Wheaton College (Illinois)

==Student life==
[[File:Memorial Student Center.jpg|thumb|LEED-certified Memorial Student Center houses the Business and Economics department, the Politics and International Relations department, and the Center for Faith, Politics, and Economics]]
Wheaton dedicated the Memorial Student Center (MSC) on June 11, 1951. The college built the center in memory of over 1,600 former students and graduates who served in [[World War II]] and in honor of those 39 who gave their lives. The center housed the Student Union Café, nicknamed "the Stupe" (which has since moved to the Beamer Center). An early pamphlet described the new building and listed some rules for its use, such as No Rook Playing and No Playing of Boogie-Woogie, Jazz, or Otherwise Abusing the Piano. The MSC was remodeled during the Fall semester of 2007 for academic use and is now home to the Business Economics department, the Political Science and International Relations department, and the Wheaton College Center for Faith, Politics, and Economics.

Wheaton remodeled the MSC according to the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). The MSC was the first building renovated according to these standards and exceeded existing EPA standards. Many of the materials used were post-consumer, and over 20% of the materials were manufactured within a {{convert|500|mi|km|adj=on}} radius of the College.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090327214151/http://www.wheaton.edu/Leed/ Wheaton College, Wheaton Illinois: LEED Certification]</ref> The MSC remodeling is part of the current capital campaign, The Promise of Wheaton.

The Dining Hall (now the "Student Services Building") opened on January 4, 1953. Today it houses Student Development, Undergraduate Admissions, and the College Bookstore.

Jenks Hall is home to the Arena Theater, which was established in the Fall of 1974 and has staged over 100 full-length productions.

[[File:Student Recreation Center.jpg|thumb|The Chrouser Sports Complex (CSC) features an 8,000-square-foot weight room, three student recreational gyms, an elevated jogging track, a climbing wall, "smart" classrooms, and conference rooms, and a new physiology lab.]]
In the fall of 2004, the [[Todd Beamer|Todd M. Beamer]] Student Center opened. Beamer, a Wheaton alumnus, was part of a small group of passengers who stormed hijackers on [[United Flight 93]], bringing down the plane in rural Pennsylvania during the [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001, attacks]], and preventing it from reaching its target. The building that bears his name was a $20+ million project commissioned to meet the needs of the growing college community. Along with its spacious and sleek modern design, the Beamer Center features a convenience store known as the "C-Store", the "Stupe" (the name derives from students shortening the previous nickname for the campus Student Union, "Stupid Onion", which in turn is a jocular mispronunciation of Student Union), a bakery café named "Sam's" (named after the former vice president of student development, Sam Shellhammer, who retired following the 2007–08 school year after serving Wheaton's campus community for thirty years), several reading rooms and lounges, a recreation/game room, a prayer chapel, an expanded college post office, the offices for several organizations and departments, and several other event rooms. In the fall of 2006, intense rain storms created a flood that destroyed the lower level of the Beamer Center. Wheaton College has since restored the flood-damaged building.

The official student newspaper at Wheaton College is the ''Wheaton Record'',<ref>[http://www.wheaton.edu/sao/record/ "Wheaton Record"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008021503/http://www.wheaton.edu/sao/Record/ |date=October 8, 2007 }}. Wheaton College.</ref> a weekly publication with a circulation of 3400, in existence since 1876. ''The Record'' is produced by students, published by the college, and distributed each Friday after chapel free of charge. ''The Record'' was the recipient of the 2006 John David Reed General Excellence Award and has received 13 other awards from the Illinois College Press Association, of which it is a member. ''The Record'' is also a member of the Associated Collegiate Press.

In addition, Wheaton College has many organizations on campus that range from helping the poor and needy in Chicago to the arts and improvisation.

Juniors and seniors are also eligible to live in one of thirteen campus houses, apartments (five complexes), or off-campus.

===Spirituality===
[[File:Edman_Memorial_Chapel.jpg|thumb|Edman Memorial Chapel at Wheaton College]]
The chapel, on the corner of Washington and Franklin streets, was dedicated on November 15, 1925. The college also used the building for commencements and other assemblies. In 1936–37, Wheaton renamed it the Orlinda Childs Pierce Memorial Chapel. Neighboring McAlister Hall was home to the Conservatory of Music and housed conservatory faculty offices.

[[College Church]], across Washington Street from the college, is not formally associated with the college, although it has long been informally closely associated with the college.<ref name="Schnurr">Stephen J. Schnurr, Dennis Edward Northway, "Pipe organs of Chicago, Volume 1," Chauncey Park Press, 2005, p. 244.</ref><ref name="Wcollege">{{cite web |url=http://www.wheaton.edu/chaplain/Welcome/faq.html |title=Wheaton College (Wheaton, IL) - Office of the Chaplain |access-date=2011-05-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602222700/http://www.wheaton.edu/chaplain/Welcome/faq.html |archive-date=June 2, 2010 |df=mdy-all }}. Wheaton College. Retrieved May 9, 2011.</ref>

The college holds regular chapel services in Edman Memorial Chapel, named for V. Raymond Edman, the fourth college president, which seats 2,400. Edman died in 1967 while speaking in chapel.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Edman, V. Raymond (Victor Raymond), 1900-1967. {{!}} Archives of Wheaton College |url=https://archives.wheaton.edu/agents/people/2060 |access-date=2023-08-31 |website=archives.wheaton.edu}}</ref> He was preaching about being in the presence of the King, and the recording is available in the Wheaton chapel archives.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chapel - 9/22/67 - V. Raymond Edman - Final Address, 1967 September 22 {{!}} Archives of Wheaton College |url=https://archives.wheaton.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/68287 |access-date=2023-08-31 |website=archives.wheaton.edu}}</ref> The college also uses the chapel for many events of Wheaton's performing arts programs. In 2000, an entirely handcrafted organ made by the Casavant Organ Company of Quebec, Canada, was installed.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}}

===LGBT prohibition===
Students and employees at Wheaton must sign a Community Covenant that classifies "homosexual behavior" as a form of [[sin|immorality condemned by scripture]] which they must avoid. The college is listed among the least hospitable in the United States for LGBT students by [[Campus Pride]] and [[The Princeton Review]] because, among other reasons, the college featured an [[ex-gay movement]] speaker in a chapel service.<ref name="Vivanco2016">{{cite news |last=Vivanco |first=Leonor |date=August 31, 2016 |title=Lists rank Wheaton College among worst schools for LGBTQ students |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-wheaton-college-anti-gay-lists-met-20160831-story.html |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=August 29, 2021}}</ref>

In 2014 Wheaton hired a gay Christian blogger, Julie Rodgers, as a ministry associate who could reach out to [[LGBT]] students while being committed to celibacy. Rodgers reports that college officials asked her not to identify herself as gay and to portray being gay only as a form of "brokenness" rather than something to be celebrated. Having shifted in her position on same-sex marriage, Rodgers could no longer endorse Wheaton's policy on sexual ethics, and resigned from Wheaton in 2015.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Rodgers |first=Julie |date=February 23, 2016 |title=How a Leading Christian College Turned Against Its Gay Leader |url=https://time.com/4233666/wheaton-college-gay-leader/ |magazine=Time |access-date=August 29, 2021}}</ref>

===Other===
[[File:Billy_Graham_Center.jpg|thumb|The Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.]]
The building housing the [[Billy Graham]] Center (BGC), named after one of the college's most well-known graduates, opened in September 1980. The [[Billy Graham Center]], the evangelist's corporate records repository, has existed since 1974.

The BGC houses an auditorium, classrooms, several evangelism institutes, a museum of the history of evangelism, the college's Archives and Special Collections, and the Wheaton College Graduate School. It also housed the school radio station, [[WLWX (FM)|WETN 88.1 FM]], until its sale in February 2017.

The Women's Building renamed Williston Hall in 1930–31 (in honor of longtime Blanchard friend and donor J. P. Williston), was built in 1895. Its construction required the college to borrow $6,000. After seventy-eight years of housing only women, Williston Hall is now a coed dormitory for sophomore students. It opened to men starting in the fall semester of 2009 with the dream that it would become a creative hotspot on campus.

The President's House, or Westgate, formerly owned by college trustee John M. Oury, was presented to President Buswell on the tenth anniversary of his inauguration, April 23, 1936. The house served as the home of three of Wheaton's subsequent presidents. It now houses the Office of Alumni Relations.

In 1951, HoneyRock, Center for Leadership Development at Wheaton College, was established in Three Lakes, Wisconsin. HoneyRock is not only a year-round camp for young people, but it offers a variety of leadership schools and courses for students. Nearly 3,000 people utilize HoneyRock each year. Through HoneyRock the college owns nearly {{convert|800|acre|ha|1}} in Northern Wisconsin.