Summary for Champlain College Records

page 1 CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE RECORDS COLLECTION NAMES Champlain College Records Champlain College Special Collections; Champlain College Library, 95 Summit Street, REPOSITORY Burlington, Vermont DATE 1878 - 2017; Inclusive date(s); 1878 - 2017; Inclusive date(s); 1955 - 1985; Bulk date(s) EXTENT 252 linear feet as of October 2017 The Champlain College Records contain the administrative and academic records of Champlain College from its founding in 1878 to the present day. The Records include some materials pertaining to the College's predecessor organizations: the Burlington Collegiate Institute and Commercial College (1878-1879), Queen City Collegiate Institute and Commercial College (1879-1884), Burlington Business College (1884-1957), and Champlain College of Commerce (1957-1958). The Records contain manuscripts, photographs, academic catalogs, other official College publications, student publications, ABSTRACT event programs, correspondence, audio recordings, films, ephemera, and artifacts. Burlington Business College (is related to); Champlain College of Commerce (is related to); RELATED ENTITIES Champlain College (is related to) Champlain College, a private nonprofit institution of higher education in Burlington, Vermont, offers traditional and online undergraduate and graduate degrees. The College was founded in 1878 by educator George W. Thompson as the Burlington Collegiate Institute and Commercial College, a for-profit post-secondary school. Between 1878 and 1958, the school changed ownership several times, and its name changed as well, to the Queen City Collegiate Institute and Commercial College (1879-1884), Burlington Business College (1884-1956), Green Mountain College of Commerce (1956), Champlain College of Commerce (1956-1958) and finally, Champlain College (1958-present). During the nineteenth century, the nationwide expansion of manufacturing and commerce led to an increased demand for trained clerks, bookkeepers, secretaries and administrators. Hundreds of local and regional commercial colleges, including Champlain College, were established in the United States as a result. In its earliest years, Champlain offered one- and two-year college preparatory and business programs to students from Vermont, New Hampshire, New York’s North Country and Quebec, with day classes for traditional students and evening classes for working professionals. Topics of instruction included bookkeeping, arithmetic, penmanship (for legible business correspondence), typing, stenography and telegraph operation. The College admitted female students from the time of its establishment in 1878. By 1920, Champlain was said to be “by far the largest of its kind in Northern New England,” with an enrollment of about 100 students. By the 1940s, the College awarded degrees in junior accountancy, stenography, secretarial science, executive secretarial science and business administration. From Downtown to the Hill Section During its first 80 years, Champlain rented various classroom and office spaces in downtown Burlington. From 1911 to 1958, the College was located on the third floor of 182-190 Main Street, above the storefront now occupied by Nectar’s Bar and Lounge. As Champlain did not have its own dormitories until the late 1950s, out-of-own students boarded with area residents. The College had strict rules for student behavior: smoking and drinking were not permitted on or Champlain College Records (champlain_college_records) 12/21/2017 at 11:35:07 page 2 College had strict rules for student behavior: smoking and drinking were not permitted on or off campus, and chewing gum was prohibited on school premises. After many years of steady enrollment, Champlain’s student body dwindled in the years following World War II. By the mid-1950s the College was ailing, with only about 30 students. In 1956, businessmen C. Bader Brouilette and Albert Jensen purchased the College as a partnership. After Jensen died suddenly a few months later, Brouilette became sole owner and president. He quickly revamped the College’s curricula to provide “specialized training in modern business methods,” including associate’s degrees in accounting and business administration, executive secretarial science and medical secretarial science. As a result, enrollment expanded to 100 students, and Brouilette began searching for property to establish a campus. In 1958, President Brouilette purchased Freeman Hall, a 1903 carriage barn in Burlington’s Hill Section neighborhood that had previously served as a University of Vermont dormitory. This new facility accommodated up to 250 students with modern classrooms equipped with the latest business technology. Over the next three decades, as enrollment grew to about 900 students, the College gradually purchased 19 additional Victorian buildings in the neighborhood, some of which had already been converted from their original function as single-family homes to apartments and dormitories. Champlain also constructed several new academic and student life buildings in its developing core campus, centered near South Willard and Maple Streets. President Brouilette and his successor, Dr. Robert Skiff, positioned Champlain College as a junior college of regional and national importance, expanding its curricula to include other career-oriented programs and training students in cutting-edge technologies across these fields. Champlain was accredited as a junior college of business by the Accrediting Commission of Business Schools in 1960, became a nonprofit institution in 1966 and attained full accreditation as a junior college by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges in 1972. Adapting to Changing Marketplace Needs The College provided instruction on electric typewriters by 1959, had a punch-card computer by 1963, and introduced a data processing major by 1966. By 1980, the College also had programs in aeronautics, fashion merchandising, management, law enforcement, hotel and restaurant management, early childhood education, special education and dental assistantship, among others. Soon afterward, the College launched a Computer Camp program for children and a Computer Resource Training Center for working professionals. Student life flourished in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with the establishment of Champlain’s first on-campus dormitories as well as many extracurricular activities, including student council, drama, glee, outing, and religious clubs, a student newspaper, intramural golf and bowling programs, a cheerleading team, and men’s and women’s basketball teams. In the 1990s and 2000s, under the leadership of President Skiff and his successors, Dr. Roger Perry and Dr. David Finney, Champlain College transformed itself again, transitioning away from two-year associate’s degree and certificate programs to four-year bachelor’s degrees, graduate degrees, and online distance learning programs. It also added a distinctive undergraduate experience with its Upside-Down Curriculum, which allows students to enroll in classes in their major starting in their first semester. In the mid- 1990s Champlain pioneered Vermont’s first computer-based, online distance learning program, SuccessNet, and established its first satellite international programs in Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Under President Finney, the College developed its Core Division, which offers a four-year series of interdisciplinary liberal arts courses, and its Life Experience and Action Dimension (LEAD) program, which provides students with the life skills to manage their careers and finances and become engaged citizens. Champlain began offering master’s degree and graduate certificate programs in 2002, and it currently awards master’s degrees in business administration, digital forensic analysis, mediation and applied conflict studies, emergent media and early childhood education, among others. The College opened study abroad campuses in Montreal, Canada in 2007 and in Dublin, Ireland in 2008 to meet the increasing global perspective demanded by employers. Additional Champlain College Records (champlain_college_records) 12/21/2017 at 11:35:07 page 3 in 2008 to meet the increasing global perspective demanded by employers. Additional international partnerships were developed with programs in Shanghai, China, Auckland, New Zealand, Ifrane, Morocco and Buenos Aires, Argentina to prepare students to be globally-engaged citizens of the world. Establishing Centers of Excellence Champlain now offers innovative, career-oriented programs to more than 2,100 traditional undergraduate, 1,750 online adult undergraduate, and 920 graduate students. In keeping with its history of relevant curriculum, the College has introduced programs in cybersecurity, creative media, and game design, among others, and established several centers of excellence on campus, including the Patrick Leahy Center for Digital Investigation, Emergent Media Center, Champlain College Publishing Initiative, Bring Your Own Business (BYOBiz), Center for Financial Literacy and the David L. Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry. In 2013, the College launched truEd Alliance, a business partnership program providing online bachelor’s, master’s and certificate programs to employees of select partner businesses. In 2014, Champlain joined forces with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to provide Federal employees, spouses and eligible adult dependents access to affordable online education in mission-critical and highly competitive fields. Scholarships and Sustainability While Champlain’s student body has

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