Wagner College

Infobox_University
name = Wagner College
native_name =
latin_name = Collegium Wagnerianum


motto =
established = 1883
type = Private
endowment = $58,000,000
staff =
faculty = 107
president = Richard Guarasci
provost = Devorah Lieberman
rector =
chancellor =
vice_chancellor =
dean = Anne Goodsell Love, Ruta Shah-Gordon
head_label =
head =
students = 2,335
undergrad = 1,954
postgrad = 381
doctoral =
city = Staten Island
state = NY
country = USA
campus = Suburban, hilltop overlooks NYC skyline. 105 acres (0.42 km²)
free_label = Athletics
free = NCAA Division I-AA
colors = Green and White
mascot =
nickname = Seahawks
affiliations = ELCA
conference = Northeast Conference (NEC)
website = [http://www.wagner.edu wagner.edu]

Wagner College is a coeducational private liberal arts college located on Staten Island in New York City. Wagner enrolls about 1900 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. The college is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Wagner College is also a member of Associated New American Colleges (ANAC), Project Pericles, and Campus Compact.

Wagner was recently declared by the Princeton Review 2008 "366 Best Colleges" as having the 2nd "Best College Theater" in the nation. The 2008 Review also named it among the top 10 in "College with the Most Beautiful Campus." Popular majors at Wagner include business, psychology, biology, education, arts administration & theatre.

History

Wagner College was founded in 1883 in Rochester, New York, as the Rochester Lutheran Proseminary to train Lutheran ministers. Its curriculum was modeled on the German gymnasium; it was a six year curriculum. In 1886, it became the Wagner Memorial Lutheran College after a building in Rochester was purchased for its use by John G. Wagner in memory of his son.

The college moved to the 38 acre former Cunard estate on Grymes Hill, Staten Island (370 feet above sea level) in 1918. Bellevue, the Cunard mansion which dates from 1851, is extant (now Cunard Hall) as is the neighboring former hotel for visitors which also dates from the 19th century (initially named North Hall and is now Reynolds House). The college soon expanded to 57 acres after it acquired the neighboring Vanderbilt estate in 1922. In the 1920s, the curriculum began to move toward an American-style curriculum which was solidified when the state of New York granted the college degree-granting status in 1928. The college admitted women in 1933 and introduced graduate programs in 1951. The college expanded further when it purchased the W.G. Ward estate in 1949 (current site of Wagner College Stadium), and again in 1993 when the college acquired the adjacent property of the former Augustinian High School which has largely remained wooded greenspace and athletic fields. The college now occupies convert|110|acre|km2|1 on the hill and has commanding views of New York harbor, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, Downtown Brooklyn, and lower Manhattan.

In the early 1960s, the Wagner College Writer's Conference hosted several prominent writers including Edward Albee, Kay Boyle, and Kenneth Koch.

General

Prominent buildings include Main Hall (1930) and Parker Hall (1923) built in the collegiate Gothic style. A group of modern buildings built in the 1960s include the Student Union (1970), Megerle Science Building (1968), and the Spiro Communication Center (1968). The Horrmann Library (1961) contains over 200,000 volumes and holds the collection and personal papers of poet Edwin Markham. 80% of the undergraduates live in one of three residence halls. The Spiro Sports Center (1999) is the most recent major addition.

In 2007 it was announced that a new academic building is under development for construction on the site of the former Augustinian High School. It will be a state of the art facility that will house the Business, Nursing, and Education departments. It will also house new, state of the art classrooms and is scheduled to be completed by 2011. This building, in addition to the new upperclassman residence hall, which will be completed in the fall of 2009, is part of the vast undertaking by the college to renew itself as a state-of-the-art center for learning.

The Wagner College Department of Athletics sponsors Men's Intercollegiate Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Wrestling, Tennis, Track, Lacrosse and Ice Hockey along with Women's Intercollegiate Softball, Basketball, Cross Country, Lacrosse, Soccer, Tennis, Golf, Water Polo, Swimming and Volleyball.

Academics

Wagner offers several undergraduate degrees in the arts and sciences as well as some pre-professional courses of study.

Wagner College is home to the Center for International Business Strategic Studies [http://www.wagner.edu/cibss/] , a research and educational center dedicated to providing academia, business people and policy-makers with strategic analysis of the global economic, political and cultural environment. It is also home to the Hugh L. Carey Center for Government Reform named for New York's 55th governor.

Majors and Concentrations

Pre-professional programs

* Pre-Law
* Pre-Engineering
* Pre-Ministry
* Pre-Health Science Programs
** Medicine
** Dentistry
** Veterinary Medicine
** Pharmacy
** Optometry
** Podiatry

Graduate Programs

*Business Administration
**M.B.A. (Traditional, Executive, Accelerated)
**Accounting, M.S.
*Education, M.S.E.
**Adolescent Education
**Childhood Education
**Early Childhood Education
**Middle Level Education
**Teaching Literacy (B-6)
*Microbiology, M.S.
*Nursing, M.S.
*Physician Assistant B.S/M.S. (5-year program)

Photos

Notable alumni

*Victoria Batistelli, Rockford Thunder catcher
*Peter L. Berger, sociologist and theologian
*Kathy Brier, actor
*Tim Capstraw, sports announcer and college basketball coach
*Michelle Cliff, author
*Christina DeCicco, actress/singer
*Fred Espenak, NASA astronomer
*Randy Graff, actor
*Laura Graham, executive director, William J. Clinton Foundation
*Samantha Hammel, singer, actress and record producer
* Walter Hartung, Founding member of TKE ZA chapter at Wagner, telecommunications engineer; established Walter G. and Lillian Hartung Endowment for Mathematics.
*Frederick Jorin, director at Citi
*Rich Kotite, Former NFL coach
*Frank Corrado, Rockstar
*Donna Lupardo, member of New York State Assembly
*William Maxwell, artist
*Michelle Millerick, actor/singer
*Guy Molinari, former Borough President of Staten Island; former member of the United States Congress
*Vinnie Potestivo, Television Producer
*Steven L. J. Russo, Director of the Suits-Bueche Planetarium, Schenectady, NY
*Sheldon Schafer, Director of the Lakeview Planetarium, Peoria, IL
*Danny Seigle, Philippine Basketball (PBA) Superstar, Member of the Philippine Basketball Team
*George Semsel, filmmaker
*Gregory Soja, chemist
*Albert P. Stauderman, editor of The Lutheran
* Al Stewart, Journalist, writer
*Lynne Stewart, attorney and activist
*Sam Storch, Director of the Edwin Hubble Planetarium, Brooklyn, NY
*Robert Straniere, former member of New York State Assembly
*Richard tum Suden, artist
*Brian Whitman, radio talk show host
*Emily Youssouf, President, New York Housing Development Corporation
*Paul Zindel, author and playwright
*Robert Loggia, actor

Movies & television

Wagner's campus has been featured in:
*"The Visitor (2008 film)", distributed by Overture Films
*"Poster Boy", 2004 film which won the Outfest Grand Jury Award for Best Screenwriting.
*"School of Rock", 2003 film starring Jack Black and Joan Cusack.
*"Cadaverous", 2000 film
*"Naked in New York", 1993 film
*"Silent Madness", 1984 film
*"The Sopranos", 2001 (season 3). The campus was featured when Tony and Carmela visited a military school.
*"The Education of Max Bickford", 2001-2001. CBS drama series starring Richard Dreyfuss and Marcia Gay Harden. Wagner (along with Brooklyn College) was the fictional Chadwick College.
*Spike TV, 2003 a commercial featuring a girls field hockey team.
*"Law & Order" and
*""

External links

* [http://www.wagner.edu/ Wagner College]
* [http://wagnerpedia.wagner.edu Wagnerpedia]