Beloit Buccaneers

Beloit College

Motto	Scientia Vera Cum Fide Pura (Latin)
Motto in English	True knowledge with pure faith
Type	Private liberal arts college
Established	1846
Religious affiliation	United Church of Christ (historically related)
Endowment	$130.7 million
President	Scott Bierman
Academic staff	94
Undergraduates	1,300
Location	Beloit, Wis., USA 42°30′11″N 89°01′52″W / 42.503°N 89.031°W / 42.503; -89.031Coordinates: 42°30′11″N 89°01′52″W / 42.503°N 89.031°W / 42.503; -89.031
Campus	Urban, 65 acres (26.3 ha)
Colors	Blue and Gold
Athletics	NCAA Division III – MWC
Sports	19 varsity teams
Mascot	Buccaneer (official), Turtle (unofficial)
Affiliations	HLC ACM Oberlin Group CLAC WAICU
Website	www.beloit.edu

Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, Beloit is the oldest continuously operated college in Wisconsin, and was founded while the state of Wisconsin was still a territory. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has an enrollment of roughly 1,300 undergraduate students.

Beloit College was founded by the group Friends for Education, which was started by seven pioneers from New England who, soon after their arrival in the Wisconsin Territory, agreed that a college needed to be established. The group raised funds for a college in their new town and convinced the territorial legislature to enact the charter for Beloit College on February 2, 1846. The first building (then called Middle College) was built in 1847, and it remains in operation today. Classes began in the fall of 1847, with the first degrees awarded in 1851.

The first president of Beloit was a Yale University graduate, Aaron Lucius Chapin, who served as president from December 1849 until 1886.

The college become coeducational in fall, 1895, when it opened its doors to women.

Although independent today, Beloit College was historically, though unofficially, associated with the Congregationalist tradition.

The college remained very small for almost its entire first century with enrollment topping 1,000 students only with the influx of World War II veterans in 1945–1946. The "Beloit Plan" was a year-round curriculum introduced in 1964 that comprises three full terms and a "field term" of off-campus study. The trustees decided to return to the two semester program in 1978.

Beloit's campus is located within the Near East Side Historic District.

The campus is host to "20 conical, linear, and animal effigy mounds built between about AD 400 and 1200", created by Native Americans identified by archaeologists as Late Woodland people. One of the mounds, in the shape of a turtle, inspired Beloit's symbol and unofficial mascot. The mounds on Beloit's campus are "catalogued" burial sites, and therefore may not be disturbed without an official permit from the Wisconsin Historical Society. Several of the Beloit College sites have been partially excavated and restored, and material found within them—including pottery and tool fragments—are now held in the College's Logan Museum of Anthropology.