Kenyon College

Kenyon College

The Kenyon College Coat of Arms
Motto	Magnanimiter Crucem Sustine (Latin)
Motto in English	Valiantly bear the cross
Type	Private liberal arts college
Established	1824
Affiliation	Unaffiliated
Endowment	$208.9 million (2016)
President	Sean M. Decatur
Administrative staff	182
Undergraduates	1,676
Location	Gambier, Ohio, U.S.
Campus	Rural, 1,000 acres (400 ha) including a 380 acres (150 ha) nature preserve
Colors	Purple and White
Nickname	Lords (men's teams) and Ladies (women's teams)
Website	www.kenyon.edu

Kenyon College
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
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Location	Gambier, Ohio
Coordinates	40°22′35″N 82°23′45″W / 40.37639°N 82.39583°W / 40.37639; -82.39583Coordinates: 40°22′35″N 82°23′45″W / 40.37639°N 82.39583°W / 40.37639; -82.39583
Built	1824
Architect	Multiple
Architectural style	Gothic Revival, Greek Revival
NRHP Reference #	75001447
Added to NRHP	December 6, 1975

Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, United States, founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2019 was 23.8%, the most selective year to date.

After becoming the first Episcopal Bishop of Ohio in 1818, Philander Chase found a severe lack of trained clergy on the Ohio frontier. He planned to create a seminary to rectify this problem, but could find little support. Undeterred, he sailed to England and solicited donations from Lord Kenyon, Lord Gambier, and the writer and philanthropist Hannah More, and the College was incorporated in December, 1824. Dissatisfied with the original location of the College in Worthington, Chase purchased 8,000 acres (32 km²) of land in Knox County (with the Mount Vernon lawyer Henry Curtis), and reached what he would name Gambier Hill on July 24, 1825. There is a legend that Bishop Chase exclaimed, "Well, this will do" upon reaching the crest of the hill.

Kenyon's English department gained national recognition with the arrival of the poet and critic John Crowe Ransom in 1937 as Professor of Poetry and first editor of The Kenyon Review, a literary journal.

Kenyon requires students to take classes in each of the four academic divisions: Fine Arts (encompassing the departments of Art, Dance and Drama, and Music); Humanities (Classics, English, History, Modern Languages and Literatures, Philosophy, Religious Studies); Natural Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Psychology); and Social Sciences (Anthropology, Economics, Political Science, Sociology). In addition, students must show a basic competence in a foreign language, and also undertake a comprehensive senior exercise for their major during their senior year.