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on behalf of its Board of Trustees,
1868-79. In the latter year, control
of the institution reverted to a
Board of Trustees elected by the
Chowan Baptist Association.
Trustees selection has been fiilly
THIS PBOfERTY
DAS BBBN PLACED ON THE
NATIONAL REGISTER
OF HISTORIC PLACES
BY THE UMTBD STATfcS
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BUILDING
CHOWAN COLLEGE
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vested in the Baptist State Conven
tion of North Carolina since 1926.
The curriculum of the Institute
was upgraded sufficiently during the
last decade of the nineteenth
century and the first decade of the
twentieth to enable the awarding of
the first baccalaureate degrees (in
distinction from literary diplomas)
in 1911. In this connection, the
name of the institution was also
changed through amended charter
from “Chowan Baptist Female
Institute” to “Chowan Collie.”
For three decades thereafter an
inordinate amount of time and
energy was expended, necessarily, in
the attempt to attain and maintain
various educational “standards”
expected (or required) by the North
Carolina Department of Education,
the Board of Education of the
Baptist State Convention, and/or
the Southern Association of Col
leges and Schools. Coeducation was
initiated in 1931 with the admis
sion of male students to degree
programs. Declining enrollments
and inadequate resources to main
tain a standard senior college
necessitated a move to 2-year, or
junior college, status in 1937. After
witnessing an enrollment decline to
42 students in the Spring Term of
1942, the college suspended opera
tions at the conclusion of the 1942-
43 academic year, with such
suspension to remain in effect “so
long as the present emergency
continues, or until the Board of
Trustees sees fit to resume opera-
uon.
The Board of Trustees continued
to meet periodically, however,
throughout the period of sus
pended operation. In November
1944, the West Chowan Baptist
Association voted unanimously to
reopen Chowan College and
appointed a committee of three
persons to “take to the churches”
recommendations for raising at
least $100,000.00 for repairs and
improvements “looking forward to
a ten-year expansion program
which would put Chowan College
on an equal basis with the best of
our Junior Colleges”; and, once the
college is reopened, “include in
their local budgets a sum [for the
college] averaging $100 per church
per year.”
By 1949, the efforts initiated by
the West Chowan Association—and
concurred in by the parent Chowan
Association—had issued in suffi
cient capital improvements and
promised financial support to make
reopening a foregone conclusion.
Accordingly, classes resumed on
September 16, 1949, with an
enrollment of 135. Early progress
towards meeting the earlier objec
tive of “putting Chowan on an
equal basis with the best of our
Junior Colleges” was evidenced
during the tenure of Forest Orion
Mixon as President (1951-56),
including initial attainment of
accreditation by the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools
in 1956. The lengthy tenure of
President Bruce Ezell Whitaker
(1957-89) witnessed such contin
ued progress that the institution
gained a reputation as one of the
best junior colleges in the nation by
all quantifiable standards for such
evaluation.
Resumption of senior college
status was approved by the Board of
Trustees in 1990, with baccalaure
ate degrees awarded to 53 students
on May 14, 1994. Accreditation by
the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools as a Level II
(4-year college) institution was
effective January 1, 1994. Cur-
rendy, Chowan offers baccalaureate
degree programs through ten
academic departmental units:
Business, Education, Fine Arts,
Graphic Communications, Lan
guage and Literature, Mathematics,
Physical Education, Religion and
Philosophy, Science, and Social
Science. She approaches the
twenty-first century with vision and
determination to strengthen and
expand academic programs, to
magnify and multiply student
services, and to improve and
enhance physical fiicilities—all in
the interest of maintaining a
commitment to excellence in
teaching, learning, and service.
te department of reli^n and philosophy kindled his first interest in the subject upon his arrival at Chowan in 1963 when he was asked to handle
I Through the Years, A Pictorial History (1972) with Herman Gatewood and prepared biographical sketches of twelve of Chowan’s former presidents
currently preparing a history of the college to be published with the observance of the SesquicentenniaL
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