View source for Shimer Great Books School

{{short description|American democratic school}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox university
| name = Shimer Great Books School
| image_name = 
| image_size = 
| established = {{start date |1853}}
| former_names = [[Mount Carroll Seminary]], Frances Shimer Academy, Frances Shimer Junior College, Shimer College
| coor = {{Coord|41|49|55|N|87|37|33|W|display=inline,title|type:edu}}
| parent = [[North Central College]]
| type = [[Great Books]]-focused academic department
| president= 
| city = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| state = 
| country = 
| students =
| faculty =
| campus = 
| mascot =
| motto = 
| motto_lang =
| mottoeng =
| website = {{URL | https://www.northcentralcollege.edu/shimer-great-books-school }}
}}

'''Shimer Great Books School''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-Shimer.ogg|ˈ|ʃ|aɪ|m|ər}} {{respell|SHY|mər}}) is a [[Classic_book#University_programs|Great Books college]] that is part of [[North Central College]] in [[Naperville, Illinois]]. Prior to 2017, Shimer was an independent, accredited college on the south side of Chicago, originally founded in 1853.

Originally founded as the Mount Carroll Seminary in [[Mount Carroll, Illinois]] in 1853, it became affiliated with the [[University of Chicago]] in 1896 and was renamed the Frances Shimer Academy after founder Frances Wood Shimer. It was renamed '''Shimer College''' in 1950, when it began offering a four-year curriculum based on the [[Robert Maynard Hutchins|Hutchins Plan]] of the University of Chicago. After the University of Chicago parted with both Shimer and the Hutchins Plan in 1958, Shimer continued to use a version of that curriculum. The college relocated to [[Waukegan, Illinois|Waukegan]] in 1978 and to Chicago in 2006.  In 2017, it was acquired by North Central College which established the Shimer Great Books School to continue offering its curriculum.

Shimer was, until joining North Central College, governed internally by an assembly in which all community members had a vote.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shimer.edu/about/how-it-works/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20141219024139/http://www.shimer.edu/about/how-it-works/|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 19, 2014|title=How It Works|publisher=Shimer College|access-date=July 12, 2015}}</ref>  In 2016, Shimer announced an agreement to be acquired by North Central College.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.shimer.edu/live/news/991-board-votes-yes-to-memorandum-with-north-central|title=Board Votes "Yes" to Memorandum with North Central College: Shimer College|website=www.shimer.edu|access-date=May 28, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612093212/http://www.shimer.edu/live/news/991-board-votes-yes-to-memorandum-with-north-central|archive-date=June 12, 2016}}</ref> The agreement came to fruition on June 1, 2017, when Shimer's faculty and curriculum were subsumed into North Central as a department known as the Shimer Great Books School of North Central College.

== History ==
[[File:Frances Shimer Cindarella Gregory 1869.jpg|thumb|alt=Two women—the older one seated and the younger one standing|Frances Shimer (seated) and Cindarella Gregory, 1869]]
{{main|History of Shimer College}}{{see also | List of Shimer College presidents}}
In 1852, the pioneer town of Mount Carroll, Illinois, lacking a public school, incorporated the Mount Carroll Seminary with no land, no teachers and no money.<ref>{{cite journal | title = School and Society | journal = [[School and Society]] | page = 873 | year =1936 | volume = 43 | author = Society for the Advancement of Education | issn = 0036-6455}}</ref><ref name="incorporate">{{cite journal | journal = Laws of the State of Illinois Enacted by the General Assembly | title = An Act to Incorporate the Mount Carroll Seminary | page = 13 | volume = 1 | oclc = 38559494 | year =1867}}</ref>{{cref|a}} The town persuaded [[Frances Shimer|Frances Wood]] and [[Cindarella Gregory]]{{^|Cindarella is the correct spelling}}, two schoolteachers from [[Ballston Spa, New York]], to come and teach. On May 11, 1853, the new seminary opened in a local church with eleven students.{{sfn|History of Carroll County|1878|p=344}} Shimer has evolved over time from a coeducational seminary to a women's seminary, a women's academy, a women's junior college, a women's college, to a coeducational Great Books college.

Unable to raise sufficient funds locally, the seminary's founders borrowed money to construct a building in 1854. They were discouraged by the school's finances and sold it to Wood and Gregory, who borrowed money for the purchase.<ref name="incorporate" /> In 1857, Wood married [[Henry Shimer]], a mason who was a creditor of the seminary.{{sfn |Bonham|1883|p = 207}} Henry left immediately after the nuptials for medical school, securing private lodging upon his return; the new Mrs. Shimer continued to cohabit with Miss Gregory.<ref>Frances Wood Diary, 1852-1863</ref> In 1864, the overcrowded school began accepting female students only.{{sfn|History of Carroll County|1878|pp = 348–349}}

To ensure the seminary's long-term survival, in 1896 Frances Shimer reached an agreement with the [[University of Chicago]] in which the school became the Frances Shimer Academy of the University of Chicago and was loosely affiliated with the [[Baptists|Baptist]] Church.<ref>{{cite book | page = 139 | title = Annual Register; July 1897 – July 1898 | publisher = The University of Chicago | location = Chicago | year = 1898 | volume = 18–19 | oclc = 2068936}}</ref><ref name="juniorcolleges" />{{cref|b}} She retired to Florida, never returning to the school, and died in 1901.<ref>{{cite book | title = Women Remembered: A Guide to Landmarks of Women's History in the United States | page = [https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313239847/page/486 486] | last = Tinling | first = Marion | location = New York | publisher = Greenwood Press | year = 1986 | isbn = 0-313-23984-3 | url = https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780313239847/page/486 }}</ref> University of Chicago president [[William Rainey Harper]] was the first to champion [[Junior college#United States|junior colleges]] in the United States, and in 1907 Shimer became one of the first schools to offer a junior-college program.<ref name="juniorcolleges">{{cite book | title = American Junior Colleges | editor1-last=Eells | editor2-last=Bogue | editor1-first=Walter Crosby | editor2-first = Jesse Parker | publisher = American Council on Education | location = Washington, D.C. | year = 1952| issn = 0065-9029| page = 203}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | page = 100 | title = How to Choose a Junior College: A Directory for Students, Parents, and Educators | last = Davis | first = Wayne | location = New York | publisher = Harper & Brothers | year = 1939 | oclc = 4803155}}</ref> The two-year junior-college program, operating with the original [[University-preparatory school| 
preparatory program]], was [[Higher education accreditation in the United States|accredited]] in 1920.<ref>{{cite book | page = 57 | title = Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools | publisher = North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools | oclc = 1607454 | year = 1920 | editor1-last = Gage | editor1-first = Harry Morehouse}}</ref>
{{Quote box |align = left| width = 33% | quote = I don't care if we only pay our way for a time, if we can ultimately have a school that will be appreciated. | source = Frances Wood Shimer, 1853{{sfn|Glass|1953|p=6}}}} 
The college had a precipitous decline in enrollment and financial stability during and after the [[Great Depression]], weathering the storm under five successive presidents. Its survival was due in part to the reorganization of the six-year preparatory program into a [[four-year junior college]] program and in part to steep salary reductions.{{sfn|Moorhead|1983|p = 64}} In 1943, Shimer president [[Albin C. Bro]] invited the Department of Education at the University of Chicago to evaluate the college community; its 77 recommendations became the basis for Shimer's transformation from a conservative [[finishing school]] to a nontraditional, co-educational four-year college.{{sfn|Moorhead|1983|p = 110}}

[[File:Shimer metcalf.jpg|thumb|alt=Brown Federal-style brick building with white cupola, photographed through trees|Metcalf Hall (built in 1907) was the main administration building of the Mount Carroll campus, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://isas.illinois.edu/transportation_research/idot_historic_bridges/images/maps_photos/008-3705/NRHP%20nomination.pdf | title = National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form | publisher = Illinois State Archeological Survey | access-date = December 14, 2014 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150214093812/http://www.isas.illinois.edu/transportation_research/idot_historic_bridges/images/maps_photos/008-3705/NRHP%20nomination.pdf | archive-date = February 14, 2015 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>]]
The school was renamed Shimer College in 1950, adopting the great-books curriculum then in place at the University of Chicago.<ref name="juniorcolleges" /> The university connection dissolved in 1958 after the latter's decision to abandon the great-books plan, and Shimer narrowly avoided bankruptcy in 1957.{{sfn|Moorhead|1983|pp = 158–159}} The great-books program at Shimer continued, and the school enjoyed national recognition and a rapid growth in enrollment during the 1960s.<ref>{{cite journal | title = The Episcopalian | journal = The Episcopalian | page =37 | volume = 128 | year = 1963 | publisher = Church Magazine Advisory Board | location = New York | issn = 0013-9629 | author = Episcopal Church General Convention}}</ref> In 1963, a ''[[Harvard Educational Review]]'' article listed Shimer as one of 11 colleges with an "ideal intellectual climate".<ref>{{cite journal | last = Stem| first = George G.| title = Characteristics of the Intellectual Climate in College Environments | journal = Harvard Educational Review | volume = XXXIII | year = 1963 | pages =5–41| publisher = Harvard University Graduate School of Education | issn = 0017-8055}}</ref> According to a 1966 article in the education journal ''[[Phi Delta Kappa]]n'', Shimer "present[ed] impressive statistical evidence that their students are better prepared for graduate work in the arts and sciences and in the professions than those who have specialized in particular areas".<ref name="phideltakappan" />

During the late 1960s, Shimer experienced a period of internal unrest known as the Grotesque Internecine Struggle, with disputes over curriculum changes, the extent to which student behavior should be regulated and inadequate fundraising by president [[Francis Joseph Mullin]]. Half the faculty and a large portion of the student body left as a result.{{sfn|Moorhead| 1983 |p=144}}{{sfn|Severson|1975|p=13}} Its financial problems worsened, and the school's survival was uncertain. Although Shimer's trustees voted to close the college at the end of 1973, the school was saved by intense student and faculty fundraising.{{sfn|Severson|1975|p = 14}}<ref>{{cite news | title = Shimer: A Small Place But Loved | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | last = Maclean | first = John | date = December 24, 1974 | url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/606126452.html?dids=606126452:606126452&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121106172637/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/606126452.html?dids=606126452:606126452&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI | url-status=dead | archive-date=November 6, 2012 | format = fee required | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref> In the school's 1977 bankruptcy filing, the trustees, in the words of board chair Barry Carroll, "put responsibility for the school's continuing on the shoulders of a very dedicated faculty of 12 and students who volunteered".<ref name="tinyshimer">{{cite news |title = Tiny Shimer College Gets Bill Extension | last = Unger | first = Robert | date = November 28, 1977 | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/618307412.html?dids=618307412:618307412&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106172654/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/618307412.html?dids=618307412:618307412&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 6, 2012 | format = fee required | access-date=May 8, 2010}}</ref>

[[File:DSCN0448.jpeg|thumb|left|alt=Old two- and three-story brick building|438 N. Sheridan Road, built in 1845, the main building of the Waukegan campus. The former campus was designated a historic district in 2006.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.waukeganweb.net/index.aspx?NID=464 | title = Shimer Historic District | publisher = City of Waukegan Historic Preservation Commission | access-date=December 14, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-114A813C57ED88B8.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150329093336/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-114A813C57ED88B8.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = March 29, 2015 | title = Landmark status granted for Shimer historic district | work = The News-Sun | date = May 18, 2006 | last = Moran | first = Dan | access-date=December 20, 2014}}</ref>]]
During the 1978 Christmas break, the faculty and 62 students borrowed trucks and moved the college into two "run-down"<ref name="tinycollege">{{cite news | title = Tiny College Gets Growing Pains After Move to Waukegan | last = Schilling | first = Thomas | date = June 29, 1982 | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/628446282.html?dids=628446282:628446282&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121026113103/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/628446282.html?dids=628446282:628446282&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI | url-status = dead | archive-date = October 26, 2012 | format = fee required | access-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref> homes in [[Waukegan, Illinois]], a suburb north of Chicago.
Shimer emerged from bankruptcy in 1980.{{sfn|Moorhead| 1983 |p = 199}} During the next 25 years, the college purchased 12 surrounding homes and the former YWCA facility at Genesee and Franklin Streets to form a makeshift campus and slowly progressed towards financial stability.<ref name="longroad">{{cite news | title = Long Road to Rebirth at Shimer College; New Quarters, Old Curriculum Spell Success | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = December 11, 1995 | last = Golab | first = Art | id = {{ProQuest|258242901}} }}</ref> By 1988 its enrollment had grown from a low of 40 to 114, and income exceeded expenses. In 1991, Shimer received a grant from the [[National Endowment for the Humanities]] with the help of NEH chair and core-curriculum advocate [[Lynne Cheney]]; the grant revitalized the school's fundraising, helping it raise $2&nbsp;million.<ref name="longroad" /><ref name="bigideas">{{cite news | title = Big Ideas; Tiny Shimer College Has Survived For 135 Years On Great Books, High Hopes, And Very Little Money | newspaper = Chicago Reader | last = Henderson | first = Harold | date = June 16, 1988 | url = http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/big-ideas/Content?oid=872366 | access-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref>

In 2006, Shimer again moved to the campus of the [[Illinois Institute of Technology]] (IIT) in Chicago. Although the institutions operated independently, they cooperated closely under a long-term agreement.<ref>{{cite news | title = College Celebrates Move to Chicago | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | date = October 9, 2006 | url = https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/1142816641.html?dids=1142816641:1142816641&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121106172712/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/1142816641.html?dids=1142816641:1142816641&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 6, 2012 | format = fee required | access-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref><ref name="citylights" />

Shimer received national attention in 2009, when it was embroiled in "a battle over what some saw as a right-wing attempt to take over its board and administration".<ref>{{cite news | title = Who's Buying Shimer? | newspaper = Chicago Reader | date = February 25, 2010 | last = Isaacs | first =Deanna | url = http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/shimer-college-neoconservative-great-books-marsha-familaro-enright/Content?oid=1467327 | access-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title = At a Tiny College, an Epic Battle Over Academic Authority | newspaper = Chronicle of Higher Education | date = February 25, 2010 | last = Troop | first = Don | url = http://chronicle.com/article/At-a-Tiny-College-an-Epic/64368/#top | access-date=May 6, 2010}}</ref> In February 2012 the college announced the appointment of [[Susan Henking]], former professor of [[religious studies]] at [[Hobart and William Smith Colleges]], as Shimer's 14th president.<ref name = presidentelect>{{Cite web|url=http://www.pr.com/press-release/392680/|title=Dr. Susan Henking Appointed 14th President of Shimer College: First Woman named President since Founder Frances Wood Shimer|publisher=Shimer College|access-date=December 19, 2012}}</ref>

In September 2014 Shimer again received media attention when Ben Miller of ''[[Washington Monthly]]'' ranked it as one of the worst colleges in America,<ref name = "Miller">{{cite web| url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/septemberoctober_2014/features/americas_worst_colleges051752.php |title = America's Worst Colleges | last = Miller | first = Ben | publisher = Washington Monthly | issue = September/October 2014 | access-date=December 13, 2014}}</ref> according to a formula adjusting graduation rates to the percentage of minority and low-income students and factoring net expense to low-income students.<ref name = "Miller" /> In December 2014 [[Jon Ronson]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' disputed Miller's claim, citing Miller's assertion that the ranking was "at least partly due to small sample sizes".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/06/shimer-college-illinois-worst-school-america | title = Shimer College: the worst school in America? | last = Ronson | first = Jon | work = The Guardian | date = December 6, 2014 | access-date=December 13, 2014}}</ref>

== Academics ==

=== Curriculum history <span class="anchor" id="History of curriculum"></span>===
[[File:Mortimer Adler.jpg|thumb|alt=Middle-aged man sitting at a table over an open book|[[Mortimer Adler]], whose great-books philosophy of education influenced Shimer's curriculum; Adler and Robert Maynard Hutchins founded the [[Great Books Foundation]] in 1947.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://www.thegreatideas.org/adlerbio_short.html | title = Mortimer J. Adler | publisher = Center for the Study of Great Ideas | access-date=December 15, 2014}}</ref>]]
{{see also |Great books}}
Shimer follows the great-books tradition begun by [[John Erskine (educator)|John Erskine]].<ref name="bachelors">{{cite news |title = A Bachelor's in Books?: Shimer College Brings Great Books Curriculum to City | last = Ritter | first = Jim | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = October 6, 2006 | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1643584.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121104004926/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1643584.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 4, 2012 | access-date=April 25, 2010 | format = fee required}}</ref>{{sfn |Casement|1996|p = 34}}{{cref|c}} Erskine's [[Socratic method|Socratic]] seminar at [[Columbia University]] (begun in 1919) impacted his colleague, [[Mortimer J. Adler]], who came to believe that the purpose of education was to engage student minds "in the study of individual works of merit&nbsp;... accompanied by a discussion of the ideas, the values, and the forms embodied in such products of human art".<ref>{{cite book | title = The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto | last = Adler | first = Mortimer J. | location = New York | publisher = Touchstone | year = 1982 | page = 32 | isbn = 0-684-84188-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | title = Great Books | magazine = Life | pages = 2–7 | last = Mayer | first = Milton | date = October 28, 1946 | issn =0024-3019}}</ref> [[Robert Maynard Hutchins]], head of the University of Chicago from 1929 to 1951, brought Adler to the university and implemented a program (known as the Chicago Program and, later, the Hutchins Plan) based on Adler's ideas.{{sfn|Beam|2008|pp = 41–43}}<ref>{{cite web | title = Robert Maynard Hutchins | publisher = University of Chicago | url= https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/projects/centcat/centcats/pres/presch05_01.html | access-date=April 25, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title =Robert Redfield and the Development of American Anthropology | last = Wilcox | first = Clifford | location = Lanham, MD | publisher = Lexington Books | year = 2006 | isbn = 0-7391-1777-7 | edition = 1st paperback | pages = 79, 101}}</ref>{{cref|d}}
<blockquote>The Chicago program comprised sequences in the natural sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences which were supposed to integrate past and present work within these divisions of knowledge. In addition, these sequences were capped by work in philosophy and history. The emphasis in teaching was on small classes with bright students, where discussion could supplant monologue as the dominant pedagogic technique.... At the same time, in order to retain high academic standards and contact with the "frontiers of knowledge", the College's pedagogy emphasized reading originals (sometimes although not invariably, defined as Great Books).<ref name="phideltakappan">{{cite journal | last1 = Jencks | first1 = Christopher | last2 = Reisman | first2 = David | title = From the Academic Revolution: Shimer College | journal = Phi Delta Kappan | volume = 47 | number = 8 | publisher = Phi Delta Kappa International | page = 416 |date = April 1966| issn = 0031-7217}}</ref>{{cref|e}}</blockquote>
Shimer, affiliated with the University of Chicago since 1896, adopted the Hutchins plan (including University of Chicago syllabi, comprehensive examinations and several university instructors) in 1950.{{sfn|Kavaloski |1979|p = 235}} When Hutchins left the university in 1951 and it abandoned the Hutchins Plan, Shimer continued to use it and it is still reflected in the college's curriculum.

=== Degree program ===
{{Main|Shimer College Core Program}}
[[File:Shimer Class Chicago.PNG|left|thumb|alt=Overhead photo of eight people sitting at an octagonal table, each over an open book|A typical class of seven students seated at an octagonal table (a characteristic of Shimer classrooms), from which the school's logo takes its shape<ref name="solong">{{cite news | title = So Long, Shimer | last =Isaacs | first = Deanna | newspaper = Chicago Reader | url = http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/so-long-shimer/Content?oid=925775 | date = August 30, 2007| access-date=May 1, 2010}}</ref>]]
Shimer was [[Higher education accreditation in the United States|accredited]] by [[the Higher Learning Commission]].<ref>{{cite web | title = Shimer College | publisher = Higher Learning Commission | url =https://www.ncahlc.org/component/com_directory/Action,ShowBasic/Itemid,/instid,1155/ | access-date=December 19, 2014}}</ref> Its core curriculum was a sequence of sixteen required courses in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and [[Interdisciplinarity|interdisciplinary]] studies. Basic-studies courses are generally taken during the first two years, advanced-studies during the final two years and integrative-studies courses in the final year.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.nationalgreatbooks.com/cirriculum/structure.asp|title = Shimer College: Reflections on Teaching a Structured Four Year Curriculum|access-date = July 7, 2010|publisher = National Great Books Curriculum|last = Mullaney|first = Kathleen|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101212230425/http://www.nationalgreatbooks.com/cirriculum/structure.asp|archive-date = December 12, 2010|df = dmy-all}}</ref> In addition to core courses students take [[Course (education)#Elective and required courses|electives]], which offer basic instruction or in-depth work in particular subjects. Students may also take [[Tutorial#Tutorial class|tutorials]], with one or two students per course, tailored to their interests and similar in structure to the [[Supervision system|Oxford tutorial system]].{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2009|pp = 17–18}}

Shimer College students did not pursue traditional majors, instead having broad concentrations in the humanities, natural sciences or social sciences. Within these areas, students could specialize in [[literature]], [[mathematics]], [[philosophy]], [[political science]] or [[psychology]].{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2013|p = 16}}

The school's 200-book reading list remained largely faithful to the original Hutchins plan, with new works judiciously added to the core curriculum. These included voices originally overlooked in the formation of the canon, or not yet published when it originated, including [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[Carol Gilligan]], [[Frantz Fanon]], [[Michel Foucault]] and other contemporary authors.{{sfn |Casement|1996|p = 89}} Readings were organized by broad historical and philosophical themes.

Small seminars were the sole form of instruction in all subjects, from mathematics to poetry. Classes were composed of no more than twelve students (the average class size was seven),<ref name="facts">{{cite web |title=Facts & Figures that Set Shimer Apart from Other Colleges |url=http://www.shimer.edu/about/facts-figures.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20141217174057/http://www.shimer.edu/about/facts-figures.php |archive-date=December 17, 2014 |access-date=December 16, 2014 |publisher=Shimer College}}</ref> who read and discussed only source material.<ref name="bachelors" /> In a process Shimer called "shared inquiry", "the text is the teacher, and thus the faculty member's role is to facilitate interaction between the text and the students".{{sfn|Kavaloski |1979|p = 235}} According to a former Shimer professor:
<blockquote>At Shimer, the professor is a facilitator, a guide on the side, not a sage on the stage – encouraging each student to contribute to the intellectual light being kindled in every class. Each student was expected to question and comment upon the text, to respond to one other's insights, actively taking part in every discussion.... Students know their insights matter; they have something to offer to their peers, and to the life of the text being discussed. Some students are more exuberant than others, some would rather talk than listen; others may be a bit shy. The professor/facilitator must make sure that each student has a chance to shine, that each can feel confident, each can have the courage to ask what they think might be a stupid question. What are feared to be stupid questions are often the most provocative ones.<ref>{{cite conference | first = Suzanne | last = Sklar | title = Lighting Fires. A Pedagogy of Inspiration | conference = Topical Issues of Contemporary Professional Education | location = Ekaterinburg | date = 2014-06-06 | publisher = Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University | url = http://www.rsvpu.ru/filedirectory/3468/Sbornik_InLin_2014.pdf | pages = 12–13 | access-date=2014-12-15}}</ref></blockquote>

The curriculum emphasized writing; students were required to complete a semester project each term on a topic chosen in conjunction with an advisor, and were required to complete a research paper during their third year.{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2009|p = 21}} All students needed to pass a basic-studies [[Prelims|comprehensive examination]] to register for upper-level courses, and at least one area-studies comprehensive examination (usually in their area of concentration) to graduate.<ref name="reflections">{{cite web | title = Shimer College: Reflections on Teaching a Structured Four Year Curriculum | last = Mullaney | first = Kathleen | publisher = National Great Books Curriculum | url = http://www.nationalgreatbooks.com/cirriculum/structure.asp | access-date = July 7, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101212230425/http://www.nationalgreatbooks.com/cirriculum/structure.asp | archive-date = December 12, 2010 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2009|p = 21}} A senior [[thesis]] was required of all students. Usually an analytic or expository essay, it could also be a piece of original fiction, poetry, a performance or work of visual art.{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2015|p=19}} Students were encouraged to present their theses orally, and the public was invited to the presentations.{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2015|p=19}}

=== Special programs ===

==== Early Entrance program ====
The [[Early entrance to college|Early Entrance program]], which admitted students who had not yet graduated from high school, was pioneered by Hutchins at the University of Chicago in 1937 and adopted by Shimer in 1950.{{sfn | Dzuback | 1991 | p=69}}<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 April 1950 |title=Hutchins Sells Shimer on 'Chicago Plan' of Education |url=https://hpherald.newsbank.com/doc/image/v2:13EDAA8FD407386D@NGPA-ILHPH-1406A5A6416AD12A@2433391-1406A5A642A8E850@11-1406A5A6A26D6CC6@Hutchins+Sells+Shimer+on+%2527Chicago+Plan%2527+of+Education?search_terms=shimer&text=shimer&content_added=&date_from=&date_to=&pub%255B0%255D=13EDAA8FD407386D&pdate=1950-04-19 |access-date=2025-05-08 |website=hpherald.newsbank.com}}</ref> It continued with the support of the [[Ford Foundation]], the [[Carnegie Corporation of New York|Carnegie Foundation]] and the [[Surdna Foundation]].{{sfn|Fund for the Advancement of Education|1957|p=6}}<ref name=earlyadmissions>{{cite web | url = http://www.shimer.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/early-entrant-admissions/ | title = Early Entrance Admissions | publisher = Shimer College | access-date = December 17, 2014 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20141217233649/http://www.shimer.edu/admissions/how-to-apply/early-entrant-admissions/ | archive-date = December 17, 2014 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> In the past, up to 80&nbsp;percent of Shimer's student body was composed of Early Entrance students.<ref name=facts/>

Early entrants were admitted after the [[Tenth grade#United States|10th]] or [[Eleventh grade#United States|11th grade]], and followed the regular curriculum. The college considered applications from any interested students, with motivation, willingness to learn and intellectual curiosity the most important qualifications.<ref name="completebook" /> Shimer encouraged applications from [[Homeschooling|home-schooled]] students, accommodating their lack of credentials such as [[transcript (education)|transcripts]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Homeschooling High School: Planning Ahead for College Admission | page = 244 | last = Dennis | first = Jeanne Gowen | location = Lynwood, WA | publisher = Emerald Books | year = 2004 | isbn = 1-932096-11-6}}</ref> In 2008, 16&nbsp;percent of new students were early entrants or home-schooled.<ref>{{cite news | title = Entering Class by the Numbers | newspaper = Symposium | date = Fall 2008 | page = 2 | url = http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/images/editor_documents/Symposiums/08%20Fall%20Symposium.pdf | publisher = Shimer College | access-date = April 28, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100609191325/http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/images/editor_documents/Symposiums/08%20Fall%20Symposium.pdf | archive-date = June 9, 2010}}</ref>

==== Joint programs ====
[[File:Shimer in Oxford Students.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|alt= seven young people standing on grass in front of stone wall with Gothic building behind them|Shimer students in England; the school has had a study-abroad program in Oxford since 1963. The students are here seen at [[Ely Cathedral]] in [[England]]]]
The Great Books + Law program, introduced in 2007, was offered in conjunction with the [[Chicago-Kent College of Law]] (the law school of the Illinois Institute of Technology) and the [[Vermont Law School]]<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.shimer.edu/about/academics/programs/ba-to-jd-program.php| archive-url = https://archive.today/20141208193725/http://www.shimer.edu/about/academics/programs/ba-to-jd-program.php| url-status = dead| archive-date = December 8, 2014| title = BA to JD Program in Chicago| publisher = Shimer College| date = December 8, 2014}}</ref> and allowed students to complete undergraduate and law degrees in six (instead of seven) years.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/08/25/mergers| last = Jaschik | first = Scott | title = Will More Colleges Merge? | publisher = Inside Higher Ed | date = August 25, 2008 | access-date=July 7, 2010}}</ref> Shimer had a dual-enrollment program with [[Harold Washington College]], one of the few [[Community colleges in the United States|community colleges]] in the U.S. with a great-books program.<ref>{{cite news | title = A Campus Revival for the Great Books | newspaper = The Chronicle of Higher Education | date = November 19, 1999 | last = Carlson | first = Scott | url = https://www.ccc.edu/colleges/wright/departments/Documents/Wright%20College%20GB%20Program%20-Cronicle%20of%20Higher%20Education.pdf | access-date = December 19, 2011 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304085807/https://www.ccc.edu/colleges/wright/departments/Documents/Wright%20College%20GB%20Program%20-Cronicle%20of%20Higher%20Education.pdf | archive-date = March 4, 2016 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> The program allowed HWC students to take a Shimer course, and was intended to encourage students to transfer to Shimer to complete their bachelor's degree.<ref>{{cite web | title = City Colleges of Chicago Special Student Application | url = http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/172-city-college-dual-enrollment-application | work = Shimer.edu | publisher = City Colleges of Chicago | access-date = December 19, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141220005704/http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/172-city-college-dual-enrollment-application | archive-date = December 20, 2014}}</ref> Whether these programs will continue at North Central is unknown.

==== Study abroad ====
Shimer first offered a year of study abroad (in [[Paris]]) in 1961, and the college has had a biennial program in [[Oxford]] since 1963.<ref name="TIME">{{cite magazine|title=Colleges: Unknown, Unsung & Unusual|magazine=Time|date=April 19, 1963|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830138,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061106104713/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,830138,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 6, 2006 | access-date=April 28, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Shimer-at-Oxford|journal=The Living Church|year=1967|page=6|oclc=17345342| volume=155}}</ref> The Shimer-in-Oxford program allowed third- or fourth-year students to study for one or two semesters in Oxford, supervised by a Shimer professor.<ref name="petersons2006">{{cite book | title = Peterson's Four-Year Colleges | page = [https://archive.org/details/undergraduategui00pete_0/page/2249 2249] | location = Lawrenceville, NJ | publisher = Thompson/Peterson's | year = 2006 | edition = 37th | isbn = 0-7689-2153-8 | url = https://archive.org/details/undergraduategui00pete_0/page/2249 }}</ref> Students took a core class each term with the supervising faculty; the rest of their work is completed in [[Tutorial system|tutorials]] of self-selected subjects under the guidance of academics associated with the [[University of Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.shimer.edu/about/academics/programs/shimer-in-oxford-.php | archive-url = https://archive.today/20141220000726/http://www.shimer.edu/about/academics/programs/shimer-in-oxford-.php | url-status = dead | archive-date = December 20, 2014 | title = Shimer College in Oxford | publisher = Shimer College | access-date = December 19, 2014 }}</ref> Programs were also offered at least once each in Berlin and Köln during the late 1970s.

==== Teaching Fellows Program ====
The Teaching Fellows Program, now discontinued, was a [[graduate school|graduate]]-level great-books course designed for [[kindergarten#United States|kindergarten]] through [[Twelfth grade#United States|12th-grade]] teachers. Although Shimer does not award graduate degrees, teachers could then earn [[professional development]] credit with the program; it complements traditional education courses by providing background knowledge for teachers to impart more content-rich instruction.{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2009|p = 29}} The program was developed in conjunction with the [[Core Knowledge Foundation]], founded in 1986 by [[E. D. Hirsch]] (author of ''[[Cultural literacy|Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know]]'') to promote a common core in U.S. [[Elementary school (United States)|elementary]] education.<ref>{{cite book | author = E. D. Hirsch Jr. | year = 1987 | title = Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know | publisher = Houghton Mifflin | location = Boston | isbn = 0-394-75843-9 | url = https://archive.org/details/culturalliteracychri00hirs }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_live_data/view.php?id=1833&record_id=4 | title = Learn About Us | publisher = The Core Knowledge Foundation | access-date = April 28, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100418112705/http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_live_data/view.php?id=1833&record_id=4 | archive-date = April 18, 2010 | df = dmy-all }}</ref>

=== Faculty ===
[[File:Adam Kotsko reception 2011.jpg|thumb |alt=Young, smiling, bearded man with horn-rimmed glasses|Shimer professor [[Adam Kotsko]], known for his work on [[political theology]] and American [[popular culture]] and the author of ''Awkwardness'' and ''Why we Love Sociopaths''<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.zero-books.net/books/awkwardness | title = Awkwardness: An Essay | work = zero books | publisher = John Hunt Publishing | access-date=December 21, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.zero-books.net/books/why-we-love-sociopaths| title = Why We Love Sociopaths A Guide To Late Capitalist Television | work = zero books | publisher = John Hunt Publishing | access-date=December 21, 2014}}</ref>]]
In 2014, Shimer had eleven full-time faculty and one part-time faculty member,<ref name = collegenavigator/> and the student-faculty ratio was eight to one.<ref name=facts /> All full-time faculty had doctoral degrees.<ref name="petersonsmidwest">{{cite book | title = Peterson's Colleges in the Midwest | publisher = Peterson's | location = Lawrenceville, NJ | year = 2012 | page = 61 | isbn = 978-0-7689-2690-3}}</ref> Shimer instructors teach across disciplines; the "ideal is that any faculty member can teach any one of the core courses".<ref name="bigideas" />

In 2017, seven Shimer faculty joined the Shimer School of Great Books at North Central College.

=== Admission ===
Shimer applicants were evaluated according to their academic potential, and no minimum [[Grading (education)|grade-point average]] or test score was required. Applicants were required to write essays analyzing their academic experience and demonstrating their creative talent. These essays and interviews were the primary criteria for admission.<ref name="admission">{{cite web | title = Admission & Finance | publisher = Shimer College | url = http://www.shimer.edu/admissions/ | access-date = April 28, 2010 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://archive.today/20100527085307/http://www.shimer.edu/admissions/ | archive-date = May 27, 2010 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> The college accepts students it believes will benefit from, and contribute to, its intellectual community.<ref name="completebook">{{cite book | title = Complete Book of Colleges 2005 | page = 1335 | publisher = Princeton Review | edition = revised | year = 2004 | location = New York | isbn = 0-375-76406-2}}</ref> ''Barron's Profiles of American Colleges'' rates Shimer "very competitive plus".<ref>{{cite news | newspaper = The New York Times | url = https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/04/04/business/economy/economix-selectivity-table.html?_r=0 | title = Ranking Colleges by Selectivity | date = April 4, 2013 | access-date=December 17, 2014}}</ref> Candidates were counseled before applying, and nearly 90&nbsp;percent of those who applied were admitted.<ref name = usnews/>

In 2010, the average GPA of incoming students was 3.29 out of 4.0. Average composite scores on standardized college-admissions tests were 28 on the [[ACT (test)|ACT]] (the 92nd [[percentile]]) and 1917 on the [[SAT]] (the 90th percentile).<ref name="collegedata">
{{cite web | title = Shimer College | publisher = CollegeData | url = https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1356 | access-date = June 1, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724204156/https://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1356 | archive-date = July 24, 2011 | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }}
</ref><ref>For ACT percentile: {{cite web | title = National Ranks for Test Scores and Composite Score
| publisher = ACT | url = http://www.actstudent.org/scores/norms1.html | access-date=December 19, 2014}}. For SAT percentile: {{cite web | title =SAT Percentile Ranks for Males, Females and Total Group | url = http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/sat_percentile_ranks_composite_cr_m_w.pdf | publisher = CollegeBoard | access-date=May 12, 2010 }}</ref>

=== Tuition and fees ===
In 2014 full-time tuition was $27,491, and the total cost of attendance (including room, board and fees) was $41,615.<ref name=facts/> All students received financial aid, with the average aid package $13,956.<ref name = facts/> As of 2017, tuition and fees for the Shimer School will be identical to those of North Central College.

=== Recognition and rankings ===
{{Infobox US university ranking
| USNWR_LA = NR
| Wamo_LA = 200
}}
Shimer had one of the highest rates of doctoral candidates in the U.S. In a 1998 [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] study, the college had the highest rate of graduates receiving doctoral degrees of any liberal arts college and the third-highest rate of any undergraduate program in the nation.<ref name="magazinelauds" /> A 2009 report by ''Washington Monthly'' ranked Shimer third in graduate Ph.D. rate among U.S. liberal arts colleges.<ref name="Liberal Arts College Rankings">{{cite journal |title=Liberal Arts College Rankings |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings/liberal_arts_rank.php |url-status=dead |journal=The Washington Monthly |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091217103228/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings/liberal_arts_rank.php |archive-date=December 17, 2009 |access-date=May 5, 2010 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Studies based on Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium data found that Shimer had the seventh-highest alumni Ph.D. rate of U.S. colleges and universities, and the highest rate for Ph.D.s in linguistics.<ref name="bourque">{{cite journal|jstor=20027548|first=Susan C. | last = Bourque|journal=Daedalus|title=Reassessing Research: Liberal Arts Colleges and the Social Sciences|year=1999|volume=28|issue=1|pages=265–272}}</ref><ref name="linguistics">{{cite web|url=http://www.insidecollege.com/reno/Where-Linguistics-PhDs-Received-Their-Undergraduate-Degrees/169/list.do|title=Where Linguistics PhDs Received their Undergraduate Degrees|work=Inside College| access-date=April 25, 2010}}</ref>

Shimer students who took the [[Graduate Record Exam]] outscored three out of four potential graduate students, "consistently rank[ing] among the best in the nation in scores on the verbal and analytical portions of the test"<ref name="magazinelauds">{{cite news | title =Magazine Lauds Shimer College | last = Sweeney | first = Annie | newspaper = Chicago Sun-Times | date = October 3, 2000 | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4565471.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121104010145/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4565471.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 4, 2012 | format = fee required | access-date=April 27, 2010}}</ref> with average analytic scores in the 91st percentile.<ref name="smallshimer">{{cite news |last=Flink |first=John |date=January 26, 1998 |title=Small Shimer College Ranks High in Sending Students on to Ph. D. s |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |id={{ProQuest|418523045}}}}</ref>

The [[conservatism in the United States|conservative]] ''[[Insight (magazine)|Insight]]'' magazine named Shimer one of its "15 Most Politically-Incorrect Colleges": "colleges that had strong and effective traditional curricula that were not 'obsessed with the recent educational fads and fetishes such as multiculturalism and diversity{{'"}}.<ref>{{cite news | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | title = Shimer College Proud Of Non-p.c. Rating | date = September 8, 2000 | last = Hussain | first = Rummana | url = https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/09/28/shimer-college-proud-of-non-pc-rating/ | access-date=December 17, 2014}}</ref> [[Barron's Educational Series|Barron's]] called Shimer one of the 300 best buys in college education, noting that "the success of the Shimer curriculum depends a great deal on the knowledge and skill of the faculty facilitators, who receive accolades ranging from 'fantastic' to 'brilliant{{'"}}.<ref name="barrons">{{cite book |title = Barron's Best Buys In College Education | publisher = Barrons Educational Series | location = Hauppauge, NY | year = 2002 | edition = 7th | isbn = 0-7641-2018-2 | pages = 132–134}}</ref> Shimer was one of the top 50 colleges in ''All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith'', which highlights "programs that connect in a special way with the core values of the American founding and the vibrant intellectual traditions of the West".<ref>{{cite book | title = All-American Colleges: Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith | publisher = Intercollegiate Studies Institute | location = Wilmington, DE | year = 2006 | isbn = 1932236880}}</ref>

In 2007, Shimer joined a national effort by the [[Education Conservancy]] to boycott participation in college-ranking surveys.<ref>{{cite web | title = Presidents' Letter | url=http://www.educationconservancy.org/presidents_letter.html | publisher = The Education Conservancy | date = May 10, 2007 | access-date=May 24, 2010}}</ref> President [[William Craig Rice]] said, "What Shimer does well&nbsp;– educating ourselves in on-going dialogue with the greatest minds of the past&nbsp;– can't be captured in the ''U.S. News'' measurements".<ref>{{cite web | title = The Education Conservancy | publisher = The Education Conservancy | url = http://www.educationconservancy.org/presidents_letter.html | access-date=December 19, 2014}}</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' ranks Shimer 200th among liberal-arts colleges, based on social mobility, research and service.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings-2014/liberal-arts-colleges-rank-2nd-page.php |title=2014 Liberal Arts College Rankings |work=College Guide |publisher=Washington Monthly |access-date=December 16, 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141216231601/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings-2014/liberal-arts-colleges-rank-2nd-page.php |archive-date=December 16, 2014  }}</ref> The college is unranked by ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]''.<ref name = usnews>{{cite web|url=http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/shimer-college-1756| title=Shimer College |publisher=U.S. News & World Report |year=2014 |access-date=December 16, 2014}}</ref>

== Campus ==
Through May 2017, Shimer was located on the main campus of the [[Illinois Institute of Technology]]. IIT's {{convert|120|acre|ha|1|adj=on}} campus is at the intersection of 33rd and [[State Street (Chicago)|State Streets]], about {{convert|3|mi|km|spell=in}} south of the [[Chicago Loop]], and borders the [[Bridgeport, Chicago|Bridgeport]] and [[Black Metropolis-Bronzeville District|Bronzeville]] neighborhoods of Chicago's Near South Side.<ref>{{cite web | title =IIT History – Inventing the Future | publisher = Illinois Institute of Technology | url = http://www.iit.edu/about/history/inventing_the_future.shtml | access-date=April 22, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Visitor Information | url = http://www.iit.edu/about/visitor_information.shtml | publisher = Illinois Institute of Technology | access-date = April 22, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100508013455/http://iit.edu/about/visitor_information.shtml | archive-date = May 8, 2010 | url-status = dead | df = mdy-all }}</ref><ref name="NRexcerpt">{{cite web | title = Excerpt from the National Register Nomination for Chicago's Black Metropolis |publisher = National Park Service | url = http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/53black/53factsr.htm | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101130002815/http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/53black/53factsr.htm | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 30, 2010 | access-date=April 22, 2010}}</ref>

Shimer occupied {{convert|17000|sqft|m2|sigfig=3}} on two floors of the former [[Gas Technology Institute|Institute of Gas Technology]] complex.<ref name="citylights">{{cite web | title = Great Books and City Lights | publisher = Inside Higher Ed | last =Epstein | first = David | url = https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/01/23/shimer | date = January 23, 2006 | access-date=April 23, 2010}}</ref> The complex, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, consists of four buildings (the southernmost formerly hosting the first industrial [[nuclear reactor technology|nuclear reactor]] in the U.S.)<ref name="iitbuildings">{{cite web |title=Buildings – past and present, extant and non-extant – known to have been used by Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago), 1940–2010 |url=http://archives.iit.edu/buildings/buildings.docx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811180940/http://archives.iit.edu/buildings/buildings.docx |archive-date=August 11, 2011 |access-date=May 10, 2011 |publisher=Illinois Institute of Technology |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The college had access to the Paul V. Galvin Library, IIT's main research library,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://library.iit.edu/circulation/ | title = Borrowing & Circulation | publisher = Illinois Institute of Technology | access-date = December 19, 2014 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150213013502/http://library.iit.edu/circulation/ | archive-date = February 13, 2015 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> and Shimer's collection of 15,000 books were also housed in the Galvin Library since the school relocated from Waukegan.<ref>{{cite news | title = Mega Book Sale; Shimer Moves Library to Chicago Campus, Selling 10, 000 Books; Get-Out-Of-Town Sale | newspaper = The Waukegan News Sun | last = Pagelow | first = Ryan | date = January 11, 2007 | access-date=April 22, 2010 | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-1183891141773A98.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121104004459/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1N1-1183891141773A98.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = November 4, 2012 | format = fee required}}</ref>

As of June 1, 2017, the Shimer School of Great Books of North Central College is located on the campus of North Central in Naperville, Illinois.

== Organization and administration ==
[[File:Shimer College Assembly Nov 15 2009.jpg|thumb|alt=Group of young people with papers, sitting on a floor|The Assembly, shown here in 2009, grew out of efforts by students and faculty to save the school during the late 1970s.<ref name = "particulars"/>]]
Until its move to become part of North Central College, "As a function of its mission to promote active citizenship" Shimer was "devoted to internal self-governance to an extent that is rare among institutions of higher education".{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2013|p = 5}} Since 1977, Shimer has been governed internally by a body known as the Assembly. Begun informally in the years before the move to Waukegan, the Assembly was formalized with a constitution in 1980.<ref name="particulars">{{cite journal|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010307132235/http://www.shimer.edu/particulars.html |url=http://www.shimer.edu/particulars.html |archive-date= March 7, 2001 |title=On Not Knowing the Particulars: The Mission of the Assembly |journal=Promulgates |volume=7 |issue=1 |last1=Shiner |last2=Wikse |first1=David |first2=Jack |access-date= April 23, 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Voting members included students, faculty, administrators, staff and trustees;<ref>{{cite news | title = Big Trouble at Little Shimer: What's Happening to Chicago's Great Books College? | last = Feldman | first = Sam | date = April 3, 2010 | url = http://www.chicagoweekly.org/2010/03/03/big-trouble-at-little-shimer-whats-happening-to-chicagos-great-books-college/ | newspaper = Chicago Weekly | access-date = December 19, 2014 | url-status = usurped | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141220004923/http://www.chicagoweekly.org/2010/03/03/big-trouble-at-little-shimer-whats-happening-to-chicagos-great-books-college/ | archive-date = December 20, 2014 | df = dmy-all }}</ref> alumni were members, but do not vote. This inclusive model of governance was unique in American higher education.

The Assembly had no independent legal authority, but governed "by virtue of the moral suasion established by communal deliberation".{{sfn|Constitution of the Assembly|2013|p = 2}} Its goal was to foster an environment in which "all the top-down bureaucracy of traditional colleges and universities has been replaced by participatory democracy committed to dialogue."{{sfn|Kavaloski|1979|p = 243}} In Chicago, Shimer students participated in the IIT Student Government Association, a liaison between students and university administration and a forum for student opinion.<ref>{{cite web | title = Bylaws of the Student Government Association of Illinois Institute of Technology | date = April 6, 2014 | url = https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_M25cqishTDUOcCYyLHbMP9FFvfc_J45/view | page = 2 | publisher = Student Government Association of Illinois Institute of Technology | access-date = December 19, 2014 }}</ref>

In addition, Shimer had a Board of Trustees who appointed its presidents – including long serving president Don Moon and Shimer's last president Susan E. Henking, who successfully led the College to its new future at North Central College and was awarded an honorary doctorate in April 2017 in recognition of her service.

== Student life ==
[[File:Shimer Students at Galvin Library.jpg|thumb|left| alt=five young people sitting on stone wall in front of modern sculpture and tree|Shimer students at the Galvin Library; students had access to IIT's student activities.<ref name = viewbook/>]]
''[[The New York Times]]'', calling Shimer "one of the smallest liberal arts colleges in the United States", described its students as "both valedictorians and high school dropouts. What the students share, besides a love of books, is a disdain for the conventional style of education. Many say they did not have a good high school experience."<ref name="smallcampus">{{cite news | title = Small Campus, Big Books | last = Johnson | first = Dirk | date = November 4, 2007 | newspaper = The New York Times |url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/education/edlife/shimer.html | access-date=May 22, 2010}}</ref> Shimer students tended to be individualistic, creative thinkers and are encouraged to be inquisitive.<ref name="petersons2007">{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/undergraduategui00pete_0/page/2248 |title=Peterson's Four-Year Colleges 2007 |publisher=Thompson Peterson's |year=2006 |isbn=0-7689-2153-8 |location=Lawrenceville, New Jersey |page=[https://archive.org/details/undergraduategui00pete_0/page/2248 2248]}}</ref> The college enrolled 97 students in 2014, about half from Illinois.<ref name = facts/> Of these students 41 were women, 25&nbsp;percent were students of color and 76&nbsp;percent were age 24 or over.<ref name=facts/> Forty percent were first-time, full-time college students.<ref name = collegenavigator/> Of the full-time students attending for the first time in 2012, 86&nbsp;percent returned for their second year.<ref name= collegenavigator/> Sixty percent of students who entered in 2007 completed a bachelor's degree in six years.<ref name= collegenavigator>{{cite web | url = http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=shimer+college&s=all&id=148849 | title = Shimer College | publisher = Institute of Education Sciences | work = College Navigator | access-date=December 15, 2014}}</ref>

The college has a tradition of community meals dating back to the Waukegan campus, when the community would meet for [[potluck]] meals and discuss matters of general interest.<ref name="particulars" /> The Orange Horse, Shimer's biennial [[talent show]] since the 1960s, invites students, faculty and alumni to read poetry, sing, play music or tell jokes, individually or in groups.<ref name = viewbook/> The Shimer theater program produces plays complementing its curriculum, offering anyone who wants to participate the chance to do so. Recent productions have included [[Anton Chekhov]]'s ''[[Uncle Vanya]]'' and [[Eve Ensler]]'s ''[[The Vagina Monologues]]''.<ref>{{cite web | title =Spring Theater – Uncle Vanya | publisher =Shimer College | url =http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/index.aspx?sid=1028&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=1191&ecid=1191&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=1011 | access-date =April 27, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100513071607/http://alumni.shimer.edu/s/1028/index.aspx?sid=1028&gid=1&pgid=252&cid=1191&ecid=1191&crid=0&calpgid=61&calcid=1011 | archive-date = May 13, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Shimer College Theater to Present "The Vagina Monologues" | work = IIT Today | publisher = Illinois Institute of Technology | url = http://www.iit.edu/publications/iittoday/archive.php?id=1284&page=140&totalrows=7547 | date = October 17, 2006 | access-date = April 27, 2010 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110622020858/http://www.iit.edu/publications/iittoday/archive.php?id=1284&page=140&totalrows=7547 | archive-date = June 22, 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

In addition to student services at the [[McCormick Tribune Campus Center]] and its health and athletic facilities, while located in Chicago Shimer students could participate in the more than 150 student organizations sponsored by IIT (including ''Liit Magazine'', IIT's student-run literary magazine and IIT's on-campus radio station, [[WIIT]], where students can host a show).<ref name=viewbook>{{cite web | title = Office of Student Life | page = 13 | publisher = Shimer College | url = http://www.shimer.edu/offices-staff/office-of-student-life.php | archive-url = https://archive.today/20141220000727/http://www.shimer.edu/offices-staff/office-of-student-life.php | url-status = dead | archive-date = December 20, 2014 | access-date = December 19, 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title = Liit Literary Magazine | work = IIT Today | date = April 1, 2010 | url = http://www.iit.edu/publications/iittoday/archive.php?id=11893&page=1&totalrows=1&action=search | access-date = April 27, 2010 | publisher = Illinois Institute of Technology | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110622020942/http://www.iit.edu/publications/iittoday/archive.php?id=11893&page=1&totalrows=1&action=search | archive-date = June 22, 2011 | url-status = dead }}</ref> As students at North Central, Shimerians will have access to the full range of student services and student organizations.

== Alumni ==
{{main list|List of Shimer College people}}
[[File:Alan Dowty Shimer College Chicago 2008.jpg|thumb|alt=Middle-aged, bespectacled man in academic dress making a presentation|Arab-Israeli conflict scholar [[Alan Dowty]]]]
[[File:Sydney Spiesel at Shimer College 2012 cropped.jpg|thumb|alt=Smiling, bearded, white-haired man|Physician, inventor, and ''Slate'' columnist [[Sydney Spiesel]]]]
Many Shimer alumni continued to graduate school; 50&nbsp;percent earn master's degrees, and 21&nbsp;percent earn doctorates.<ref name="smallshimer" /><ref name="gofar">{{cite news |last=Southwell |first=David |date=January 23, 1998 |title=Shimer College's Graduates Go Far |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4432691.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121104002631/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-4432691.html |archive-date=November 4, 2012 |access-date=April 21, 2010 |newspaper=Chicago Sun-Times |format=fee required}}</ref> Another ten percent attend law school and five percent go to business school.<ref name="barrons" /> As of 2008, Shimer had 5,615 living alumni.<ref name="rhperry">{{cite web|title=Shimer College Profile |url=http://www.rhperry.net/clients/profiles/Shimer_College_Profile.pdf |publisher=R.H. Perry & Associates |page=6 |access-date=April 28, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080819185126/http://www.rhperry.net/clients/profiles/Shimer_College_Profile.pdf |archive-date= August 19, 2008 }}</ref> Nearly 25&nbsp;percent of graduates are employed in education (elementary school through college), seven percent are attorneys and seven percent work in the computer-software industry.<ref name="petersons2006" />

===Notable alumni===
{{alumni|date=July 2025}}
* [[Beulah Bondi]]: Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning actress, graduated in 1907.
* Young Kim: Lawyer, legal educator and philosopher best known for ''Justice as Right Actions: An Original Theory of Justice in Conversation with Major Contemporary Accounts''.<ref>[https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498516518/Justice-as-Right-Actions-An-Original-Theory-of-Justice-in-Conversation-with-Major-Contemporary-Accounts Justice as Right Actions] ([[Rowman & Littlefield|Lexington Books]], 2015) ({{ISBN|978-1498516518}})</ref>
* [[Neta Snook|Mary Anita Snook Southern]]: pioneer aviator
* [[Peter Cooley]]: Prize-winning poet, author, and professor of English at [[Tulane University]]
* [[Alan Dowty]]: [[Arab–Israeli conflict]] scholar and professor [[emeritus]] at the [[University of Notre Dame]]
* [[Robert Keohane]]: Political scientist, [[international relations]] scholar and professor at the [[Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs]] best known for ''[[After Hegemony|After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy]]''
* [[Phoebe Snow]]: [[Grammy Award|Grammy]]-nominated singer-songwriter best known for her 1974 hit, "[[Poetry Man]]"
* [[Laurie Spiegel]]: Composer, software engineer and [[electronic music|electronic]] and [[computer music]] pioneer
* [[Sydney Spiesel]]: Medical inventor, ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' columnist and professor at the [[Yale University School of Medicine]] 
* [[Daniel Perlman]]: Former president of [[Suffolk University]] in [[Boston, Massachusetts]] and [[Webster University]] in [[Webster Groves, Missouri]]
* [[Nick Pippenger]]: Computing researcher and theorist, [[IBM Fellow]] and professor at [[Harvey Mudd College]]. Known for his work on the foundations of computer science, including complexity, [[computability]] and [[communications theory]]
* [[Jen Richards]]: Emmy nominated actor and producer of HerStory
* [[Elizabeth Vandiver]]: classics scholar and author
* [[Tucker Viemeister]]: Award-winning [[industrial design]]er and holder of 32 US patents, called "industrial design's elder wonderkind"<ref>{{cite web | url = http://itp.tisch.nyu.edu/object/ViemeisterT.html | title = Tucker Viemeister| publisher = NYU Tisch School of the Arts | access-date= January 11, 2015}}</ref> by ''[[I.D. (magazine)|I.D.]]''
* [[Mary Wings]]: Writer, artist, and musician known for publishing the first lesbian underground comic book and a series of novels with lesbian detective Emma Victor
* [[Roland Winston]]: Leading figure in [[nonimaging optics]] and its applications to solar energy who has been called the "father of non-imaging optics".<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/040415/winston.shtml|first=Steve | last = Koppes|date= April 15, 2004|access-date= May 28, 2013|title=Winston's research leads to 'patent on the sun' for solar energy development |newspaper=University of Chicago Chronicle}}</ref> Director of the California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute<ref>References in order of mention:
* Cooley: {{cite web | publisher = Tulane University | title = Peter Cooley Professor of English | url = http://tulane.edu/liberal-arts/english/faculty/peter-cooley.cfm | access-date = December 14, 2014 | archive-date = September 25, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170925085002/http://www2.tulane.edu/liberal-arts/english/faculty/peter-cooley.cfm | url-status = dead }}
* Dowty: {{cite web | title = Alan Dowty | url = http://politicalscience.nd.edu/faculty/faculty-list/alan-dowty/ | publisher = University of Notre Dame | access-date = December 14, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141210063535/http://politicalscience.nd.edu/faculty/faculty-list/alan-dowty/ | archive-date = December 10, 2014 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}
* Keohane: {{cite web | title = Robert Keohane | url = http://www.princeton.edu/~rkeohane/ | publisher = Princeton University | access-date = December 14, 2014 }} and {{cite web | url = http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1976449/Robert-O-Keohane | title = Robert O. Keohane | first = Andre | last = Munro | publisher = [[Encyclopædia Britannica]] | access-date = December 21, 2014 }}
* Sherman: {{cite web | title = Jayne Baron Sherman '68 Co-Produces Another Broadway Hit | url = http://www.shimer.edu/live/news/266-jayne-baron-sherman-68-co-produces-another | publisher = Shimer College | date = August 12, 2014 | access-date = December 19, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141008035159/http://www.shimer.edu/live/news/266-jayne-baron-sherman-68-co-produces-another | archive-date = October 8, 2014 }}
* Snow: {{cite news | title = Phoebe Snow, Bluesy Singer-Songwriter, Dies at 60 | last = Holden | first = Stephen | newspaper = The New York Times | date = April 26, 2011 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/arts/music/phoebe-snow-bluesy-singer-songwriter-dies-at-58.html | access-date = December 14, 2014 }}
* Spiegel: {{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jEGpMqRcQjIC&pg=PA857|page=[https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/857 857]|title=The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music|chapter=Spiegel, Laurie|editor-last=Randel|editor-first=Don Michael|year=1996|publisher=Belknap Press of Harvard University Press|isbn=0674372999|url=https://archive.org/details/harvardbiographi00rand/page/857}}
* Speisel: {{cite web | title = Sydney Spiesel | work = Slate | publisher = The Slate Group | url = http://www.slate.com/authors.sydney_spiesel.html | access-date = December 19, 2014 }}
* Perlman: {{cite web | url = http://library.webster.edu/archives/historyfacts/presidentperlman.html | title = Daniel Perlman (1990–1994) | publisher = Webster University | access-date = December 14, 2014 }}
* Pippenger: {{cite web | url = https://www.math.hmc.edu/~njp/ | title = Nicholas Pippinger | publisher = Harvey Mudd College | access-date = December 15, 2014 }}
* Westberg: {{cite web | title = Board of Trustees at Shimer College in Chicago | url = http://www.shimer.edu/about/our-leadership/board-of-trustees.php | publisher = Shimer College | access-date = December 19, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141124023140/http://www.shimer.edu/about/our-leadership/board-of-trustees.php | archive-date = November 24, 2014 | url-status = dead | df = dmy-all }}
* Wings: {{Cite book|title=Contemporary lesbian writers of the United States|isbn=0313282153|page=[https://archive.org/details/contemporarylesb0000unse/page/572 572]|chapter=Mary Geller (1949– )|first=Ellen|last=Lewin|year=1993|publisher=Greenwood|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/contemporarylesb0000unse/page/572}}
* Winston: {{Cite news|url=http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/040415/winston.shtml|first=Steve|last=Koppes|date=April 15, 2004|access-date=May 28, 2013|title=Winston's research leads to 'patent on the sun' for solar energy development|newspaper=University of Chicago Chronicle}}</ref>
*[[Dorian Electra]]: American singer, songwriter, video and performance artist.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/44167/1/dorian-electra-new-song-video-flamboyant-interview|title=Get to know Dorian Electra, the Liberace of fantasy pop music|last=O'Flynn|first=Brian|date=25 April 2019|work=Dazed|access-date=23 May 2019}}</ref>

== Notes ==
{{Portal|Chicago|Illinois}}
{{cnote|a|The school was called a seminary but did not engage in religious instruction. It was part [[finishing school]] and part [[University-preparatory school|preparatory school]], designed to produce female teachers.{{sfn|Cubbage|2009|p=91}} The four-year program (which the Junior College later extended to six) covered what was essentially a good quality high school program, such that "students [were] prepared for the very best institutions east and west."<ref>{{cite book | page = 717 | chapter = The Frances Shimer School of the University of Chicago | title = Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Carroll County | volume = II | editor1-last = Bateman | editor1-first=Newton | editor2-last=Selby | editor2-first = Paul | editor3-last = Hostetter | editor3-first = Charles L. | location = Chicago | publisher = Munsell Pub. Co. | year = 1913 | oclc = 1745414}}</ref>}}
{{cnote|b| Under the agreement, Shimer remained independent with its own board, of which a majority represented the U. of C. and two-thirds were required to be Baptist. Shimer was administered locally, but subject to a chief administrator in Chicago for final decisions.{{sfn|Moorhead|1983|p=47}}}}
{{cnote |c| The others are [[St. John's College (Annapolis/Santa Fe)|St. John's College]] in [[Annapolis, Maryland]], and [[Santa Fe, New Mexico]], [[Thomas Aquinas College]] in [[Santa Paula, California]], and [[Thomas More College of Liberal Arts]] in [[Merrimack, New Hampshire]].<ref name="smallcampus" />}}
{{cnote|d|Adler and Hutchins collaborated on ''The [[Great Books of the Western World]]'', published in 1952, which was intended to present the entire [[Western canon]] in one 54-volume set.<ref>{{cite book | page =297 | title = Robert Maynard Hutchins: A Memoir | last = Mayer | first = Milton S. | location = Berkeley, CA | publisher = University of California Press | year = 1993 | isbn = 0520070917}}</ref> The selection of works it contained defined the reading list on which Great Books curricula were based, and which Shimer has largely kept, with minor changes, ever since.}}
{{cnote|e|The Hutchins plan also instituted placement exams, which students would take before enrollment "to determine how much or how little of the program they need".<ref>{{cite book | title = Chicago's Left Bank | page = 236 | last = Smith | first = Jesse Alan | location = Chicago | publisher = H. Regnery Co. | year = 1953 | oclc = 1072972}}</ref> This practice lives on at Shimer, where students are able to place out of several of the basic core courses by examination.{{sfn|Shimer College Catalog|2009|p=15}}
}}

{{-}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Works cited ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web|url = http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/105-academic-catalog-20132015--final-61913pdf|title = Academic Catalog 2013–2015|year = 2013|publisher = Shimer College|format = PDF|access-date = December 15, 2014|ref = {{sfnRef|Shimer College Catalog|2013}} |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150103090324/http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/105-academic-catalog-20132015--final-61913pdf |archive-date = January 3, 2015}}
* {{cite web|url = http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/395-catalog-2015-2017pdf|title = Academic Catalog 2015–2017|year = 2015|publisher = Shimer College|format = PDF|access-date = January 14, 2016|ref = {{sfnRef|Shimer College Catalog|2015}}|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160322065628/http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/395-catalog-2015-2017pdf|archive-date = March 22, 2016}}
* {{cite book |title = A Great Idea at the Time: The Rise, Fall, and Curious Afterlife of the Great Books | last = Beam | first = Alex | location = New York | publisher = PublicAffairs | year =2008 | isbn = 978-1-58648-487-3 | edition = 1st }}
* {{cite book| title = Fifty Years' Recollections: With Observations and Reflections on Historical Events, Giving Sketches of Eminent Citizens Their Lives and Public Services | last = Bonham | first = Jeriah | location = Peoria, IL| publisher = J.W. Franks & Sons | year = 1883 | oclc = 3262599}}
* {{cite book | title =The Great Canon Controversy: The Battle of the Books in Higher Education | last= Casement | first = William | location = New Brunswick, NJ | publisher = Transaction Publishers | year = 1996 | isbn = 1-55778-742-5 }}
* {{cite web | title = Constitution of the Assembly of Shimer College | url = http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/93-constitution-of-the-assembly-201314pdf | publisher = Shimer College | year = 2013 | access-date = December 19, 2014 | format = PDF | ref = {{sfnRef|Constitution of the Assembly|2013}} | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20141220004645/http://www.shimer.edu/live/files/93-constitution-of-the-assembly-201314pdf | archive-date = December 20, 2014 }}
* {{cite thesis | last=Cubbage | first = Kent Thomas | degree = Ph.D. | title = ''America's Great Books Colleges and Their Curious Histories of Success, Struggle, and Failure'' | publisher = University of South Carolina | year = 2009 }}
* {{cite book | title = Robert M. Hutchins: Portrait of an Educator | first = Mary Ann | last = Dzuback | isbn = 0-226-17710-6 | publisher = University of Chicago Press | location = Chicago | year = 1991 | url = https://archive.org/details/robertmhutchinsp00dzub }}
* {{cite book|title = They Went to College Early | author = Fund for the Advancement of Education | year = 1957 | oclc = 00235008 | url = https://archive.org/details/TheyWentToCollegeEarly | location = New York | access-date= December 17, 2014 }}
* {{cite book| last = Glass | first = Rose | chapter = [[s:Shimer College History (1853-1950)|Shimer College History (1853–1950)]] | title = Centennial Anniversary Record| editor-last = Hostetter | editor-first = A. Beth | year = 1953 | publisher = Shimer College | location = Mt. Carroll, IL | oclc = 33122715 | pages = 3–22 }}
* {{cite book | title =Interdisciplinarity and Higher Education | editor-last = Kockelmans | editor-first = Joseph J | location = University Park, PA | publisher = Pennsylvania State University Press | year = 1979 | isbn = 0-271-02326-0 | chapter = Interdisciplinary Education and Humanistic Aspiration: A Critical Reflection | last = Kavaloski | first = Vincent C.|pages = 224–243}}
* {{cite book | editor = H.F. Kett & Co | title = The History Of Carroll County, Illinois, Containing a History of the County{{snd}}Its Cities, Towns, Etc | publisher = H.F. Kett & Co | location = Chicago | year = 1878 | oclc = 3368934| ref = {{sfnRef|History of Carroll County|1878}}}}
* {{cite thesis | degree = Ed.D. | title = ''Shimer College Presidency 1930 to 1980'' | last = Moorhead | first = Patrick H.| publisher = Loyola University of Chicago | year = 1983 | oclc = 9789513 }}
* {{Cite thesis |degree=Ph.D. |title= ''Responses to Threatened Organizational Death''| first=Stanley | last=Severson |year= 1975|publisher=University of Chicago|oclc = 28780062 }}
* {{cite web | title = Shimer College Catalog 2009–2011 | url = http://www.collegesource.org/displayinfo/frame.asp?iid=12276&pid=124662 | format = fee required | access-date = June 29, 2010 | year = 2009 | publisher = Shimer College | ref = {{sfnRef|Shimer College Catalog|2009}} }}{{Dead link|date=July 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
{{refend}}

=== Further reading ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book | title = Frances Wood Shimer, 1826–1901 | location = Mt. Carroll, IL| year = 1901 | oclc = 13863166}}
* {{cite journal | last = Malkmus | first = Doris | title = Frances Wood Shimer, Cindarella Gregory, and the 1853 founding of Shimer College | journal = Journal of Illinois History | volume = 6 | pages = 195–214 | year = 2003| publisher = Illinois Historic Preservation Agency | issn = 1522-0532}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{sisterlinks|d=Q4247132|s=Category:Shimer College|c=Category:Shimer College|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|species=no|wikt=no}}
* {{Official website}}

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