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Trinity College (Connecticut)
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Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University.
first buildings completed on the current campus were Seabury and Jarvis halls in 1878. Together with Northam Towers, these make up what is known as the "Long Walk".
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Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University.
Campus
The first buildings completed on the current campus were Seabury and Jarvis halls in 1878. Together with Northam Towers, these make up what is known as the "Long Walk". These buildings are the earliest examples of Collegiate Gothic architecture in the United States, built to plans drawn up by William Burges, with F.H.Kimball as supervising architect.
Trinity's other landmark is its distinctive chapel. The Trinity College Chapel, referred to by Trinity students simply as "the Chapel," was built in the 1930s to replace Trinity's original chapel, located in Seabury Hall (now a lecture hall). The Chapel's facade is made almost entirely of limestone and it seamlessly blends into the adjacent Downes Memorial Clock Tower. Its primary architect was Philip Hubert Frohman, of Frohman, Robb and Little, who was also responsible for the National Cathedral in Washington, DC; the two buildings share a resemblance.
Another distinctive feature of Trinity's campus is its central green known as the Main Quad, which is bound on the west by the Long Walk, on the east by the Lower Long Walk, on the north by the Chapel, and on the south by various dormitories. While a central green is a feature of many college campuses, Trinity's is notable for its unusually large size, running the entire length of the Long Walk and with no paved or unpaved walkways traversing it. Trees on the Quad have been planted in a 'T' configuration (for Trinity) with the letter's base located at the statue of Bishop Brownell and its top running the length of the Long Walk. Tradition holds that the trees were intended to distinguish Trinity's campus from Yale's. Also located on the Quad are two cannons used on the USS Hartford, flagship of Admiral David Farragut during the civil war.
The whole of Trinity's campus is set out on a parcel of land that is bound on the south by New Britain Avenue, on the west by Summit Street, on the east by Broad Street, and on the north by Allen Place. Trinity's former northern border, Vernon Street, has been transferred from the city of Hartford to Trinity College and closed off at one end (Broad Street), creating a cul-de-sac within Trinity's borders. Completed in 2001, and located on what was formerly an abandoned bus depot adjacent to Trinity's campus, the Learning Corridor is a collection of K-12 public magnet schools co-created by Trinity and the governments of Hartford and Connecticut.
Trinity's campus has no through-streets running through it. The only exception until its recent closure was Vernon Street, at the north end of the campus. Since the street was transferred to the school from the city Trinity widened and repaved it, as well as installing light posts about every ten feet (inviting the student-bestowed nickname "Runway V") as well as granite crosswalks, curbs, benches, and fenceposts. Vernon Street is the location of most of the campus cultural houses and Greek organizations, as well as the new Vernon Social Center.
Important buildings on campus
- Mather Hall – located just south of Hamlin Hall (the southern terminus of the long walk), Mather Hall is the main student center of Trinity College. The building contains the main dining hall as well as “The Cave” dining hall, a post office and student mail boxes, a coffee house, as well as meeting rooms and a large auditorium.
* Raether Library and Information Technology Center – Trinity's main library was originally built at the southeast corner of the main quad in the 1950s to replace the library in Williams Memorial. Additional wings were constructed in the 1970s and again in 2002, at which time the building was given its present name. The Watkinson Library, which houses rare books and manuscripts, occupies an annex of the first floor. The latest renovations, which enlarged the facility to and more than 1 million volumes, include an atrium, grand reading room, three new computing centers, a multimedia development studio, a music and media center, private study rooms, and a cafe. Though a private academic library, more than 2,800 outside visitors were recorded between November, 2006 and March, 2007.
- Seabury Hall – This section of the Long Walk contains classrooms, professor offices, and four dance studios. It is scheduled for thorough renovations beginning in May 2007.
- Jarvis Hall – This section of the Long Walk contains single, double and quad dorms, primarily for freshmen and sophomores. It is rumored that the doubles were originally designed for students while the singles across the hallway were intended for their servants. In actuality, the single rooms were single bedrooms, which opened into living areas, which are currently the doubles and the hallway, and six rooms retain this layout. As of the 2008 school year, the massive Long Walk Reconstruction project has been completed, and the dorms are built in a classic style.
- Northam Towers – This central tower on the Long Walk, with its distinctive Fuller archway, connects Jarvis and Seabury Halls. It contains upperclassman housing.
- Austin Arts Center – The AAC was designed in the 1960’s it may be rebuilt in coming years to meet current needs. It contains art exhibition spaces and a theater.
- Albert C. Jacobs Life Sciences Center – Built in 1967 in the architectural style of Brutalism, LSC was designed to be an abstract representation of the Long Walk. The building houses Trinity's departments of Biology and Psychology. It contains several classrooms, an auditorium, teaching labs, research labs, and a greenhouse. The building is slated for demolition and replacement by a state-of-the-art facility in the next decade.
- Math, Computing, and Engineering Center – MCEC is located on the Life Sciences Quad (named for the Life Sciences Center, which dominates the quad) it is made of brick and sandstone. It housed the computing center until it was moved to the renovated library.
Trinity College and Hartford
Trinity is located in urban Hartford, within walking distance of the state capital of Connecticut.
Trinity and the community
Along with Trinity, the Learning Corridor, Hartford Hospital, and the The Institute of Living make up the Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance, or SINA. SINA aims to create affordable housing in Hartford’s Frog Hollow and Barry Square neighborhoods as well as in the creation of the Learning Corridor and the Trinity College Boys and Girls Club.
Trinity’s library, computer resources and the new Community Sports Complex are available to Hartford residents. The new sports complex functions both as a rink for Trinity’s ice hockey teams and as a public skating rink.
Academics
Selectivity
US News and World Report ranks Trinity in its top 50 liberal arts colleges. Recently the Wall Street Journal ranked Trinity as the 43rd highest "feeder school" for the top graduate school programs. Data compiled by the National Science Foundation lists Trinity as a liberal arts college that educates disproportionately high numbers of future scientists.
Despite the fact that US News and World Report has consistently ranked Trinity among the top liberal arts colleges in the US, in August 2007 the college joined the "Annapolis Group", an organization of more than 100 of the nation's liberal arts schools, in refusing to participate in U.S. News & World Report's college rankings.
Areas of study
Trinity College currently offers the following majors:
Contributions to the arts
Cinestudio is an art cinemas with 1930's-style design. An article in the Hartford Advocate described this non-profit organization, which depends solely on grants and the efforts of volunteer workers who are paid in free movies. Cinestudio has been located in the Clement Chemistry Building since it was founded in the 1970s.
Cinestudio is host to the annual Eyeball Film Festival, in which young film makers premier their latest works in front of their peers. The festival has judges, each schooled in film from a different perspective, who judge the student's films.
Trinity also hosts the annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival. A three-day celebration of global hip hop culture, the festival features lectures, panel discussions, workshops and live performances. The festival was founded in 2006 with the goal of unifying Trinity with the city of Hartford.
History
Early history
Trinity was founded in the spring of 1823 as Washington College, in downtown Hartford, receiving its current name in 1845. Because of the social dominance of rival Congregationalists in Connecticut and because Trinity's founder and first president, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Brownell, was an Episcopal bishop, the college had some early difficulties obtaining its charter from the state. A condition imposed by the charter was that, despite its Episcopal roots, the college must prohibit any imposition of religious standards on students, faculty members, or other members of the college. A year after opening, Trinity moved to its first campus, which consisted of two Greek Revival-style buildings, one housing a chapel, library, and lecture rooms and the other a dormitory. Within a few years the student body grew to nearly one hundred, a size that was rarely exceeded until the 20th century.
A new campus
In 1872 Trinity College was persuaded (the degree of free will at work in the college’s move is disputed) by the State of Connecticut to move from its downtown “College Hill” location (now Capitol Hill, the site of the state capitol building) to its current campus a mile to the southwest. However, although the college sold its land overlooking the Park River and Bushnell Park in 1872, it did not complete its move to its Gallows Hill campus until 1868. Trinity’s first plan for the Gallows Hill site proved to be too ambitious (and too expensive) to be completely built. Only one section of the proposed campus plan, the Long Walk, was ever completed.
Trinity in the twentieth century
Trinity ended the nineteenth century as an institution primarily serving the Hartford area. The founding of the University of Hartford in 1877, however, allowed Trinity to focus on becoming a regional institution rather than a local one. The early years of the century were primarily growth years for Trinity. Enrollment was increased to 500 men and in 1932 under President Remsen Ogilby the impressive gothic chapel which is the symbol of Trinity College was completed. The chapel replaced the Seabury chapel which had become too small for the student body.
The late 1960’s were a time of great change for Trinity as well. In 1968 the trustees of Trinity College voted to make a commitment to enroll (with financial aid as needed) a much larger number of minority students. This decision was preceded by a siege of the administrative offices in the Downes and Williams Memorial buildings during which Trinity students would not allow the president or trustees to leave until they agreed to the aforementioned resolution.
Less than one year later Trinity College became co-educational and admitted its first female students, as transfers from Vassar College. Today, women make up about 50 percent of Trinity's student body.
The Trinity College Department of Athletics currently sponsors Men's Intercollegiate Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer, Swimming, Football, Lacrosse, Golf, Tennis, Track & Field, Wrestling, Rowing, Squash and Ice Hockey along with Women's Intercollegiate Softball, Basketball, Cross Country, Soccer, Swimming, Volleyball, Field Hockey, Ice Hockey, Squash, Tennis, Track & Field and Rowing. They compete in the NCAA Division III.
Trinity College presidents
- James F. Jones 2004 -
- Borden W. Painter, Jr. '58, H'95 2003 – 2004
- Richard H. Hersh 2002 – 2003
- Ronald R. Thomas H'02, Acting President 2001 – 2002
- Evan Dobelle H'01 1995 – 2001
- Borden W. Painter, Jr. '58, H'95, Acting President 1994 – 1995
- Tom Gerety 1989 – 1994
- James Fairfield English, Jr., '48 1981 – 1989
- Theodore Davidge Lockwood '48 1968 – 1981
- Albert Charles Jacobs H'68 1953 – 1968
- Arthur Howard Hughes, Acting President 1951 - 1953
- George Keith Funston '32 1945 – 1951
- Arthur Howard Hughes M'38, H'46, Acting President 1943 – 1945
- Remsen Brinckerhoff Ogilby 1920 – 1943
- Henry Augustus Perkins, Acting President 1915 – 1916 (brother of Emily Pitkin Perkins Baldwin)
- Flavel Sweeten Luther '70 1919 – 1920
- George Williamson Smith H'87 1904 - 1919
- Thomas Ruggles Pynchon '41 1883 - 1904
- John Brocklesby, Acting President 1874 1874 - 1883
- Abner Jackson '37 1867 - 1874
- John Brocklesby, Acting President 1866 - 1867
- John Barrett Kerfoot H'65 1864 - 1866
- John Brocklesby H'45, Acting President 1864
- Samuel Eliot H'57 1861 - 1864
- John Brocklesby, Acting President 1860 - 1861
- Daniel Raynes Goodwin 1853 - 1860
- John Williams '35 1848 - 1853
- Silas Totten 1837 - 1848
- Nathaniel Sheldon Wheaton 1831 - 1837
- Thomas Church Brownell 1824 - 1831
Notable alumni
- Roy Nutt, Co-Founder of IT service company Computer Sciences Corporation
- Edward Albee, playwright
- Charles McLean Andrews, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and professor
- James Roosevelt Bayley, Archbishop of Baltimore
- Tucker Carlson, senior campaign correspondent for MSNBC, political commentator, former host of Tucker on MSNBC,
- Thomas M. Chappell, co-founder and CEO of Tom's of Maine
- Peter Kraus, Head of Investment Management Division, Goldman Sachs and Co.
- Edward Miner Gallaudet, founder of Gallaudet University
- Stephen Gyllenhaal, film producer and director
- Dean Hamer, discoverer of the controversial Gay gene and God gene
- Matthew Hennessy, Chief of Staff Hartford, Connecticut
- Barbara B. Kennelly, former U.S. Representative
- Thomas Joseph Meskill, former U.S. Representative
- D. Holmes Morton, physician and Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism recipient
- Jane Swift, former Governor of Massachusetts
- Christine C. Quinn, Speaker New York City Council
- Danny Meyer, New York restaurateur
- J. H. Hobart Ward, American Civil War general
- George Will, Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist, author, and ABC News political journalist
- Linda Wells, editor of Allure magazine
Fraternities and sororities
Officially, approximately 20% of the student body are affiliated with a Greek organization. During the late 1980s and 1990s, under pressure from the college administration, many of the single-sex fraternities and sororities merged and formed co-educational Greek organizations. Among those currently on campus are:
Several other Greek organizations, while active, some are not officially affiliated with the school. They include:
- Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike). The Epsilon Alpha chapter was established in 1953. (not officially affiliated with the school)
- Zeta Omega Eta: the Alpha chapter was founded at Trinity College in 2003.
- Theta Delta Sigma A national co-ed, multicultural Greek society was colonized in 2005.
- Alpha Kappa Alpha The first African American Women Sorority Incorporated founded in 1908.
- Cha Ki Ryan the Alpha chapter was founded at Trinity College in 2005.
- Alpha Phi Alpha The first African American Greek Organization founded in 1906.
- Delta Sigma Theta African American Sorority founded in 1913.
Areas of leisure
Coffee houses
- The Underground Coffee House: Located below Mather dining hall, The Underground is a spot for students to relax, study, and participate in cultural events. The Underground hosts "Open Mic Night" every Thursday, which invites poets, musicians, and professors to perform music or recite poetry. It is the only completely student-run business on campus.
- Gallows Hill Lounge: Once an intimate coffee house with a miniature Barnes and Nobles attached, this Hallden Hall location is currently a student lounge with a free coffee machine.
- Peter B's Cafe: Located on the first floor of the library, Peter B's offers a wide variety of caffeinated beverages and baked goods.
Restaurants
- Alchemy Juice Bar: A few doors down from Trinity's hockey rink, Alchemy serves 100% organic vegetarian and vegan food and drink, including smoothies, sandwiches, soups, and coffee. The small restaurant also has an oxygen bar and hosts yoga lessons.
- Trinity Restaurant: A small restaurant off the west side of campus offering a French, Italian, and Greek cuisine.
- The Tap: A campus bar also located just a few storefronts from Trinity's Community Sports Complex hockey rink. Shut down in the spring of 2008.
Cultural organizations
Among Trinity's cultural organizations are:
The Muslim Students Association (MSA), Asian American Student Association (AASA), The Biology Club, The Caribbean Students’ Association (CSA), Encouraging Respect of Sexualities (EROS), The French Club, The German Club, Hillel Society, Newman Club, IMANI, The International Student Organization (ISO), The Italian Club, La Voz Latina (LVL), The Multicultural Affairs Council (MAC), MOCA (Men of Color Association), The Portuguese Club, The Russian Club, The Spanish Club, SUSHI (Students to Unite Science and Humanitarian Interests), The Trinity Chemistry Society, The Trinity College Black Women’s Organization (TCBWO), TAWC (Trinity Anti-War Coalition), and The Venetian Club.
Residence halls
Trinity College houses its students in 27 dorms organized into 4 "areas," each with a local area coordinator, who is responsible for administering the area.
- Area 1 ("Crescent Street"):
- Stowe
- Clemens
- Anadama
- Pitsloth
- Wiggins
- Little
- Frohman-Robb
- Area 2 ("South Campus"):
- Summit Suites
- Jackson
- Smith
- Wheaton
- Funston
- Jones
- Elton
- Area 3 ("The Long Walk"):
- Jarvis
- Northam Towers
- Cook
- Goodwin-Woodward
- Area 4 ("Vernon Street"):
- Boardwalk
- Park Place
- Vernon
- High Rise
- North Campus
- Hansen
- Doonesbury
- Ogilby
External links
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