Georgetown College
Encyclopedia
Georgetown College is a small, private liberal arts college
located in Georgetown, Kentucky
, United States
. Chartered as a college in 1829, Georgetown College was the first Baptist
college west of the Allegheny Mountains
. The school offers many undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts
in Education.
ended their formal relationship. With the approval of the new agreement by the Convention, the College reverted to its original arrangement with Kentucky Baptists. From 1829 to 1942, the College had an independent, self-perpetuating board of trustees and was designated as the senior, liberal arts college for Kentucky Baptists until the 1960s, when Campbellsville College and Cumberland College became senior colleges. Under a 1942 agreement, the Convention chose the College’s trustees. The College’s board submitted candidates to the Convention’s Committee on Nominations and delegates to the annual meeting of the Convention elected them. Georgetown College also received an annual contribution from the Convention for all of the Twentieth Century. Under the new agreement, the Convention’s annual contribution will be phased out, the trustee board will elect its members, and at least 75 percent of the board’s membership will be Kentucky Baptists. However, the College will continue to work cooperatively in ministry with the Convention, which will be coordinated through the Campus Minister
, a Convention funded position. The College also has a partnership with Regent’s Park College, a Baptist institution of the University of Oxford
, has joined the Baptist World Alliance, and has an agreement with the International Baptist Convention, which allows Georgetown students to work as interns in European Baptist churches.
This has allowed for non-baptist and non-christian professors to be considered for tenure, diversifying the teaching body.
Ranked among the top Southeastern Colleges; The Princeton Review
Tier 1 Liberal Arts
College, Sixth best in percentage of students accepted to graduate school within one year; U.S. News & World Report
, Lambda Chi Alpha
, Phi Kappa Tau
and Pi Kappa Alpha
) and four national sororities (Alpha Gamma Delta
, Kappa Delta
, Phi Mu
and Sigma Kappa
) on campus. It also has an independent brotherhood known as the President's House Association
, which was formed in 1964 as an alternative to the traditional fraternity system. The college also traditionally has a number of students who remain independent, competing in events such as songfest and intramurals against other independents as well as members of the Greek organizations.
, has recently changed its relationship with the Convention. The college retains its Baptist heritage, and is still affiliated with the KBC, but no longer receives money from the Convention. It has the right to elect its own trustees independently, without the Convention's approval. http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/GC_KBC_Agreement.htm
and the Mid-South Conference
. The football and basketball programs have long been regarded as perennial powerhouses. The Georgetown football program takes pride in its state-of-the-art football facilities that doubled as the former summer training camp home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Until recently plans for a turf field has been released.
". The Maskrafters have also done recent plays including Proof
,The Fantasticks
, Grease
, and Shakespeare's The Tempest
. The Maskrafters are primarily students at Georgetown, and are guided by staff.
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
located in Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown, Kentucky
Georgetown is a city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,098 at the 2010 census. The original settlement of Lebanon, founded by Rev. Elijah Craig, was renamed in 1790 in honor of President George Washington. It is the home of Georgetown College, a private liberal arts...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Chartered as a college in 1829, Georgetown College was the first Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
college west of the Allegheny Mountains
Allegheny Mountains
The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...
. The school offers many undergraduate degrees and a Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in Education.
History
In 1829, the Kentucky Legislature chartered the Kentucky Baptist Education Society with the purpose of establishing a Baptist college in the state. Twenty-four trustees under the leadership of Silas Noel selected the town of Georgetown as the site for the new school. Georgetown was selected because the community agreed to raise $20,000 and to donate the assets of Rittenhouse Academy, a failed land-grant school that had recently closed. Rittenhouse Academy was the predecessor of Royal Springs School.Early history
Georgetown College had numerous difficulties and changing leadership in its early years. The first president hired for the college, William D. Staughton, died before assuming his duties. The second president, Rev. Joel Smith Bacon, stayed two years before leaving out of frustration. In 1839, Rev. Rockwood Giddings was selected as the third president of the college. During his short tenure, Giddings began construction on Recitation Hall, the first permanent building for the school. He made many other advances that put the college on sound footing. Giddings died of exhaustion after a year in office and was replaced by Rev. Howard Malcolm.Recent history
As the student population grew the administration sought out ways to diversify the campus, as such in 2005, Georgetown College and the Kentucky Baptist ConventionKentucky Baptist Convention
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is the State Convention of Southern Baptists in the state of Kentucky. Headquartered in Louisville, it is made up of over 2,400 churches and 71 local associations. Membership in its churches totals more than 780,000 people...
ended their formal relationship. With the approval of the new agreement by the Convention, the College reverted to its original arrangement with Kentucky Baptists. From 1829 to 1942, the College had an independent, self-perpetuating board of trustees and was designated as the senior, liberal arts college for Kentucky Baptists until the 1960s, when Campbellsville College and Cumberland College became senior colleges. Under a 1942 agreement, the Convention chose the College’s trustees. The College’s board submitted candidates to the Convention’s Committee on Nominations and delegates to the annual meeting of the Convention elected them. Georgetown College also received an annual contribution from the Convention for all of the Twentieth Century. Under the new agreement, the Convention’s annual contribution will be phased out, the trustee board will elect its members, and at least 75 percent of the board’s membership will be Kentucky Baptists. However, the College will continue to work cooperatively in ministry with the Convention, which will be coordinated through the Campus Minister
Minister
Minister can mean several things:* Minister , a Christian who ministers in some way* Minister , the rank of diplomat directly below ambassador* Minister , a politician who heads a ministry...
, a Convention funded position. The College also has a partnership with Regent’s Park College, a Baptist institution of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, has joined the Baptist World Alliance, and has an agreement with the International Baptist Convention, which allows Georgetown students to work as interns in European Baptist churches.
This has allowed for non-baptist and non-christian professors to be considered for tenure, diversifying the teaching body.
Recognitions
America's Best 100 College Buys, America's Best Christian Colleges; Institutional Research & Evaluation, Inc.Ranked among the top Southeastern Colleges; The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is an American-based standardized test preparation and admissions consulting company. The Princeton Review operates in 41 states and 22 countries across the globe. It offers test preparation for standardized aptitude tests such as the SAT and advice regarding college...
Tier 1 Liberal Arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
College, Sixth best in percentage of students accepted to graduate school within one year; U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
Student organizations
Georgetown College has four national fraternities (Kappa Alpha OrderKappa Alpha Order
Kappa Alpha Order is a social fraternity and fraternal order. Kappa Alpha Order has 124 active chapters, 3 provisional chapters, and 2 commissions...
, Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha
Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest men's secret general fraternities in North America, having initiated more than 280,000 members and held chapters at more than 300 universities. It is a member of the North-American Interfraternity Conference and was founded by Warren A. Cole, while he was a...
, Phi Kappa Tau
Phi Kappa Tau
Phi Kappa Tau is a U.S. national collegiate fraternity.-History:Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity was founded in the Union Literary Society Hall of Miami University's Old Main Building in Oxford, Ohio on March 17, 1906...
and Pi Kappa Alpha
Pi Kappa Alpha
Pi Kappa Alpha is a Greek social fraternity with over 230 chapters and colonies and over 250,000 lifetime initiates in the United States and Canada.-History:...
) and four national sororities (Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Gamma Delta is an international women's fraternity, who are mainly sluts, founded in 1904 at Syracuse University. The Fraternity promotes academic excellence, philanthropic giving, ongoing leadership and personal development, and a spirit of loving sisterhood. Also known as "Alpha Gam" and...
, Kappa Delta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Delta was the first sorority founded at the State Female Normal School , in Farmville, Virginia. It is one of the "Farmville Four" sororities founded at the university...
, Phi Mu
Phi Mu
Phi Mu is the second oldest female fraternal organization established in the United States. It was founded at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia. The organization was founded as the Philomathean Society on January 4, 1852, and was announced publicly on March 4 of the same year...
and Sigma Kappa
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Kappa is a sorority founded in 1874 at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Sigma Kappa was founded by five women: Mary Caffrey Low Carver, Elizabeth Gorham Hoag, Ida Mabel Fuller Pierce, Frances Elliott Mann Hall and Louise Helen Coburn...
) on campus. It also has an independent brotherhood known as the President's House Association
President's House Association
The President's House Association is a locally chartered association of men founded in 1964. They are located at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Kentucky, and they work under the pillars of Academics, Brotherhood, and Christianity...
, which was formed in 1964 as an alternative to the traditional fraternity system. The college also traditionally has a number of students who remain independent, competing in events such as songfest and intramurals against other independents as well as members of the Greek organizations.
Religious affiliation
Georgetown College, historically linked with the Kentucky Baptist ConventionKentucky Baptist Convention
The Kentucky Baptist Convention is the State Convention of Southern Baptists in the state of Kentucky. Headquartered in Louisville, it is made up of over 2,400 churches and 71 local associations. Membership in its churches totals more than 780,000 people...
, has recently changed its relationship with the Convention. The college retains its Baptist heritage, and is still affiliated with the KBC, but no longer receives money from the Convention. It has the right to elect its own trustees independently, without the Convention's approval. http://www.georgetowncollege.edu/GC_KBC_Agreement.htm
Athletics
The school's sports teams are called the Tigers and they participate in the NAIANational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
and the Mid-South Conference
Mid-South Conference
The Mid-South Conference is an athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA. Member institutions are located in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. It is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky....
. The football and basketball programs have long been regarded as perennial powerhouses. The Georgetown football program takes pride in its state-of-the-art football facilities that doubled as the former summer training camp home of the Cincinnati Bengals. Until recently plans for a turf field has been released.
Accomplishments
- National Champions - 1991, 2000, 2001
- National Finalist - 1991, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
- National Semi-Finalist - 2004, 2011
- 17 Mid-South Conference Champions - 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2011
Basketball
- 1998 National Champions
- 30 appearances in NAIA National Tournament
- 52 wins in National Tournament History
- 20 Sweet Sixteen appearances
- 13 Elite Eight appearances
- 11 Fab Four appearances
- 4 National Title games
- Georgetown Baseball - Notable Alumnus - Billy Ray Cyrus
Maskrafters
The Georgetown College Maskrafter theatre group is the oldest collegiate theatre company in Kentucky and offers traditional theatre, an emphasis on creating original work, and new initiatives in digital motion picture art. As of 2007, the Maskrafters have produced a feature-length movie entitled "Surviving Guthrie", and have put on the musical "She Loves MeShe Loves Me
She Loves Me is a musical with a book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock.The musical is the fifth adaptation of the play Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo, following the 1940 James Stewart-Margaret Sullavan film The Shop around the Corner and the...
". The Maskrafters have also done recent plays including Proof
Proof (play)
Proof is a play by David Auburn originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club on 23 May 2000. It then went to Broadway on 24 October 2000 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and was directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, with Mary-Louise Parker as Catherine, Larry Bryggman as Robert, Ben Shenkman as Hal, and...
,The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks
The Fantasticks is a 1960 musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones. It was produced by Lore Noto. It tells an allegorical story, loosely based on the play "The Romancers" by Edmond Rostand, concerning two neighboring fathers who trick their children, Luisa and Matt, into...
, Grease
Grease (musical)
Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...
, and Shakespeare's The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
. The Maskrafters are primarily students at Georgetown, and are guided by staff.
Student events
Georgetown College offers several events every year that give students the option to participate. The biggest of these is Songfest, a stage performance put together by the individual dorm houses, including (but not limited to) the fraternities and sororities. It is part of Georgetown's homecoming celebration. Other events include the Belle of the Blue, a scholarship pageant, and Greek Week, part of the rush and pledging tradition.Notable alumni
- LaVerne ButlerLaVerne ButlerLaVerne L. Butler was a prominent Southern Baptist pastor and college president in Kentucky who was a leader in the "Conservative Resurgence" in his denomination during the 1970s and 1980s.-Background:...
, Southern Baptist pastor and former president of Mid-Continent UniversityMid-Continent UniversityMid-Continent University is a four-year, liberal arts Christian institution located near Mayfield, Kentucky.- History :The university opened in January 1949 in Clinton, Kentucky. The University is now located four miles north of Mayfield....
in MayfieldMayfield, KentuckyAs of the census of 2000, there were 10,349 people, 4,358 households, and 2,667 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,549.8 people per square mile . There were 4,907 housing units at an average density of 734.8 per square mile...
, Kentucky - Forest ShelyForest ShelyForest Franklin Shely was a physician from Campbellsville, Kentucky, who served as a trustee at the Baptist-affiliated Campbellsville University for fifty-six years.-Background:...
, physician and long-time trustee of Campbellsville UniversityCampbellsville UniversityCampbellsville University, also known as CU, is a private university in Campbellsville, Kentucky, the seat of Taylor County. Founded as Russell Creek Academy, a Baptist institution, the university currently enrolls more than 3,000 students and is open to students of all denominations...
in CampbellsvilleCampbellsville, KentuckyCampbellsville is a city in Taylor County, Kentucky, United States. The population within city limits was 10,498 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Taylor County, and the home of Campbellsville University...
, Kentucky - Blanton CollierBlanton CollierBlanton Long Collier was an American football coach who led the University of Kentucky and the Cleveland Browns...
, National Football League head coach of the Cleveland Browns, 1963-1970.