Lafayette College

Lafayette College, located in Easton, Pennsylvania in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, is an independent, undergraduate, coeducational, residential institution.

Contents

1 History 2 WJRH 104.9FM 3 Greek Organizations 4 Notable alumni 5 Other notable attendees 6 Sports 7 External links

History

Lafayette was founded in 1826 by citizens of Easton led by local lawyers James Madison Porter, Joel Jones (Yale), and an amateur botanist and mineralogist Jacob Wagener.

The initial prospectus called for a college "combining a course of practical Military Science with the course of Literature and General Science pursued in the Colleges of our Country."

Porter had met the French Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette during his farewell tour of America, and urged that they name the new college for him as "a testimony of respect for (his) talents, virtues, and signal services .... the great cause of freedom."

The governor of Pennsylvania signed the new college's charter on March 9, 1826. But it was not until 1832 that the Rev. George Junkin took up the charter and moved the curriculum and student body of the Manual Labor Academy of Pennsylvania from Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Francis March taught at Lafayette, and became the first superintendant of the Oxford English Dictionary's American reading programme.

Alpha Phi Omega National Service Fraternity was founded in 1925 at Lafayette College by Frank Reed Horton.

As of 2004, Lafayette has more than 2300 students.

WJRH 104.9FM

The campus radio station, WJRH 104.9FM, first established licensure with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in 1946, broadcasting under a Class D educational license on 90.5 FM. As FM frequencies grew in demand, the FCC mandated that stations operating in the frequency range currently provided to WJRH increase their power to serve larger audiences. Since WJRH was only to serve the Lafayette community, it was decided to give the frequency to another facility and relocate to its current home frequency, 104.9. WJRH alumnus have become influential individuals in the broadcasting field, ranging from Engineering Directors for networks such as the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), to public broadcasting policy makers.

The station is constantly being upgraded with the latest broadcasting technology; as well as organizational changes. Several additions have included the relaunch of WJRH Broadband (a live Windows Media Player stream available to Lafayette students) and WJRH PC (http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~wjrh/podcastdatabase.htm) (an online database of MP3 Podcasts of select shows as part of an overall website renovation).

Over the past couple years there has been a drive for select student broadcasters to DJ parties on campus. This has been met with great approval by students.

WJRH has been housed for over 30 years in its current location, Hogg Hall.

Website: http://www.lafayette.edu/~wjrh

Greek Organizations

• Alpha Gamma Delta sorority
• Alpha Phi sorority
• Delta Delta Delta sorority
• Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity
• Delta Upsilon fraternity
• Kappa Delta Rho fraternity
• Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority
• Phi Gamma Delta fraternity
• Phi Kappa Psi fraternity
• Pi Beta Phi sorority
• Zeta Psi sorority

Notable alumni

• Joseph F. Crater, Class of 1910 - Associate Justice of New York Supreme Court; object of famous, unsolved disappearance case from 1930
• Philip S. Hench, Class of 1916 - 1950 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Haldan K. Hartline, Class of 1923 - 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• William E. Simon, Class of 1952 - "Energy Czar" under President Richard Nixon; former President of U.S. Olympic Committee
• Joel Silver, Class of 1974 - head of Hollywood's Silver Pictures and producer of The Matrix Trilogy; while attending Lafayette, he helped form the first collegiate Ultimate Frisbee club (in 1970)

Other notable attendees

• Stephen Crane, author of "The Red Badge of Courage" - attended for one semester
• Theodore Roethke, poet

Sports

• Affiliation: NCAA Division I-AA
• Conference: Patriot League
• Team name: Leopards
• Team colors: Maroon and white
• Championships: Football: 1994, 2004

External links

• Lafayette College (http://www.lafayette.edu/)
• Official Athletic Site of the Lafayette College Leopards (http://goleopards.collegesports.com/)Template:Patriot League