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|name = Amherst College |image = |motto = Terras irradient (Let Them Give Light to the World)| established = 1821 |type = Private |president = Anthony Marx |city = Amherst |state = MA |country = USA |campus = Rural |undergrad = 1,640| postgrad = |staff = 177 |mascot = Lord Jeffrey Amherst |nickname = The Jeffs |endowment= ~$1.2 billion |website = www.amherst.edu |}} Amherst College is an independent Liberal Arts College in Amherst , Massachusetts , USA . It is the third oldest college in Massachusetts . It has been Coeducation al since 1975 . History Founded in 1821 . Amherst College was intended to be a successor to Williams College , which was then struggling to stay open; and Amherst Academy, a secondary school which educated, among others, Emily Dickinson . Origin of name Amherst Academy and Amherst College were both named for the town of Amherst, which in turn was named for Lord Jeffery Amherst , commanding general of British forces in North America during the French And Indian War . Lord Jeffery Amherst is now notorious for his comments, in a letter to a peer, about spreading Smallpox -infected blankets among Native Americans . "Amherst" is pronounced without the "h" — Am'erst. Amherst Academy "Amherst Academy was the mother of Amherst College," according to William S. Tyler, who wrote two comprehensive histories of Amherst College. Funds were raised for the Academy in 1812, and the Academy went into operation in December 1814 . On November 18 , 1817 , a project was adopted at the Academy to raise funds for the free instruction of "indigent young men of promising talents and hopeful piety, who shall manifest a desire to obtain a liberal education with a sole view to the Christian ministry." This required a substantial investment from benefactors. During the fundraising for the project, it became clear that without larger designs, it would be impossible to raise sufficient funds. This led the committee overseeing the project to conclude that a new institution should be created. On August 18 , 1818 , the Amherst Academy board of trustees accepted this conclusion and began building a new college. Williams College According to Tyler:
Moore, however, still believed that Williamstown was an unsuitable location for a college, and with the advent of Amherst College, was elected its first president on May 8 , 1821 . At its opening, Amherst had forty-seven students. Fifteen of these had followed Moore from Williams College. Those fifteen represented about one-third of the whole number at Amherst, and about one-fifth of the whole number in the three classes to which they belonged in Williams College. President Moore died on June 29 , 1823 , and was replaced with a Williams College trustee, Heman Humphrey. For two years in the mid-1830's, Amherst was the second largest college in the United States, second only to Yale . In 1835, Amherst attempted to create a course of study parallel to the classical liberal arts education. This parallel course focused less on Greek and Latin , instead focusing on English , French , Spanish , Chemistry , Economics , etc. The parallel course did not take hold, however, until the next century. Williams alumni are fond of an apocryphal story ascribing the removal of books from the Williams College library to Amherst College, but there is no contemporaneous evidence to verify the story. In 1995 , Williams president Harry C. Payne declared the story false, but the legend is still nurtured by many. Academic hoods in the United States are traditionally lined with the official colors of the school, in theory so watchers can tell where the hood wearer earned his or her degree. Amherst's hoods are purple (Williams' official color) with a white stripe or chevron, said to signify that Amherst was in some way born of Williams. Presidents of the College # Zephaniah Swift Moore , 1821-1823 # Heman Humphrey , 1823-1845 # Edward Hitchcock , 1845-1854 # William Augustus Stearns , 1854-1876 # Julius Hawley Seelye , 1876-1890 # Merrill Edward Gates , 1890-1899 # George Harris , 1899-1912 # Alexander Meiklejohn , 1912-1924 # George Daniel Olds , 1924-1927 # Arthur Stanley Pease , 1927-1932 # Stanley King , 1932-1946 # Charles W. Cole , 1946-1960 # Calvin Plimpton , 1960-1971 # John William Ward , 1971-1979 # Julian Gibbs , 1979-1983 # Peter R. Pouncey , 1984-1994 # Tom Gerety , 1994-2003 # Anthony Marx , 2003- Academics and Resources Admission to Amherst College is among the most competitive in the country. Notable faculty members include modern literature and poetry critic William H. Pritchard, Beowulf translator Howell Chickering, Jewish and Latino studies scholar Ilan Stavans , Pulitzer Prize winning Khruschev biographer William Taubman , Natural Law expert Hadley Arkes , and law and society expert Austin Sarat . Amherst is distinguished by one of the most open currculicums in the United States, without a large body of required courses or course distributions. Amherst is a member of the program. Among the notable resources at Amherst College are the Mead Art Museum , the Amherst Center For Russian Culture , Robert Frost Library , and the Amherst College Natural History Museum . Amherst maintains a relationship with Doshisha University in Japan , which was founded by Amherst alumni Joseph Hardy Neesima . Tuition Amherst's total tuition, fees, room, and board for the Fall of 2005 was $41,576. Tuition and fees alone were $33,694. Athletics The school's sports teams are known as the Lord Jeffs; women's teams are sometimes referred to as "Lady Jeffs", though the official title covers all teams. (The women's volleyball team calls itself the Firedogs, the men's Ultimate team calls themselves Army of Darkness, the women's ultimate frisbee team is called Barely Legal, and the men's Water Polo team is called the Yo-Ho Penguins.) The school participates in the NCAA 's Division III, the Eastern College Athletic Conference , and the New England Small College Athletic Conference , which includes Bates , Bowdoin , Colby , Connecticut College , Hamilton , Middlebury , Trinity , Tufts , Wesleyan , and Williams . Amherst is also one of the " Little Three ", along with Williams and Wesleyan . The College is often referred to as one of the " Little Ivies ." Amherst has one of the best Division III athletic programs in the country, placing in the top ten of the NACDA Director's Cup five of the last ten years.
Amherst trivia
Notable alumni For a list of notable people affiliated with Amherst College see: List Of Amherst College People . External links
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