Summary
Coordinates: 35°36′39.5″N 82°26′30.7″W / 35.610972°N 82.441861°W / 35.610972; -82.441861
Warren Wilson College (WWC) is a private four-year work college in the Swannanoa Valley, North Carolina, United States near Asheville. It is known for its curriculum of work, academics, and service, called "the Triad," which requires every student to work an on-campus job, perform at least one hundred hours of community service over four years and complete a requisite course of academic work in order to graduate.[4] The college offers classes in 30 different departments with the most popular majors in Environmental Sciences, English, and Outdoor Leadership.
Warren Wilson is one of the few colleges in the United States that requires on-campus students to work for the institution in order to graduate. It is part of the Work Colleges Consortium. The college is notable for its surrounding environment with a 300-acre (1.2 km2) working farm, market garden, and 600 acres (2.4 km2) of maintained forest which provides the community with 25 miles (40 km) of hiking trails.[1]
History
Warren Wilson College went through many phases before becoming what it is today. Its property, situated along the Swannanoa River, was purchased in 1893 by the Women's Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church who were concerned that many Americans in isolated areas were not receiving a proper education and decided to establish church-supported schools in impoverished areas. In 1894 the Asheville Farm School officially opened with 25 boys attending and a professional staff of three offering the first three grades of elementary instruction.
In 1923 the school graduated its first high school class, and the first post-high school programs offering vocational training began in 1936.[5] In 1942, the Asheville Farm School merged with the Dorland-Bell School in Hot Springs, North Carolina, to become a coed secondary school, named Warren H. Wilson Vocational Junior College and Associated Schools, after the late Warren H. Wilson, former superintendent of the Presbyterian Church's Department of Church and Country Life.[6] After World War II, the public education system in North Carolina improved dramatically and the need for the high school diminished with the last high school class there graduating in 1957. Warren Wilson College was a junior college until 1967, when it became a four-year college offering six majors. In 1972, the National Board of Missions deeded the WWC property over to the college's Board of Trustees. Sandy Pfeiffer became the college's sixth president in July 2006 and served until his retirement in June 2012. He was succeeded in July 2012 by Steven L. Solnick, formerly the Ford Foundation representative in New Delhi, India.[citation needed]
In 1952, the college became one of the first in the South to desegregate, when it invited Alma Shippy, an African American from Swannanoa, North Carolina, to attend. Sunderland dorm residents voted 54-1 to allow Shippy to become a student and live in their dorm.[7] In contrast to its original student population of underprivileged mountain youth, Warren Wilson now enrolls students of many different geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Campus life
The foundation of the school's undergraduate curriculum is the Triad, which establishes that all on-campus students must work 15 hours per week for the school, complete 100 hours of community service in four years, and earn 128 hours of academic credit. Required subjects included in the triad are Artistic Expression, History and Political Science, Language and Global Issues, Literature, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Social Sciences in order to graduate and receive a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree.[8] In addition to traditional majors such as Biology and English, undergraduates have the option of majoring in Outdoor Leadership or Environmental Studies. The Natural Science Seminar is the name for the undergraduate research and presentation that is required for all bachelor of science degrees given by the college.
A masters program has also been a part of the campus since 1981 in the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers, which awards a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.[9]
WWC has over 100 work crews that are supported by students who commit to 240 hours a semester (approx. $3,480 in earnings) which helps cover part of the tuition.[10] All in all there are around 127 different work crews. Some of them are:[11]
Previously, Warren Wilson required that students complete 100 hours of community service over the course of 4 years. Beginning in 2012, however, the incoming first year students had new requirements under the Community Engagement Commitment called PEGs, or Points of Engagement and Growth. [14]
The campus maintains 14 residence halls of varying layouts and capacities.
The Old Farmer's Ball hosts weekly contra dances providing the students and the community with old-time music and dancing, and an ever changing line-up of musicians.[18]
Summer programs
The Swannanoa Gathering is an annual summer program on the Warren Wilson campus. It includes a series of classes, workshops, dances and performances of various folk music and related arts. The six week program consists of Traditional song, Fiddle, Celtic, Old-time music and dance, Contemporary folk music, Guitar, and Dulcimer weeks. The Gathering celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2011.[citation needed]