Eastern University

"This article is about the university in Pennsylvania. For the university in Dhaka , see Eastern University, Bangladesh."Infobox_University


name = Eastern University
motto = "The Whole Gospel for the Whole World"
established = 1952
type = Private, Religious
president= David Black
city = St. Davids
Radnor Twp
state = Pennsylvania
country = USA
postgrad_label =
postgrad= 1,235
undergrad = 3,000
staff= 350
campus = Suburban, 92 acres| mascot = Eagle
endowment=
colors = Maroon and white color box|#800000 color box|#FFFFFF
website= [http://www.eastern.edu/ www.eastern.edu]

Eastern University is a private, co-educational, and Christian university in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. While it is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches, Eastern is home to a denominationally diverse student population. Enrollment consists largely of Evangelical Protestants. However, there are also a number of Roman Catholics, Messianic Jews, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, and non-religious students enrolled.

Despite the similarity in name, it is not affiliated with Universidad del Este in Puerto Rico.

History

Eastern was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1925 as a department of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1952 it became a separate institution, moved to its present-day St. Davids location, and changed its name to Eastern Baptist College. In 1972 it was renamed Eastern College to encourage enrollment by members of other denominations. In 2001 the Pennsylvania Department of Education granted the institution university status and it was renamed Eastern University. In 2004 the Board voted to acquire its previous parent institution, Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary. And in 2005, EBTS changed its name to Palmer Theological Seminary in honor of a previous president. In September 2005, Eastern offered assistance to Gulf Coast area college students displaced by Hurricane Katrina. In February 2007 Eastern hosted a national broadcast of Hugh Hewitt's radio program with a debate between former professor Tony Campolo and neoconservative commentator Frank Gaffney.

tudents

There are approximately 3,700 students enrolled in the School of Arts and Sciences, Templeton Honors College, Campolo College of Graduate and Professional Studies, Palmer Theological Seminary, and Esperanza College.

Notable alumni

*Tony Campolo
*Shane Claiborne
*Carolivia Herron
*Bryan Stevenson

tudent traditions

A student tradition since the early 1960s has been to paint messages and sayings on a boulder in the center of campus known as "the rock" initially discouraged by the institution when it began, some staff and faculty are now participants in the decoration of the rock.

Eastern has a long standing rivalry with neighboring Cabrini College which has led to occasional vandalism of various locations on both campuses.

Campuses

It has four major campuses:

* Main Campus commonly known as the School of the Arts and Sciences (St. Davids, Pennsylvania)
* Campolo School for Social Change (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
* Esperanza College (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
* Palmer Theological Seminary (Wynnewood, Pennsylvania)

It also has centers in Ripley, West Virginia and Washington DC, central Pennsylvania, and some international locations [http://www.eastern.edu/welcome/historyandfacts.html]

taff and Faculty

Dr. David Black is the current President of Eastern University.

All faculty are required to be in agreement with the University's doctrinal statement, though enforcement of this regulation is not always consistent

Notable staff

*Tony Campolo (emeritus)
*Wilson Goode (emeritus)
*Ron Sider - Palmer Seminary
* Christopher Hall
* David "Duffy" Robbins

Athletics

Eastern University is a Division III member of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and participates in the Freedom Conference of the Middle Atlantic Corporation.

[http://www.eastern.edu/athletics/intercollegiateteams.shtml School sponsored athletic programs at Eastern] are as follows::Fall Sports are Volleyball, Field Hockey, Men's and Women's Soccer, Men's and Women's Cross Country, and Women's Tennis:Winter sports are Men's and Women's Basketball:Spring sports are Golf (off campus), Baseball, Softball, Men's Tennis, and Men's and Women's Lacrosse

Eastern's school mascot is the eagle, which was chosen by students in the 1960s.

In 2002, Senior Andrea Collesidis broke an NCAA scoring record for women's lacrosse.

Buildings on Main Campus

The main campus was originally a private estate owned by the Walton family. Original buildings listed have their original use listed. The size of the campus has expanded through purchase of surrounding buildings and those are listed also

*Adams Hall (campus services)
*Andrews Hall (classrooms and offices)
*Doane Hall (residence hall)
*Eagle Hall (residence hall, classrooms, and offices)
*Fowler Hall (administrative offices; formerly known as Heritage House)
*Gate House (offices)
*Gallup Hall (residence hall)
*Gough Hall (residence hall)
*Greenhouse
*Grounds Building
*Guffin Hall (residence hall and snack bar)
*Gymnasium
*Gym Cottage (offices)
*Hainer Hall (residence hall)
*Kea Hall (residence hall)
*Log Cabin (building condemned)
*Mall Cottage (offices)
*McInnis Learning Center (classrooms and offices)
*Sparrowk Hall (residence hall; formerly known as North Campus Hall)
*Ott Hall (offices and security)
*Walton Hall (offices, mail room, snack bar and cafeteria)
*Warner Library/Harold Howard Center (library, electronic classrooms, and offices)
*Workman Hall (music center and offices)

Adams Hall

Adams Hall holds the workspace for the Campus Services department as well as offices for their staff.

Andrews Hall

Originally a garage, Andrews hall holds the chemistry, physics, business classrooms, offices for their faculty, as well as offices for some of the Communications and Business department staff.

Doane Hall

Originally a private home, it served as the first women's dorm. It is now co-ed, but the floors are segregated by gender and there are designated visiting hours.

Eagle Hall

The newest residence hall at Eastern University. Construction on Eagle Hall was completed just in time for the fall semester of 2007.

Fowler Hall

Originally a private residence, the building now serves as offices for administration, the president's office, EAPE offices, and classrooms for DCP and the Templeton Honors college. It was originally named Heritage House but was renamed in late 2007

Gallup Hall

Gallup hall is a series of four connected buildings which has both traditional residence hall spaces as well as 5 apartments.

Gate House

Originally a gate house for the estate, it has been used as a dormitory in the past but now serves as offices for the nursing department and has a conference room.

Gough Hall

Gough Hall contains dormitories, a large conference room, a seminar room, a mail room, a small kitchen, and a laundry facility.

Greenhouse

The greenhouse holds a variety of plants taken care of by the grounds keeping staff which are planted around campus in the spring and occasionally sold to persons in the area.

Grounds Building

The grounds building holds the equipment used by the grounds keeping staff as well as an office for the janitorial staff.

Guffin Hall

Originally a private home, it served as the first men's dorm. It is now co-ed and floors are segregated by gender. The ground floor contains a snack bar and lounge. This residence hall, along with Kea Hall, are known to have the best community on campus.

Gym Cottage

The gym cottage holds the offices for the conferences department.

Gymnasium

Includes a gymnasium for sporting events where worship services are also held, offices for the coaches, men's and women's locker rooms, a weight room, dance studio, and an outdoor swimming pool. Adjacent to the gym is a playing field which had artificial turf installed in the late summer of 2005.

Hainer Hall

Hainer hall was one of the first dormitories on campus, in the mid 1990s it was expanded with modular building materials.

Kea Hall

Kea Hall is a dormitory that is connected to Guffin Hall.

Log Cabin

The log cabin was designed by prominent architect, David Knickerbacker Boyd and built in the 1910s as part of the Walton estate. As part of Eastern it served as a recreation building for students until the building was closed in the mid 1970s due to dilapidation. It is now unoccupied and in disrepair. It was scheduled to be demolished on October 16, 2006 but was given a last minute reprive at the request of a local preservationist group and the historical society.

Mall Cottage

Originally a stable for horses, the mall cottage serves as offices for the student accounts and financial aid departments.

McInnis Learning Center

Constructed in 1972 the McInnis Learning center houses a majority of the classrooms and faculty offices. Offices for computing staff are in the building too. It also contains an auditorium, a curriculum lab, a planetarium and a state-of-the-art observatory called the Bradstreet Observatory on the roof. In 2006 the planetarium was upgraded to a new computerized system.

parrowk Hall

Sparrowk Hall is one of the most recently built residence halls on campus. It was completed in 2001 and was originally named the North Campus Hall.

Ott Hall

Originally a private residence, the building now serves as offices for the development staff as well as campus security

Eagle Learning Center

GPS faculty offices are located in this new building, completed in the fall of 2007.

Walton Hall

Walton Hall sometimes referred to as the mansion was the original building on the Walton estate. It originally held some classrooms and the library but is now a multipurpose building. There is a cafeteria, coffee shop and snack bar, student lounge, administrative offices, a chapel, SGA offices, study rooms, the mail and copy center, and the main information desk.

Warner Library/Harold Howard Center

The Frank Warner Memorial Library, better known as the Warner Library was built in 1965 It houses the library collection and classrooms. The current library director is James L. Sauer who has held the position since the early 1980s. The library survived an arson fire set by a security guard the day after Christmas in 1991 with minor damageFact|date=December 2007. The library completed a major renovation in August 2005 and added a new wing called the Harold C. Howard Center named in honor of a long serving administrator who died in 2003. The new wing contains state-of-the art electronic classrooms with advanced projection systems. The library collection includes over 170,000 volumes, over 800,000 pieces of microfiche, over 3,000 videocassettes and over 750 DVDs. There is a non-profit collection room which houses books related to non-profit organizations, a special collections room with books dating back 450 years, an archives room, and the Edison room which houses several artifacts which belonged to Thomas Edison, (donated to the library by his son, Charles Edison). After the death of Roland Frye in 2005, his book collection was donated to the library. An African American collections room to house rare books on African American history bequeathed by a local African American centenarian, Mazie Hall, was opened in November 2006. The library also has maintained a world in the Active Worlds Educational Universe since the early 2000s and in 2006 started inviting students to participate in its construction.

Workman Hall

Originally a private residence, the building now is used by the music department with offices, classrooms, and a recording studio. Plans to renovate the hall are currently underway.

Proposed buildings

A separate building for the main dining commons, and a chapel have been proposed.

Eastern is also in talks to purchase some faculty housing buildings from neighboring Valley Forge Military Academy to be used for the same purpose.

Eastern is currently planning to purchase a residential home adjacent to the campus for a possible alumni center or housing for the university president

External links

* [http://www.eastern.edu official site]
* [http://www.palmerseminary.edu/ Seminary website]
* [http://easternultimate.googlepages.com/home Eastern's Ultimate Frisbee Team]