Messiah College
From Free net encyclopedia
Messiah College is a Christian liberal arts college in the rolling hills of south central Pennsylvania. The campus is located about 30 minutes south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in Grantham, Pennsylvania and is home to approximately 3,000 undergraduate students in over 50 majors/courses of study. It was founded in 1909 by the Brethren in Christ Church, then named the Messiah Bible School and Missionary Training Home. The college's motto is "Christ Preeminent."
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Academics
External programs and affiliations
Messiah College maintains a small satellite campus, known to students as the Messiah College Philly Campus or MCPC, on Broad Street in North Philadelphia. The campus is an academic partnership with Temple University and, as a collaboration between a small liberal arts college and a large research university, is essentially unique in American higher education.
Messiah College is a member of the Christian College Consortium.
Athletics
Image:Messiahcollegefalcon.gif The Messiah College Falcons compete in NCAA Division III athletics with 20 different intercollegiate athletic teams. Messiah is a member of the Middle Atlantic Corporation. Winning is nothing out of the ordinary for the men's and women's soccer teams, who both won the NCAA Division III National Championship in 2005. The men's team were also won the National Championship in 2000, 2002 and 2004. The women's field hockey team has appeared in the NCAA division III finals five times.
The Community Covenant
Students at Messiah College are required to sign the community covenant upon entering. The community covenant prohibits gambling, fornication, homosexual behavior, profanity, and the use of alcohol and tobacco among other things. Several of these prohibitions are enforced infrequently or not at all; the alcohol policy, however, is enforced more strictly.
Chapel
Students are required to attend 24 chapel services each semester. Failure to do so results in the student being placed on chapel probation. Students on chapel probation have one semester to make up missed chapels by listening to chapel tapes, and may not register for classes until completing their chapel tapes.
Alumni
Notable Messiah College alumni include Ernest Boyer, who was considered by some to be the most influential figure in modern American education. Boyer was Chancellor of the State University of New York from 1970 to 1977 and President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching from 1979 to his death in 1995.
Student Activities
Students sometimes complain of lack of night life in Grantham, and pass time by joining intramural sports leagues, participating in various clubs, and watching on campus movies among other things. Underclassmen also participate in floor activities organized by their RAs.
Concerts
In recent years, Messiah College has hosted nationally recognized bands such as Dashboard Confessional, Wilco, Bob Dylan, Switchfoot, Nickel Creek, and Rilo Kiley. Smaller bands are often booked by the SAB to play in the new Student Union Center.
Traditions
The Marshmallow Game
The soccer game between Messiah College and rival Elizabethtown College is known as the marshmallow game. To the chagrin of administrators, fans from both schools smuggle marshmallows into the game and throw them at the opposing fans throughout the match. The marshmallow game is generally the best attended game of the soccer season.
Creeking
Creeking is the tradition of abducting a friend, usually on their birthday, and tossing them in the Yellow Breeches Creek, which runs through the campus.
The Midnight Scream
It is traditional for students to relieve stress by screaming out of their windows between 12:00 and 12:01 on nights before the final exams. The tradition is quite popular and the screams can be heard around campus.