Albright College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college. It was founded in 1856 and is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, United States.
Albright College has been named one of the "Best Northeastern" schools for 13 consecutive years by The Princeton Review. Albright College has also been named one of the most ethnically and economically diverse schools in the country by U.S News and World Report. In the “Campus Ethnic Diversity†category, as part of its 2017 Best Colleges rankings, U.S. News ranked Albright 30th out of 219 national liberal arts colleges in this category. In the “Economic Diversity†category, Albright ranked 21st out of 214 national liberal arts schools named. The Economist magazine listed Albright among the top 50 American colleges and universities for economic value in 2015.
Academics
Albright College offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees, as well as a Master of Arts and Master of Science degrees in education. The college also offers accelerated degree programs with 10 locations throughout Pennsylvania.
Albright offers liberal arts and pre-professional programs. It created one of the first undergraduate psychobiology programs in the nation in the 1960s. The College's liberal arts curriculum has an interdisciplinary focus that allows students to create an individualized education. Fully half of Albright students have concentrations that combine two or three fields of learning.
Two Albright programs that have received national attention in the past decade are fashion and theatre. Albright has been named one of the nation's top private fashion merchandising schools in 2015, 2016 and 2017 by Fashion-Schools.org. The theatre program has been honored by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival consistently for the past 15 years. The Albright College Domino Players' production of "Clybourne Park" was named one of the best collegiate theatrical productions in the country by the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 2016. The national award recognized "Clybourne Park" for outstanding production of a play.
The Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) is a multi-disciplinary program that affords undergraduate students the opportunity to conduct research or pursue creative endeavors during the three-week January Interim or summer break. The students, who work one-on-one with faculty members, can be from any discipline, from STEM subjects to the humanities.
Albright does not require applicants to take the SAT or submit SAT scores; submission of these scores is optional.
History
Berks County's oldest institute of higher learning, Albright College traces its founding to 1856 when Union Seminary opened. Present-day Albright was formed by the mergers of several institutions.
Albright Collegiate Institute opened in 1895 and was renamed Albright College three years later. Union Seminary became Central Pennsylvania College and, in 1902, merged with Albright College. Schuylkill College, previously called Schuylkill Seminary, merged with Albright College in 1928. Albright's campus relocated from Myerstown, to Schuylkill College’s campus, which is the present location of Albright, at the base of Mount Penn in Reading.
The College is named for Pennsylvania-German evangelical preacher Jacob Albright, who founded the Evangelical Association (later known as the Evangelical United Brethren Church). Born in 1759 in Douglass Township, (now Montgomery County) with the given name of Johannes Jacob Albrecht, the family changed their surname to "Albright" following Jacob's 1808 death.
Athletics
Albright College athletic teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III as a member of the Middle Atlantic Conferences.
Notable individuals and events
Charles "Pop" Kelchner founded the Men's Basketball team in 1900 and was athletic director at Albright College for 21 years. He was involved in aspects of Major League Baseball for over 50 years. Albright College dedicated the baseball field as Kelchner Field in 1952. Branch Rickey gave the dedication speech, with Connie Mack in attendance. Kelchner was a graduate of Lafayette College with two degrees and was proficient in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Classical Latin and Greek. He served as Professor of Languages and athletic director.
Clarence Lester "Biggie" Munn (September 11, 1908 â€" March 18, 1975) was an American football player, coach, and college athletics administrator. He was the head football coach at Albright College (1935â€"1936), Syracuse University (1946), and most notably Michigan State College (1947â€"1953), where his 1952 squad won a national championship. Munn retired from coaching in 1953 to assume duties as Michigan State's athletic director, a position he held until 1971.
William "Lone Star" Dietz was the Director of Athletics and Head Football Coach at Albright from 1937 to 1942. Dietz led the football team to their first undefeated season in 1937. He previously led Washington State to 1916 Rose Bowl victory. In the National Football League, Dietz had coached the Boston "Redskins" (1933â€"1934), the forerunner of the Washington Redskins. Dietz is in the Albright College Athletic Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.
In 1948, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES) and Albright College played the first intercollegiate football game between an Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) institution and a majority-white institution.
Dr. Wilbur G. Renken was Athletic Director and basketball head coach for 38 consecutive seasons. A highly regarded figure in collegiate athletics in general and specifically basketball, Dr. Renken was the President of the United States Olympic Basketball Team Selection Committee for the 1976 Olympic Games. He also served as the President of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) in 1979â€"1980.
WXAC
Albright's campus radio station, WXAC 91.3 FM is a student-operated college radio station. The initial call name was WALC, but was later changed to WXAC on March 8, 1965. WALC had been the same call name for the Alcoa Steamship Lines.
Notable alumni
- Joseph E. Coleman '48, politician, attorney and chemist; first African-American elected president of Philadelphia City Council
- Doris Freedman '50, pioneer in the field of public art
- Edwin Erickson '60, State Senator, Pennsylvania
- Thomas R. Kline, Esq. '69, personal injury lawyer
- Bob Spitz '71, celebrity biographer
- Anthony Portantino ’83, State Senator, California
- Matthew Urbanski '85, landscape architect
- John Fetterman '91, mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania
- Casey Lawrence '10, professional baseball pitcher for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball
References
External links
- Albright College website
- Albright College Athletics website
