Westmont College

History
The school's mission is to "provide a high quality undergraduate liberal arts program in a residential campus community that assists college men and women toward a balance of rigorous intellectual competence, healthy personal development, and strong Christian commitments." Ruth Kerr, owner of the Kerr Mason Jar Company, established the school as the Bible Missionary Institute (1937), later renamed the Western Bible College (1939). During these early years, Ruth and the other founders decided that a liberal arts curriculum was the best direction for the school. In 1940 Dr. Wallace Emerson, the first president, renamed the school Westmont College, envisioning a Christian liberal arts college that would take its place among the best in the nation.

By 1944, Westmont College had outgrown its facilities in downtown Los Angeles. After a failed attempt to move the campus to Altadena in early 1945 the desperate search for a new campus led Mrs. Kerr and the trustees to the former Dwight Murphy estate in Montecito with its 125 acres (0.51 km2). Westmont purchased this property and moved to the Santa Barbara area in the Fall of 1945.

Set in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains, Westmont's wooded and scenic acres provide an environment for a residential college. The campus includes buildings and land from two former estates and the historic Deane School for Boys. The grounds still feature the pathways, stone bridges, and garden atmosphere typical of Montecito, a suburb of Santa Barbara.

While Westmont has sought to preserve and use the original structures, it has also built new facilities, including the J. Misenhimer Library, the restored Westmont Art Center, the A. Nelson Science Building, the Murchison Gymnasium Complex, and the Ruth Kerr Memorial Student Center. They are currently anticipating the addition of the Winter Hall for Science and Mathematics, and the Adams Center for the Visual Arts as the completion of the master plan.

Westmont is ranked #111 in the US News & World Report "America's Best Colleges 2009" list of liberal arts colleges.

U.S. University Rankings

USNWR Liberal Arts College[1] 111
[1]

Westmont College Academics
Westmont offers 26 majors. The student/faculty ratio is 13 to 1; percentage of faculty with doctorates is 79%[2] those who are without terminal degrees are coaches who teach PE courses; average class size is 18.5[3]. The students come from 25 states, 11 countries, and 33 Christian denominations. Graduation rate in 4 years is 87%.

The majors are not impacted, therefore students are able to change majors easily. Students aren't required to declare their major until the end of their sophomore year so as to graduate on time.

The weekly student newspaper is the Horizon, which can also be found online at http://horizon.westmont.edu [4].

Campus
Westmont College is located a few miles off of U.S. 101 just to the east of Santa Barbara. The city of Santa Barbara is on the central Californian coast and is 100 miles north of Los Angeles and 250 miles south of San Francisco.

The campus itself resides in the hills of Montecito and features 110 acres (0.45 km2) of hills, gardens, and trees. A small creek runs down the campus often dry during summer and autumn and typically full during the rainy spring months and has even flooded campus buildings in El Nino years.

The campus has five on-campus dorms. The two freshman dorms are Page and Clark which are located at the upper corners of campus. Armington is at the lowest point on campus, and is usually the sophomore dorm. Emerson (formerly known as New Dorm and Everest), is at the top of campus and has ocean views in many of its rooms. Van Kampen, the most popular dorm for upper-classmen, is located in the center of the campus and was recently renovated and modernized in the summer of 2006. This renovation included rooms with new windows and cabinets. The bathrooms were competently updated and the kitchens added marble counter tops and large community refrigerators. A 60-inch plasma screen and a regulation size shuffleboard table were added to the Van Kampen lounge. Another option for upper classmen students is the Ocean View Apartments, a college owned apartment building on the east side of Santa Barbara.

Westmont College Off-campus programs
Westmont also offers a significant number of off-campus programs. These programs are run with a faculty member and include Europe semester, England Semester, Westmont in Mexico and the San Francisco Urban program. Westmont is also a member of the Christian College Consortium and there exists the opportunity to study at other Christian colleges including Seattle Pacific, Gordon and Houghton. Additionally, many students may participate in other qualifying programs, including semesters in New Zealand, Belize, Washington D.C., Chile, Italy, France and Lithuania. Students benefit from these programs which provide transferable credit while at the same time exposing them to a different area. Students may decide to do an internship while they are off campus, and many choose Washington DC or the San Francisco Urban program for this purpose. Some students may also go abroad to study a language or another culture as well. Another popular off campus program is in Italy, where students go to study art. Clearly, off campus programs are an important part of the Westmont experience with over 60% percent of students participating in a program during their time studying at Westmont.

Westmont College Spring Sing
Westmont hosts an annual event entitled Spring Sing. This event is a competition between the dorms with eight minute musical comedy skits. The dorms are further divided by gender into male and female houses (with the exception of the Emerson dorm).

The skits incorporate an average of four or five clips of popular songs with altered original lyrics. The lyrics are usually changed to reflect a humorous progression of the skit's main story.

Each Spring Sing house is lead by one or two directors. It is the directors' responsibility to lead their respective house in creating their Spring Sing skit. A director's job typically consists of helping coordinate the skit's script, lyrics, props, side-mics (to bring clarity to the lyrics), dance choreography, and any other snag that the production may encounter. The directors are typically seen guiding their house during the skit dressed in amusing costumes.