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Bennington College is a Liberal Arts College located in Bennington, Vermont . HISTORY Bennington College was founded in 1932 as a women's college focusing on Arts , Science s, and Humanities and became co-educational in 1969 after a serious debate. The campus itself is a modified farmer's field - the administrative building is a converted dairy cow barn - but the architecture that has been erected since the land was donated by the Jennings family at the height of the Depression has made the campus look anything but farm-like. Public image In the 1960s , Bennington gained unexpected notoriety for being the most expensive college in the country, harboring an almost Anarchic student and faculty body and leading trends in art and Literature . Financial mismanagement almost destroyed the institution, but changes in 1994 under the Board of Trustees and President Elizabeth Coleman improved the financial picture but also cut back or replaced faculty and abolished presumptive tenure. (This led to student and alumni protests, censure by the American Association of University Professors, and other difficulties.) Huge fundraising campaigns and a re-vamping of the college's image countered low enrollment rates. By the late 1990s, Bennington College was at its most stable point in 20 years. Rising enrollment, large donations by older alumni from the first 10 classes, especially recent multi-million donations made by the Merck family (owner of Merck Pharmaceuticals ), and vigorous expansion have made Bennington once again a viable option for students contemplating a college education. In recent years, Bennington has even lost its distinction as the nation's most expensive college. According to CNN , tuition at Bennington in 2005-2006 was only the 8th most expensive in the United States. The college is closed during the winter months, however, when students leave for "Field Work Term" and thus the daily cost of a Bennington education is arguably still the highest in the nation. EDUCATION STYLE Educationally, Bennington exists on a system of Plans, where students and faculty jointly decide a student's course of study. Main subjects taught include: Social Science s and Humanities, Dance, Drama , Theater Arts, Music Performance and Composition , Life and Physical Science s, Literature and Writing, Teacher Education (Center for Creative Teaching), Foreign Language Arts (Regional Center for Languages and Culture), Visual Arts ( Ceramic s, Painting , Sculpture , drawing, photography, architecture), Video and Media Studies. Bennington students are held accountable for their work by close critique and review by faculty and peers, rather than traditional letter grades. Bennington has, for the past several years, offered written evaluations rather than a graded scale as the default option for undergraduate performance review. According to the official college website, "all students are encouraged to consider requesting grades for at least two years (or 64 credits) of their study at Bennington so that a GPA might be produced upon graduation." There are no competitive sports teams or Fraternities / Sororities . Bennington is run on a three-term system. One term in the fall, another in the spring, are held on campus. A winter term, called "Field Work Term" allows students the opportunity to accrue job skills, get internships, do independent research, or any other approved activity. NOTABLE FACULTY
NOTABLE ALUMNI
THE "BENNINGTON GIRL" IN FICTION AND OTHER REPRESENTATIONS OF THE COLLEGE AS IT WAS
SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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