Berea College

Founded in 1855 by the abolitionist and Augusta College graduate John Gregg Fee (1816–1901), Berea College admitted both black and white students in a fully integrated curriculum, making it the first non-segregated, coeducational college in the South and one of a handful of institutions of higher learning to admit both male and female students in the mid-19th century. The college challenged the law in state court and appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in Berea College v. Kentucky. When the challenge failed, the college had to become an all-white school, but it raised funds to establish the Lincoln Institute in 1912 in Simpsonville, Kentucky, to educate Black students. Until 1968, Berea provided pre-college education in addition to a college-level curriculum. That year, the elementary and secondary schools (Foundation School) were discontinued in favor of focusing on undergraduate college education. Presidents Presidents of the college have included: ==Academics==

Berea College offers 33 majors and 39 minors from which its 1,600 students can choose. Students who wish to pursue a field of study that cannot be met through an established major may propose an independent major, provided they meet the criteria in the college catalog's definition of a major. The student must secure independent major advisers (primary and secondary). Its most popular majors, based on 2021 graduates, were: • Business Administration and Management (30) • Computer and Information Sciences (28) • Biology/Biological Sciences (21) • Psychology (20) • Human Development and Family Studies (19) • Mass Communication/Media Studies (16) • Engineering Technologies/Technicians (14) • Political Science and Government (14) To ensure every student has access to fully experience a liberal arts education, the college provides significant funding to assist students in studying abroad. Berea students are also eligible for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which provides funding for a year of study abroad after graduation. All students are required to attend the college on a full-time basis. They are also required to attend at least six convocation events each semester and receive academic credit. The convocations are designed as a supplement to the curriculum by encouraging educational experience and cultural enrichment. Topics range across academic fields and include lectures, symposia, concerts, and the performing arts. These events are free to Berea College students and open to the public. Rankings and outcomes In 2024, Washington Monthly ranked Berea College first in the U.S. among national liberal arts colleges based on its contribution to the public good, as measured by social mobility, research, and promoting public service. The New York Times also ranked Berea first in its 2023 College Access Index based on economic diversity. The 2025 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report categorizes Berea as "more selective" and rates it 40th overall, first in "Service Learning," second for "Most Innovative Schools," tied for 9th in "Best Undergraduate Teaching", and fifth in "Top Performers in Social Mobility" among U.S. liberal colleges. ''Kiplinger's Personal Finance'' placed Berea 35th in its 2019 ranking of 149 best-value U.S. liberal arts colleges. According to 2022 data from College Scorecard, Berea College graduates earn a median salary of $40,000 ten years after their entry into the institution. Mathematics majors earn around $18,000, biology $29,000, psychology $35,000, and nursing $57,000. 51% of Berea graduates earn higher than a typical high school graduate of the corresponding area. In order to support its extensive scholarship program, Berea College has one of the largest financial reserves of any American college when measured on a per-student basis. The endowment was $1.6 billion as of June 30, 2021. The base of Berea College's finances is dependent on substantial contributions from alumni and from individuals, foundations, and corporations that support the mission of the college. A solid investment strategy increased the endowment from $150 million (~$ in ) in 1985 to its current amount. In 2017 the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act enacted an excise tax of 1.4% of endowment incomes that exceed net assets of at least $500,000 per student. Due to the size of Berea's endowment and number of full-time enrolled students, this tax bill would have reduced the number of students it could serve. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 provided an exemption for colleges and universities with fewer than 500 tuition-paying students, making Berea College exempt as it provides tuition-free education to all students. As a work college, Berea has a student work program in which all students work on campus 10 or more hours per week. Berea is one of nine federally recognized work colleges in the United States and one of two in Kentucky (Alice Lloyd College being the other) to have mandatory work study programs. Employment opportunities range from busing tables at the Boone Tavern Hotel, a historic business owned by the college, to leading campus tours for visitors and prospective students, or making brooms, ceramics and woven items in Student Craft. Other job duties include janitorial labor, building management, resident assistant, teaching assistant, food service, gardening and grounds keeping, information technology, woodworking, and secretarial work. Berea College has helped make the town a center for quality arts and crafts. As of 2022, students are paid an hourly wage from $5.60 to $8.60 by the college, based on the WLS ("Work, Learning, and Service") level attached to individual labor positions. The college regularly increases student pay on a yearly basis, but it has never been equivalent to the federal minimum wage in the school's history. Because of the scheduling demands of both an academic requirement and a labor requirement, students are not allowed to work at off-campus jobs. Folk dance Berea is widely known as a folk dance hub, teaching square, contra, English, and other kinds of movement. The college offers community folk dances most weekends. The campus has ten dance groups (including Middle Eastern, Swing, Latino, African, and hip hop), a minor in dance, and 25 dance classes. Physical education instructor Oscar Gunkler brought folk dance to Berea in the 1920s. The Berea College Country Dancers were founded in 1938 by Frank Smith. Berea's Country Dancers go on tour each semester and danced at the White House in 1963. Christian identity Berea was founded by Protestant Christians. It maintains a Christian identity separate from any particular denomination. The college's motto, "God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth", is from Acts 17:26. In an effort to be sensitive to the diverse preferences and experiences of students and faculty, courses are designed to be taught with respect for each student's spiritual journey, regardless of religious identification. Library collections The Hutchins Library maintains an extensive collection of books, archives, and music pertaining to Southern Appalachian history and culture. The Southern Appalachian Archives contain organizational records, personal papers, oral histories, and photographs, including the papers of the Council of the Southern Mountains (1912–1989) and the Appalachian Volunteers (1963–1970). ==Student life==

Since 2002, all students at Berea have received laptops that they keep upon graduation. Students are not required to pay for the computers, but do provide a small fee to support the technological infrastructure. Students must have a special permit to have a car on campus. Such permits are rarely granted to first- or second-year students. Since 1875, Berea College celebrates Mountain Day, a holiday set aside to enjoy being together in nature. Students take off from classes for a sunrise hike to the top of the Pinnacle Mountain and engage in games, performances, food, and other festivities. Another unique holiday to Berea College is Labor Day, where the campus takes a break from classes to recognize and celebrate the value of student work. Established in 1921, it has expanded to help students find labor placements for the following academic year and soon-to-be graduates prepare for life after college. ==Athletics==

The Berea athletic teams are called the Mountaineers. The college is a member of Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and joined the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) in July 2024 after two years in the Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS). They were also a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). The Mountaineers previously competed in the USA South Athletic Conference (USA South) from 2017–18 to 2021–22; as an NCAA D-III Independent from 2014–15 to 2016–17; and in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC; now currently known as the River States Conference (RSC) since the 2016–17 school year) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1916–17 to 2013–14. Berea competes in 14 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball. Move to NCAA Division III On February 20, 2012, the NCAA announced it had granted Berea permission to begin a one-year period exploring membership in its Division III, non-scholarship athletic program. On May 4, 2016, the USA South announced that Berea would join the league effective in the 2017–18 school year. Joining the CCS The USA South announced in February 2022 that it would split into two leagues the following July, with eight of its then 19 members, including Berea, establishing the new Collegiate Conference of the South. Move to the HCAC On June 1, 2023, Berea and the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced that the Mountaineers would join that league after the 2023–24 school year. Men's basketball On February 4, 1954, Irvine Shanks played for Berea against Wilmington College, breaking the color barrier in college basketball in Kentucky. ==Notable alumni and faculty== • Daniel S. Bentley (1850–1916), American minister, writer, newspaper founder • A. A. Burleigh (c. 1845–1938) American minister, soldier; the first African American adult to attend and graduate in 1875 from Berea College • John "Bam" Carney – educator; member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from Campbellsville • Derby Chukwudi - Miss New Jersey USA 2023 • Dean W. Colvard – former president of Mississippi State University, notable for his role in a 1963 controversy surrounding the participation of the university's basketball team in the NCAA Tournament • Frances Berry Coston (1876–1960), journalist, suffragist, educator • John Courter – educator; an American composer, organist, and carillonneur, considered one of the leading contemporary composers for the carillon • John Fenn – recipient of 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Despite his future success, Fenn always felt that he was limited by the lack of meaningful math education in his undergrad years • Finley Hamilton – United States Representative from Kentucky • Alix E. Harrow — science fiction writer and winner of a 2019 Hugo Award • James Shelton Hathaway (1859–1930) newspaper publisher educator, academic administrator, college president and former classics and mathematics faculty at Berea College • bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins) – Distinguished Professor in Residence in Appalachian Studies, author of over thirty books • Julia Britton Hooks – second African-American woman in the United States to graduate from college and paternal grandmother of Benjamin Hooks • Silas House – NEH Chair in Appalachian Studies, author and activist • Akilah Hughes – Writer, comedian, YouTuber, podcaster, and actress • George Samuel Hurst, health physicist and professor of physics at the University of Kentucky • Juanita M. Kreps – U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Jimmy Carter • W. Gyude Moore - Liberian Minister of Public Works under President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf • C.E. Morgan – author of All the Living and The Sport of Kings • Tharon Musser – Tony Award-winning lighting designer known especially for her work on A Chorus Line • Rude Osolnik (1915–2001) woodturner, educator • Willie Parker – abortion provider and reproductive rights activist • K.C. Potter – academic administrator and LGBT rights activist • Jeffrey Reddick – American screenwriter, best known for creating the Final Destination series • Jack Roush – founder, CEO, and owner of Roush Fenway Racing, a NASCAR team • Green Pinckney Russell (1861–1939), American school administrator, college president, and teacher • Tijan Sallah - Gambian poet, short story writer, biographer and economist at the World Bank • Helen Maynor Scheirbeck – Assistant Director for Public Programs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian • Chasteen C. Stumm (1848–1895) minister, newspaper journalist, publisher, teacher; attended Berea but did not graduate • Djuan Trent – Miss Kentucky 2010 • Horace M. Trent - American physicist • Rocky Tuan – Vice-chancellor of The Chinese University of Hong Kong • C. C. Vaughn - Kentucky educator and minister • Muse Watson – American actor • Billy Edd Wheeler – songwriter, performer and writer • Carter G. Woodson – African American historian, author, journalist and co-founder of Black History Month • Frank Lunsford Williams (1864–1953) head teacher and educator in St. Louis == Notes ==