North Central College reaches agreement with intention to acquire Shimer College

North Central College and Shimer College have agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the intention of North Central acquiring and integrating Shimer.

“This unique opportunity would add a distinctive academic offering to the North Central campus and provide a location where the Shimer model of education can flourish,” said Dr. Troy D. Hammond, president of North Central College.

The MOU establishes the parameters for ongoing discussions with the intention of a completed acquisition on or around March 1, 2017. If successful, North Central would create a “Shimer Great Books School” within North Central’s academic structure effective with the 2017 fall term. While retaining Shimer’s distinctiveness, its faculty would become North Central College faculty and Shimer students would become North Central College students with access to a full array of co-curricular activities, fine arts and athletics.

Dr. Susan E. Henking, president of Shimer College, said, “Shimer is thrilled to have this opportunity to sustain our mission in a new context, continuing to provide an excellent liberal arts education rooted in close reading of primary texts and a discussion-based pedagogy. We look forward to the opportunity to do so at North Central College.”

The transaction is subject to regulatory and accreditation approval.
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About North Central College
Founded in 1861, North Central College is an independent, comprehensive college of the liberal arts and sciences that offers more than 55 undergraduate majors and graduate programming in five areas. Just 30 minutes from Chicago's Loop, North Central's campus is located in the Historic District of Naperville, Illinois-rated by Money magazine as among the nation's "Best Places to Live" and by Chicagoans as the most desirable town to live. With more than 2,900 undergraduate and graduate students, North Central College is committed to academic excellence; a climate that emphasizes leadership, ethics, values and service; a curriculum that balances job-related knowledge with a liberal arts foundation; and a caring environment with small classes.

About Shimer College
Shimer provides a core curriculum in primary source texts and small, student-led discussion courses. Founded in Mt. Carroll in 1853, Shimer has been located in Chicago on the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology since 2006. Its distinctive interdisciplinary curriculum offers a single major with three tracks in humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Shimer students are high achievers with strong ACT scores and voracious appetites for reading.