User:Visviva/History of Shimer College 1950-1965

Shimer underwent a major reorganization in 1950 when Aaron Brumbaugh assumed the presidency. He had previously been Dean of the College at the University of Chicago.

In the reorganization, Shimer took on its current name, "Shimer College", for the first time. Shimer again became coeducational, and adopted the Chicago "Hutchins Plan", thus becoming a Great Books school. In the course of this transition, the requirement for a majority of Baptists on the Board was removed, although a nominal Baptist affiliation was retained for some years. Shimer remained officially classified as a junior college until it was accredited as a four-year college by the North Central Association in 1959.

At the same time as the reorganization, Shimer was selected together with 11 other colleges nationwide to receive a Ford Foundation grant to support an early entrance program under which high school students could enter college before graduating. The program was a success, and although the grant expired in 1955, the program was kept in place. Shimer's early entrance program continues in operation as of 2010. In contrast, most other schools receiving the grant soon canceled their early entrance programs.

The presidency was assumed in 1954 by a former University of Chicago professor of medicine Francis Joseph Mullin, who began an aggressive fundraising campaign that approximately tripled incoming donations to $150,000 per year. In 1956, Shimer ceased to be affiliated with the University of Chicago. Mullin sought to build "a community of scholars where intellectual inquiry is the highest value".

The school faced imminent closure due to a financial and enrollment crisis leading up to the 1956-1957 school year, with enrollment still more than 50 students below the level of 200 that was considered substainable. To address the crisis, Mullin recruited powerful corporate donors including General Motors executive Nelson Dezendorf. Dezendorf subsequently became chairman of the board.

In the early 1960s, Shimer gained national attention from a Time magazine article about the school  highlighting its academic reputation. The article cited a survey by the Harvard Educational Review that ranked Shimer as among eleven small liberal arts colleges in the United States with an "ideal intellectual climate".