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The Shimer Alumni Alliance is particularly pleased to announce this development because it is principally the work of Shimer alums. Like all Wikipedia articles, this article is a community product, but the leading role in its development was taken by Shimer alumnus Chris Vaughan. Many other Shimer alums played supporting roles.
The article achieved "Featured" status, the highest level in Wikipedia's quality-assurance system, on July 31, 2010, and was approved for the front page in April 2011. Relatively few articles about educational institutions have ever achieved Featured status on Wikipedia. Shimer's article is the only article about a college or university in Illinois to have this honor.
Here is a sampling of the facts about Shimer that can be found in the meticulously documented article featured on Wikipedia today:
Shimer College is one of the few Great Books colleges in America, and follows a modified form of the curriculum originally adopted by the University of Chicago under educational reformer Robert Maynard Hutchins. Shimer is also one of the smallest colleges in America, with a current enrollment of 128 students, and has one of the highest rates of Ph.D. productivity in the nation. It is also one of the very few small liberal arts colleges to be located in the heart of a major city.
In addition to its distinctively rigorous Great Books curriculum, Shimer is home to America's longest-running early entrance program, which enables qualified high school students to move directly to college after their sophomore or junior year. It additionally provides a weekend college program for working adults, and an Oxford study abroad program that has operated continuously since the early 1960s.
Shimer has a long tradition of survival in the face of difficult odds, dating back to its foundation on May 11, 1853. Most recently, in 2010, Shimer overcame an attempted hostile takeover by right-wing ideologues, and in doing so preserved its traditions of participatory governance and intellectual rigor. The last vestiges of that struggle were successfully put to rest on May 6, 2011, when the Board of Trustees adopted a new consensus mission statement.
For further reading about Shimer College, see the school's official website: http://shimer.edu
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About the Shimer Alumni Alliance: the Alliance is a freewill association of current and former Shimer College students who are interested in supporting Shimer, the Great Books college of Chicago. The Alliance has no formal organization or leadership.
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