Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) is a college of the liberal arts and sciences in Quincy, Massachusetts. Named Eastern Nazarene College in 1918, the College traces its roots back to the establishment of the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1900. The College organized a formal centennial observance in 2000.

The College is co-educational, primarily undergraduate, and mostly residential. The campus, situated on land once belonging to the Quincy family, is located in Quincy's Wollaston neighborhood, six miles (10 km) southeast of downtown Boston and half a mile northeast of the Wollaston T station. The College has been there since 1919.

Officially sponsored by the Church of the Nazarene, an evangelical Christian denomination, student population is historically multi-denominational and the school makes no religious requirements of its students aside from community lifestyle guidelines. The school's alumni publication is the Christian Scholar.

History

In 1900, members of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America, an aggregate of several holiness churches from eastern Canada down to the Middle Atlantic that had split from the Methodist Episcopal Church, established a collegiate institute at the Garden View House in Saratoga Springs, New York. It was named as the Pentecostal Collegiate Institute (PCI) and Biblical Seminary, a co-educational institution established for the sole purpose of providing Christian education and training in a college preparatory school and theological seminary. At the time, pentecostal did not hold the same meaning as it does today, but rather served as a synonym for "holiness". It was operated under the auspices of the Association and its own Board of Education, who felt the need for such a school because, just as they felt their former denominational affiliations had been inadequate, so were the schools affiliated with those denominations. The Institute changed locations in Saratoga Springs in 1901, from the Garden View House to the former Kenmore Hotel.

North Scituate

In 1902, the school moved to the former site of the closed Lapham Institute in North Scituate, Rhode Island, a small village roughly ten miles west of Providence as the result of a dispute between its first president, Lyman C. Pettit, and the Educational Committee of the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America. Pettit thought it appropriate and necessary to remove the Institute from the auspices of the Association, that "human machinery" was "contrary to aggressive holiness" and felt himself accountable "only to God. The Association, however, simply wished to subject the president and administration to some regulation and financial accounting procedures. Pettit, who owned the land on which the Institute was situated, refused to work with the Committee.

The Association relocated PCI, incorporated it, dropped the post-secondary curriculum to become purely college preparatory, and rediscovered a principal in William F. Albrecht. Having decided between land in New Haven, Connecticut, and North Scituate, Fred A. Hillery purchased the new campus in Rhode Island on behalf of the Committee for $4,500 and negotiated a mortgage for $3,000. The campus and its Greek Revival buildings were originally designed for the Smithville Seminary in 1839 by Russell Warren, the leading Greek Revival architect in New England in the 20th century, but had been unused since the Lapham Institute closed in 1876. Pettit continued to run a school of his own in Saratoga Springs, but it only lasted one more year before closing, after which he became a Presbyterian minister.

Since its move to Rhode Island, attendance at PCI (later ENC) was multi-denominational, only one-quarter to one-third pentecostal (later Nazarene) during any given academic year. Historian James Cameron references close relationships with the Reformed Baptist denomination in his history of ENC, including commencement ceremonies held at the local Baptist church in North Scituate.

In 1906, the Association of Pentecostal Churches of America began talks with the Church of the Nazarene to form a nationwide Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, a merge which would officially take place in 1907. The Church of the Nazarene later dropped "Pentecostal" from the name, however, as it became increasingly associated with congregations requiring glossolalia as demonstration of faith in the 20th century. The school took on the name Eastern Nazarene College in 1918 and saw its long-time dream of a liberal arts college realised that year, though secondary education was maintained in conjunction with the post-secondary curriculum through 1955. The naming was a difficult matter; it could hold neither the names "Pentecostal" nor "Collegiate Institute", as the school was now a liberal arts college and a Nazarene institution. Candidates included: "Northeastern Nazarene College", "Bresee Memorial College", "Nazarene College of the Northeast", and "Nazarene College and Bresee Theological Institute". Then-General Superintendent John Goodwin can be credited with the chosen name, as he wrote to Fred A. Hillery: "I know you will do your best for our New England College. I should be glad if they would change the name to the Eastern Nazarene College, or something like that. It would seem we must have a school there, although it moves along hard and slow."

Wollaston

In 1919, the college moved to its most recent location in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts. At the time of its purchase, the 12 acre property consisted of the Josiah Quincy Mansion (1848), a summer mansion built by the fourth Josiah Quincy (1802-1882) where Angell Hall now stands, a classroom building called the Manchester (1896), the stables (1848) on the site where Memorial Hall was built in 1948, and the Canterbury (1901), which still stands today as Canterbury Hall. From the captain's walk of the Mansion, Wollaston Bay (now called Quincy Bay) was clearly visible down to the "ships entering and leaving the port of Boston." The former Rhode Island campus was purchased in 1920 by Reverend William S. Holland, who moved his Watchman Institute there from Providence in 1923.

After the move to Massachusetts, it took 11 years for ENC to gain degree-granting power from the Commonwealth. Before 1930, an arrangement was made with Northwest Nazarene College for ENC students to receive degrees from that institution. The Massachusetts Department of Education was unimpressed by Eastern Nazarene, but President Floyd W. Nease appealed to the authority-granting body itself, the General Court. The college defended its petition before the Joint Committee on Education and the House and Senate on January 28, 1930, calling on financial records, campus improvement plans, and prominent community leaders, and the bill passed in both houses. Thirteen years later, under President Gideon B. Williamson, Eastern Nazarene College gained accreditation by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. Eastern Nazarene was known to local residents as "Our Quincy's College," coined by the Quincy Patriot Ledger, until the creation of the local community college in the mid-1950s, a move itself facilitated by members of ENC's History Department.

In the late 1970s, there were plans to relocate the College to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania and purchase the faltering Charles E. Ellis School for Fatherless Girls. The proposed move was very unpopular among students and members of the Quincy community, and the relocation never took place.

In the late 1990s, ENC acquired buildings originally owned by Howard Johnson's and renovated them for classroom and office space. The "campus" is known as "Old Colony," as it is located on Old Colony Avenue in Quincy. It houses many of ENC's Adult Studies classes as well as the James R. Cameron Center for History, Law, & Government and the Cecil R. Paul Center for Business. Many colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston, where contiguous land is often hard to acquire, have expanded in a similar fashion.

Presidents (1900-1902, 1918-present)

• Lyman C. Pettit (1900-1902)
• J. E. L. Moore (1918-1919)
• Fred J. Shields (1919-1923)
• Floyd W. Nease (1923-1930)
• R. Wayne Gardner (1930-1936)
• Gideon B. Williamson (1936-1944)
• Samuel Young (1944-1948)
• Edward S. Mann (1948-1970)

• Leslie L. Parrott (1970-1975)
• Donald Irwin (1975-1980)
• Stephen W. Nease (1980-1989)
• Cecil R. Paul (1989-1992)
• Kent R. Hill (1992-2001)
• Albert Truesdale (2001-2002 interim)
• J. David McClung (2002-2005)
• Corlis McGee (2005-present)

Principals (1900-1918)

• William F. Albrecht (1900-1901)
• Lyman C. Pettit (1901-1902)
• William F. Albrecht (1902-1904)
• D. C. Thatcher (1904 Fall Term)
• W. H. Daniels (1905 interim)
• Walter C. Kinsey (1905-1906)

• Ernest E. Angell (1906-1913)
• Martha Curry (1913-1914 interim)
• Joseph C. Bearse (1914-1916)
• A. R. Archibald (1916-1917)
• J. E. L. Moore (1917-1918)

Campus

The campus of Eastern Nazarene College is situated in the Wollaston neighborhood of Quincy, Massachusetts. Wollaston was one of Boston's first commuter neighborhoods, and the college is six miles (10 km) south of downtown Boston. The land once belonging to the prestigious Quincy family was broken up into building lots called "Wollaston Park" during in the late 19th century, making Wollaston a primarily residential neighborhood, and ENC purchased the property from the former Quincy Mansion School for Girls for $50,000 in 1919. The 15-acre campus lies less than half a mile from Quincy Bay, part of Massachusetts Bay and Boston Harbor. Wollaston Beach along Quincy Bay is the largest of the Boston Harbor beaches.

The campus is also an arboretum, dedicated as the Babcock Arboretum in 1993. The alma mater, with lyrics written by former president Edward S. Mann, not only refers to Quincy Bay but also the existence of the elm trees for which Elm Avenue was named, all of which died with the onset of Dutch elm disease in the early to mid-20th century.

Notable buildings and architecture

The Josiah Quincy Mansion (1848) was once located, along with the Josiah Quincy House, on a parcel of land known as the "Lower Farm" belonging to the Quincy family. The Mansion itself was situated on the land where Angell Hall now stands, and was the summer home of Josiah Quincy, then mayor of Boston. It was three stories and white, in Georgian architecture, with marble fireplaces in most of the rooms and large French windows on the first floor that "opened upon either little balconies or broad piazzas." Elm Avenue had been the avenue, or driveway, for the two mansions on the property. The first of the two, the Josiah Quincy House (1770), still stands on Muirhead Street. The Josiah Quincy Mansion was demolished in 1969.

Both Gardner Hall (1930), originally called Fowler Memorial Hall, and the original Floyd W. Nease Library (1953), now the Bower-Grimshaw Center for Institutional Advancement, were designed by Wesley Angell, son of Ernest E. Angell for whom Angell Hall is named. Gardner Hall was designed in the Classical or Colonial Revival mode. Gardner is brick, three stories on a high granite basement, and capped by a parapet balustraded in the center. Corners are articulated with brick quoins. The fenestration is symmetric with double sash windows at regular intervals, trimmed in white, topped with flared brick lintels and a white keystone. It also features a two-story balustraded Doric portico of fluted cast stone columns. The portico is the backdrop for commencement ceremonies. The main entrance, at the end of wide stairs, is pilastered and topped with a bracketed entablature, which frames an arched glass opening. The side elevations have projecting stair towers, which indicate the site of a central hall running the length of the building. Originally rectangular in form, the 1953 addition of the then-Nease Library in the rear bestowed upon it a T-configuration.

Memorial Hall (1948) holds the distinction of the only building on campus, other than the pre-existing Canterbury Hall (1901), not to be named for any one individual. Rather, it was built as a memorial to those who had served in the Second World War. Over two hundred alumni had served, and six students had given their lives.

Affiliations

As one of eight U.S. liberal arts colleges affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene, the college receives financial backing from the Nazarene churches on its region; part of each church budget is paid into a fund for its regional school. Each college or university is also bound by a gentlemen's agreement not to actively recruit outside its respective "educational region".

More specifically, ENC is the college for the Eastern Region of the United States, hence it is the Eastern Nazarene College and may be referred to as The Eastern Nazarene College. In terms of the Church of the Nazarene, this comprises the Maine, New England, Upstate New York, Metro New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Mid-Atlantic (formerly Washington), and Virginia Districts, which include Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and a small portion of West Virginia. Until the founding of Mount Vernon Nazarene College in 1968, the Eastern Region included Ohio, as well, the loss of which immediately affected ENC. When the boundaries were first established in 1918, the districts included Maritime and Canada-Central as well as New England, New York, Pittsburgh, Ohio, Washington-Philadelphia, and Virginia. Canada was restructured in 1960 and allocated to an all-Canadian Educational Zone for Canadian Nazarene College.

Eastern Nazarene is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU).

Academics

According to Bertha Munro, a graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard University, Academic Dean at Eastern Nazarene College from 1923 to 1957, and one of the College's most influential figures, ENC exists with the idea in mind that one can be a Christian and a scholar, a philosophy echoed by the philosophies of modern-day Christian authors and scientists like Karl Giberson, Darrel R. Falk, and Francis S. Collins.

Accreditation

Eastern Nazarene has been fully accredited by the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC), the oldest regional accrediting body in the United States, since 1943. Social Work has been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education since 1979, and Teacher Education is recognized by the Department of Education of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. The Teacher Education Program also benefits from the Interstate Certification Compact for all Teacher Education Programs, allowing Education students to teach in 44 states and Washington, D.C.

Undergraduate

As at any "four-year college", most degree offerings at Eastern Nazarene are baccalaureate degrees. At the undergraduate level, the college offers nearly 70 programs of study in nearly 30 majors and grants associate's and bachelor's (Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science) degrees.

Proximity to Boston and the myriad of colleges and universities in the Boston area also results in 2+2 and co-operative programs with larger Boston schools. For example, students in ENC's mechanical engineering program take many major classes at Boston University. In addition to co-operative programs and intership opportunities around Boston, Eastern Nazarene provides a number of study abroad and off-campus study programs as one of 56 Nazarene institutions of higher education around the world. Students may also participate in the "Best Semester program, facilitated by the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), of which Eastern Nazarene is a member. ENC also offers a semester-long study program in Romania.

Eastern Nazarene College claims to have a 94% acceptance rate into medical school and a 100% acceptance rate into law school. The traditional undergraduate "student-to-faculty ratio" at Eastern Nazarene is 16:1. All faculty members are required to be professing Christians, and many are ENC alumni. The college uses a "4-1-4 system" for its academic year: there are two full semesters in the Fall and Spring, each roughly four months long, and a one-month term in January known as "J Term".

The Cultural Perspectives core curriculum at Eastern Nazarene has been termed "distinctive." The sequence comprises a series of interdisciplinary courses on Western culture and encourages students to ponder the "tensions and possibilities" that exist in the relationship between the Christian faith and societal values. Eastern Nazarene is known for its blend of faith and other pursuits, from biology to business.

Graduate and adult studies

ENC also operates a Graduate and Adult Studies Division, which has offered master's degrees since 1981 for graduate study, bachelor's degree completion, and associate's degrees. The college also maintains articulation agreements with smaller community colleges in the surrounding geographical area, like the agreement with Massasoit Community College.

Starting in 1964, Eastern Nazarene offered a master's degree program in religion, but this was discontinued; Nazarene graduate education in religion is now offered at Nazarene Theological Seminary.

Student life

Eastern Nazarene is co-educational and the undergraduate is primarily residential. The student body has always numbered under 1,000 traditional undergraduate students. One purported benefit of the small student body at Eastern Nazarene is that it stimulates a close community atmosphere. Relationships are thus expected to develop between students and faculty and provide mentoring opportunities for spiritual formation on campus as well as contacts for internship and research opportunities.

There has been an Honors Scholar Society since 1936, and there are various national honors societies (Phi Alpha Theta for History majors, Phi Delta Lambda for Nazarene scholars, Psi Chi for Psychology majors, etc.). Students participate in the Student Government Association (SGA), Class Council, academic clubs (Biology Club, History Club, etc.), student ministries (Open Hand, Open Heart, etc.), and sports.

In 2006, undergraduate students at ENC were affiliated with at least 29 different Christian denominations, while 35% of the student population had no reported denominational or religious affiliation. One-third was affiliated with the Nazarene Church, and the next three largest representations were Baptist, Catholic, and self-reported Non-denominational. Also in the same year, students from 31 states and 21 countries were attending Eastern Nazarene College. Considering ENC's regional status, which prohibits the College from actively recruiting outside its "Region", this fact may prove significant. ENC is 24% "ethnically" diverse, as well, according to their own statistics. Demographic and denominational diversity at ENC, as well as any expected academic diversity at a liberal arts college, is reflected in ENC's most recent marketing slogan, "Many Differences, One Faith".

Lifestyle guidelines

Students are not required to be Christian to attend Eastern Nazarene College, though students are asked "to honor God and Biblical principles. Each student, upon registering, also agrees to a "Lifestyle Covenant", to, among other things, "abstain from the use of illegal drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and to avoid attendance at bars, clubs, or other activities or places of entertainment that promote themes of inappropriate sexuality, violence, profanity, pornography or activities demeaning to human life. The Student Handbook further specifies that "No person shall engage in sexual acts with anyone other than a spouse. "Excessive public display of affection is unacceptable, and "The College believes that dressing modestly supports our life in community by helping to minimize possible discomfort caused others due to inappropriate attire. Although "theatergoing" was on the school's list of forbidden activities as recently as 1980, the college has a very active student theater organization, and the current guidelines merely note that students are encouraged to "evaluate critically all forms of literature, music, media, and other forms of entertainment and to abstain from supporting those that promote themes of violence, profanity, pornography, or activities demeaning human life."

Many Christian denominations and colleges uphold these ideals, especially the other seven liberal arts colleges affiliated with the Church of the Nazarene, and the John Templeton Foundation has cited Eastern Nazarene as one college that builds "character. Nevertheless, the evangelical Christian leanings of the college have attracted some criticism and stirred controversy, with some guidelines referred to as "relics from another era.

Chapel services are offered on Wednesdays and Fridays. Attendance for most chapels is required for most students. In addition to the usual church involvement and lifestyle guidelines of an intentionally Christian college, there exist both campus-oriented and community-oriented ministries, such as "Open Hand, Open Heart", which ministers to the homeless of Boston and provides food, clothing, and blankets. ENC also provides missions opportunities through a program known as "Fusion in addition to its study abroad programs.

Extracurricular activities

The student-run newspaper is the Campus Camera, regularly published since 1936, and the student-developed yearbook is the Nautilus, since 1935.

There are vocal and instrumental ensembles, including the A Cappella Choir, which was formed in 1938, and Chamber Singers, Gospel Choir, Symphonic Winds, and Jazz Band, among several others. The college also has a student theatre organization.

Athletics

Varsity sports are National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III, the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Men's varsity sports include baseball, basketball, cross-country, soccer, and tennis. Women's sports include basketball, cross-country, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. When NAIA-affiliated and a participant in the The King's Tournament hosted by then-Briarcliff Manor's The King's College, Eastern Nazarene regularly won championships; the college now tends to place in the lower half of the conference rankings.

Additionally, intramural sports take place year-round and change from season to season based on student interest (past sports have included lacrosse, field hockey, and men's volleyball). These and other campus sports, such as J-Term basketball, men's wrestling, men's football and indoor soccer, are organized by the Student Government Association's (SGA) Rec. Life director.

Societies

There are no fraternities or sororities on campus, but there are Greek "societies". Membership is based on residency (see "Residence Life" below). There is also a society for faculty and staff. They are as follows:

• Sigma: Faculty, Staff
• Tau: 3rd Memorial, 3rd Munro, 2nd Spange Bridge, Commuters
• Omega: 2nd Spange, 1st Memorial, 2nd Willy, 3rd Spange
• Psi: 2nd Memorial, 2nd Munro, Ground Shields

• Pi: 1st Shields, 3rd Spange Bridge, 1st Spange
• Gamma: 3rd Willy, 2nd Shields, 3rd Young (women)
• Phi: 3rd Shields, 4th Young, Ground Memorial, 1st Munro, 3rd Young (men)
• Delta: 4th Munro, 5th Young, 1st Willy

Residence life

Most of the traditional undergraduate population resides on campus, as special permission is required for non-commuter students to live off-campus.

The college is co-educational, and students live in single-sex dormitories with visitation hours throughout the week. There are three female dormitories (Spangenberg Hall, Williamson Hall, and Munro Hall) and two male dormitories (Memorial Hall and Shields Hall). Young Hall provides apartments for staff and married students, in addition to suites for upperclassman females and males. Each dormitory houses a common area, known as a parlor, where students of both sexes are welcome. Social events, student ministries, and study groups use these parlors extensively during the week.

The Mann Student Center houses "The Commons" for sit-down meals cafeteria-style, as well as "The Dugout" for meals in a café-type atmosphere. The latter is a popular location for social gathering, as is the adjacent "Colonel's Coffee House", which, ironically, is not a place where coffee is served.

Notable people

Eastern Nazarene attracts notable faculty members, probably due to its proximity to Boston, and many alumni return to teach at the college. While many graduates enter the working world as social workers, teachers, and ministers, Eastern Nazarene also has a history of graduating students into Ivy League and other universities for postgraduate education. Particularly strong fields are history and the natural sciences, and alumni boast acceptance rates into law schools and medical schools well above national averages.

David Bergers, history alumnus, serves as the current Director for the Boston Regional Office of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and attended Yale Law School after completing his undergraduate in history at ENC. The first Nazarene to attend Yale Law School was an ENC alumnus, Richard R. Schubert. Dick Schubert is the former President and Vice Chairman of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, General Counsel and Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor, and President and CEO of the American Red Cross, and has been admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Neil Nicoll, another history alumnus, is the current President & CEO of the YMCA.

Current faculty, some of them alumni themselves, are active in publishing and work at major universities in the Boston area. Donald A. Yerxa (PhD, University of Maine), another history alumnus, is the current chair for the History Department at Eastern Nazarene College as well as the Executive Editor of Historically Speaking and the Assistant Director of The Historical Society at Boston University. Randall J. Stephens (PhD, University of Florida) is another member of the history faculty, and the first Nazarene to publish with Harvard University Press. Karl Giberson (PhD, Rice University), physics and philosophy alumnus, also serves on faculty, as a notable scholar of science and religion. He also serves as the Director of the Forum on Faith & Science at Gordon College (Massachusetts). He has the distinction of being the first Nazarene to publish with Oxford University Press.

Physics and engineering has a strong record beyond the work of Karl Giberson. John U. Free (PhD, MIT) is an alumnus and current faculty member, National Science Foundation Faculty Research Fellowship recipient, and associate of the Physics Department at Harvard University. Eldon C. Hall, another alumnus, was an engineer and the lead designer of the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC). John S. Rigden, former faculty member and world-renowned physicist, completed his undergraduate at Eastern Nazarene.

Lowell Hall (PhD, Johns Hopkins), alumnus, co-creator of Molconn, and Emeritus program chairman of the Boston Area Group for Informatics and Modeling, chairs the Chemistry Department at ENC. Ross Tubo, current Senior Director of Stem Cell Biology at Genzyme Corporation, earned his Bachelor's degree from Eastern Nazarene. The current chair for the Natural Science Division at ENC, Matthew J. Waterman, is an alumnus who earned his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and performed post-doctoral research at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Hospital.

At least four graduates of ENC have been college presidents, three of which have held the presidency at Eastern Nazarene. Samuel Young and Edward S. Mann were both graduates and presidents of the college at one time. Stephen W. Nease, whose father Floyd W. Nease was president of the college while Stephen attended ENC, was president of Mount Vernon Nazarene College, Bethany Nazarene College, Nazarene Theological Seminary, and Eastern Nazarene College at different points in time, and in that order. William Henry Houghton was an alumnus and fourth president of the Moody Bible Institute.

Eastern Nazarene College has produced other notable graduates, including Ralph H. Earle, also a former faculty member, who served on the Committee on Bible Translation for the New International Version of the Bible, and Jim Tabor, Vice President for Operations at Airtran Airways, also an alumnus of Eastern Nazarene.

Robert A. Cerasoli is a former faculty member of note. He is also the former Inspector General of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and currently serves as the first-ever Inspector General of New Orleans, Louisiana. Kent R. Hill, president of Eastern Nazarene College from 1992 to 2001, is the current Assistant Administrator for Global Health for USAID.

Notes and references

External links

• Official website

See also

• List of NCAA Division III Institutions
• List of Church of the Nazarene schools