Motto | Animus crescat (Latin) |
---|---|
Motto in English | "Let your mind expand" "Let your spirit rise" "Let your courage thrive" |
Type | Private institution of higher learning |
Established | 2010 |
Founder | Stephen Blackwood |
Accreditation | unaccredited |
Endowment | $650,272 (2020) |
Chancellor | Jordan Peterson |
President | Stephen Blackwood |
Academic staff | 3 |
Students | 24 (Fall 2022) |
Location | , , United States 32°4′15″N81°5′48″W / 32.07083°N 81.09667°W |
Campus | Urban |
Colors | Black and White |
Website | ralston |
Ralston College is a private unaccredited liberal arts college [1] in Savannah, Georgia. It describes itself as being dedicated to "freedom of thought and speech", [2] [3] [4] and is associated with prominent conservative figures, [4] [5] with Stephen Blackwood as President, Jordan B. Peterson as Chancellor and funding from conservative activists including Paul Marshall. [6] Ralston College started accepting graduate students to its one-year MA in the Humanities in the summer of 2022.
In 2006, Stephen Blackwood and James Atkins Pritchard began fundraising for the establishment of an institution of higher education. Ralston was incorporated in the State of Georgia in 2010. [7] Among the members of its Board of Visitors are Vernon Smith, Heather Mac Donald, Harry Lewis, Ruth Wisse, Roger Kimball, and Jordan Peterson who was appointed Chancellor in May 2022. [8] [9] [10]
Ralston's first class of MA students began classes in the fall of 2022. [11] with classes held in the education building of St. John's Episcopal Church. [12]
Ralston College has been plagued by allegations of mismanagement and a series of high-level terminations. [13]
In March 2023, a member of Ralston's Board of Visitors, Harvey Silverglate, resigned his position decrying the college as "antithetical to the whole concept of a liberal arts institution". [14]
Ralston College's curriculum focuses on the liberal arts: after a term teaching Ancient Greek and Modern Greek in Greece, the following three terms of the MA in the Humanities focus on ancient, medieval and modern literary texts and works of arts. [15] [1] Blackwood has stated that Ralston aims “to play a role in the renewal of the conditions for human flourishing”. [16] It also offers one online short-course, run in conjunction with the FutureLearn platform, on Samuel Johnson's Rasselas. [17] [18] [19]
The College has been authorized for operation and awarded degree-granting powers by the State of Georgia, [16] but is not accredited. [20]
Liberal arts education is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. Liberal arts takes the term art in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. Liberal arts education can refer to studies in a liberal arts degree course or to a university education more generally. Such a course of study contrasts with those that are principally vocational, professional, or technical, as well as religiously based courses.
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Savannah State University is a public historically black university in Savannah, Georgia. It is the oldest historically black public university in the state. The university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
Dorothy Leland, also known as Dorothy Leland Wilson, is an American academic administrator, university president and chancellor. She was the 19th president, and the second female president, of Georgia College & State University from 2004 until 2011. Leland was appointed as the third Chancellor for University of California, Merced, replacing Sung-Mo "Steve" Kang from May 18, 2011 until 2019. In 2019, she announced plans to retire.
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Jordan Bernt Peterson is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. Often described as conservative, he began to receive widespread attention in the late 2010s for his controversial views on cultural and political issues. Peterson has described himself as a classical British liberal and a traditionalist.
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The deadline looms as troubles plague the organization within and without. Accusations of mismanagement, coupled with several high-level firings, have followed the college since at least August 2022.