Central College is a

private college Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grants. D ...

located in

Pella, Iowa Pella is a city in Marion County, Iowa, Marion County, Iowa, United States, with a population of 10,464 at the time of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 U.S. Census. Founded by immigrants from the Netherlands, it is forty miles southeast of Des ...

, and affiliated with the Reformed Church in America. The college was founded in 1853 and has been accredited by the

Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...

since 1942. Central has a

student body A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

of approximately 1,100 undergraduates and 73 academic programs.

History

The Baptist Convention of Iowa founded Central University of Iowa in 1853 and it officially opened on October 8, 1854. The first class totaled 37 people. Central was a

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only ( believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compe ...

institution until 1916, when it was transferred to the control of the Reformed Church in America. Since 1886, Iowa Baptists had shifted their post-secondary education interests to

Des Moines College Des is a masculine given name, mostly a short form (hypocorism) of Desmond. People named Des include: People * Des Buckingham, English football manager * Des Corcoran, (1928–2004), Australian politician * Des Dillon (disambiguation), severa ...

, and hoped to reduce Central to a feeder school. The college was called Central University of Iowa (CUI), at least until 1991. It renamed itself "Central College" in 1994. It was home to local radio station 89.1 KCUI-FM and the award-winning newspaper “The Ray.” Central has a history of interesting architectural features. The first buildings of the new college in 1853 are Dutch Colonial and part of what was recently known as Strawtown Inn. The first dormitory, Cotton Hall, is noted for its ornate Victorian porch and stained glass windows. Building innovation continues with the addition of "green" buildings. In September 2019 it was announced that Central College would lower their yearly tuition starting in the Fall 2020 semester, dropping to $18,600, from $38,600.

Campus

Central College's campus is a few blocks from Pella's downtown square, two minutes from Iowa's largest lake and 40 minutes from Des Moines. Pella's annual

Tulip Festival Tulip festivals are held in several cities around the world, mostly in North America, usually in cities with a Dutch heritage such as Albany, New York, Ottawa, Ontario; Gatineau, Quebec; Montreal, Quebec; Holland, Michigan; Lehi, Utah; Orange ...

attracts more than 100,000 visitors each spring. Central is a residential campus where students can live in dormitories, townhouses, and apartment style "green pods." The college's emphasis on sustainability has led to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) ratings from the

U.S. Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

. The

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

Science Center was Iowa's first LEED-rated building, and Howard McKee Hall received the first gold rating in the state. The newest building, Roe Center, received a platinum rating.

Major buildings

Maytag Student Center—During the summer of 2014, the student center underwent a $3.1 million renovation to Maytag Student Center made possible by the Fred Maytag Family foundation. The renovations include a new workout facility, a new Student Activity Center and additional Fred's dining area. The Roe Center—Named after Central's 20th president, Dr. David H. Roe, was completed in the fall of 2009. The $17 million facility houses the education, psychology and communication departments, as well as Community-Based Learning. Central was awarded a platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) for the design of the Roe Center. The facility features environmentally friendly building practices and an energy efficient building design, such as a green roof, natural ventilating system, radiant floor heating/cooling system and

daylight harvesting Daylight harvesting systems use daylight to offset the amount of electric lighting needed to properly light a space, in order to reduce energy consumption. This is accomplished using lighting control systems that are able to dim or switch electric ...

systems. Vermeer Science Center—Underwent a $20 million renovation in 2003, and was the first building in the state of Iowa and the first science building in the nation to be recognized as a green building by the U.S. Green Building Council. It was subsequently given a silver LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating. The mathematics, computer science, physics, biology and chemistry departments are located in this building. Vermeer features many study spaces and quiet tables located outside the professors’ offices are to encourage student/faculty interaction. Weller Center for Business and International Studies—Built in 1999, it was Central's first step in green building featuring natural light, solar panels and carpet out of recycled materials in every room. It contains the business, foreign language and international studies departments. Central Market—Central's main dining facility. It is designed to resemble a European marketplace. Geisler Library—Holds nearly a quarter of a million resources including books, magazines, newspapers, music, reference periodicals, microfilm, historical information and art. Kuyper Athletic Complex—The Ron and Joyce Schipper Stadium received new Fieldturf in the summer of 2013. The field is surrounded by a 400-meter BSS 1000 polyurethane track which also house dual runways for jumping events and a two-way pole vault pit. The H.S. Kuyper Fieldshouse houses a 200-meter track and five tennis courts. The surface is

Mondotrack Mondotrack is a trademarked synthetic track surface used for Track and field athletics. Mondotrack is developed by Mondo (Italian company), Mondo, a world leader in Track and field surfacing. Research was done to achieve the best possible surfac ...

, which is the same surface used in the 2008 Olympic games in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

Academics

Central offers 73 academic programs and pre-professional advising, including the college's newest major, engineering. The 14 pre-professional programs include medicine, law, nursing and pharmacy. Academic programs include: accounting, athletic training, biology, communication studies, computer science, education, music, natural science, physics and languages. 85 percent of faculty have a PhD or terminal degree. The average class size is 16 students and the student to faculty ratio is 12–1. About 50 percent of Central students study abroad at some point. Central offers year-round programs around the world. Summer programs are also available in many locations.

Athletics

Central has 20 sports programs and competes in the ARC of the NCAA. Sports include: football, wrestling, volleyball, softball, baseball, women's triathlon; men's and women's golf, track, soccer, basketball and tennis. Cheerleading, dance team and intramural sports are also offered. Highlights of Central athletics programs include: * The football team has not had a losing season since 1960. * The softball team has 25 Division III tournament berths and 13 finals appearances. They have four national champion titles. * The volleyball team has three national titles—1998, 1999 and 2000. * The track and field team combined has 35 individual championships. The men's program has 15 individual championships, with seven in the multi-event category. Central College's athletic teams include: Men's sports *

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

* Cross country * Football (Top 25 in each of the past 3 decades.) *

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

Tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

Track and Field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

Wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...

Women's sports *

* Cross country *

Softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

Triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of swimming, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the time transitioning between the ...

Volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

Student life

Central has over 100 clubs and activities for students to get involved with on campus. Students are also given the opportunity to create their own club and have it officially recognized by the college. Clubs and Organizations Include intramural sports, mock trial, non-national Greek life, Campus Ministries, and more. There are honorary organizations for theatre, chemistry, mathematics, art, music, history, political science, psychology, English and biology. There are also 18 music ensembles available for participation on campus including a cappella choir, steel drum ensemble, pep band, jazz band, woodwind ensemble, community chorus and chamber singers.

Notable alumni

* Bernadette Allen, former

United States Ambassador to Niger The day before Niger's independence on August 3, 1960, the first American Chargé d'Affaires ad interim, Donald R. Norland, presented his credentials to take effect the following day. The first United States ambassador to Niger, R. Borden Ream ...

* Bert Bandstra, (1950) Member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa * George Alfred Baitsell, United States biologist and official of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

1908) * Steve Bell, television reporter and anchor *

Cyrenus Cole Cyrenus Cole (January 13, 1863 – November 14, 1939) was a newspaper editor, newspaper columnist, columnist and historian, then a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States House of Representatives, U.S. Representative from Iowa' ...

, (1887) Member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa *

Vern Den Herder Vern Wayne Den Herder (born November 28, 1948) is a former American football player who played 12 seasons for the Miami Dolphins of the NFL. He played in three Super Bowls for the Dolphins. In 1996, he was selected to the College Football Hal ...

, defensive end who was part of the Miami Dolphins' "No Name Defense" that won 2 consecutive Super Bowls, and is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame * Cory Synhorst SerVaas, Editor, inventor, and doctor * Adam Gregg, (2006) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa as of May 25, 2017. Public Defender of Iowa from December 8, 2014, to May 25, 2017. *

John Hospers John Hospers (June 9, 1918 – June 12, 2011) was an American philosopher and political activist. Hospers was interested in Objectivism, and was once a friend of the philosopher Ayn Rand, though she later broke with him. In 1972, Hospers becam ...

, (1939) first U.S. presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party. * Solomon F. Prouty, (1877) Member of the United States House of Representatives from Iowa * Harry Smith, (1973) television reporter

References

External links

*
Athletics website
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1853 Education in Marion County, Iowa Pella, Iowa Buildings and structures in Marion County, Iowa Tourist attractions in Marion County, Iowa Private universities and colleges in Iowa 1853 establishments in Iowa Reformed Church in America