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Former name | Women's College of Baltimore (1885–1910) |
|---|---|
| Motto | Gratia et Veritas (Latin) |
Motto in English | Grace and Truth |
| Type | Privateliberal arts college |
| Established | 1885; 140 years ago (1885) |
Academic affiliation | NAICU CIC AG |
| Endowment | $243.3 million (2023)[1] |
| President | Kent Devereaux |
Academic staff | 203[2] |
| Undergraduates | 1,100[3] |
| Postgraduates | 900[3] |
| Location | , Maryland ,United States |
| Campus | Suburban, 287 acres (116 ha)[3] |
| Colors | Blue andGold |
| Nickname | Gophers |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division III –Landmark Conference |
| Mascot | Rowdy |
| Website | goucher |
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Goucher College | |
 Facade of the non-denominational Haebler Memorial Chapel at the center of Goucher's campus | |
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| Location | 1021 Dulaney Valley Road,Towson, Maryland |
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| Coordinates | 39°24′28″N76°35′32″W / 39.40778°N 76.59222°W /39.40778; -76.59222 |
| Area | 287 acres (116 ha) |
| Built | 1921 |
| Architect | Moore & Hutchins; Sasaki, Hideo, et al. |
| Architectural style | Modern Movement |
| NRHP reference No. | 07000885[4] |
| Added to NRHP | August 28, 2007 |
Goucher College (/ˈɡaʊtʃər/ ⓘGOW-chər) is aprivateliberal arts college inTowson, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1885 as anon-denominationalwomen's college in Baltimore's central district, the college is named for pastor and missionaryJohn F. Goucher, who enlisted local leaders of theMethodist Episcopal Church to establish the school's charter.[5] Goucher relocated to its Towson campus in 1953 and becamecoeducational in 1986.[6]
Goucher grantsBA andBS degrees in a range of disciplines across 31 majors and 39 minors. Goucher is one of only two colleges in the United States to integrate astudy abroad experience into its undergraduate curriculum requirements and the only one to provide options for students to fulfill that requirement through either a three-week faculty-led Intensive Course Abroad (ICA) during a winter or summer session, or a traditional semester or year-long study abroad program at one of the over 80 different institutions around the world with whom the college has reciprocal student exchange programs with.[7] Goucher is a member of theLandmark Conference and competes in theNCAA's Division III inlacrosse,tennis,soccer,volleyball,basketball, andhorseback riding. Goucher partners with nearbyJohns Hopkins University,Loyola University Maryland, and theUniversity of Baltimore to allow students to earn accelerated post-graduate or combined undergraduate degrees.[8][9] Goucher also offers apostbaccalaureatepremedical program, master's programs in the arts and humanities, and professional development courses in writing and education.[10][11] As of 2023[update], Goucher enrolls approximately 1,100 undergraduates and 900 post-graduates.[12][13]Loren Pope profiled Goucher among forty institutions of higher learning in his 1996 bookColleges That Change Lives.[14]
Goucher countsnotable alumni in law, business, journalism, academia, and government, including conservative journalistJonah Goldberg, formerFirst Lady of Puerto RicoLucé Vela, JudgeEllen Lipton Hollander of theDistrict Court for the District of Maryland, 27thVice Commandant of the United States Coast GuardSally Brice-O'Hara, former president ofFirst Republic BankKatherine August-DeWilde, and the third president ofCalifornia State University, San Marcos,Karen S. Haynes.
Early in its history, Goucher played an important role nationally in providing women access to higher education. Many ground-breaking women doctors, researchers, and scientists graduated from Goucher in the early 20th century, includingHattie Alexander,Florence B. Seibert, andMargaret Irving Handy. JudgeSarah T. Hughes of Texas, who was famously photographedadministering the presidential oath of office to Lyndon B. Johnson aboard Air Force One, graduated from Goucher in 1917. A daughter ofPresident Woodrow Wilson,Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre, also graduated Goucher and went on to play a significant role in thewomen's suffrage movement.
In 1881, the Baltimore Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church passed a resolution to found a seminary. The proposal was met with some objection, with one member stating, "I would not give a fig for a weakling little thing of a seminary. We want such a school, so ample in its provisions, of such dignity in its buildings, so fully provided with the best apparatus, that it shall draw to itself the eyes of the community and that young people shall feel it an honor to be enrolled among its students."[15] Minister and conference memberJohn B. Van Meter asserted "that the Conference [should] make the foundation and endowment of a female college the single object of its organized effort."[15]
Van Meter was joined by fellow minister John Franklin Goucher (1845–1922) and together they eventually persuaded the conference to found a college, instead.[15] Subsequently, theWomen's College of Baltimore City ("City" was later dropped) was chartered on January 26, 1885. It opened its doors in 1888, and four years later graduated its first class of just five students.[16]
John F. Goucher, despite being the school's namesake and co-founder, was not the college's first president. Although offered the post, he declined, and it went toWilliam Hersey Hopkins, who had served as president ofSt. John's College inAnnapolis.[17] After Hopkins resigned in 1890 to join the faculty, the board of trustees voted unanimously to renominate Goucher. Under pressure from the board, Goucher relented and accepted the position, which he held for nearly two decades. Goucher and his wife Mary Cecilia Fisher made significant financial contributions to the college, including the bequest of a portion of his estate.[15]
During President Goucher's tenure, enrollment grew but the college suffered financial deficits.[15] In 1904, the college became the second in Maryland to establish aPhi Beta Kappa chapter, afterJohns Hopkins University.[18] Goucher stepped down in 1908 to resume his international missionary work but remained involved with the school as president emeritus until his death in 1922.[17] In 1910, the school was renamedGoucher College in his honor.[19]
In 1913, the college inaugurated its fourth president,William W. Guth, who oversaw the construction of several new residence halls and a successful million-dollar fundraising campaign.[15]
Around this time,U.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilson, whose daughterJessie was a Goucher alumna, expressed support for the college's fundraising efforts in correspondence with the administration, writing in March 1913, "It would, indeed, be ... evidence that our great educational public does not fully understand its own interests if an institution which has served with such faithfulness ... in the cause of woman's education should be allowed to break up for the lack of money."[20] By 1914, Goucher was one of six "Class I" colleges for women in the U.S.[21]In 1921, Goucher purchased 421 acres of land in nearby Towson that had belonged to the estate of a prominent Baltimore family, for $150,000.[22] The move from Baltimore to the Towson suburbs was completed in 1953.[15][6]
Before 1950, Goucher hosted nearly a dozen sorority chapters on campus includingKappa Kappa Gamma,Kappa Alpha Theta,Gamma Phi Beta, andPi Beta Phi, but they were disbanded on the move to Towson.[23]
Goucher turned coeducational in 1986 when the board of trustees voted to admit men, citing declining enrollment and reduced national interest by women in single-sex colleges.[24] The decision was controversial among many students and a minority of alumnae. However it was followed by increased enrollment and sustained support from the school's donors, with Goucher's endowment growing nearly five-fold from $45 million in 1986.[25][26] PresidentRhoda M. Dorsey, who also initially resisted the proposal, relented and presided over the transition.[27][6]
Goucher's former Baltimore campus became known asOld Goucher. The school maintained no affiliation with the property after its sale. The complex was added to theNational Register of Historic Places in 1978.[28][29] Many of itsRomanesque structures have been preserved and re-purposed for commercial, public, and residential use.[30] The school's Towson campus was added to the historic register in 2007.[31]
Goucher occupies a green, wooded 287-acre (1.16 km2) campus that is proximate and northeast to downtown Towson. Surrounding the central campus infrastructure is a dense forest, owned by the school, which features low hills and hiking and jogging trails, some of which are also used by the college's equestrian riders.[32][33] Thenon-denominational Haebler Memorial Chapel lies near the center of campus. A walking path, called the Van Meter Highway, connects to most of the college's residential, academic, recreational, and athletic buildings, while one road, the Loop Road, circles campus.[34][35]Newsweek magazine described the campus as "unusually bucolic."[36] It has also been referred to byCBS Baltimore as one ofBaltimore County's most scenic college campuses.[37] A scene at the fictional Hammond University from thefourth season of theNetflix seriesHouse of Cards was filmed on Goucher's campus, with most shots taking place at the Athenaeum and the Rhoda M. Dorsey College Center.[38]
Goucher's main academic buildings, including Van Meter Hall and Julia Rogers, are located at the northern portion of campus, called the "academic quad".[39] The Hoffberger Science Building houses the school's science departments and is adjacent to the Meyerhoff Arts Building, which contains a theater, photo studio, and several galleries and where the dance, theater, and art departments are based.[40][41] Student Administrative Services and the admissions office are located in the Rhoda M. Dorsey College Center. Near the center of the campus and opposite Mary Fisher Hall is the Athenaeum, or "the Ath," a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m2) modern, multipurpose facility built in 2009 encompassing the main library, a restaurant, classrooms, lecture halls, and an open auditorium. The Athenaeum is where speakers who visit the campus are typically hosted.[42] The Merrick Lecture Hall, a partial amphitheater situated near Van Meter Hall, is also a venue for on-campus recitals, performances, sponsored political debates, and other productions.[43] The college is fundraising to build its Science Innovation Center, which will be a 44,000-square foot annex to the Hoffberger Science Building.[44]
The college's residence halls are concentrated on the south side of campus. They are Heubeck, Froelicher, Stimson, Mary Fisher, Sondheim, Stimson, Welsh Hall, known by students as "the T" for its T-shaped design, which was completed in 2005.[45] In 2018, the school completed construction of the "First-year Village" for freshmen, which includes Pagliaro Selz Hall, Fireside Hall, and Trustees Hall.[46] Campus housing for students includes singles, doubles, triples, suites, and on-campus apartments. Sondheim is the sole residence hall designated as substance-free.[47] In July 2018, Goucher announced a campus-wideban oncigarettes andsmoking devices likeelectronic cigarettes.[48]
The campus's outdoor sports facilities include a 107,000 square foot turf stadium field named Gopher Stadium, three grass practice fields, an outdoor track, twelve tennis courts that opened in 2019 as part of the Evelyn Dyke Schroedl '62 Tennis Center, as well as separate courts forracquetball andsquash, and an equestrian center. The Decker Sports and Recreation Center contains a six-lane, 25-yard pool, dance studios, a basketball court, gymnasium, varsity locker rooms, a fully equipped weight room, and a cardio fitness center. The equestrian center lies on the northernmost edge of campus and contains two barns, 10 turnout paddocks, indoor and outdoor riding rings, and several riding fields, in addition to wooded trails shared with pedestrians.[49][50][51]
The architectural design firm responsible for planning the campus, Moore and Hutchins, elected to group buildings together into informal zones based on function, departing from the Romanesque style of the previous Baltimore campus.[52] The buildings on campus are clad in tan-colored Butler stone chosen to reflect aModernist theme.[53] Over the years, the architecture of the campus has won numerous awards.[54] The campus has also been recognized for its commitment to sustainability and energy efficiency, being called a "Top 25 Green College."[55] In 2009, Goucher announced a goal for all new and existing buildings to achieve at least a Silver rating according to theU.S. Green Building Council'sLeadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification system.[56] In 2007, the campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places.[57]
The campus underwent significant changes when in 2017 several of its primary residential buildings were relocated as part of an extensive plan to construct a "First-year Village" comprising modernized residential halls and recreational facilities for newly matriculated freshmen.[58][59] The new freshmen dorms have a capacity of 450 and opened in the fall of 2018.[60] These developments coincided with substantial renovations to Mary Fisher Hall, with its campus cafe upgraded to a full-fledged, 550-seat dining hall.[61][46] Goucher also announced plans to build a new 35,000-square-foot (3,300 m2) Science Research Center to provide additional lab space and resources for expanded biology, chemistry, and environmental science departments.[62] To raise capital for these projects, Goucher initiated a fundraising campaign to raise $100 million from alumni and other donors, of which it has raised $96 million.[63][64][65]
| Academic rankings | |
|---|---|
| Liberal arts | |
| U.S. News & World Report[66] | 126 |
| Washington Monthly[67] | 58 |
| National | |
| Forbes[68] | 410 |
In theU.S. News & World Report annual college rankings for 2025, Goucher tied for 126th among national liberal arts colleges, tied for 10th in Most Innovative Schools, tied for 71st in Social Mobility, and 7th in Study Abroad.[69]Forbes in 2019 ranked Goucher at 138 in Liberal Arts Universities, 161 in the Northeast, 272 nationally among private colleges, and 410 overall among the best 650 colleges and universities in the U.S.[70] In 2024,Washington Monthly ranked Goucher 58th among 194 liberal arts colleges in the U.S. based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service.[71]
ThePrinceton Review included Goucher in its 2019 edition of the "Best 384 Colleges"[72] and ranked it No. 5 in "Most Popular Study Abroad Program.”[73] Goucher was recognized as a top producer ofFulbright scholars byThe Chronicle of Higher Education in 2018.[74] It was also profiled in the bookColleges that Change Lives by Loren Pope as one of forty institutions.[14] The school was one of the first in the country to require a study abroad of all undergraduates, along withSusquehanna University andSoka University of America.[75][76]
Goucher's admissions process is rated as "selective" byU.S. News & World Report.[69] For the class of 2022, Goucher received 3,474 applications and had an acceptance rate of 79%.[77] Goucher has beenSAT-optional since 2006.[78]
In 2014, the school received national coverage when it announced it would accept video-only applications without transcripts, essays, or test scores.[79] The decision was criticized by some who suggested that doing so represented a lowering of standards.[80] The school defended the decision as part of an effort to increase diversity among the student body and later reported that the average GPA of students admitted via the video application process met or exceeded that of students who submitted traditional applications.[81] For 2021, the average matriculated student's GPA was 3.14, with those reporting, the average SAT score was 1200, and average ACT score was 25.[82]
As of 2023, students choose from 31 majors, including an individualized interdisciplinary major, and 39 minors; there are also special orientation courses for first-year students.[13] The most popular majors are in thehumanities andsocial sciences,languages,biological sciences, andperforming arts.[83] Goucher is also well-known for itscreative writing,dance, andpre-med departments. The student-faculty ratio is 10:1, and the average class size is 16.[84][85] The college also offers 4+1 bachelor’s/master’s programs itself and with Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University Maryland, Middlebury College, and University of Maryland, Baltimore and a dual degree engineering program with Columbia University.[12] Goucher is accredited by theMiddle States Commission on Higher Education.[86]
Goucher began requiring all undergraduates to study abroad in 2006, which was the most notable of several reforms to the school's curriculum in that period.[87] A popular choice for students is a three-week course abroad during the winter, spring, or summer. Goucher offers over 60 semester and yearlong study-abroad programs in 30 countries but allows students to register in programs by other schools.[88] Undergraduates are also expected to either complete an internship, participate in community engagement work, or work as a faculty research assistant. Goucher sponsors a competitive grant program for students participating in summer internships.[89][90]
In 2017, Goucher instituted a revamped set of general education requirements into the curriculum called "Goucher Commons" including a first-year seminar, emphasis on writing,data analytics, and foreign language and culture, acapstone course, and inquiry into at least two areas.[91][92] In 2018, Goucher announced plans to eliminate seven majors, including mathematics, physics, religion, music, and Russian studies, following a "Program Prioritization Process" involving faculty[93] which cited low overall interest in those majors among students.[94][95] The school said that advanced courses in these subjects will remain part of the overall curriculum and that the class of 2022 and students that were studying in those majors will be unaffected by the change.[96]
Goucher's graduate program is run out of the Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Studies, which is named for late former acting presidentRobert S. Welch.[97] The school grantsMaster of Arts,Master of Education, andMaster of Fine Arts degrees in fields including art and technology and historic preservation.[98][99]
Since 1993, Goucher has offered a full-time post-baccalaureate pre-medical program with 96% of students over the course of its history gaining acceptance to medical school and 99.7% over the past decade.[100][101] The program accepts approximately 32 students annually. It has linkage agreements with several schools including theUniversity of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine,University of Michigan Medical School,Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University,George Washington University School of Medicine,Weill Cornell Medical College,Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University,Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell,New York University Grossman School of Medicine, and theUniversity of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.[102]
Goucher also grants certificates through a program for teachers called the AP (Advanced Placement) Summer Institute recognizing specialties with at-risk learners, middle school, reading instruction, improving school leadership, and educational technology.[103]
In 2012, Goucher founded the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP), a division of the college that expands the academic community to include individuals incarcerated in two Maryland state prisons. In 2015, GPEP hosted theDepartment of Education at the Maryland Correctional Institution - Jessup (MCI-J) to announce theSecond Chance Pell Grant pilot program and became one of 67 colleges selected in 2016 to provide individuals incarcerated in the U.S. the opportunity to use federal Pell grants to earn college credits.[104] Goucher offers a bachelor's degree in American Studies to students enrolled through GPEP. The division primarily operates on private grants and donations raised by its staff, with some funds provided through federal Pell grants.[105] Each year, around 130 GPEP students at MCI-J and the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women (MCIW) enroll in college classes taught by faculty from Goucher and other local colleges and universities.[106]
Goucher has over 60 student-run clubs including the Chem Club, which is the oldest continuously operating club on campus,Hillel, ana capella group called Red Hot Blue, a poetry club, ablack student union called Umoja,Model United Nations, and a student-labor action committee.[107] The college publishes a bi-weeklystudent newspaper calledThe Quindecim and a literary arts journal calledPreface.[108] Other media run by the school is Goucher Student Radio, which contains a host of student, staff, and faculty programming and is streamed online.[109] Many students participate in Goucher Student Government, which holds elections, oversees the activities of clubs, passes resolutions, and votes on matters affecting the general student body.[110] Similar to other private liberal arts schools in thenortheast, Goucher no longer recognizes any fraternities or sororities on campus.[111]
Goucher's athletic teams are known as the Gophers. In 2007 the college joined theLandmark Conference after competing as a member of theCapital Athletic Conference from 1991 to 2007.[112][113] Goucher competes in the NCAA's Division III, fielding men's and women's teams in lacrosse, soccer, basketball, track and field, cross country, golf, swimming, and tennis, as well as women's teams in field hockey and volleyball.[114]
Goucher also competes nationally in co-ed equestrian sports through theIntercollegiate Horse Show Association.[115]
Approximately 67% of undergraduates are female.[116] About 37% of the student body identifies asAfrican-American,Asian,Hispanic, orNative-American.[117] Goucher also has one of the highest percentages ofJewish students in the country at 26%, according toHillel International.[118] Goucher attracts students both nationally and internationally; undergraduates in 2017 came from 46 states and 50 countries.[119] Twenty-five percent of students qualify forPell Grants, and Goucher has been recognized for its success in graduating Pell Grant recipients compared to the national average.[120][121] For the class of 2022, the top five represented home states were Maryland,New York,Pennsylvania,California, andNew Jersey, and 26% of the incoming class werefirst-generation college students, while more than one-third of that class were in the top 20% of their graduating high school class.[122]
Goucher has hosted theJohns Hopkins UniversityCenter for Talented Youth summer program for gifted students. Goucher students conceived the nationally popular campus gameHumans vs. Zombies, which is organized by students annually, and the commercial party gameCards Against Humanity.[123] Another of the school's annual traditions is GIG, "Get into Goucher," in which students participate in campus-wide celebrations, concerts, and other festivities.[124] Goucher also hostsEnglish as a second language andcomputer literacy classes under a program called the Futuro Latino Learning Center, run by students and college instructors.[125][126]
The school regularly conducts the Goucher College Poll, which operates under theSarah T. Hughes Center for Politics, a member of the Association of Academic Survey Research Organizations and the American Association for Public Opinion Research Transparency Initiative. The Goucher College Poll is conducted by phone and asks Maryland residents statewide their opinions on politics, the economy, and cultural issues.[127] The polling is performed by Goucher students out of a 40-station computer-aided telephone interview lab.[128] The poll is typically conducted twice a year, and a methodology statement is provided with each release. The results are covered in local and regional media likeThe Baltimore Sun andThe Washington Post.[129][130]
The Hallowed Ground Project started in 2018, as the Goucher History Project, to research the history of the enslaved people who were forced to live and labor on the land in Towson prior to emancipation in the state in 1864. Students and faculty are working to digitize records and develop initiatives to acknowledge the history of slavery on the campus’ land through the curriculum and other means. Goucher College has also joined the Universities Studying Slavery (USS) consortium.[131][132]
Well-known Goucher faculty and professorsemeritus includeJean H. Baker andJulie Roy Jeffrey of the history department,Nancy Hubbard from the business and accounting department, president emeritusSanford J. Ungar, and authorsMadison Smartt Bell andElizabeth Spires, who oversee the college's Kratz Center for Creative Writing.[133][134]
Goucher has over 21,000 living alumni, and many of its graduates have gone on to make contributions in the arts and literature, sciences, journalism, business, academia, government, and other fields.[135]
Historical alumni include women scientists likeHelen Dodson Prince,Ruth Bleier, andFlorence Seibert, and doctors likeBessie L. Moses (graduated 1915), who was founder of Baltimore's Bureau for Contraceptive Advice, andGeorgeanna Seegar Jones. Other historical graduates includeMary Cromwell Jarrett, who made scientific breakthroughs withinpost-traumatic stress disorder studies,Judge Sarah T. Hughes, who swore in Lyndon B. Johnson to the presidency, former First DaughterJessie Woodrow Wilson, and the Academy-Award nominated actressMildred Dunnock.
Living alumni include authorsSarah Pinsker,Darcey Steinke, andJesse J. Holland; photographersRuddy Roye andRosalind Fox Solomon,federal judgesEllen Lipton Hollander for theUnited States District Court for the District of Maryland andPhyllis A. Kravitch for theU.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit,[136] and two-time Olympic gold medalist in figure skatingNathan Chen.[137]
Other prominent alumni include molecular and cellular biologistLydia Villa-Komaroff, formerFirst Lady of Puerto RicoLucé Vela, 27thVice Commandant of the United States Coast GuardSally Brice-O'Hara, former president ofFirst Republic BankKatherine August-DeWilde, the third president ofCalifornia State University, San Marcos,Karen S. Haynes, the first woman to ever serve as the chief financial officer of a large corporation,Judy C. Lewent, political commentator, author, and founding editor-in-chief ofThe DispatchJonah Goldberg,14th Baltimore County ExecutiveJohnny Olszewski,[138] 26thChief of Chaplains for the United States NavyMargaret G. Kibben, former president ofPublic CitizenJoan Claybrook, and former chairwoman of theUnited States International Trade CommissionPaula Stern.[139]
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