Collegiate School (New York City)

Collegiate School is a private school for boys in New York City. It claims to be the oldest school in the United States.[2][3] It is located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and is a member of both the New York Interschool and the Ivy Preparatory School League. In 2020–2021, tuition fees totaled $55,900 per year.[4]

This article is about the New York City school founded in 1628. For other uses, see Collegiate School (disambiguation).

Collegiate School
Address
301 Freedom Place South

New York
,
New York
10069

United States
Information
TypePrivate, day, college prep
MottoLatin: Nisi Dominus Frustra
("Unless God, then in vain")
Dutch: Eendracht maakt macht
("In unity there is strength")
Established1628 (1628)
FounderThe Rev. Jonas Michaelius and the Dutch West India Company
ChairmanJonathan Youngwood ’85
HeadmasterDavid S. Lourie
Faculty104.2 (on an FTE basis)[1]
GradesK-12[1]
GenderBoys
Number of students656 (2019–2020)[1]
Student to teacher ratio6.3[1]
CampusUrban
Color(s)Orange and blue   
NicknameDutchmen
NewspaperThe Journal
YearbookThe Dutchman
AffiliationsIvy Prep School League
New York Interschool
Websitewww.collegiateschool.org

History

Collegiate was chartered as part of the Reformed Dutch Protestant Church in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam in 1628 by the Dutch West India Company and the Classis of Amsterdam.[5] Its initial incarnation was a co-ed school located south of Canal Street. The institution's location has changed seventeen times over the last four centuries.[6]

Founding date controversy

In 1984, Massimo Maglione, a historian and Upper School teacher at Collegiate, discovered a letter that Collegiate's founder—the Reverend Jonas Michaëlius, the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in America—had written in 1628 about his efforts to teach the catechism to Indian children. Based on this letter, the school controversially moved up the year of its establishment to 1628.[7][3] While Reverend Jonas Michaëlius did arrive in New Amsterdam in 1628 and may have worked as an educator at that time, Collegiate School was not chartered until 1638.[5]

Location

On February 5, 2013, the Collegiate School board announced plans to move the school to a new facility in New York's Riverside South neighborhood, between West End Avenue and Riverside Boulevard and between West 61st and 62nd Streets. Board Chairman George R. Bason, Jr. '72 said the new 178,000-square-foot school would provide 30% more indoor space and more than six times more outdoor space (16,268 square feet) for its 648 students from kindergarten through 12th grade than the existing lodgings provided. He estimated the new school's construction cost at $125–$135 million.[8] On January 12, 2018, Collegiate officially opened its new location at 301 Freedom Place South.[9]

School seal and mottos

Collegiate's seal is an adaptation of the coat of arms of William of Orange, who founded the Dutch Republic and the Reformed Church in that country and led the cause of independence and of freedom for the Reformed Church against Philip II of Spain. Included in the school's seal are two mottos: Eendracht Maakt Macht, Dutch for "In unity there is strength", and Nisi Dominus Frustra, Latin for "unless God, then in vain." The History and Symbols Task Force recommended in its June 2020 report that the latter be replaced, owing to its explicitly religious nature and Collegiate's status as a secular institution.[10]

Mascot
The school mascot in the 1975 yearbook

The school's mascot, generally interpreted as a caricature of Peter Stuyvesant, and often called "Peg Leg Pete" by students, has been the subject of recent controversy because of Stuyvesant's lack of religious tolerance, his vision for New Amsterdam as a slave depot, and his anti-Semitism.[11][12] The school's History and Symbols Task Force, which completed its work in June 2020, concluded in its final report that the mascot should be removed and a committee convened to solicit candidates for a replacement.[13] The school's board of trustees voted to adopt the task force's recommendation, among the others in the report.[14] In 2021, new mascots were proposed to and voted upon by the student body and faculty. While the proposed mascots were met with widespread criticism from many senior teachers and the student body, a new mascot was eventually settled upon.

Organization
Current campus at 301 Freedom Place
Old Collegiate School campus

Campus

From 1892 to 2017, Collegiate occupied several buildings on 77th and 78th Streets on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The former schoolhouse on West 77th Street is, together with the adjoining West End Collegiate Church, an historic landmark in the City of New York.

In 2013, the school announced that it would move to a new location and in January 2018, Collegiate moved into a new facility at 301 Freedom Place South. It consists of an 11-story building (nine stories above ground and two below), with 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2) of classroom, athletics, theater, music, art, library, dining, and administrative space. The school has common areas dedicated to each division that provide space for independent study, social interactions, and divisional activities.

The Lower School is located on floors 2 and 3. The Middle School occupies floors 8 and 9. It has its own Maker Space, along with flexible classrooms, a Middle School Center and large, modern group study spaces. The Upper School is housed on floors 5 and 6. It is larger than the division's previous space and is next to the library. It has flexible classrooms and common areas that promote interaction among students and faculty.

Sciences for all three divisions are on floor 7. Visual arts and music occupy floor 4, with music practice spaces, art studios, and a digital photo lab. On the Lower Level is a 307-seat auditorium and a black-box theater for Collegiate's drama program. Collegiate's athletics are in the Lower Level and include a high school regulation-size gym for the basketball teams. The gym can be partitioned to provide PE classes and practice space simultaneously. An additional gym, the Alumni Gym, can accommodate wrestling competitions and half-court basketball and has a retractable batting cage.

Outdoor space consists of a large roof deck on floor 9 with a large recreation area and a ground-level, 5,000-square-foot courtyard for handball and basketball.[15]

Structure

Each grade has around 50 boys. Those who attend Collegiate for all 12 years are nicknamed "Survivors". The school is divided into Lower School (Kindergarten-Grade 4), Middle School (Grades 5–8), and Upper School (Grades 9-12). More than a quarter of Collegiate teachers have a PhD.

The school is private, and it functions under a New York City non-profit statute enacted in the 1940s. Collegiate is controlled by a board of trustees, and the school is administered by a Head of School.[16]

Leadership

Collegiate School was headed by Lee M. Levison from July 1, 2006, until June 30, 2020. He was preceded by W. Lee Pierson, the interim Head of School after the departure of Kerry P. Brennan in 2004.[17] Levison announced his intention to retire in December 2018, causing the board of trustees to begin a search for his replacement.[18]

On May 31, 2019, the board of trustees unanimously voted to appoint David S. Lourie, Head of the St. Anne's-Belfield School since 2009, as Collegiate's 29th Head of School.[19][18] He began his tenure upon Levison's retirement on July 1, 2020.

Rankings

In 2007, The Wall Street Journal ranked Collegiate first in the world in terms of percent of the senior class matriculating to eight selective American colleges.[20]

Sports and co-curricular activities

The school's athletic success has mainly been with the varsity basketball, baseball, track and field, soccer, and cross country teams. The Collegiate soccer team won the NYSAIS state championship in 2010, 2011, and 2012.[21]| The Collegiate varsity basketball team won five straight state championships in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.[21] The Collegiate cross country team won 25 Ivy League Championships in a row from 1990 to 2014.[21] The Collegiate wrestling team won their first Ivy League and NYSAIS titles in 2022. Collegiate also has a golf and tennis team. Students not participating in a sport take physical education. Yearly fitness tests are administered in the lower and middle schools.

The school has a number of clubs, especially in the Upper School, including The Collegiate Journal. its newspaper operating since 1932; The Dutchman, the yearbook published every year since 1906; and Prufrock. its literary magazine, first published in 1973.[22]

Notable alumni

Affiliated organizations

Notes

1. ^ The History and Symbols Task Force has recommended that this motto be removed, owing to its explicit religious nature.

References
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  2. "Colligiate's Arithmetic Makes it the Oldest School". The New York Times. May 5, 1985. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  3. "Gifted Parents Help Collegiate School". The New York Times. May 24, 1988. Retrieved November 29, 2016. The concert celebrated what Collegiate calls its 360th anniversary. Which year the school was actually founded - 1628, 1633 or 1638 - has created disputes among the nation's oldest schools that seem as enduring as the schools. In 1984, Collegiate moved its date from 1633 to 1628, because officials discovered a letter written in 1628 by the Rev. Jonas Michealius of the Dutch Reformed Church describing his efforts to teach catechism to Indian children. To Collegiate officials, that sounded as much like a preparatory school as anything operating in early 17th-century America. The change puts Collegiate in the position of marking its 360th anniversary 55 years after it celebrated its 300th anniversary, in 1933. "It was all thrashed out around 1910," the headmaster, Cornelius B. Boocock, told The New York Times in 1933. "The case is now settled."...
  4. "Tuition & Financial Aid at Collegiate School in New York". www.collegiateschool.org. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
  5. "Collegiate School in NY | The Oldest Independent School in the US". www.collegiateschool.org. Archived from the original on June 14, 2020. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  6. Anderson, Jenny (February 6, 2013). "School Plans Its 17th Move, but Its First Since 1892". The New York Times. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
  7. "Colligiate's Arithmetic Makes It Oldest School". The New York Times. May 5, 1985. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  8. Anderson, Jenny (February 5, 2013). "Collegiate School, New York's Oldest Private School, Plans 17th Move". The New York Times.
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  40. https://oxingalerecords.com/matt-haimovitz/ "Haimovitz studied at the Collegiate School in New York and at the Juilliard School, in the final class of Leonard Rose, after which he continued his cello studies with Ronald Leonard and Yo-Yo Ma."
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  48. Kickin' Out Old School: Puffed Up Prepsters, Wolf: "Alumni have paid homage to the campus in films including House of D by David Duchovny (class of '77) and The Talent Given Us by Andrew Wagner ('81), as well as the novel Heavy Metal and You by Chris Krovatin ('03)."
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