiology alumnus
Lee
Phillip Bell hosted a talk show in Chicago from 1952-1986 and
co-created the
Daytime Emmy Award
winning soap operas
The
Young and the Restless in 1973 and
The Bold and the Beautiful
in 1987.
Alumni such as Sheldon Harnick, Stephanie D'Abruzzo, Heather Headley, Kristen Schaal, Lily
Rabe, and Walter Kerr have seen
prominence on Broadway
. Amsterdam-based comedy theater
Boom Chicago was founded by Northwestern
alumni, and the school has become a training ground for future
The Second City,
I.O.,
ComedySportz,
Mad TV and
Saturday Night Live talent.
Tam Spiva wrote scripts for
The Brady Bunch and
Gentle Ben. In cities such as New York, Los
Angeles, and Chicago, the number of Northwestern alumni involved in
theater, film, and television has lead to perception of there being
a "Northwestern mafia".
The
Medill School of
Journalism has produced notable journalists and political
activists including 9
Pulitzer Prize
laureates. National correspondents and reporters such as
The
New York Times's
Elisabeth
Bumiller and
Vincent Laforet,
USA Today's Gary Levin,
NBC correspondent
Kelly
O'Donnell,
CBS correspondent
Richard Threlkeld,
CNN
correspondents
Nicole Lapin and
Joie Chen, and
ESPN
personalities
Rachel
Nichols,
Michael Wilbon,
Mike Greenberg,
J. A. Adande, and
Kevin
Blackistone.
Northwestern alumni involved in music include
Steve Albini,
Thomas
Tyra,
Andrew Bird, members of
Arcade Fire,
The Lawrence Arms, Chavez, Freddie
Feldman, and
OK Go. Lastly, Northwestern
alumni involved in professional sports include
Rick Sund (NBA),
Billy McKinney (NBA),
Mark Loretta (MLB),
Joe
Girardi (MLB),
Luis Castillo (NFL),
three-time Olympic medalist
Matt
Grevers, and PGA Tour star
Luke
Donald.
File:Charlton Heston Civil Rights March
1963.jpg|Charlton Heston, Academy Award-winning actor, National
Rifle Association
President, B.S. '45File:John Paul Stevens,
SCOTUS photo portrait.jpg|John Paul
Stevens, Associate
Justice of the United States Supreme Court, J.D. '47File:Rahm
Emanuel, official photo portrait color.jpg|Rahm Emanuel, White House Chief of Staff, M.A.
'85File:George McGovern bioguide.jpg|George McGovern, 1972 Democratic Presidential
nominee, Ph.D. '53
Notes and references
- Timeline 1900–1949, History, About, Northwestern
University
- Northwestern University Wildcams:
Troubleshooting
- Northwestern traditions, Campus life, Freshman,
Office of Undergraduate Admission - Northwestern
University
- http://www.wcas.northwestern.edu/esep/career/ges.html
- See Demographics of the United
States for references.
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