Academics
College Catalog > General Information
Lake Forest College: An Introduction
Lake Forest College is a coeducational undergraduate institution offering students the opportunities and challenges of a liberal arts education in a community dedicated to learning. At the heart of Lake Forest is the close-knit community of teachers, scholars, students and staff representing cultures from around the globe who live and learn together in an environment of mutual respect and collaboration. Committed to teaching undergraduates, the distinguished faculty shares a fundamental goal of preparing students to become independent thinkers and responsible citizens of global communities. The curriculum, uniquely enriched by the extensive resources of nearby Chicago, challenges students to think critically and creatively and to communicate convincingly in a variety of ways, while providing many experiential opportunities for applying and further developing acquired concepts and methods. Undergraduate study at the College prepares students for a lifetime of intellectual growth and the exploration of new frontiers.
The College was founded in 1857 as Lind University by the same group of visionary Presbyterians who founded the town of Lake Forest (1861) and established its First Presbyterian Church (1859). The institution grew to include male and female academies, a coeducational undergraduate college, and graduate schools of medicine, dentistry, and law. The undergraduate college enrolled its first students in 1876 as Lake Forest University. During the early part of the twentieth century, the graduate schools were disassociated from the University and the academies became autonomous schools (continuing today as Lake Forest Academy). Full attention was thereafter devoted by Lake Forest University to its undergraduate college. Accordingly, the institution was formally renamed Lake Forest College in 1965.Throughout its history, the College has continued to express many of the values cherished by its founders. Today the faculty, students, and staff come from diverse ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. The College is governed by an independent Board of Trustees, is accredited at the undergraduate and the master’s degree levels by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and is registered by the Board of Higher Education of the State of Illinois.
After more than a century of undergraduate education, the College offers a curriculum in the liberal arts that combines requirements for exposure to the humanities and natural and social sciences with many opportunities for interdisciplinary exploration, independent academic work, and substantial choice in designing one’s course of study. The undergraduate academic programs are enhanced by cooperative degree programs with several other institutions of higher education, for-credit internship experiences in Chicago, other areas of the United States, and abroad, and a wide array of programs for international study. The College’s graduate program in liberal studies, established in 1976, pursues a strongly interdisciplinary approach.
Intentionally small in size, Lake Forest College fosters regular, continuing interaction between students and faculty. As a result of its location near Chicago, students have exposure to the myriad cultural opportunities available only in one of the world’s great cities. In its curriculum and its student life, Lake Forest’s special qualities are best defined in a mission statement approved by the faculty and trustees in 1992, which is printed on the second page of this catalog.
Location
Lake Forest College is located several blocks from Lake Michigan in the small city of Lake Forest, Illinois. One of the most beautiful suburbs on Chicago’s North Shore, Lake Forest provides a quiet, secure, and supportive environment for the College. The campus is 25 miles northeast of O’Hare Airport via the Tri-State Tollway (Interstate 294), 35 minutes by car and about an hour on the airport bus. Downtown Chicago, with its intellectual, cultural, and educational resources, is only 30 miles away. The superb commuter railroad takes less than an hour to reach the heart of the city, and the campus is a short walk or cab ride from the railroad station in Lake Forest. Students and faculty have access to the libraries of Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the Chicago Historical Society as well as to the Newberry Library and the Chicago Public Library. The Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera, the Goodman Theatre, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago are among the many cultural institutions that make Chicago a national center for music, drama, and art. The Museum of Science and Industry, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Adler Planetarium, the Shedd Aquarium, and Argonne National Laboratory are available to our students both informally and as sites for internships and for course work. The location of the College gives it the best of the suburban and urban worlds.
Faculty
At the center of Lake Forest College stands its distinguished faculty. They are first and foremost teachers, and the College seeks out and retains faculty members principally because they enjoy and excel at teaching undergraduates. Faculty members, rather than graduate assistants, teach all courses and provide academic advising, and they are easily available to students. A student/faculty ratio of about 12:1 gives students ready access to their teachers and enables them to have informed counsel about their individual programs of study. Small class size and flexibility in instructional methods provide our students with regular opportunities for the give and take of classroom discussion.
The faculty’s tradition of teaching excellence is matched and supported by its achievement in scholarly research. Approximately 98% of the full-time teaching faculty hold doctoral degrees. Many are recognized authorities in their fields and are actively involved as lecturers, consultants, journal editors, authors, and artists. In recent years faculty members have been awarded fellowships or other national awards by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Fulbright Commission, the German Marshall Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Presidential Young Investigator Program of the National Science Foundation, ASCAP, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Students at the College enjoy the benefits of studying with these nationally prominent scholars either by enrolling in courses that they teach or working with them on research projects.
Students
For many years the College has fostered diversity within the student body and commitment among its students to high standards of academic excellence and personal integrity. Virtually all states of the Union and more than 40 foreign countries are represented among the undergraduates. The diversity of the College community is seen in more than the geographical, educational, and racial and ethnic backgrounds of its students. It is also found in the broad range of personalities at the College. A student at Lake Forest is accepted as an individual with particular intellectual and personal talents and needs.
For each of these individuals, the College is a place to study, work, enjoy, and live. Students participate in a variety of activities. They join the faculty in the governing of the College through participation in governance committees. Students manage WMXM-FM, our radio station, the Stentor, our student newspaper, as well as a number of literary magazines, the chorus and instrumental ensembles, and theater groups. Honorary societies in biology, drama, economics, education, foreign languages, philosophy, politics, psychology, chemistry, and physics enjoy active student participation as do other special-interest clubs. The College provides physical education for interested students and maintains a comprehensive intramural and intercollegiate athletic program. There are five national sororities and one national fraternity, as well as one local fraternity, all housed within the residence halls. All students have equal opportunity to take advantage of the richness of the College’s co-curricular programs.
Academic Calendar
Fall and Spring Semesters
Summer Sessions
Two summer sessions offer a number of courses, the great majority being taught by regular members of the College’s faculty. The first session, three weeks in length, runs from mid-May to early June, in which a student may enroll in a single course. The seven-week session extends from mid-June to late July, during which a student may enroll in a maximum of two courses.
Research and Learning Resources
Office of Library and Information Technology (LIT)
LIT is committed to providing resources and services that enable students to find, evaluate, and effectively use information in all formats. LIT plays a vital role in helping students acquire the information fluency skills that will help them succeed in their academic careers and in their lives after they leave Lake Forest College.
Facilities and Services
The Donnelley and Lee Library was renovated and expanded in the fall of 2004 to create a new 72,000-square-foot state-of-the-art library. This facility houses the College Library’s print collection of 280,000 volumes and offers a wide variety of individual and group study spaces. In addition, the Library features a 24-hour computer lab, a cybercafe, smart classrooms, and a Technology Resource Center. A wireless network is available throughout the building.
The Donnelley and Lee Library has been designed to support LIT’s strong programs of instruction. A variety of classes, workshops, and individually scheduled research appointments are offered on a regular basis and are designed for students who wish to hone their research skills and work with special technological applications such as Geographic Information System technology or digital video editing software.
The College is a member of CARLI, a consortium of more than 130 academic libraries, whose combined holdings of more than 20 million volumes supplement strong local holdings. Lake Forest College students, faculty, and staff can easily search the catalogs of these libraries and can issue requests to borrow items from any one of them. Most of the requested items are delivered to the campus within two days. The Library also offers traditional interlibrary loan service for materials not available within the consortium. In addition, Lake Forest College students and faculty may take advantage of other fine library collections in the Chicago area. For example, with prior arrangement, members of the College community have access to the libraries at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and the Chicago History Museum.
The campus network consists of a fiber optic backbone that connects all campus buildings to the College’s network. The network is available from all classrooms and residence hall rooms. An ever-expanding wireless network is also available from various locations on campus, including most academic buildings and all residence halls. All students living in residence halls may connect personally owned computers to the campus network and will be assisted in this process by LIT staff. A full DS-3 line provides all members of the Lake Forest College community with high-speed access to the Internet.
All students are provided with e-mail accounts, network storage file storage space, and space to create Web pages. All members of the Lake Forest College community must adhere to the policies outlined in the College’s Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources at Lake Forest College.
LIT Quick Facts
| Number of volumes (books and periodicals) | 280,000 |
| Number of volumes added per year | >4,000 |
| Current periodical subscriptions (paper and electronic) | >2,250 |
| Periodical databases | >114 |
| Microform holdings | >106,200 |
| Government documents | >118,250 |
| Workstations in public computer labs | 120 |
The Writing Center
The Writing Center offers individual instruction and information on every aspect of writing for all members of the campus community. These services are available for students working in any discipline and wanting to improve their writing in assigned papers, creative work, laboratory reports, research, senior theses, and other exercises. Staffed by the Director of Writing Programs, the Assistant to the Director of the Writing Center, and trained student tutors, the Writing Center provides assistance to students at all levels of writing competency. The Center also promotes professional interest in writing by organizing workshops for faculty and by supporting discussion, consultation, and informal meetings on issues of writing and pedagogy throughout the curriculum. The Writing Center plays a central role, therefore, in the College’s development of the writing curriculum across the disciplines. The Center is located in Johnson B and is open during the regular College term.
To encourage interest and excellence in writing, the Writing Center sponsors a First-Year Composition Contest and an annual Lake Forest College Writing Contest, both juried by faculty. Winning papers are published on the Writing Center’s Web page.
The Learning and Teaching Center (LTC)
The goal of the Learning and Teaching Center is to enhance the learning process at Lake Forest College. The LTC helps students develop skills and strategies for learning throughout their college years and beyond. The LTC assists faculty in devising innovative techniques to help students read critically, reason analytically, communicate persuasively, and think independently. By encouraging and expanding interactions among student and faculty groups, the Learning and Teaching Center supports the enterprise of our learning community.
Among the specific services the LTC provides for students are the maintenance of a library of books and videotapes; coordination of the peer teaching and peer mentoring programs; training for departmental tutors; workshops for students writing senior theses; workshops for new students; workshops with faculty and students on learning issues; videotape practice sessions; and recordings for the blind and dyslexic.
Center for Chicago Programs
The Center for Chicago Programs helps facilitate engagement with Chicago both in the city and on campus. At the Center, the College community may obtain information about music, art, theater, and other cultural, social, and educational events in the city and suburbs, and also participate in a series of trips to a variety of major Chicago events ranging from Broadway musicals to national dance programs and professional sports events. The Center offers guidance on transportation to the city, and suggestions of neighborhoods and specific places to visit.
Central to its mission is also bringing Chicago to the campus. Toward this end the Center helps to bring noteworthy speakers, artists, and performers to the College. Lake Forest Lyrica, a series of chamber music concerts by Chicago area professional ensembles, held in Reid Chapel, is one such program. Another is the Literary Festival, which brings well known Chicago area writers to campus. Experts from Chicago in various fields including the social and natural sciences, are routinely invited to campus to give lectures as well.
Student Life and Activities
Residence Life
The Office of Residence Life at Lake Forest College maintains a living and learning environment conducive to cognitive, social, and personal development. Residence Life aims to provides an atmosphere that fosters individual student development and growth and supports the educational mission of the College through programming and community building. The office attends to student needs individually and within the context of the larger residential community. Members of the Residence Life staff, the faculty, and the administration share in the responsibility for building and maintaining a sense of community that recognizes each student’s need to learn and values each student’s right to learn.
Ten residence halls provide options that include all-women’s, coeducational, upperclass, predominantly first-year, alcohol-free, and smoke-free living environments. In addition, some students are affiliated with housing units based on a common interest or purpose. The residence halls contain their own lounges for study and recreational activities. There are also four apartments, housing 5 students each, that are available by application only to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
Student residence hall staff includes Community Directors and Resident Assistants, who are supervised by a professional staff person. In each residence hall the Community Director and Resident Assistants are selected by Residence Life professional staff. The staff provides peer-based counseling that responds to individual needs, coordinates educational and social programming, and upholds College policies. The professional staff also provides counseling and supervision for the student staff.
Athletics
Athletics at the varsity, club, intramural, physical education, and recreational levels are important to student life at Lake Forest College. Over 65% of the student body participate in some aspect of athletic programming. The Athletic Department offers a broad range of programs addressing the diverse needs of the community for competition, sports instruction, and recreation at different levels of skill and commitment.
As a member of NCAA Division III, Lake Forest College competes in both the Midwest Conference and the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association. The College sponsors varsity competition in 17 sports (basketball, cross-country, football, handball, hockey, soccer, swimming/diving, and tennis for men; basketball, cross-country, handball, hockey, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis, and volleyball for women). All of these programs have a tradition of excellence and many have experienced success at the conference or national level. The College expects team members to be students first. The coaches consistently challenge students to reach their potential as students and athletes, encouraging them to excel in both academics and athletic competition.
The College has an extensive club sports program. Club teams compete with local colleges and clubs both on and off the Lake Forest campus. Some of the programs offered at this level include rugby, sailing, men’s lacrosse, baseball, golf, fencing, track, dance, cheerleading, and poms. The intramural program is strong throughout the year with basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer, and hockey being the most popular sports.
Students enjoy fitness classes such as aerobics and advanced conditioning, as well as instruction in lifetime sports such as golf, racquetball, tennis, scuba, lifeguarding, and swimming. These physical education courses do not receive academic credit at the College, but do receive grades on a pass or fail basis.
Music
In addition to offering a variety of courses in music history, theory, electronic music, world music, and applied music, the Music Department runs several performance ensembles: chorus, a cappella ensemble, chamber orchestra, concert band, jazz ensemble, flute choir, percussion ensemble, and other chamber ensembles, depending upon student interest. These groups perform on campus several times throughout the year. Professional music groups, including Chicago-area chamber ensembles and solo recitalists give concerts on campus. In addition, Lake Forest Lyrica, a series of chamber music concerts performed by some of Chicago’s finest musicians, is held on campus and is free to students.
A nearby community orchestra, the North Suburban Symphony, presents four concert programs a year. Interested students are invited and encouraged to perform with this orchestra.
Theater
The theater department develops scholars, artists, and audiences of the performing arts by integrating traditional undergraduate coursework with experiential learning in a lively production season. Each year the department stages two mainstage productions (one each semester), directed and designed by faculty or guest artists, as well a black-box festival of student-generated pieces. All aspects of production – from performing to designing to submitting to the playwriting festival – are open to Lake Forest College students of any major. The department’s performance space is the Allan Carr Theater in Hixon Hall, an intimate, flexible, and fully-equipped venue. The small student body at Lake Forest College and our commitment to combining theater experiences with a liberal arts education translate to plenty of hands-on production experience for all students, regardless of their year in school. Students advise the faculty on the selection of the mainstage shows and on departmental affairs through volunteer and elected committees. Please visit the productions page on the department Web site for current information on the current season and ticket reservations.
In addition, students can get involved with the Garrick Players, the student theater organization established in 1902. The Garrick Players is the oldest collegiate theater organization in the Midwest, and produces two additional shows each year under the management of their Executive Board working with a faculty advisor.
Art Galleries
The Sonnenschein Gallery and the adjacent Albright Room are located in Durand Institute on North Campus. Changing exhibitions are mounted in Sonnenschein Gallery throughout the academic year, displaying both the work of the faculty and students and works held in the collection owned by the College or lent by other collections. Several times a year members of the faculty curate exhibitions of contemporary work with various themes. The College art collection emphasizes works on paper, including drawings, prints and photographs; we also hold an extensive group of Pre-Columbian and African objects.
College Publications
The Stentor, the College newspaper, was first published during the 1886-87 academic year and continues to serve as the students’ weekly journal. The Gates Center for Leadership and Personal Growth publishes weekly information that includes campus events and official College announcements. Spectrum, the alumni magazine, is sent to alumni and families of current students. The fine arts magazine, Tusitala, is published annually and provides an outlet for student poets, prose writers, photographers, and artists. Collage, the foreign language literary magazine, includes original prose and poetry in foreign languages, as well as original artwork, by Lake Forest College students and faculty.
Campus Events
The College sponsors a variety of cultural, social, and educational events on campus and, through the new Center for Chicago Programs, encourages students to take advantage of opportunities in Chicago. At the Center, students can obtain information about music, art, sports, festivals, and theater in the city and suburbs, and also participate in a series of trips to a variety of major Chicago events ranging from Broadway musicals to national dance programs and professional sports events. The Friends of the Arts program accepts concert and other tickets from members of the community, which would not otherwise be available. As a result, many Lake Forest students are able to attend Chicago Symphony concerts and other events free of charge. Several student organizations on campus also sponsor events such as Semana Latina, Alcohol Awareness Week, Black History Month, and International Week.
Campus Entertainment Committee
The Campus Entertainment Committee is responsible for organizing all types of campus events including concerts, comedians, hypnotists, coffeehouse performances, films, lectures, dances, and many other entertaining and educational events. The committee also helps plan such traditional events as Homecoming and Family Weekend.
Volunteer Community Service
Lake Forest College students have many opportunities for involvement in volunteer community service work in nearby towns and cities, and the College strongly encourages such work. Service activities and groups are coordinated through the Gates Center for Leadership and Personal Growth. One of the most rewarding service opportunities available to students is the annual Alternative Spring Break Service Trip whereby students and staff travel to a selected region of the country to provide service for a community in need. Fraternities and sororities on campus and the Interfaith Center are also consistently involved in community service.
Religious Activities
Through the Lilace Reid Barnes Interfaith Center, the College continues its traditional relationship with the Presbyterian Church in a context of religious plurality and dialogue. A student steering committee suggests and implements programs to meet current campus needs. Activities sponsored include Sunday services, New Testament study, Sabbath celebrations, and afternoon meditations. The faculty coordinator serves as liaison with the Office of Student Affairs and with the student steering committee and also works with local clergy in facilitating their ministry to our religiously diverse student body.
Advising, Guidance, and Support
A comprehensive advising and guidance program at the College recognizes the need for supportive counseling both in the regular course of a college education and also in the case of special, individual matters of concern. Thus, counseling takes place in a variety of settings, with more or less formality depending on the circumstances, and at the several stages of progress throughout a college career.
Academic Advising
The advising system holds a central place in the academic program of Lake Forest College. Faculty advisors help students determine their academic needs and objectives, enhancing the freedom of choice available for designing an individual program of study for a given term and for an entire College career. Advisors also work with students to ensure that they receive a broad-based education while selecting appropriate majors and meeting graduation requirements. New students are assigned a faculty advisor at the outset who assists with overall program planning, course selection, registration, career choices, and other academic difficulties or personal problems as they may arise. First-year students are taught by their advisor in a First-Year Studies course during the fall term. First-year advisors serve in an advisory capacity for the entire first year. During the sophomore year, students may continue to be advised by their first-year advisor or may choose another faculty advisor.
Students must select a major field of study by the end of the sophomore year. Accordingly, during the sophomore year a student will choose an advisor from the faculty members in the relevant departmental or interdisciplinary major. Faculty advisors in the major assist students in drawing up a program of courses in their major field and other academic areas, and provide necessary guidance throughout students’ undergraduate careers.
Counseling Center
In addition to the Residence Life staff support, the College offers services through the Counseling Center, which helps students become more effective, self-directed individuals. Free of charge to all Lake Forest College students, the Counseling Center offers unlimited individual counseling on personal, social, or academic issues. Services are offered to help students benefit fully from the College experience. Group counseling is available to students who are seeking to enhance their own growth and development.
Career Advancement Center
The Career Advancement Center provides personalized attention to create your own individualized career plan. It assists with self-assessment tools, resume writing, cover letters, and employer research. It also offers mock interview sessions, distributes graduate school information and provides guidance for students who are undecided on a major. The job-seeking student is a highly marketable candidate through on-campus interviews, an annual job fair, and by networking through the Alumni Mentor Program (AMP). The AMP has been designed for students who wish to be matched up with alumni to speak individually concerning career opportunities and guidance. This network of contacts in the profit and nonprofit sectors in the Chicagoland area helps open doors for initial interviews and provides students with first-hand information about a wide variety of career opportunities. An experienced professional staff is available to accelerate the career search, teach lifelong skills, and bolster ongoing success.
Student Health Services
On-campus health services are provided for all resident and nonresident undergraduate students in a degree program, excluding Degree Candidacy Pending students. The semester fee of $55 is mandatory and nonrefundable.
The College’s health services program is administered by Lake Forest Hospital and provides a wide range of services. A nurse practitioner is available at the campus Student Health Center by appointment and for emergencies. Physicians’ services are provided on campus once a week by the Medical Director of the Lake Forest Hospital Emergency Department. When the campus Student Health Center is closed, medical care is provided by the Emergency Physicians’ Group at Lake Forest Hospital, located 1.5 miles west of the campus. These physicians treat students in the hospital’s emergency room following referral from the nurse, Residence Life staff, Office of Student Affairs staff, or campus security. The Health Center is located in the Sports Center and is open from 8:30 a.m. to noon and from 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
The basic fee covers the cost of some medical services offered at the Health Center that a personal physician may provide, such as physical examinations for sports, internships, and overseas study, education for self-care and wellness, some supplies, and some diagnostic testing. In addition, certain services are offered for a small fee. Laboratory or X-ray fees and prescription costs are not covered but may be filed with insurance. When a student is referred to Lake Forest Hospital, the basic fee does not cover medical services rendered. The College requires that full-time resident students participate in its student health coverage plan unless evidence of equal or superior coverage is presented and an insurance waiver is completed. Students and their parents are urged to review the coverage offered, detailed in a brochure issued from the Business Office and routinely sent before enrollment. For more information, see the section titled Undergraduate Tuition and Expenses.