Trinity College (Connecticut)

Trinity College founder Thomas Church Brownell

William Burges's original plan for the Trinity College campus

Bishop Thomas Brownell opened Washington College in 1824 to nine male students[5] and the vigorous protest of Yale alumni. A 14-acre site was chosen, at the time about a half-mile from the city of Hartford. Over time Bushnell Park was laid out to the north and the east, creating a beautiful space.[6]

The college was renamed Trinity College in 1845; the original campus consisted of two Greek Revival buildings. One of the Greek Revival buildings housed a chapel, library, and lecture rooms. The other was a dormitory for the male students who attended the college.[7]

The site next to Bushnell Park, where Trinity College then stood, was deemed an ideal location for building a statehouse.[6] So the trustees were persuaded to sell the entire campus to the city in 1872 for $600,000.[6] The trustees moved the college to an 80-acre site on a ridge on the western edge of Hartford.[6] Then-president Abner Jackson hired an English architect to draw up plans for an entire campus.[6] Construction of the new campus was begun under the presidency of Thomas Ruggles Pynchon (1874–1883).[6]

In 1872, Trinity College was persuaded by the state to move from its downtown "College Hill" location (now Capitol Hill, site of the state capitol building) to its current 100-acre (40 ha) campus a mile southwest. Although the college sold its land overlooking the Park River and Bushnell Park in 1872, it did not complete its move to its Gallows Hill campus until 1878.[8] The original plans for the Gallows Hill site were drawn by the noted Victorian architect William Burges but were too ambitious and too expensive to be fully realized. Only one section of the proposed campus plan, the Long Walk, was completed.

By 1889, the library contained 30,000 volumes, and the school boasted over 900 graduates.[6] Enrollment reached 122 in 1892.

President Remsen Ogilby (1920–1943) enlarged the campus, and more than doubled the endowment. The faculty grew from 25 to 62, and the student body from 167 to 530 men. Under President Keith Funston (1943–1951), returning veterans expanded the enrollment to 900.[5]

In 1962, Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) began its first broadcasts in the Trinity College Public Library, and later in Boardman Hall, a science building on campus.[9][10]

In 1968, the trustees voted to withdraw from the Association of Episcopal Colleges.[11]

Also in 1968, the trustees of Trinity College voted to make a commitment to enroll more minority students, providing financial aid as needed. This decision was preceded by a siege of the administrative offices in the Downes and Williams Memorial buildings during which Trinity students would not allow the president or trustees to leave until they agreed to the resolution.[12]

Less than one year later, Trinity College became coeducational and admitted its first female students, as transfers from Vassar College and Smith College.[13]

Trinity College, Rome Campus (TCRC), is a study abroad campus of Trinity College. It was established in 1970 and is in a residential area of Rome on the Aventine Hill close to the Basilica of Santa Sabina within the precincts of a convent run by an order of nuns.[16]

Admissions building

The 2020 annual ranking by U.S. News & World Report categorizes Trinity as "more selective".[17]

For the Class of 2022 (enrolling fall 2018), Trinity received 6,096 applications, accepted 2,045 (33.5%) and enrolled 579.[18]

As of fall 2015, Trinity College does not require the SAT or ACT for students applying for admission.[19] Of the 31% of enrolled freshmen submitting SAT scores, the middle 50% range was 630–710 for evidence-based reading and writing, and 670–750 for math, while of the 23% of enrolled freshmen submitting ACT results, the middle 50% range for the composite score was 29–32.[18]

In 2022, Forbes magazine ranked Trinity College 12th amongst all liberal arts universities and 62nd amongst all colleges and universities.[24] U.S. News & World Report ranked Trinity 39th in its 2022 ranking of best national liberal arts colleges in the United States. It was also ranked 46th for best value school.[25] However, these US News rankings likely reflect that Trinity joined the "Annapolis Group" in August 2007, an organization of more than 100 of the nation's liberal arts schools, in refusing to participate in the magazine's rankings.[26][27] Trinity College is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.[28]

In 2016, authors Howard and Matthew Greene continued to include Trinity in the third edition of Hidden Ivies: 63 Top Colleges that Rival the Ivy League.[29] In addition, The Princeton Review has given Trinity a 93 (out of 99) for selectivity and in 2017 named Trinity as a best value college. Money.com magazine ranked Trinity College 55th among all colleges and universities in the nation.[30][31]

Trinity followed the European pattern of using academic regalia from its foundation,[32] and was one of only four US institutions (all associated with the Episcopal Church) to assign gowns and hoods for its degrees in 1883.[33] There were six degrees awarded at the time, all taking a black gown of silk or stuff and a hood of black silk lined according to the degree: BA white silk, MA dove-colored silk, BD crimson silk, DD scarlet silk, LLD pink silk, MusD purple silk.[33]

In 1894, a year before the introduction of the intercollegiate code on academic costume, the college brought in a new scheme of academic regalia. The hoods and gowns followed the shape of those used at the University of Oxford except that the hood for Doctors of Divinity was of the shape used at the University of Cambridge.

A variety of different colours and fabrics were used for the hoods: BA black stuff edged palatinate purple, BS black stuff edged light blue silk, BLitt black stuff edged russet brown silk, BD black silk edged scarlet silk (not in use by 1957), LLB black silk edged dark blue silk (not in use by 1957), MusB black silk edged pink silk (not in use by 1957), MA black silk lined palatinate purple silk, MS black stuff lined light blue silk, DD scarlet cloth lined black silk, DLitt scarlet silk-lined russet brown silk, LLD scarlet silk lined dark blue silk, DCL crimson silk lined black silk, MusD white silk-lined pink silk, DSc black silk lined light blue silk, PhD black silk lined people silk (not in use by 1957), MD scarlet silk lined maroon silk (not in use by 1957).[32][34]

DPH black cloth lined salmon pink silk (1945), DHLitt scarlet silk-lined people silk (1947), DHum white silk-lined crimson (1957), and DST scarlet silk-lined blue with a gold chevron (1957) were later added.[32]

As of 2018, the hoods for doctorates (except the PhD and MD) and for the MMus remain in use for honorary degrees, with the further addition since 1957 of the DFA wrote lined white with a red Chevron.[35]

The Bantam, Trinity's mascot

Trinity's mascot, the bantam, was conceived by Joseph Buffington, class of 1875, who was a federal judge and trustee of the college.[36]

The Trinity Tripod, founded in 1904, is Trinity College's student newspaper.

Officially, approximately 18% of the student body are affiliated with a Greek organization.[37]

In 2012, then-president James F. Jones proposed a social policy for Trinity College which made a commitment, among other things, to require all sororities and fraternities to achieve gender parity within two years (i.e., for each sorority and fraternity to have an equal number of male and female members) or face closure. Trinity College's co-ed mandate for fraternities and sororities was withdrawn in September 2015 and replaced with the "Campaign for Community" effort to establish more inclusive social traditions on campus.[38]

Trinity currently has the following sororities and fraternities:[39]

• Alpha Chi Omega (A Chi O), founded as the Order of the Elms in October 2016 and received affiliation with the NPC in May 2017
• Alpha Chi Rho (Crow), founded at Trinity College in 1895
• Alpha Delta Phi (Alpha Delt)
• Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) Tau Beta Chapter
• Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA)
• Cleo of Alpha Chi (Cleo)
• Kappa Kappa Gamma (Kappa)
• Kappa Sigma (Kappa Sig)
• Lambda Alpha Upsilon (ΛΑΥ)
• Lambda Pi Upsilon (Lambda Divas)
• Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike)
• Psi Upsilon (Psi U)
• St. Anthony Hall (The Hall or St. A's)
• Zeta Omega Eta, founded at Trinity College in 2003

The first buildings completed on the current campus were Seabury and Jarvis halls in 1878. Together with Northam Towers, these make up what is known as the "Long Walk". These buildings are an early example of Collegiate Gothic architecture in the United States, built to plans drawn up by William Burges, with F.H. Kimball as supervising architect. The Long Walk has been expanded and is connected with several other buildings. On the northernmost end there is the chapel, whose western side is connected to the Downes and Williams Memorial building. Heading south, the next building is Jarvis Hall, named after Abraham Jarvis. Jarvis becomes Northam Towers heading south, then Seabury Hall. Seabury Hall, named for Samuel Seabury, is connected to Hamlin Hall. To Hamlin's east is Cook, then Goodwin and then Woodward. The dormitories on the Long Walk end there, and the terminal building on the south end of the long walk is Clement/Cinestudio. Clement is the chemistry building; Cinestudio a student run movie theater. If one travels to the south of Hamlin there will be Mather Hall and the Dean of Students Office.[40]

The Downes Memorial clock tower

An English elm tree on Trinity Quad

Trinity's campus features a central green known as the Main Quad, designed by famed architect Frederick Law Olmsted. The large expanse of grass is bound on the west by the Long Walk, on the east by the Lower Long Walk, on the north by the chapel, and on the south by the Cook and Goodwin-Woodward dormitories. While a central green is a feature of many college campuses, Trinity's is notable for its unusually large, rectangular size, running the entire length of the Long Walk and with no walkways traversing it. Trees on the Quad have been planted in a 'T' configuration (for Trinity) with the letter's base at the statue of Bishop Brownell (built 1867).[41] and its top running the length of the Long Walk.

Cinestudio is an art cinema with 1930s-style design. An article in the Hartford Advocate described this non-profit organization, which depends solely on grants and the efforts of volunteer workers who are paid in free movies.[42]

Trinity also hosts the annual Trinity International Hip Hop Festival. A three-day celebration of global hip hop culture, the festival features lectures, panel discussions, workshops and live performances. The festival was founded in 2006 with the goal of unifying Trinity with the city of Hartford.[43]

Since 2006, the station has broadcast the Trinity Samba Fest from the Hartford waterfront featuring regional and international talent.[44][45][46]