Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Frisian language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). It has a number of dialects and is spoken by more than ...

(Encyclopedia) Winston-Salem, city (1990 pop. 143,485), seat of Forsyth co., central N.C., in the Piedmont; inc. 1913. It is one of North Carolina's largest cities and foremost industrial centers. Historically a maj...

(Encyclopedia) Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), organization established in 1975 to increase economic cooperation and development in West Africa. Members include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, C...

(Encyclopedia) Maryland, University System of, state-supported system of higher education in Maryland, est. 1988 as the University of Maryland System, renamed 1997. It includes all but two of the publicly supported ...

(Encyclopedia) Yameen, Abdullah (Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayoom), 1959–, Maldivian politician, president of the Maldives (2013–18). The half-brother of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was president from 1978 to 2008, Ya...

(Encyclopedia) charter school, alternative type of American public school that, while paid for by taxes, is independent of the public-school system and relatively free from state and local regulations. A charter sch...

(Encyclopedia) Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, at Tallahassee; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered and opened 1887; predominantly African American. It has divisions of arts and s...

(Encyclopedia) Wayland, Francis, 1796–1865, American clergyman and educator, b. New York City, grad. Union College, 1813, and studied at Andover Theological Seminary. As pastor (1821–26) of the First Baptist Chu...

(Encyclopedia) Erbakan, Necmettin nĕjˈmətĭn ârˈbäkän [key], 1926–2011, Turkish politician. Trained as an engineer, he received a doctorate in Germany and worked there for several years. In 1970 he establis...

(Encyclopedia) Rudenstine, Neil Leon ro͞oˈdənstīnˌ [key], 1935–, American scholar, educator, and administrator, b. Ossining, N.Y., grad. Princeton (B.A., 1956), Oxford (Rhodes scholar; B.A., 1959; M.A., 1963)...