wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Sheldon Jackson College marks 125th birthday

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Note #7639 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Sheldon Jackson College marks 125th birthday
03154
March 24, 2003

Sheldon Jackson College marks 125th birthday

PC(USA)-related institution is oldest still-open school in Alaska
 
by Jerry L. Van Marter 

LOUISVILLE -  Historic Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, AK, an institution
that three years ago was nearly given up for dead but today is in robust
health, will celebrate its 125th anniversary on April 17.
	
Sheldon Jackson is Alaska's oldest continuously operating school, founded
just 11 years after the U.S. government bought the territory from Russia. 
	
In the past century and a quarter it has evolved from a training school for
Native American boys to a coeducational four-year college. 
	
The anniversary celebration, Affirming the Past ... Sustaining the Present
... Assuring the Future, actually began in February, and will continue for
several more months. It features reunions, building rededications, a variety
of lecture and exhibit series. and other special events. 
	
"Anniversaries provide a time of celebration -- celebration of the past
heritage as well as current blessings and future opportunities," said college
President C. Carlyle Haaland. 
	
Although it has recovered from near-bankruptcy under the leadership of
Haaland and the Rev. David Dobler, executive presbyter of Yukon Presbytery,
Sheldon Jackson College still faces plenty of financial challenges. 
	
The college receives a modest sum each year from the PC(USA)'s Christmas Joy
Offering, but has launched a special appeal to celebrate its birthday by
raising funds to retire debt, increase scholarship and endowment funds and
continue restoring historic campus buildings. 
	
One such project, a renovation of the Rasmuson Student Center, is complete.
The building reopened on March 8, and a rededication service is scheduled on
May 17, on the same weekend as baccalaureate and commencement. 
	
The college is on-target to reach its capacity enrollment of 300 by the fall
of 2005. The current enrollment is 215. 
	
For more information, visit the college Web site at www.sheldonjackson.edu. 
	
Information for this story was furnished by Haaland.   

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