Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

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Vanderbilt University (colloquially known as Vandy) is a private, non-sectarian university in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1873 as the result of a gift of one million dollars by shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt, despite having never been to the South, hoped his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by Civil War. Today, Vanderbilt is one of the most prestigious universities in the United States. It has an enrollment of around 11,000 students in 10 schools--4 undergradute and 6 graduate and professional--and a medical center. Gordon Gee is the current chancellor.

History

Founding

In the years prior to the Civil War, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had been considering creating a regional university for the training of ministers. Through the lobbying of Nashville bishop Holland McTyeire, church leaders voted in 1872 to create a Central University in Nashville. However, lack of funds (not to mentioned the war-ravaged state of the South) delayed the actual founding of the college.

The following year, on a medical trip to New York, McTyeire stayed at the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose second wife was the cousin of McTyeire's wife. Vanderbilt, the wealthiest man in America at the time, had been considering philanthropy as he was in his advanced years. His original plan was to establish a university on Staten Island, New York in honor of his mother. However, McTyeire successfully convinced him to donate $500,000 to endow Central University. The endowment (later increased to $1 million) would be Vanderbilt's only philanthropy. Though he never expressed any desire to having the university named after himself, McTyeire and his fellow trustees soon rechristened the school as the Vanderbilt University.

The Early Years

In the fall of 1875, about two hundred students enrolled at Vanderbilt; the University was dedicated in October of that year. Bishop McTyeire named Landon Garland, his mentor from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and then-Chancellor of the University of Mississippi, as Chancellor. Garland shaped the school's structure and hired the school's faculty, many of whom were renowed scholars in their respective fields.

For the first 40 years of its existence, Vanderbilt was under the control of the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. However, tensions began rising between the University administration and the Conference over the future of the school, particularly over the methods by which members of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust would be chosen. Conflicts escalated with the appointment of James Kirkland as chancellor in 1893. The final straw, at least in the mind of Kirkland, was a failed campaign to raise $300,000 from Southern Methodist congegrations (only $50,000 was raised). Further disputes between the bishops and Kirkland, which erupted into litigation in 1912, led the Methodist conference to sever all ties with Vanderbilt University in June 1914.

Vanderbilt in the Twentieth Century

Vanderbilt experienced the peak of its intellectual influence during 1920s and 1930s when it hosted two partly-overlapping groups of scholars who had a large impact on American thought and letters: the Fugitives and the Agrarians.

During the Civil Right movement, Vanderbilt exhibited both the best and worst of the attitude prevalent in the South during that time. In the late 1950's, the Vanderbilt Divinity School became something of a hotbed of the emerging movement, and the university responded rashly by expelling one of its leaders, James Lawson. Much later, in 1996, he was made a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements. (add first black athlete in SEC was at Vanderbilt) History, race, and civil rights issues again came to the fore on the campus in 2002, when the university decided to rename an old dormitory called Confederate Memorial Hall, and nationwide attention, plus a lawsuit by the Order of the Confederate Rose resulted.

In 1979, Vanderbilt absorbed its neighbor Peabody College.

Reference: Carey, Bill. Chancellors, Commodores, and Coeds: A History of Vanderbilt University. Clearbook Press: Nashville, 2003.

Organization

Vanderbilt University is a private corporation governed by an independant, self-perpetual Board of Trust of approximately 55 members, each of whom serves a five-year term. Martha Rivers Ingram is currently the Chairman of the Board of Trust.

A complete, up-to-date listing listing of the members of the Board of Trust can be found here.

Chancellors

Gordon Gee is the current Chancellor of Vanderbilt. Chosen by the Board of Trust, he is the chief executive officer of the University. Prior to his appointment in February 2000, he had served as President of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Prior to Gee, the following men held the chancellorship:

• Landon Garland (1875-1893)
• James Kirkland (1893-1937)
• Oliver Carmichael (1937-1946)
• Harvie Branscomb (1946-1962)
• Alexander Heard (1963-1982)
• Joe B. Wyatt (1982-2000)

Academic divisions

Vanderbilt is currently divided into ten degree-granting units. Each division is headed by a Dean. The divisions of the University (and their current Dean) are:

• College of Arts and Science – Richard McCarty
• Blair School of Music – Mark Wait
• School of Engineering – Kenneth F. Galloway
• Peabody College of Education and Human Development – Camilla Benbow
• Graduate School – Dennis Hall, Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education
• Divinity School – James Hudnut-Beulmer
• Law School – Kent D. Syverund
• School of Medicine – Steven G. Gabbe
• School of Nursing – Colleen Conway-Welch
• Owen Graduate School of Management – Jim Bradford

Demographics

As of Fall 2004, the university had an enrollment of 6,272 undergraduate and 5,022 graduate and professional students. It was also the largest private employer in Nashville and one of the largest in Tennessee, with approximately 18,000 faculty and staff.

Once considered a southern school, Vanderbilt has been taking steps to diversify its incoming classes. Today, around 55% of the total student body comes from outside the South, including 8.5% coming from outside the U.S. Moreover, 22% of the Class of 2008 were students of color.

Campus

Located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of downtown Nashville, the university occupies a park-like campus. It has an area of 330 acres (1.3 km²), though this figure includes large tracts of sparsely-used land in the southwest part of the main campus, as well the medical center. The original academic quad is approximately 30 acres (120,000 m²) in area.

The campus is certified to have at least one specimen of every tree that is indigenous to the state of Tennessee. In fact, the main (original) campus was designated as a national arboretum in 1988, a status which the University does not take lightly. Any visitor to the campus will quickly notice that signs posted to the trees by various student groups are actually bound to the trees with wire instead of being nailed to them, as it is illegal to cause damage to any tree on a national arboretum.

The Vanderbilt campus is roughly fan-shaped (with the point at the corner of West End and 21st Avenues) and divisible into six sections. In the northeast corner of the campus (the "base" of the fan) is the original campus, where the first college buildings, including Kirkland Hall, were erected in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. This section streches from West End Avenue south to the Stevenson Center and west from 21st Avenue to Alumni Lawn. The majority of the buildings of the arts and humanities departments of the College of Arts and Science, as well as the facilities of the Law School, Owen, and the Divinity School, are located in the original campus. Additionally, the Jean and Alexander Heard Memorial Library and Sarratt Student Center/Rand Hall can be found on the original campus.

Flanking the original campus to the south (and seperating it from the Medical Center) are the sprawling Stevenson Center for the Natural Sciences (housing all science and math departments of the College of Arts and Science, save for psychology, and several departments of the School of Engineering) and the School of Engineering complex (Jacobs Hall-Featheringill Hall).

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center takes up the southeastern part of the campus. Besides the various associated hospitals and clinics and the facilities of the schools of Medicine and Nursing, the Medical Center also houses many research facilites.

Directly across 21st Avenue from the Medical Center, the campus of Peabody College stands almost with itself. In fact, prior to 1979, Peabody College was an institution independent of Vanderbilt. Due to separate histories, the Peabody Campus is designed radically differently from the orginal campus. Whereas the original campus has a semi-organic design, the Peabody campus is designed geometrically, recalling the Jeffersonian style of the University of Virginia to the informed observer.

Accolades

The Vanderbilt University Medical Center has grown to be an important part of the University and is distinguished in medical education, research, and patient care. In 2003, the Medical Center was placed on the Honor Roll of U.S. News and World Report annual rating of the nation's best hosptials, solidifying Vanderbilt's reputation as a peer of universities like Duke and Stanford. Additionally, the U.S News ranked the university's school of medicine 17th in the nation among research-oriented medical schools in its annual ratings of best American educational institutions.

The University itself has also received high marks from the U.S. News. Vanderbilt currently ranks 18th in the nation among national research universities in the U.S. News college rankings. In the U.S. News graduate program rankings, the Vanderbilt Law School ranks 17th, Vanderbilt's Peabody College ranks fifth among schools of education, and Vanderbilt's Owen School of Management ranks 45th among business schools. (Though it has been argued that Vanderbilt's ranking is hindered by its relatively small size. Indeed, the Wall Street Journal recently rank Owen second among "smaller" business schools.)

Additionally, Vanderbilt is ranked first in the nation in the fields of Special Education and Audiology.

Unusual Research

As with any large research institution, Vanderbilt investigators work in a broad range of disciplines. However, among its more unusual activities, the university has institutes devoted to the study of coffee and of bridge (the game, invented by a great-grandson of the Commodore). In addition, in mid-2004 it was announced that Vanderbilt's chemical biology research may have serendipitously opened the door to the breeding of a blue rose, something that had long been coveted by horticulturalists and rose lovers.

Athletics

Vanderbilt's intercollegiate athletics teams are nicknamed the Commodores. This is based upon Cornelius Vanderbilt having been nicknamed "The Commodore" due to this mighty shipping empire. The school colors are black and gold.

The school is a member of the ultra-competitive Southeastern Conference (in which it is the only private school) in Division I of the NCAA. Additionally, the school is member of the American Lacrosse Conference (women's lacrosse) and the Missouri Valley Conference, where it fields a men's soccer team as the SEC does not officially sponor that sport. Vanderbilt fields teams in 15 varsity sports (7 men's and 8 women's). Men's and women's tennis, as well as lacrosse, are Vandy's strongest sports.

Campus athletic facilities include Vanderbilt Stadium (seating capacity: 39,790), Memorial Gymnasium (14,168), Hawkins Field (1,500), the Vanderbilt Soccer/Lacrosse Complex (2,400), and the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center.

Notable Alumni

Unless otherwise noted, the following people graduated with baccalaureate degrees. Names with an asterisk (*) graduated from Peabody College prior to its merger with Vanderbilt.

Art and Humanities

• Donald Davidson, poet
• Randall Jarrell, poet, critic, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
• Delbert Mann, Oscar-winning director
• Merrill Moore, poet
• John Crowe Ransom, poet, essayist, and social commentator
• Allen Tate, poet, critic, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
• Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer prize winner, first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress
• James Patterson, bestselling novelist, wrote Along Came A Spider and Kiss the Girls, which were adapted into successful Hollywood films

Business and Economics

• William Douglas Parker, Jr. (MBA), Chairman, President, and CEO of America West Airlines
• Ross Perot, Jr., businessman
• Charlie Soong, missionary, businessman, father of the Soong sisters
• Muhammad Yunus (PhD), pioneer of microcredit

Entertainment and Fashion

• Joe Bob Briggs, B-movie critic
• Amy Grant, Contemporary Christian music artist
• Bettie Page*, model
• Dinah Shore, singer, actress, and television host
• Molly Sims, supermodel [attended two years but dropped out to pursue modeling]

Government, Politics, and Activism

• Lamar Alexander, US Senator from Tennessee, former Governor of Tennessee, presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000
• Bill Boner (MS)*, former Mayor of Nashville
• Bill Campbell, former Mayor of Atlanta, Georgia
• Frank G. Clement, former Governor of Tennessee
• Beverly Briley, first Mayor of Nashvile-Davidson Metropolitan government
• Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States and presidential candidate [attended Law and Divinity Schools but did not complete his degree at either]
• Tipper Gore (MS)*, wife of Al Gore, former Second Lady of the United States, activist
• John Jay Hooker (JD)?, political figure
• James Lawson, Civil Rights pioneer
• Mickey Kantor, United States Trade Representative and Secretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration
• Ric Keller, US Representative from Florida
• John Kennedy, Louisiana State Treasurer and Democratic Candidate for US Senate in 2004
• Harlan Mathews, former US Senator from Tennessee
• Roy Neel, Campaign Manager for Howard Dean, Deputy Chief of Staff for former President Bill Clinton and Chief of Staff for Al Gore
• Bill Purcell (JD), Mayor of Nashville
• James Sasser (BA, JD), former US Senator from Tennessee and US Ambassador to China
• Fred Dalton Thompson (JD), former US Senator from Tennessee, actor
• Jack Watson, Chief of Staff for Jimmy Carter

Journalism

• Skip Bayless, ESPN personality and nationally syndicated columnist
• Roy Blount Jr., humorist, sportswriter, and author
• David Brinkley, broadcast journalist
• Terry Eastland, publisher of The Weekly Standard
• Buster Olney, ESPN baseball writer and former Sports Editor for the New York Times

Notable faculty

• Steven Buckles, Chief Economic Advisor for former President Ronald Reagan, Creator of "Reaganomics"
• Stanley Cohen, Nobel prize winner (1986)
• Walter Chazin, Notable Biochemist
• Alain Connes, Fields Medal Winner (1982)
• Tony Earley, Noted American novelist
• Jim Foglesong, Member of the Country Music Hall of Fame
• Bill Frist, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, former transplant surgeon
• F. Peter Guengerich, Director of the Center in Molecular Toxicology
• Bill Ivey, Director of the National Endowment for the Arts during the Clinton Administration, director of the Curb Center at Vanderbilt
• Roy Neel, Campaign Manager for Howard Dean, Deputy Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton and Chief of Staff for Al Gore
• Terry Page, Notable Neuroscientist
• Julia Sears, pioneering feminist
• Margaret Rhea Seddon, astronaut
• Susan F. Wiltshire, Clinton Administration National Endowment for the Humanities apointee
• John Vrooman, Notable Sports Economist
• Ellen Goldring

See Also

• Memorial Gymnasium (Vanderbilt University)

External Links

• Vanderbilt University
• Vanderbilt University Alumni/ae
• Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University
• Vanderbilt University Athletics
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• The Vanderbilt Hustler Newspaper
• Vanderbilt Clinical Research Center
• Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
• Vanderbilt Children's Hospital
• Vanderbilt Institute for Coffee Studies
• Vanderbilt Bridge Center
• Vanderbilt Divinity School
• Exploration: The Journal of Vanderbilt Research
• U.S. News' Best Universities page
• U.S. News' Best Hospitals page

• The Children, by David Halberstam – tells the story of the Civil Rights era in Nashville