Difference between revisions of "Vanderbilt University" - New World Encyclopedia

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'''Vanderbilt University''' is a [[private university|private]], [[nonsectarian]], [[coeducation]]al [[research]] [[university]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], [[Tennessee]], United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for [[ship transport|shipping]] and [[rail transport|rail]] magnate [[Cornelius Vanderbilt|"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt]], who provided Vanderbilt its initial [[United States dollar|$]]1 million endowment despite having never been to the [[Southern United States|South]]. The [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] hoped that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].
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'''Vanderbilt University''' is a [[private university|private]], [[nonsectarian]], [[coeducation]]al [[research]] [[university]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], [[Tennessee]], in the [[United States]]. Founded in 1873, the university is named for [[ship transport|shipping]] and [[rail transport|rail]] magnate [[Cornelius Vanderbilt|"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt]], who provided Vanderbilt its initial [[United States dollar|$]]1 million endowment in the hopes of making a contribution to the struggling society of the Post-[[American Civil War|Civil War]] South. Initially affiliated with [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] which regarded the University as an opportunity to unify their educational program and consolidate their presence in the [[Southern United States]], following a power struggle the Methodists severed their ties with Vanderbilt.
  
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Today, Vanderbilt comprises four [[undergraduate education|undergraduate]] and six graduate schools, enrolling approximately 11,800 students from all 50 [[U.S. state]]s and over 90 foreign countries. In its 2009 ranking of universities, ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]'' placed Vanderbilt 18th among national universities, and the schools of education, law, medicine, and nursing were ranked among the top 20 in the country. The university is among the top 25 recipients of federal educational research funds. Also affiliated with the university are several research institutes, the [[Freedom Forum]] [[First Amendment Center]], the [[Dyer Observatory]], and the comprehensive [[Vanderbilt University Medical Center]] (VUMC), the only [[Level I trauma center|Level I trauma center]] in Middle Tennessee.
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In its history Vanderbilt has been involved in controversy surrounding issues of [[racial segregation]]. During the early days of the [[American Civil Rights Movement]] [[James Lawson]] was expelled for his activities. In later years the University changed its position, hiring him on the faculty. Vanderbilt also pioneered the inclusion of African Americans in sport, fielding the first black [[basketball]] player in the Southeastern Conference.
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{{toc}}
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Today, Vanderbilt strives for scholarly excellence and freedom of inquiry, as well as diversity in its student body. It comprises four undergraduate and six graduate schools, and enrolls a large number of students from all 50 U.S. states and many foreign countries. Beyond its academic and professional programs, the university is known for its research programs and institutes, through which it strives to contribute to the larger [[community]].
  
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With the exception of the off-campus [[observatory]], all of Vanderbilt's facilities are situated on a {{convert|330|acre|km2|1|sing=on}} plot in the heart of Nashville, only {{convert|1.5|mi|km|1}} from downtown. Despite its [[urban area|urban]] surroundings, the campus itself is a national [[arboretum]] and features over 300 species of trees and shrubs.  
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==Mission and reputation==
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[[Image:Owen interior.JPG|thumb|right|200 px|Interior of Owen Graduate School of Management]]
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{{readout||left|250px|Vanderbilt University is named for [[ship transport{{!}}shipping]] and [[rail transport{{!}}rail]] magnate [[Cornelius Vanderbilt{{!}}"Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt]]}}
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Vanderbilt states its mission as centering around "scholarly research, informed and creative teaching, and service to the community and society at large."<ref name=mission>Vanderbilt University, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/mission.html"Mission, Goals and Values."] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref> Its dedication to "intellectual freedom that supports open inquiry" and "equality, compassion, and excellence in all endeavors" are the means by which it actively pursues its mission.<ref name=mission/>
  
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==Mission and Reputation==
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Vanderbilt University has a long held reputation for excellence, both in its teaching and research. It offers a "combination of cutting-edge research, liberal arts and a distinguished medical center" and nurtures an atmosphere where students in academic and professional fields can meet their educational goals while researchers are supported in collaborative efforts to "solve complex questions affecting our health, culture and society."<ref name=history/>
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Vanderbilt was ranked 17th in national universities in the 2011 edition of ''Best Colleges'' by ''[[U.S. News & World Report]]''.<ref>''U.S. News & World Report'', "Vanderbilt University," Best Colleges, 2011.</ref> In the same publication's graduate program rankings, Peabody College of Education and Human Development was listed first among schools of education, and the schools of law and medicine were ranked among the top 20 in the country. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings published by ''[[Times Higher Education]]'' (THE) ranked Vanderbilt as 51st in the world in 2010.<ref>''Times Higher Education'' [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2010-2011/top-200.html THE World University Rankings 2010] Retrieved January 13, 2011.</ref>
  
 
==History==
 
==History==
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===Founding and early years===
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[[Image:Vanderbilt-reversed.jpg|thumb|right|150 px|Cornelius Vanderbilt]]
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[[Image:Vanderbilt-reversed.jpg|thumb|right|Cornelius Vanderbilt]]
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[[Image:Holland McTyeire.jpg|thumb|left|150 px|Bishop Holland McTyeire]]
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The University is named after [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]], a wealthy, northern industrialist who made the initial donation of $1,000,000 to the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]] so as to "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."<ref name=history>Vanderbilt University, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/history.html The History of Vanderbilt.] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref> The donation was made to Bishop Holland N. McTyeire who was related to Vanderbilt through [[marriage]] and had spent time recovering in the Vanderbilt mansion following medical treatment in 1873. Vanderbilt had been considering [[philanthropy|philanthropic]] causes as he was at an advanced age.<ref>Edward J. Renehan, ''Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt'' (Basic Books, 2007, ISBN 0465002552).</ref> After successfully convincing Vanderbilt of the importance of a central Southern University, McTyeire returned to the governing body of the Methodist Episcopal Church with enough money to start the university. From its inception, Vanderbilt focused on two educational goals: It offered work in the liberal arts and sciences beyond the baccalaureate degree and it included several professional schools.  
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In the years prior to the American Civil War, the [[Methodist Episcopal Church, South]] had been considering creating a regional university for the training of [[Minister (Christianity)|ministers]] located centrally for the [[Wiktionary:congregation|congregations]] of the church. Through the lobbying of Nashville bishop [[Holland Nimmons McTyeire|Holland McTyeire]], church leaders voted in 1872 to create "Central University" in Nashville. However, lack of funds and the war-ravaged state of the South delayed the opening of the college.
 
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The following year, on a medical trip to [[New York City]], 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|philanthropic]] causes as he was at an advanced age. His original plan was to establish a university on [[Staten Island]], [[New York (state)|New York]], in honor of his mother. McTyeire, however, successfully convinced him to donate USD$500,000 to endow Central University in order to "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."<ref name="VUhistory">{{cite web |publisher = Vanderbilt University |title = The History of Vanderbilt |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/history.html |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>
 
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The endowment (later increased to USD$1 million) would be Vanderbilt's only philanthropy. Though the Commodore never expressed any desire to have the university named after himself, McTyeire and his fellow trustees soon rechristened the school as "the Vanderbilt University."  Vanderbilt died in 1877 having never even visited the school named after him.
 
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[[Image:Holland McTyeire.jpg|thumb|left|Bishop Holland McTyeire]]In the fall of 1875, about 200 students enrolled at Vanderbilt; the university was dedicated in October of that year. Bishop McTyeire, who had been named chairman of the Board of Trust for life by Vanderbilt as a stipulation of his endowment, named [[Landon Garland]], his [[mentor]] from [[Randolph-Macon College]] in [[Virginia]] and then-[[chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of the [[University of Mississippi]], as chancellor. Garland shaped the school's structure and hired the school's faculty, many of whom were renowned scholars in their respective fields.<ref name="VUhistory"/> However, most of this crop of star faculty left after disputes with Bishop McTyeire.
 
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[[Image:1909 yrbk pg48 FrClassPhoto Edit.jpg|thumb|left|Vanderbilt Class of 1912]]
 
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===Split with the Methodist Church===
 
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For the first 40 years, the Board of Trust (and therefore the university itself) was under the control of the [[General conference (United Methodist Church)|General Conference]] (the governing body) 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 and the extent to which non-Methodists could teach at the school.
 
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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 USD$300,000 from Southern Methodist congregations (only $50,000 was raised).  
 
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In 1905, the Board of Trust voted to limit Methodist representation on the board to just five bishops. Former faculty member and bishop [[Elijah Hoss]] led a group attempting to assert Methodist control. In 1910 the Board refused to seat three Methodist bishops. The Methodist Church took the issue to court and won at the local level. On March 21, 1914, the [[Tennessee Supreme Court]] ruled that the Commodore, and not the Methodist Church, was the university's founder and that the board could therefore seat whomever it wished. The General Conference in 1914 voted 151 to 140 to sever its ties with Vanderbilt; it also voted to establish a new university, [[Southern Methodist University]], and to greatly expand [[Emory University]].<ref>{{cite web |url = http://pages.prodigy.net/nhn.slate/nh00073.html |title = Vanderbilt University and Southern Methodism |first = Frank |last = Gulley |accessdate = 2008-02-20 }}</ref>
 
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===1920s and 1930s===
 
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Vanderbilt enjoyed early intellectual influence during the 1920s and 1930s when it hosted two partly overlapping groups of scholars who had a large impact on American thought and letters: the [[Fugitives (poets)|Fugitives]] and the [[Southern Agrarians|Agrarians]]. During the same period, [[Ernest William Goodpasture]] and his colleagues in the [[Vanderbilt University School of Medicine|School of Medicine]] invented methods for cultivating [[virus]]es and [[rickettsiae]] in fertilized chicken eggs. This work made possible the production of [[vaccine]]s against [[chicken pox]], [[smallpox]], [[yellow fever]], [[typhus]], [[Rocky mountain spotted fever]] and other diseases caused by agents that only propagate in living cells.
 
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===Civil Rights movement===
 
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In the late 1950s, the [[Vanderbilt Divinity School]] became something of a hotbed of the emerging [[civil rights movement]], and the university [[expulsion|expelled]] one of the movement's leaders, [[James Lawson]]. Much later, in 2005, he was named a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements and re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006&ndash;07 academic year.<ref>{{cite news |last = Patterson |first = Jim |title = The Rev James Lawson to return as visiting professor |work = The Vanderbilt Register |date = 2006-01-30 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=24339 |accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref>
 
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As with Lawson, the university drew national attention in 1966, when it recruited the first [[African American]] athlete in the Southeastern Conference, Perry Wallace.<ref>{{cite web |title = Perry Wallace |publisher = Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame |url = http://www.tshf.net/inductees/2003Wallace.htm |date = 2003 |accessdate = 2007-08-17}}</ref> Wallace, from Nashville, played varsity basketball for Vanderbilt from 1967-1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues. In 2004, a student-led drive to have Wallace's jersey retired finally succeeded. [[Harold Stirling Vanderbilt]] was chairman of the Board of Trust between 1955 and 1968 when [[racial integration]] was a very prominent topic at the school. Today a statue of him in front of Buttrick Hall [[memorial]]izes his efforts.
 
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[[Image:vandyconfederatehall.jpg|thumb|left|Memorial Hall was the subject of litigation in the early 2000s.]]
 
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In 1966, the [[Oberlin College|Oberlin]] Graduate School of Theology moved from Ohio to Nashville, in order to merge with the Vanderbilt Divinity School. In 1979, Vanderbilt absorbed its neighbor, [[Peabody College]].
 
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History, race, and civil rights issues again came to the forefront on the campus in 2002, when the university decided to rename a residence hall on the Peabody campus, Confederate Memorial Hall, to Memorial Hall.<ref>{{cite news |last = Vanderbilt University |title = Confederate Memorial Hall renamed Memorial Hall |work = The Vanderbilt Register |date = 2002-09-19 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=3316 |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref> Nationwide attention resulted, in part due to a lawsuit by the Tennessee chapter of the [[United Daughters of the Confederacy]], who had helped pay for the building's construction in 1933 with a $50,000 contribution.<ref>{{cite news |last = Latt |first= Elizabeth P |title = Court ruling supports Vanderbilt decision to change name of building |work = The Vanderbilt Register |date = 2003-10-01 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=6663 |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>
 
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The Davidson County Chancery Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2003, but the [[Tennessee Court of Appeals]] ruled in May 2005 that the university would have to pay damages based on the present value of the United Daughters of the Confederacy's contribution if an inscription bearing the name "Confederate Memorial Hall" were to be removed from the building or altered.<ref>{{cite news |last = Vanderbilt University |title = Appeals court rules on Memorial Hall dispute |work = The Vanderbilt Register |date = 2005-05-05 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=19550 |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>
 
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In late July 2005, the university announced that although it has officially renamed the building and all university publications and offices will refer to it solely as ''Memorial Hall'', the university would neither appeal the matter further nor remove the inscription and pay damages.<ref>{{cite news |last = Vanderbilt University |title = Vanderbilt drops suit over Memorial Hall |work = The Vanderbilt Register |date = 2005-07-25 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=20856 |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>
 
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==Organization==
 
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===Administration===
 
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[[Image:Vandy Old Main.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Old Main (1875), photographed before it burned in 1905]]
 
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Vanderbilt University, as a private corporation, is wholly governed by an independent, self-perpetuating Board of Trust. The board comprises 45 regular members (plus any number of trustees emeriti) and the chancellor, the university's [[chief executive officer]]. Each trustee serves a five-year term (except for four recently-graduated undergraduates, who serve two two-year terms). A complete, up-to-date listing of the members of the Board of Trust can be found [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/boardoftrust/ here]. [[Martha Rivers Ingram]] is the board's current [[chairman]].
 
  
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[[Nicholas S. Zeppos]] currently serves as chancellor of Vanderbilt University. He was appointed interim chancellor after the departure of [[Gordon Gee]], who left to reassume the presidency of [[Ohio State University]] on August 1, 2007,<ref>{{cite news |last = Loos |first = Ralph |title = Gee to leave Vanderbilt for Ohio State |work = [[The Tennessean]] |url = http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070711/NEWS04/70711037 |date = 2007-07-11 |accessdate = 2007-07-11 }}</ref> and was named chancellor in his own right on March 1, 2008.<ref>{{cite news |last = Middlebrooks |first = Elizabeth |title = No longer 'iChancellor,' Zeppos confirmed to permanent position |url = http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/6856 |work = The Vanderbilt Hustler |date = 2008-03-01 |accessdate = 2008-03-01 }}</ref>
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In the fall of 1875, 307 students enrolled at Vanderbilt; the university was dedicated in October of that year. The student enrollment doubled itself each 25 years during the first century of the it's history: From 307 in the fall of 1875; 754 in 1900; 1,377 in 1925; 3,529 in 1950; to 7,034 in 1975, it reached over 10,000 by the end of the twentieth century.<ref name=history/>  
  
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Gee had been appointed chancellor by the Board of Trust in February 2000. Controversy arose in 2006 over Gee's spending during his tenure at Vanderbilt, including the over $6 million spent on remodeling his university-owned house. An article in ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' in September of that year examining the spending of college and university executives used Gee and Vanderbilt as an example of the lax oversight common to higher education. The article also revealed that Gee's wife, a tenured professor, smoked [[marijuana]] in their home. The Board of Trust has since established a committee to monitor more closely the spending by the chancellor's office.<ref>{{cite news |last = Duncan |first = Walker |title = WSJ: Vandy Making Sure Gee isn't Puffing Away Millions |work = The Nashville Post |url = http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/2006/9/26/iwsji_takes_a_hard_look_at_vanderbilt_chancellor_gordon_gees_spending_habits |date = 2006-09-26 |accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref>
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[[Image:Vandy-Kirkland-2.jpg|thumb|right|150 px|The main building after reconstruction, renamed Kirkland Hall.]]
  
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Since the opening of the university in 1875, only six other individuals have served as chancellor.<ref>{{cite web |last = Office of the Chancellor |title = History of the Office |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellor/history.html |accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref>  Landon Garland was the university's first chancellor, serving from 1875 to 1893. Garland organized the university and hired its first faculty. Garland Hall, an academic building on campus, is named in his honor.
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[[James H. Kirkland]], the longest serving chancellor in university history (1893-1937) guided Vanderbilt to rebuild after a fire in 1905 that destroyed the main building, which was renamed in Kirkland's honor. He also navigated the university through the separation from the Methodist Church.
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[[Image:Vandy Old Main.jpg|thumb|left|Old Main (1875), photographed before it burned in 1905.]]
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For the first 40 years, the Board of Trust (and therefore the university itself) was under the control of the [[General conference (United Methodist Church)|General Conference]] (the governing body) of the [[Methodist Episcopal Church]], South. However, tensions rose 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 and the extent to which non-Methodists could teach at the school.<ref name=carey>Bill Carey, ''Chancellors, Commodores, & Coeds: A History of Vanderbilt University'' (Clearbrook Press, 2005, ISBN 097256800X).</ref>
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[[Image:Vanderbilt Class of 1912.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|Vanderbilt Class of 1912]]
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Starting in the early years of the twentieth century, a power struggle between the Bishops and the non-clergy members of the Board began, culminating in a vote to limit the power of the Bishops in the administration of the school. The Methodist Church took the issue to court and won at the local level; however, on March 21, 1914, the [[Tennessee Supreme Court]] ruled that the Commodore, and not the Methodist Church, was the university's founder and that the board could therefore seat whomever it wished.<ref name=carey/> The General Conference in 1914 voted 151 to 140 to sever its ties with Vanderbilt; it also voted to establish a new university, [[Southern Methodist University]], and to greatly expand [[Emory University]].<ref>Frank Gulley, [http://pages.prodigy.net/nhn.slate/nh00073.html "Vanderbilt University and Southern Methodism,"]''Nashville Historical Newsletter,'' 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref>
  
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[[Image:Vandy-Kirkland-2.jpg|thumb|upright|right|After the fire, Old Main was rebuilt with one tower and renamed Kirkland Hall. It is currently home to Vanderbilt's administration.]]
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Vanderbilt University enjoyed early intellectual influence during the 1920s and 1930s when it hosted two partly overlapping groups of scholars who had a large impact on American thought and letters: The [[Fugitives (poets)|Fugitives]] and the [[Southern Agrarians|Agrarians]].<ref name=carey/> During the same period, [[Ernest William Goodpasture]] and his colleagues in the [[Vanderbilt University School of Medicine|School of Medicine]] invented methods for cultivating [[virus]]es and [[rickettsiae]] in fertilized chicken eggs. This work made possible the production of [[vaccine]]s against [[chicken pox]], [[smallpox]], [[yellow fever]], [[typhus]], [[Rocky mountain spotted fever]], and other [[disease]]s caused by agents that propagate only in living cells.<ref>Robert D. Collins, ''Ernest William Goodpasture: Scientist, Scholar, Gentleman'' (Hillsboro Press, 2002, ISBN 1577362519).</ref> These innovations helped to propel Vanderbilt's reputation as a research institution to equal some of the older and more prestigious U.S. schools at the time.
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The next chancellor was [[James H. Kirkland]]&mdash;serving from 1893 to 1937, he had the longest tenure of any Vanderbilt chancellor. He was responsible for severing the university's ties with the Methodist church and relocating the medical school to the main campus. Vanderbilt's Main Building was renamed Kirkland Hall after Kirkland left in 1937.
 
  
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The longest-tenured chancellor was followed by one of the shortest-tenured. [[Oliver Carmichael]] served Vanderbilt for just nine years, 1937 to 1946. Carmichael developed the graduate school, and established the Joint University Libraries for Vanderbilt, Peabody, and [[Scarritt College]]. Carmichael Towers, a set of high-rise dormitories on the northern edge of campus, were named for Chancellor Carmichael.
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In the late 1950s, the [[Vanderbilt Divinity School]] became involved in the emerging [[American civil rights movement]]. A prominent leader and colleague of [[Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.]], [[James Lawson]] enrolled at the university's Divinity School. There he conducted nonviolence training workshops for the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] and launched the [[Nashville sit-ins]] to challenge [[racial segregation]] in downtown stores. Along with activists from Atlanta, Georgia, and elsewhere in the South, they formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April 1960. SNCC and Lawson's students played a leading role in the [[Open Theater Movement]], the [[Freedom Rides]], the [[1963 March on Washington]], [[Mississippi Freedom Summer]], the [[Birmingham Children's Crusade]], the [[Selma Voting Rights Movement]], and the [[Chicago Open Housing Movement]], activities which resulted in Lawson's expulsion from the school. Much later, in 2005, Lawson was named a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements and re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006–2007 academic year.<ref>Jim Patterson, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=24339 "The Rev James Lawson to return as visiting professor,"] ''The Vanderbilt Register,'' January 30, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref>
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[[Image:Jameslawson.jpg|thumb|150px|left|James Lawson speaking at a community meeting in Nashville, Tennessee in 2005.]]
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Some years later, the university drew national attention once again; this time for an act of inclusion. In 1966, the university recruited the first [[African American]] athlete in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), [[Perry Wallace]].<ref>Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, [http://www.tshf.net/inductees/2003Wallace.htm"Perry Wallace."] Retrieved February 23, 2009. </ref> Wallace, from [[Nashville]], played varsity [[basketball]] for Vanderbilt from 1967-1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues. Over the years, he received numerous awards for his efforts in integrating the SEC. A statue of him in front of Buttrick Hall [[memorial]]izes his efforts.
  
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Carmichael's successor was [[Harvie Branscomb]]. Branscomb presided over a period of major growth and improvement at the university that lasted from 1946 until 1963. He was responsible for opening the admissions policy to all races. Branscomb Quadrangle is a residence hall complex named for the chancellor.
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From the mid-twentieth century onward, Vanderbilt University expanded, with the addition of new colleges, such as the Owen Graduate School of Management and the acquisition of Peabody College. Research and facilities also greatly improved and were continuously upgraded as Vanderbilt's reputation for excellence in the area of research became more widely recognized.
  
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[[G. Alexander Heard|Alexander Heard]], for whom the campus library system is named, served as chancellor from 1963 to 1982. During his 20-year tenure, the [[Owen Graduate School of Management]] was founded, and Vanderbilt's merger with Peabody College was negotiated. He also survived calls for his ouster because of his accommodating stance on desegregation.
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Beginning in 1981, under the leadership of Roscoe Robinson, the Medical Center rose in importance to become the nation's best. When Robinson retired in 1997, Vanderbilt University Medical Center had become a billion-dollar enterprise, with the best overall patient care facility in the region, and a reputation for world-class research.<ref>Roscoe R. Robinson, ''Onward and Upward: Vanderbilt University Medical Center 1981-1997'' (Providence House Publishers, 2006, ISBN 157736368X)</ref>
  
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[[Joe B. Wyatt]] was the chancellor who served immediately before Gee, from 1982 until 2000. Wyatt oversaw a great increase in the university's endowment, an increase in student diversity, and the renovation of many campus buildings. The Wyatt Center on Peabody's campus is named for Wyatt and his wife.
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During the chancellorship of [[Joe B. Wyatt]], from 1982 until 2000, great emphasis was placed on improving the quality of faculty and instruction. Wyatt oversaw a substantial increase in the university's endowment, greater student diversity, and the renovation of many campus buildings. The Wyatt Center on Peabody's campus is named for Wyatt and his wife. During Wyatt's tenure Vanderbilt rose to the top 25 in the ''U.S. News & World Report'''s annual rankings for the first time.<ref name="Wyatt Bio">Vanderbilt University, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/chancellorsearch/wyatt.html Joe B. Wyatt 1982-2000.] Retrieved February 23, 2009. </ref>
  
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===Medical Center===
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==Facilities==
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The Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a vital component of the university and is the only Level I Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee.<ref name="revu">{{cite web |last = Vanderbilt University News Service |title = RE:VU: Quick Facts about Vanderbilt |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/facts.html |year = 2008 |month = January |accessdate = 2008-01-10 }}</ref> VUMC comprises the following units:<ref>{{cite web |title=Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Visitors |url=http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/visitors.html |publisher=Vanderbilt University |accessdate=2007-07-02 }}</ref>
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The Vanderbilt campus is located approximately {{convert|1.5|mi|km|1}} southwest of downtown in the West End neighborhood of midtown [[Nashville]]. It has an area of {{convert|330|acre|km2|1}}, though this figure includes large tracts of sparsely used land in the southwest part of the main campus, as well as the Medical Center. The historical core of campus encompasses approximately {{convert|30|acre|km2|1}}.
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[[Image:Vanderbiltchildrens.JPG|thumb|left|The 11-story Doctor's Office Tower of the Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital, which was completed in 2004.]]
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[[Image:Vandyarboretum.jpg|thumb|left|Arboretum plaque (between Garland Hall and Rand Dining Facility)]]
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*Vanderbilt University Hospital
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[[Image:Vandybicentennialtree.jpg|thumb|right|Bicentennial Oak, facing Buttrick Hall]]
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*Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
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The oldest part of the Vanderbilt campus is known for its abundance of trees and green space, which stand in contrast to the surrounding cityscape of urban Nashville. The campus was designated as a national arboretum in 1988 by the Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.<ref name=woolsey/> Every tree indigenous to the state of Tennessee can be found on the campus. The [[oak tree]] between Garland Hall and Rand Dining Facility is known as the Bicentennial Oak, as it predates the [[American Revolution]].<ref>Vanderbilt University, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/visitSelfGuided.php"Self-Guided Tours."] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref>
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*Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
 
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*The Vanderbilt Clinic
 
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*Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center
 
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*Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital
 
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*Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital
 
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*Eskind Biomedical Library
 
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*Vanderbilt Sports Medicine
 
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*Dayani Human Performance Center
 
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*Vanderbilt Page Campbell Heart Institute
 
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*Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
 
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*Vanderbilt University School of Nursing
 
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With over 21,500 employees (including 2,876 full-time faculty), Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest in the state (after [[FedEx]], headquartered in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]]). Approximately 74% of the university's faculty and staff are employed by the Medical Center.<ref name="revu" />
 
  
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In 2003, the medical center was placed on the Honor Roll of ''U.S. News & World Report'''s annual rating of the nation's best hospitals, and 17 of the faculty were members of one of the [[United States National Academies|National Academies]]. In 2004, the university reported that 24.1% of non-Medical Center faculty were women, while 14.4% were of a racial or ethnic minority.
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In the northeast corner of the campus is the original campus, which has many historic buildings that date back to the establishment of the university. To the south are the more modern additions, including many of the science and medical facilities. Directly across from the Medical Center sits the campus of the Peabody College of Education and Human Development. The campus is home not only to Peabody College but also to The Commons, where all freshmen live together as part of the College Halls plan.
 +
[[Image:VanderbiltCommons.jpg|thumb|right|200 px|The Commons, located on the Peabody campus, is part of the new College Halls system at Vanderbilt.]]
 +
Due to their separate histories until the merger, the Peabody campus was configured in a radically different style than the original Vanderbilt campus. Whereas the latter has an unplanned organic design with buildings scattered throughout, Peabody campus was planned as a geometric design, similar to the [[Jeffersonian architecture|Jeffersonian]] style of the [[University of Virginia]].  
  
−
==Students and faculty==
+
The Jean and Alexander Heard Library is the University's main [[library]]. Originally established in 1873, the library suffered a fire that destroyed most of the collection.<ref>Vanderbilt University, [http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/access/libraryhistory.shtml"History of the Library"]. Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref> It took many years to rebuild the collection to where it stands today at approximately two million. The Library also houses several unique collections, such as the Television News Archive, the University Memorabilia Room, Photograph Archives, and a selection of specialty manuscripts.
  
−
===Profile===
+
There are also seven library branches located on campus, specializing in different academic areas:
−
As of December 2006, Vanderbilt had an enrollment of 6,532 undergraduate and 5,315 graduate and professional students. Students from all 50 states and more than 90 countries attend Vanderbilt, with 55% of the total student body coming from outside the Southeast; 8% of students are from outside the United States.<ref name="oua-students">{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Students |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/fastFacts.php#Students |accessdate = 2007-07-01 }}</ref><ref name="revu" /> Moreover, 24% of the undergraduate class of 2010 was non-Caucasian, while roughly half were women.<ref name="profile">{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Class of 2010 |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/fastFacts.php#Profile |accessdate = 2007-05-28 }}</ref>
+
*[http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/peabody/ Peabody Library]
 +
*[http://law.vanderbilt.edu/library/ Law Library]
 +
*[http://divinity.library.vanderbilt.edu/ Divinity Library]
 +
*[http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/science/ Science and Engineering Library]
 +
*[http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/biolib/ Biomedical Library]
 +
*[http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/music/ Music Library]
 +
*[http://www2.owen.vanderbilt.edu/walker/ Walker Management Library]
  
−
Vanderbilt offers undergraduates the chance to pursue 70 [[academic major|majors]] in its four undergraduate schools and colleges: the [[Vanderbilt University College of Arts and Science|College of Arts and Science]], the [[Vanderbilt University School of Engineering|School of Engineering]], Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and [[Blair School of Music]]. The university also has six graduate and professional schools, including the Divinity School, [[Vanderbilt University Graduate School|Graduate School]], [[Vanderbilt University Law School|Law School]], [[Vanderbilt University School of Medicine|School of Medicine]], [[Vanderbilt University School of Nursing|School of Nursing]], and [[Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management|Owen Graduate School of Management]].  
+
Vanderbilt University has several athletic and health related facilities. College [[basketball]] teams play in the the Memorial Gymnasium, which has a seating capacity of over 14,000.<ref>Vanderbilt University, [http://vucommodores.cstv.com/facilities/memorial-gym.html"Historic Memorial Gym."] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref> Vanderbilt Stadium is where [[football]] is played, a stadium built in 1981 with a seating capacity of almost 40,000.<ref>Vanderbilt University, [http://vucommodores.cstv.com/facilities/vand-stadium.html "Vanderbilt Stadium."] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref> Other facilities include Hawkins Field for [[baseball]], the Vanderbilt Track, a [[soccer]] and [[lacrosse]] field, the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center, and the John Rich Complex for athletic training. The Vanderbilt Legends Club of Tennessee is a 36 hole [[golf]] course that is located off campus. The university also has several exercise and health centers for students, most of which are located in the Student Recreation Center.
  
−
The university's undergraduate programs are highly selective: in 2008, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions accepted 23% of applicants. In its most recent annual comparison of admissions selectivity, ''[[The Princeton Review]]'' gave Vanderbilt a rating of 98 out of 99.<ref>{{cite web |last = The Princeton Review |title = Vanderbilt University: General Info |work = The Princeton Review 2006 |url = http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/generalinfomore.asp?listing=1022817&ltid=1 |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref>  The freshmen in the Class of 2012 had standardized test scores that were well above average: the interquartile range (25th percentile-75th percentile) of [[SAT]] scores was 1380-1540 under the old scale, while the interquartile range of [[ACT (examination)|ACT]] scores was 31-34.<ref name="profile" />
+
==Programs==
 +
Vanderbilt University offers Bachelor's (undergraduate), Master's (graduate), and Doctorate/PhD (post-graduate). The College of Arts and Sciences offers both classic and more modern variants of the Liberal Arts and Sciences majors, including [[Africa]]n [[United States|American]] and [[Diaspora]] Studies, Ancient [[Mediterranean Sea|Ancient Mediterranean Studies]] Studies, [[Anthropology]], [[Art]] Studio, [[Biology|Biological Sciences]], [[Chemistry]], [[Ecology]], [[Evolution]], and Organismal Biology, [[Economics]], [[English]], [[Film]] Studies, [[Mathematics]], [[Neuroscience]], [[Psychology]], and Women’s and Gender Studies.  
  
−
===Research===
+
The Blair School of [[Music]] offers four undergraduate degrees: Musical performance, composition/theory, musical arts, and musical education. The school of [[engineering]] offers several variety of undergraduate degrees, including Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The school offers graduate and post-graduate degrees in general engineering science.
−
As with any large research institution, Vanderbilt investigators work in a broad range of disciplines, and the university is among the top 25 recipients of federal research dollars.<ref>{{cite news |last = Salisbury |first = David F |title = VU gains ground in competition for federal research dollars |work = The Vanderbilt Register |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=31832 |date = 2007-02-05 |accessdate = 2007-07-01 }}</ref> In 2007, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine ranked 10th in terms of NIH funding ($282.3 million).  
 
  
−
Among its more unusual activities, the university has institutes devoted to the study of coffee and of [[contract bridge|bridge]]. Indeed, the modern form of the latter was developed by [[Harold Stirling Vanderbilt]], a former president of the university's Board of Trust and 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 has long been coveted by [[horticulture|horticulturalists]] and rose lovers.<ref>{{cite news |last = Harrison |first = David |title = A true scientific breakthrough: the blue rose |work = [[The Daily Telegraph]] |url = http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/05/23/nrose23.xml |date = 2004-05-23 |accessdate = 2007-07-03 }}</ref>
+
The Divinity School offers Master's and Doctorate degrees in [[Theology|Theological Studies]], Ethics and Society, [[Hebrew]] [[Bible]] and Ancient [[Israel]], Historical Studies, History and Critical, Theories of Religion, Homiletics and Liturgics, Jewish Studies, New Testament and Early [[Christianity]] and Religion, Psychology, and Culture. The [[Law school]] offers the Master's level [[Jurispuridence]] degree as well as a PhD in Law and Economics. The Owen Graduate School of Management offers the general Master of Business Administration, Finance and Accountancy. The School of [[Medicine]] offers a Medical degree as well as health-related but non-medical degrees such as Biomedical Informatics, Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Hearing and Speech Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in the Biological Sciences. The School of [[Nursing]] offers both a Master's and PhD in Nursing.
  
−
Vanderbilt's research record is blemished, however, by a study university researchers, in conjunction with the Tennessee Department of Health, conducted on [[iron]] [[metabolism]] during [[pregnancy]] in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite web |title = $10 Million Settlement In Radiation Suit |work = [[The New York Times]] |date = 1998-05-29 |url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9801EEDD1138F93AA15756C0A96E958260&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fOrganizations%2fV%2fVanderbilt%20University |accessdate = 2007-09-20 }}</ref>  Between 1945 and 1949, over 800 pregnant women were given [[radioactive]] iron. Standards of [[informed consent]] for research subjects were not rigorously enforced at that time,{{ref label|Helsinki|A|A}} and many of the women were not informed of the potential risks. The injections were later suspected to have caused cancer in at least three of the children who were born to these mothers.<ref>{{cite news |last = Schneider |first = Keith |title = Scientists Share in Pain Of Experiment Debates |work = The New York Times |date = 1994-03-02 |url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E0D8153AF931A35750C0A962958260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=1
+
==Colleges and institutes==
−
|accessdate = 2007-07-05 }}</ref> In 1998, the university settled a [[class action|class action lawsuit]] with the mothers and surviving children for $10.3 million.<ref>{{cite web |publisher = Lieff Cabraser Heimann and Bernstein, LLP |title = Vanderbilt University Radiation Class Action |date = 1998-07-27 |url = http://www.lieffcabraser.com/vanderbilt.htm |accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref>
+
[[Image:Wyatt Center.jpg|thumb|200 px|The Wyatt Center on the Peabody campus.]]
 +
Vanderbilt University has four undergraduate schools:
 +
* College of Arts and Science
 +
* Blair School of Music
 +
* School of Engineering
 +
* Peabody College of Education and Human Development
  
−
[[Image:MRB3.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Medical Research Building III was completed in 2003 as a joint venture between Arts & Science and the School of Medicine.]]
+
The University also has six graduate and continuing education colleges:
−
''Exploration'' is the university's online research magazine. It publishes multimedia stories that explain campus research projects ranging from [[archeology]] to [[zoology]], probe the motives of the explorers that perform these studies, and describe the experiences of Vanderbilt students who become involved in scientific research. Vanderbilt undergraduates also publish a journal of original research. Vanderbilt is a member of the [[Oak Ridge Associated Universities]] and the [[Universities Space Research Association]].
+
* Divinity School
 +
* Graduate School
 +
* Law School
 +
* School of Medicine
 +
* Owen Graduate School of Management
 +
* School of Nursing
  
−
===Rankings===
+
In addition, the University has over 50 separate Research Centers and Facilities, which include:
−
In its 2009 edition, ''U.S. News & World Report'' placed Vanderbilt at 18th, tied with the [[University of Notre Dame]] and [[Emory University]], in its ranking of national universities.<ref name="usnwr-overall">{{cite web |title = National Universities: Top Schools |publisher = ''U.S. News & World Report'' |work = America's Best Colleges 2009 |url = http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college/national-search |accessdate = 2008-08-22 }}</ref> In the same publication's 2008 graduate program rankings, Peabody College was listed at 2nd among schools of education, the Vanderbilt Law School was listed at 15th, the School of Medicine was listed at 16th among research-oriented [[medical school]]s, the School of Nursing was listed at 19th, and the Owen Graduate School of Management was listed at 34th among business schools.<ref name="usnwr-grad">{{cite web |publisher = ''U.S. News & World Report'' |title = Graduate Schools: Index |work = America's Best Graduate Schools 2008 |url = http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex_brief.php |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref> Additionally, Vanderbilt is ranked 1st in the nation in the fields of [[special education]]<ref>{{cite web |publisher = ''U.S. News & World Report'' |title = Education: Special Education |work = America's Best Graduate Schools 2008 |url = http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/edu/brief/edusp07_brief.php |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref> and [[audiology]].<ref>{{cite news |last = Boerner |first = Craig |title = National rankings laud Medical, Nursing schools |work = The Reporter |date = 2007-03-30 |url = http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/reporter/index.html?ID=5442 |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref>
+
[[Image:Vanderbiltchildrens.JPG|thumb|right|The 11-story Doctor's Office Tower of the Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital, which was completed in 2004.]]
 +
* [http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/addiction/| Addiction Research Center]
 +
* [http://www.aamhrs.net/| African American Mental Health Research Scientist Consortium]
 +
* [http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/bandy/| Bandy, W.T. Center for Baudelaire and Modern French Studies]
 +
* [https://medschool.mc.vanderbilt.edu/cbmes/| Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society]
 +
* [http://braininstitute.vanderbilt.edu/| Brain Institute]
 +
* [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/moral_leadership/Home.html| Cal Turner Program for Moral Leadership for the Professions]
 +
* [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/divinity/carpenter/| Carpenter Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality]
 +
* [http://eecs.vanderbilt.edu/cis/CRL/index.shtml| Cognitive Robotics Laboratory]
 +
* [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Peabody/family-school/| Family-School Partnership Lab]
 +
* [http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/| First Amendment Center]
 +
* [http://vuiis.vanderbilt.edu/| Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science]
 +
* [http://eecs.vanderbilt.edu/cis/irl/index.shtml|Intelligent Robotics Lab]
 +
* [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/clas/| Center for Latin American Studies]
 +
* [http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/vumc/centers/neuro/| Center for Molecular Neuroscience]
 +
* [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/| Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities]
 +
* [http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=cfar| Vanderbilt-Meharry Center for AIDS Research]
  
−
In ''[[The Times Higher Education Supplement]] 2006'', Vanderbilt is ranked 26th in North America and 53rd worldwide.<ref>{{cite news |last = O'Leary |first = John, ed |title = World University Rankings 2006 |work = [[The Times Higher Education Supplement]] |page = 3 |date = 2006-10-06 |url = http://www.fc.ethz.ch/facts/inst_research/thes/THES_World_University_Rankings_2006.pdf |format = [[PDF|Adobe PDF]] |accessdate = 2007-01-10  }}</ref> The 2007 [[Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index]], a measure of the scholarly output of the faculty of nearly 7,300 doctoral programs around the United States, ranked Vanderbilt 8th among large research universities, and 1st in the areas of [[comparative literature]], [[educational leadership]], [[pharmacology]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and special education.<ref>{{cite news |last = Fogg |first = Piper |title = A New Standard for Measuring Doctoral Programs |work = The Chronicle of Higher Education |page = A8 |date = 2007-01-12 |url = http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i19/19a00801.htm |accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref>
+
The [http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/about/ Vanderbilt Medical Center] is a vital component of the university and is the only Level I Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee.<ref>Vanderbilt University, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/facts.html "RE:VU: Quick Facts about Vanderbilt."] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref>
−
 
 
−
''The Wall Street Journal'' ranked Owen second among "smaller" business schools in 2004.<ref>{{cite press release |title = Owen School ranked No. 2 among smaller schools by Wall Street Journal |publisher = Vanderbilt University |date = 2004-09-22 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases/2004/9/22/owen_school_ranked_no._2_among_smaller_schools_by_wall_street_journal |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
==Campus layout==
 
−
[[Image:Vandyarboretum.jpg|thumb|upright|left|National Arboretum plaque]]
 
−
The Vanderbilt campus is located approximately {{convert|1.5|mi|km|1}} southwest of downtown in the West End neighborhood of midtown Nashville. It has an area of {{convert|330|acre|km2|1}}, though this figure includes large tracts of sparsely used land in the southwest part of the main campus, as well as the Medical Center. The historical core of campus encompasses approximately {{convert|30|acre|km2|1}}. The Vanderbilt campus is roughly fan-shaped (with the point at the corner of West End and 21st Avenues) and reflects the university's gradual expansion to the south and to the west. The campus is fairly compact, however, and the farthest distance on campus takes about 25 minutes to walk.
 
−
 
 
−
The oldest part of the Vanderbilt campus is known for its abundance of trees and green space, which stand in contrast to the surrounding cityscape of urban Nashville. The campus was designated as a national arboretum in 1988 by the Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.<ref> Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, [http://www.owen.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbilt/About/owen-newsroom/maps-directions/index.cfm Maps & Directions]. Retrieved February 2, 2009.</ref> Every tree indigenous to the state of Tennessee can be found on Vanderbilt’s 330-acre campus. The [[oak tree]] between Garland Hall and Rand Hall is known as the Bicentennial Oak, as it predates the [[American Revolution]].<ref>Admissions/Visiting, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/visitSelfGuided.php Self-Guided Tours]. Retrieved February 2, 2009.</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
===Main campus===
 
−
In the northeast corner of the campus (the base of the fan) is the original campus. The first college buildings, including Kirkland Hall, were erected here in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. This section stretches 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 Graduate School of Management, and the Divinity School, are located in the original campus. Additionally, the Heard Central Library and Sarratt Student Center/Rand Hall can be found on the original campus.
 
−
 
 
−
[[Image:Vandybicentennialtree.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Bicentennial Oak, facing Buttrick Hall]]
 
−
Flanking the original campus to the south are the Stevenson Center for Science and Mathematics and the School of Engineering complex (Jacobs Hall-Featheringill Hall). Housing the Science Library, the School of Engineering, and all the science and math departments of the College of Arts and Science, save for psychology, this complex sits between the original campus and the Medical Center. The Vanderbilt University Medical Center itself 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 major research facilities.
 
−
 
 
−
[[Image:peabodybridge.jpg|thumb|left|One of a pair of pedestrian bridges that spans 21st Avenue and connects the central campus to the Peabody campus.]]
 
−
West of the original campus and the Medical Center, Greek Row and the bulk of the Vanderbilt residence halls are found. From north to south, Carmichael Towers, Greek Row, Branscomb Quadrangle, and Highland Quadrangle house the vast majority of on-campus residents in facilities ranging from the double-occupancy shared-bathroom dorms in Branscomb and Towers to the apartments and lodges in Highland Quadrangle. This part of campus is newer than the others; Vanderbilt's westward growth did not start until the 1950s. This portion of campus was built by tearing down small single family houses and duplexes dating from the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, and so the area has significantly less green space than the arboretum on the original campus and is more indicative of the university's urban locale.
 
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−
[[Memorial Gymnasium (Vanderbilt University)|Memorial Gymnasium]], [[Vanderbilt Stadium]], [[Hawkins Field]], McGugin Center, and all the other varsity athletic fields and facilities are to be found in the extreme west of campus. The Student Recreation Center and its associated intramural fields are located south of the varsity facilities.
 
−
 
 
−
===Peabody campus===
 
−
[[Image:PA020283.JPG|thumb|The Wyatt Center on the Peabody campus]]
 
−
Directly across 21st Avenue from the Medical Center sits the campus of the Peabody College of Education and Human Development. Due to their separate histories until the merger, the Peabody campus was configured in a radically different style than the original Vanderbilt campus. Whereas the latter has an unplanned organic design with buildings scattered throughout, Peabody campus was planned as a geometric design, similar to the [[Jeffersonian architecture|Jeffersonian]] style of the [[University of Virginia]]. The campus is home not only to Peabody College but also to The Commons, where all freshmen live together as part of the [[Vanderbilt University#College halls|College Halls]] plan.
 
−
[[Image:VanderbiltCommons.jpg|thumb|right|The Commons, located on the Peabody campus, is part of the new College Halls system at Vanderbilt.]]
 
  
 
==Student life==
 
==Student life==
−
===Organizations===
+
All undergraduate students not living with relatives in [[Davidson County, Tennessee|Davidson County]] are required to live on campus all four years to the extent that on-campus student housing facilities can accommodate them. In practice, approximately 83 percent of undergraduates—freshmen, sophomores, nearly all juniors, and most seniors—currently live on campus. The remaining undergraduates join graduate and professional students in living off-campus. Student life at Vanderbilt is consequently heavily intertwined with campus life.
−
[[Image:Vanderbilt Sailing Club Homecoming Regatta.jpg|thumb|left|Sailing Club Regatta]]
 
−
The university recognizes nearly 400 student organizations, ranging from academic major societies and honoraries to recreational sports clubs, the oldest of which is the [[Vanderbilt Sailing Club]]. There are also more than 30 service organizations on campus, giving students the opportunity to perform community service across the country and around the world, including the Vanderbilt-founded [[Alternative Spring Break]].
 
  
−
Despite the lack of an organized journalism curriculum, no less than ten editorially-independent media outlets are produced and controlled by students. In addition, a sportswriting scholarship, named for Vanderbilt alumni [[Fred Russell]] and [[Grantland Rice]], is awarded each year to an entering Vanderbilt freshman who intends to pursue a career in sportswriting. Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc., (VSC) owns eight print publications, a broadcast radio station, and a closed-circuit television station. One publication, ''The Vanderbilt Hustler'', was established in 1888 and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Nashville (the newspaper's name references another nickname for the Commodore based on his cutthroat business practices, ''i.e.'', that he "hustled" people out of their money). The on-campus radio station, [[WRVU]], represents the student body by playing a range of music from bluegrass to choral, with a focus on non-mainstream music,<ref>{{cite news |last = Taylor |first = Kelly |coauthors = Sam Patton |title = Letter: Greer column fails to mention diversity of campus radio station |work = The Vanderbilt Hustler |date = 2007-04-04 |url = http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/3976 |accessdate = 2007-04-26 }}</ref> while the campus television station, Vanderbilt Television (VTV), showcases student-produced films, skits, and news and entertainment-based shows.  
+
The university recognizes nearly 400 student organizations, ranging from academic societies to recreational sports clubs, the oldest of which is the [[Vanderbilt Sailing Club]]. There are also more than 30 service organizations on campus, giving students the opportunity to perform [[community service]] across the country and around the world. Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc., (VSC) owns eight print publications, a broadcast radio station, and a closed-circuit television station. One publication, ''The Vanderbilt Hustler'', was established in 1888 and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Nashville (the newspaper's name references another nickname for the Commodore based on his business practices, namely that he "hustled" people out of their money). The on-campus radio station, [[WRVU]], represents the student body by playing a range of music from bluegrass to choral, with a focus on non-mainstream music,<ref>Kelly Taylor and Sam Patton, [http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/3976 Letter: Greer column fails to mention diversity of campus radio station,] ''The Vanderbilt Hustler,'' April 4, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref> while the campus television station, Vanderbilt Television (VTV), showcases student-produced films, skits, and news and entertainment-based shows.  Additional student publications include those published by the Vanderbilt University Law School, which publishes three [[law review]]s; the flagship journal is the ''[[Vanderbilt Law Review]]''. Greeks are an active part of the social scene on and off campus, and the university is home to 21 [[fraternity|fraternities]] and 14 [[sorority|sororities]].  
  
−
VSC was formed as a not-for-profit corporation in 1967 to insulate the university from potential liability and to maintain journalistic independence after a series of controversial articles published by ''The Hustler''. During the 1970s, VSC funded a visiting journalist position to provide advice and counsel to its various operating units. Initially, the directors of VSC included a faculty chairman of the board of directors, several student directors, and an outside journalist director. Among the earlier journalist directors was [[John Seigenthaler]], the then-president, publisher, and editor of ''[[The Tennessean]]'', who also played an instrumental role in the creation of ''[[USA Today]]''.
+
[[Image:Memorial Gymnasium Vanderbilt.jpg|thumb|right|Vanderbilt's basketball teams play in Memorial Gymnasium.]]
 +
Vanderbilt is a charter member of the [[Southeastern Conference]] and is the conference's only private school. With fewer than 6,600 undergraduates, the school is also the smallest in the conference. Vanderbilt therefore fields fewer teams than any of its rivals—only 16—and sometimes lacks the national prominence enjoyed by schools such as the [[University of Florida]] or the [[University of Kentucky]]. The school is a member of the [[American Lacrosse Conference]] for [[women's lacrosse]], as the SEC does not sponsor that sport. Conversely, Vanderbilt is the only league school not to field teams in [[softball]] and [[volleyball]].
  
−
Additional student publications include those published by the Vanderbilt University Law School, which publishes three [[law review]]s; the flagship journal is the ''[[Vanderbilt Law Review]]''.
+
Men's and women's [[tennis]] and [[Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball|men's]] and women's [[basketball]] are traditionally Vanderbilt's strongest sports, with the more recently founded women's [[lacrosse]] and [[bowling]] programs as well as the long-standing men's [[baseball]] program experiencing moderate national success.  
  
−
[[Image:studioartcenter.jpg|thumb|right|The E. Bronson Ingram Studio Art Center (right) and the Student Life Center, completed in 2005, are located in the heart of the central campus, near Branscomb Quadrangle.]]
+
Vanderbilt's intercollegiate athletics teams are nicknamed the Commodores, in honor of the nickname given to [[Cornelius Vanderbilt]], who made his fortune in [[shipping]]. The term "[[commodore (rank)|commodore]]" was used by the [[United States Navy|Navy]] during the mid- to late-nineteenth century, a commodore being the commanding officer of a task force of ships, and therefore higher in rank than a captain but lower in rank than an admiral. Since the term was used most during the nineteenth century, Vanderbilt's mascot is usually portrayed as a naval officer named "Mr. Commodore," or just "Mr. C," dressed in the style of the late 1800s, complete with [[sideburns]], [[cutlass]], and uniform.<ref name=woolsey/> Students and alumni refer to Vanderbilt athletic teams as the "Dores" and use the cheer "Go Dores!"<ref name=woolsey>Matthew Woolsey, ''Vanderbilt University 2007'' (College Prowler, 2006, ISBN 1427402086).</ref>
−
Greeks are an active part of the social scene on and off campus, and the university is home to 21 [[fraternities]] and 14 [[sororities]]. As of 2006&ndash;2007, 35% of men were members of fraternities and 49% of women were members of sororities, or 42% of the total undergraduate population.<ref>{{cite web |title = 2006 - 2007 Membership Statistics |publisher = Vanderbilt University Office of Greek Life |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/greek_life/stats/statistics07spring.doc |format = Microsoft Word Document |accessdate = 2008-04-11 }}</ref>
 
  
−
===Honor Code===
+
==Traditions==
−
Since the first classes began at Vanderbilt, the Honor System has served to strengthen the academic integrity of the university. Its principles were outlined in a famous quote by long-time Dean of Students Madison Sarratt:<ref>{{cite web |last = Sarratt |first = Madison |title = Honor Quotes |publisher = Vanderbilt University Undergraduate Honor Council |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/HonorCouncil/honorquo.php | accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref> {{quote|Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good men in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good men in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.}}
+
Vanderbilt has many traditions. The one taken most seriously is the Code of Honor. As a part of their first act together as a class, each entering class meets together at the Honor Code Signing Ceremony, where every member of the class pledges their honor and signs the code. The signature pages are then hung in Sarratt Student Center.<ref name=woolsey/> The ceremony is one of only two occasions where a class will be congregated in a single place at the same time (the other being Commencement).
  
−
As a part of their first act together as a class, each Vanderbilt class meets together at the Honor Code Signing Ceremony, where every member of the class pledges their honor and signs the code. The signature pages are then hung in Sarratt Student Center. The ceremony is one of only two occasions where a class will be congregated in a single place at the same time (the other being Commencement).
+
Commodre Quake is an annual concert held in the Memorial Gym that starts homecoming week. Rites of Spring is another musical event, a festival held right before finals that has brought such famous bands and performers as [[Dave Matthews Band]] and [[Nelly]].<ref name=traditions>Vanderbilt University, [http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/randomTraditions.php "Traditions and Lore."] Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref>
  
−
The Undergraduate Honor Council was formed to help enforce and protect the tradition of the Honor Code. Today, the Honor Council serves two simultaneous aims: to enforce and protect the Honor Code and to inform members of the Vanderbilt community about the Honor System.
+
The University has a special hand sign to indicate a V and U for the school's initials: Extend your thumb, index, and middle fingers of the right hand (palm facing out) to form a "V" and "U."<ref name=traditions/>
  
−
===Student housing===
+
==Notable alumni and faculty==
−
[[Image:Vandy-Kissam Hall.jpg|thumb|left|Kissam Hall was a men's dormitory from 1901 until it was razed in 1958. The baths were all in the basement.]]
+
Notable alumni and affiliates include two Vice Presidents of the United States, 25 [[Rhodes Scholar]]s, five [[Nobel Prize]] laureates, and several [[Pulitzer Prize]] and [[Academy Award]] winners among others.<ref>Vanderbilt University, [http://admissions.vanderbilt.edu/undergraduate-alumni.php Notable Alumni] Retrieved January 13, 2011.</ref>
−
All undergraduate students not living with relatives in [[Davidson County, Tennessee|Davidson County]] are required to live on campus all four years to the extent that on-campus student housing facilities can accommodate them. In practice, though, approximately 83% of undergraduates&mdash;freshmen, sophomores, nearly all juniors and most seniors&mdash;currently live on campus. The remaining undergraduates join graduate and professional students in living off-campus. Student life at Vanderbilt is consequently heavily intertwined with campus life.
 
  
−
[[Image:Highlandquad.jpg|thumb|right|Highland Quadrangle is a popular housing choice among upperclassmen.]]
+
===Alumni===
−
However, the on-campus residential system is currently undergoing a radical change. The new system, announced by the administration in 2002, would change the current structure of quadrangle-based residence halls to a new system of residential colleges, to be called "College Halls." Similar to the residential structures at [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]], [[Harvard University|Harvard]], [[Rice University|Rice]], and [[Yale University|Yale]], the new College Halls system would create residence halls where students and faculty would live together in a self-contained environment, complete with study rooms, cafeterias, laundry facilities, and stores. This project is now underway and is scheduled to be completed within the next 20 years.
+
* [[John D. Arnold]], founder of Centaurus Energy.
 +
* [[Rosanne Cash]], singer and songwriter.
 +
* [[William Prentice Cooper]]—former Governor of [[Tennessee]] and [[Ambassador]] to [[Peru]].
 +
* [[Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück]]—[[Biophysics|biophysicist]] and [[Nobel laureate]].
 +
* [[James Dickey]]—poet and novelist.
 +
* [[Michael L. Gernhardt]]—[[National Aero Space Agency|NASA]] [[Astronaut]].  
 +
* [[Al Gore]], 45th [[Vice President of the United States]], former [[U.S. Senator]], former [[U.S. Representative]], environmental activist.
 +
* [[Amy Grant]]--Contemporary Christian music artist.  
 +
* [[Marci Hamilton]]—lawyer, won [[Boerne v. Flores]] (1997), Constitutional law scholar.
 +
* [[James Clark McReynolds]]—Associate Justice of the [[United States Supreme Court]].
 +
* [[James Patterson]]—bestselling contemporary writer of thrillers.
 +
* [[H. Ross Perot, Jr.]]--Chairman of Perot Systems, real estate investor.
 +
* [[Wendell Rawls, Jr.]]—[[Journalism|journalist]], [[Pulitzer Prize]] winner.
 +
* [[Allen Tate]] - [[United States Poet Laureate]].
 +
* [[Fred Dalton Thompson]]—former U.S. Senator, actor on [[NBC]]'s ''Law & Order'' [[television]] series.
 +
* [[Robert Penn Warren]]—[[Pulitzer Prize]] winner, [[United States Poet Laureate]].
 +
* [[Jack Watson]]—Chief of Staff under President [[Jimmy Carter]].
 +
* [[Muhammad Yunus]]—[[Bangladesh|Bangladeshi]] [[bank]]er and [[economist]] who developed the concept of [[microcredit]]. Yunus and [[Grameen Bank]], which he founded, were jointly awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 2006, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."<ref name="Nobel">The Norwegian Nobel Committee, [http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html "The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006,"] NobelPrize.org, October 13, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2009.</ref>
  
−
[[Image:P8160203.JPG|thumb|The Commons Center dining hall]]
+
===Faculty===
−
The first step in the College Halls system will be The Commons, a collection of ten residential halls on the Peabody campus that will house all first-year students beginning in the fall of 2008. While the university currently houses freshmen in three separate and distinct residential areas, it is hoped that The Commons will give first-year students a unified (and unifying) living-learning experience. Vanderbilt renovated five existing residence halls on Peabody and built five new halls to complement them. Two of the new residence halls have received [[Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design|LEED]] silver certification and the new Commons Dining Center has received gold certification, making Vanderbilt the only university in the state to be recognized by the [[United States Green Building Council|U.S. Green Building Council]].<ref>{{cite press release |title = Vanderbilt first university in Tennessee recognized for "green" building |publisher = Vanderbilt University |date = 2007-08-17 |url = http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/newspub/bjfTyg?id=36730 |accessdate = 2007-09-02 }}</ref><ref>{{cite press release |title = Vanderbilt University goes for the gold and wins for 'green' building efforts |publisher = Vanderbilt University |date = 2008-06-18 |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/myvu/news/2008/06/16/vanderbilt-university-goes-for-the-gold-and-wins-for-green-building-efforts.60447 |accessdate = 2008-06-18 }}</ref>  The university expects all five of the new residence halls and one renovated residence hall to eventually receive LEED recognition.<ref>{{cite news |last = Sisk |first = Chas |title = Seven Vanderbilt buildings to get 'green' certification |url = http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070903/BUSINESS02/709030330/1045/NEWS05 |work = The Tennessean |date = 2007-09-03 |accessdate = 2007-09-03 }}</ref>  The total cost of The Commons construction project is expected to be over $150 million.<ref>{{cite news |last = Lewis |first = Princine |title = Living and learning at Vanderbilt to undergo major transformation |work = The Vanderbilt Register |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/register/articles?id=31832 |date = 2005-06-13 |accessdate = 2007-07-01 }}</ref>
+
* [[Stanley Cohen]]—[[Biochemistry|biochemist]], discoverer of cellular growth factors, [[Nobel prize]] winner (1986).
 +
* [[Alain Connes]]--[[Mathematics|mathematician]], [[Fields Medal]] Winner (1982).  
 +
* [[Ellen Goldring]]—[[education]] scholar.  
 +
* [[Ernest William Goodpasture]]—pioneering [[virology|virologist]].
 +
* [[Elijah Embree Hoss]]—chair of Ecclesiastical History, Church Polity and Pastoral Theology (1885-1890), later a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.  
 +
* [[Roy Neel]]—Campaign Manager for [[Howard Dean]], Deputy Chief of Staff for [[President Bill Clinton]] and Chief of Staff for Al Gore.
 +
* [[Margaret Rhea Seddon]]—[[astronaut]].  
 +
* [[Ronald Spores]]—[[Archaeology|archaeologist]], [[Cultural anthropology|ethnohistorian]] and [[Mesoamerica|Mesoamerican]] scholar
 +
* [[Earl Sutherland]]—[[Physiology|physiologist]], discoverer of hormonal second messengers, Nobel Prize winner.
  
−
With the addition of these new residence halls, the university will be able to house all undergraduate students on campus. Since university policy requires undergraduates to live on campus when possible, Vanderbilt's Office of Housing and Residential Education will no longer grant students permission to live off campus, beginning with the class graduating in 2009.<ref name="commons">{{cite news |last = Brown |first = Christine |title = Class of 2009 will not live off campus |work = The Vanderbilt Hustler |date = 2007-01-21 |url = http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/2543 |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref> Many current students who came to Vanderbilt with the understanding that seniors were generally allowed to live off campus are now disappointed that they must live on campus all four years.<ref>{{cite news |last = Levine |first = Jason |title = Administrators should work with students to resolve housing problems |work = The Vanderbilt Hustler |date = 2007-03-18 |url = http://www.insidevandy.com/drupal/node/3627 |accessdate = 2007-04-25 }}</ref> However, university administrators believe the undergraduate community receives the greatest benefit from living in on-campus residence halls, citing increased interaction with faculty, better academic performance, and stronger interpersonal relationships.<ref name="commons" />
+
==Notes==
 +
<references/>
  
−
Plans are under way to build the next two College Halls at the corner of West End Avenue and 21st Avenue, the current site of Kissam Quadrangle. Upperclass students will live in a mixture of single- and double-occupancy rooms organized into suites. A dining center will be located between the two College Halls with rooftop and patio seating. Guest quarters, classroom space, conference rooms, offices and underground parking are all also planned for the yet-unnamed facility. Everton Oglesby Architects PLLC has been selected to design the two new College Halls. <ref>{{cite news |last = Brashar |first = Joan |title = The Commons: What Comes Next? |work = Vanderbilt View |date = 2008-07-31 |url = http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/vanderbiltview/articles/2008/07/31/the-commons-what-comes-next.61983 |accessdate = 2008-08-03 }}</ref>
+
==References==
−
 
+
*Carey, Bill. ''Chancellors, Commodores, & Coeds: A History of Vanderbilt University''. Clearbrook Press, 2005. ISBN 097256800X
−
===Myths===
+
*Collins, Robert D. ''Ernest William Goodpasture: Scientist, Scholar, Gentleman''. Hillsboro Press, 2002. ISBN 1577362519
−
Vanderbilt's long history has given birth to several myths and urban legends. Some of the more well known:<ref>{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Traditions & Lore |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions/randomTraditions.php |accessdate = 2007-04-26 }}</ref>
+
*McGaw, Robert A. ''The Vanderbilt Campus: A Pictorial History''. Vanderbilt University Press, 1978. ISBN 0826512100
−
 
+
*Renehan, Edward J. ''Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt''. Basic Books, 2007. ISBN 0465002552
−
[[Image:StudentLifeCenter.JPG|thumb|right|The Student Life Center as seen from the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center esplanade.]]
+
*Robinson, Roscoe R. ''Onward and Upward: Vanderbilt University Medical Center 1981-1997''. Providence House Publishers, 2006. ISBN 157736368X
−
 
+
*Stiles, T.J. ''The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt''. Vintage, 2010. ISBN 978-1400031740
−
* The administration at Vanderbilt has canceled classes only twice, once because of a loose bull on campus.
+
*Woolsey, Matthew. ''Vanderbilt University 2007''. College Prowler, 2006. ISBN 1427402086
−
:Fact: Vanderbilt has canceled classes many times over its history, but not because of a loose bull.
 
−
 
 
−
* There is no bell at the top of Kirkland Hall, just a stereo system that imitates chimes.
 
−
:Fact: After Kirkland Hall burned in 1905, Nashville schoolchildren collected money for a new 2,000-pound bell, which still chimes on the hour from Kirkland Tower.
 
−
 
 
−
* The teacher in ''[[Dead Poets Society]]'' is based on Vanderbilt professor John Lachs.
 
−
:Fact: The film's screenplay was written by [[Tom Schulman]], who is a Vanderbilt alumnus, but he based the story on his experiences at [[Montgomery Bell Academy]], a Nashville area prep school.
 
−
 
 
−
==Athletics==
 
−
{{main|Vanderbilt Commodores}}
 
−
[[Image:Memorial Gymnasium Vanderbilt.jpg|thumb|right|Vanderbilt's basketball teams play in Memorial Gymnasium.]]
 
−
Vanderbilt is a charter member of the [[Southeastern Conference]] and is the conference's only private school. With fewer than 6,600 undergraduates, the school is also the smallest in the conference; the SEC's next-smallest school, the University of Mississippi, has nearly twice as many undergraduate students. Vanderbilt therefore fields fewer teams than any of its rivals&mdash;only 16&mdash;and sometimes lacks the national prominence enjoyed by schools such as the [[University of Florida]] or the [[University of Kentucky]]. Additionally, the school is a member of the [[American Lacrosse Conference]] for [[women's lacrosse]], as the SEC does not sponsor that sport. Conversely, Vanderbilt is the only league school not to field teams in [[softball]] and [[volleyball]], but has discussed adding either or both sports in the future.<ref>{{cite news |last = Patton |first = Maurice |title = Success may add teams at Vandy |work = The Tennessean |date = 2007-05-14 |url = http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/SPORTS0602/705140359/1002/SPORTS&template=pdaart |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
Men's and women's [[tennis]] and [[Vanderbilt Commodores men's basketball|men's]] and women's [[basketball]] are traditionally Vanderbilt's strongest sports, with the more recently founded women's [[lacrosse]] and [[bowling]] programs as well as the long-standing men's [[baseball]] program experiencing moderate national success. After enjoying success in the first half of the 20th century, the [[Vanderbilt Commodores football|football program]] has struggled in more recent times.
 
−
 
 
−
===Athletics restructuring===
 
−
[[Image:Hawkins Field.JPG|right|thumb|Hawkins Field in June 2007]]
 
−
In September 2003, Vanderbilt earned national attention when it announced that it was eliminating its athletic department. Then-Chancellor Gee called Vanderbilt's varsity athletes "isolated," and insisted that student-athletes would perform better if they were integrated into the rest of the student body. So rather than administer athletics separately from student life, Gee folded the university's varsity teams into the Office of Student Life, the same group that oversees all student organizations. The university is unique in Division I in this regard.<ref>{{cite news |last = Bechtel |first = Mark |title = A Process of Elimination: Vanderbilt has found greater sports success since losing its athletics department |work = [[Sports Illustrated]] |date = 2007-06-06 |accessdate = 2007-07-02 }}</ref> Despite fears that Vanderbilt would lose coaches and recruits or would be forced out of the SEC, the university has experienced considerable success since the change; 2006&ndash;07 was one of the best in the school's athletic history. At one point, seven of Vanderbilt's 16 teams were concurrently ranked in the Top 25 of their respective sports.<ref>{{cite press release | title = Seven Vanderbilt teams ranked in Top 25 | publisher = Vanderbilt University | date = 2007-02-23 | url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases/2007/2/23/seven-vanderbilt-teams-ranked-in-top-25 | accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>  Women's bowling won the NCAA championship, bringing the university its first and only team championship since the advent of the NCAA.<ref>{{cite web |last = Vanderbilt Athletic Department |title = Vanderbilt Bowlers Make History |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://vucommodores.cstv.com/sports/w-bowl/recaps/041407aab.html |accessdate = 2007-04-14 }}</ref> The baseball team qualified for the NCAA Super Regionals in 2004, had the nation's top recruiting class in 2005 according to ''[[Baseball America]]'',<ref>{{cite web |last = Kimmey |first = Will |title = Vandy Recruits Stay For Top Recruiting Class |work = Baseball America |date = 2005-10-11 |url = http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/051011vandy.html |accessdate = 2007-01-10 }}</ref> made the NCAA field again in 2006, and won the 2007 SEC regular-season and tournament championships. Vanderbilt was ranked first in most polls for a large portion of the 2007 season, and the team secured the top seed in the [[2007 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament|2007 NCAA tournament]].<ref>{{cite press release | title = Vanderbilt Awarded No. 1 National Seed | publisher = Vanderbilt University | date = 2007-05-28 | url = http://vucommodores.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/052807aae.html | accessdate = 2007-05-29 }}</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
===Mascot===
 
−
Vanderbilt's intercollegiate athletics teams are nicknamed the Commodores, in honor of the nickname given to Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made his fortune in shipping. Students and alumni refer to Vanderbilt athletic teams as the "Dores" and use the cheer "Go Dores!"
 
−
 
 
−
The term ''[[commodore (rank)|commodore]]'' was used by the [[United States Navy|Navy]] during the mid- to late-nineteenth century. A commodore was the commanding officer of a task force of ships, and therefore higher in rank than a captain but lower in rank than an admiral. The closest parallel to this now-defunct rank is [[Rear admiral#United States|rear admiral lower-half]]. Since the term was used most during the 19th century, Vanderbilt's mascot is usually portrayed as a naval officer named "Mr. C" from the late 1800s, complete with [[sideburns|mutton chops]], [[cutlass]], and uniform.
 
−
 
 
−
==Notable faculty and alumni==
 
−
{{main|List of Vanderbilt University people}}
 
−
Vanderbilt has approximately 114,000 living alumni, with 31 alumni clubs established worldwide.<ref name="revu" />  Many Vanderbilt alumni have gone on to make significant contributions in politics, in the arts, and in the sciences. [[Lamar Alexander]] ([[Bachelor's degree|B.A.]] 1962) is a former [[List of Governors of Tennessee|Governor of Tennessee]] and a current U.S. senator; he filled the seat left vacant by the retirement of [[Fred Dalton Thompson|Fred Thompson]] (J.D. 1971).<ref name="pol-alums">{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Notable Alumni: Politics/Government |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/randomAlumniPol.php |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>  Two former [[Vice President of the United States|vice presidents]], [[John Nance Garner]] and [[Al Gore, Jr.]], attended the university, but did not graduate.<ref>{{cite web |last = Patenaude |first = Lionel V |title = Garner, John Nance |work = The Handbook of Texas Online |publisher = [[Texas State Historical Association]] |date = 2002-03-08 |url = http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/GG/fga24.html |accessdate = 2007-04-05 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last = Gore |first = Al |title = Al's Bio |url = http://www.algore.com/bio.html |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref> However, Gore's wife, [[Tipper Gore|Tipper]], is herself an alumna, receiving a [[master's degree]] from Peabody in 1975.<ref>{{cite web |last = The Executive Office of the President |title = White House Biography |url = http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/EOP/VP_Wife/megbio.html |publisher = U.S. National Archives and Records Administration |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>  Other alumni who are or have been involved in politics include former [[United States Supreme Court]] Associate Justice [[James Clark McReynolds]] (B.S. 1882); Congressmen [[Steve Cohen]] (B.A. 1971) and [[Ric Keller]] (J.D. 1992); [[David Boaz]] (B.A. 1975), Executive Vice President of the [[Cato Institute]];<ref name="pol-alums" /><ref>{{cite web |last = Cohen |first = Steve |title = Biography of Congressman Steve Cohen |url = http://cohen.house.gov/about.shtml |publisher = U.S. Congress |accessdate=2007-05-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last = Keller |first = Ric |title = Biography |publisher = U.S. Congress |accessdate = 2008-10-05 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last = Presidential Scholars Foundation |title = Presidential Scholars 1971 | publisher = The Commission on Presidential Scholars |url = http://www.presidentialscholars.org/scholars_year.asp?scholar_year=1971 |accessdate = 2007-04-05 }}</ref> and [[John R. Steelman]] (M.A. 1924), former [[White House Chief of Staff]]. In addition, Senator [[Theodore G. Bilbo|Theodore Bilbo]] attended both Peabody College and the Law School.
 
−
 
 
−
Given the university's location in Nashville, it is not surprising that many of its alumni become involved in the music industry. [[Dinah Shore]] (B.A. 1938), [[Rosanne Cash]] (B.A. 1979), [[Amy Grant]] (B.A. 1982), and [[Dierks Bentley]] (B.A. 1997) are all alumni.<ref name="arts-alums">{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Notable Alumni: Arts & Entertainment |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/randomAlumniArt.php |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>  Shore later went on to star in a variety of films; other Vanderbilt alumni with Hollywood connections include Academy Award-winners [[Delbert Mann]] (B.A. 1941) and Tom Schulman (B.A. 1972) and actors [[Molly Sims]] (B.S. 1995) and [[Joe Bob Briggs]] (B.A. 1974).<ref name="arts-alums" /><ref name="media-alums">{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Notable Alumni: Media |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/randomAlumniMedia.php |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
In addition, the university has a rich literary and journalistic legacy. Three [[Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress|U.S. Poets Laureate]] are Vanderbilt alums: [[Allen Tate]] (B.A. 1922), [[Robert Penn Warren]] (B.A. 1925), and [[Randall Jarrell]] (M.A. 1938). Warren later went on to the win the [[Pulitzer Prize]]. Novelists [[James Dickey]] (B.A. 1949) and [[James Patterson]] (M.A. 1970) also graduated from Vanderbilt.<ref name="arts-alums" />  Two well-known sportswriters, Grantland Rice (B.A. 1901) and Fred Russell (B.A. 1927), have a scholarship named after them at the university,<ref>{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Merit-based Aid |publisher = Vanderbilt University |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/financeMeritAid.php |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref> and [[Buster Olney]] (B.A. 1988) writes for ESPN.com and ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref name="media-alums" /> Journalist [[David Brinkley]] attended briefly.<ref>{{cite news |last = Severo |first = Richard |title = David Brinkley, Elder Statesman of TV News, Dies at 82 |work = The New York Times |date = 2003-06-12 |url = http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/12/obituaries/12CND-BRINK.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5007&en=cff03291e81a5ba9&ex=1370836800&partner=USERLAND |accessdate = 2007-04-05 }}</ref> [[Skip Bayless]] (B.A. 1974) of ''[[ESPN First Take]]'' attended Vanderbilt as a recipient of the Russell-Rice scholarship.<ref name="media-alums" />
 
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−
Current [[Denver Broncos]] quarterback [[Jay Cutler (American football)|Jay Cutler]] (B.S. 2005) is also a Vanderbilt alum and was drafted in the first round of the [[2006 NFL Draft]]. Offensive tackle [[Chris Williams (American football)|Chris Williams]] (B.S. 2008) was a first round pick by the [[Chicago Bears]] in 2008. Vanderbilt also produced the first overall draft pick of Major League Baseball in 2007 with [[David Price (baseball) | David Price]]. The pitching star was drafted by the then-named [[Tampa Bay Rays | Tampa Bay Devil Rays]].
 
−
 
 
−
Three alumni, biochemist [[Stanford Moore]] (B.A. 1935), economist [[Muhammad Yunus]] ([[Ph.D.]] 1971), and Al Gore have won the [[Nobel Prize]].<ref>{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Notable Alumni: Science/Medicine |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/randomAlumniSci.php |publisher = Vanderbilt University |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last = Office of Undergraduate Admissions |title = Notable Alumni: Philanthropy/Social Activism |url = http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Admissions/randomAlumniPhi.php |publisher = Vanderbilt University |accessdate = 2007-05-24 }}</ref> Four current or former members of the faculty also share that distinction: biochemist [[Stanley Cohen (neurologist)|Stanley Cohen]], neuroscientist [[Paul Greengard]], physiologist [[Earl Sutherland]], and pioneer molecular biologist [[Max Delbrück]].<ref name="revu" />
 
  
 +
==Gallery==
 
{|style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
 
{|style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"
 
<gallery>
 
<gallery>
Line 247: Line 210:
 
|}
 
|}
  
−
==Notes==
+
==External links==
−
<references/>
+
All links retrieved May 3, 2023.
−
 
 
−
==References==
 
−
 
 
  
 +
*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ Vanderbilt University Website]
 +
*[http://vanderbilt.edu/trees/tours/ Arboreal tour of campus]
 +
*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/map/ Map of campus]
 +
*[http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/pan/item/2007662807/ Panoramic photograph of Vanderbilt published in 1909]
 +
*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni Vanderbilt University Alumni Association]
 +
*[http://www.vucommodores.com Vanderbilt Commodores] Vanderbilt Official Athletic Site
  
−
==External links==
 
  
−
*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ Vanderbilt University homepage]
 
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*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/map/map.cgi?mode=1 Map of campus]
 
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*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/admissions Vanderbilt University Office of Undergraduate Admissions homepage]
 
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*[http://www.vucommodores.com Vanderbilt University Athletics homepage]
 
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*[http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni Vanderbilt University Alumni homepage]
 
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*[http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/ Vanderbilt University Medical Center]
 
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*[http://www.vanderbiltchildrens.com/ Vanderbilt Children's Hospital]
 
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*[http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/pan:@field(SUBJ+@od1(Vanderbilt)) Panoramic photograph of Vanderbilt published in 1909]
 
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*[http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/vu/frame.htm Arboreal tour of campus]
 
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*[http://www.lapopsurveys.org/ Latin American Public Opinion Project]
 
  
 
{{Association of American Universities}}
 
{{Association of American Universities}}
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{{Credits|Vanderbilt_University|255487864}}
 
{{Credits|Vanderbilt_University|255487864}}

Latest revision as of 14:20, 3 May 2023

Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt Benson Science Hall.jpg
Established 1873
Type Private
Location Nashville, TN U.S.
Website www.vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in Nashville, Tennessee, in the United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes of making a contribution to the struggling society of the Post-Civil War South. Initially affiliated with Methodist Episcopal Church which regarded the University as an opportunity to unify their educational program and consolidate their presence in the Southern United States, following a power struggle the Methodists severed their ties with Vanderbilt.

In its history Vanderbilt has been involved in controversy surrounding issues of racial segregation. During the early days of the American Civil Rights Movement James Lawson was expelled for his activities. In later years the University changed its position, hiring him on the faculty. Vanderbilt also pioneered the inclusion of African Americans in sport, fielding the first black basketball player in the Southeastern Conference.

Today, Vanderbilt strives for scholarly excellence and freedom of inquiry, as well as diversity in its student body. It comprises four undergraduate and six graduate schools, and enrolls a large number of students from all 50 U.S. states and many foreign countries. Beyond its academic and professional programs, the university is known for its research programs and institutes, through which it strives to contribute to the larger community.

Mission and reputation

Interior of Owen Graduate School of Management
Did you know?
Vanderbilt University is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt states its mission as centering around "scholarly research, informed and creative teaching, and service to the community and society at large."[1] Its dedication to "intellectual freedom that supports open inquiry" and "equality, compassion, and excellence in all endeavors" are the means by which it actively pursues its mission.[1]

Vanderbilt University has a long held reputation for excellence, both in its teaching and research. It offers a "combination of cutting-edge research, liberal arts and a distinguished medical center" and nurtures an atmosphere where students in academic and professional fields can meet their educational goals while researchers are supported in collaborative efforts to "solve complex questions affecting our health, culture and society."[2]

Vanderbilt was ranked 17th in national universities in the 2011 edition of Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report.[3] In the same publication's graduate program rankings, Peabody College of Education and Human Development was listed first among schools of education, and the schools of law and medicine were ranked among the top 20 in the country. The Times Higher Education World University Rankings published by Times Higher Education (THE) ranked Vanderbilt as 51st in the world in 2010.[4]

History

Cornelius Vanderbilt
Bishop Holland McTyeire

The University is named after Cornelius Vanderbilt, a wealthy, northern industrialist who made the initial donation of $1,000,000 to the Methodist Episcopal Church so as to "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."[2] The donation was made to Bishop Holland N. McTyeire who was related to Vanderbilt through marriage and had spent time recovering in the Vanderbilt mansion following medical treatment in 1873. Vanderbilt had been considering philanthropic causes as he was at an advanced age.[5] After successfully convincing Vanderbilt of the importance of a central Southern University, McTyeire returned to the governing body of the Methodist Episcopal Church with enough money to start the university. From its inception, Vanderbilt focused on two educational goals: It offered work in the liberal arts and sciences beyond the baccalaureate degree and it included several professional schools.

In the fall of 1875, 307 students enrolled at Vanderbilt; the university was dedicated in October of that year. The student enrollment doubled itself each 25 years during the first century of the it's history: From 307 in the fall of 1875; 754 in 1900; 1,377 in 1925; 3,529 in 1950; to 7,034 in 1975, it reached over 10,000 by the end of the twentieth century.[2]

The main building after reconstruction, renamed Kirkland Hall.

James H. Kirkland, the longest serving chancellor in university history (1893-1937) guided Vanderbilt to rebuild after a fire in 1905 that destroyed the main building, which was renamed in Kirkland's honor. He also navigated the university through the separation from the Methodist Church.

Old Main (1875), photographed before it burned in 1905.

For the first 40 years, the Board of Trust (and therefore the university itself) was under the control of the General Conference (the governing body) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. However, tensions rose 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 and the extent to which non-Methodists could teach at the school.[6]

Vanderbilt Class of 1912

Starting in the early years of the twentieth century, a power struggle between the Bishops and the non-clergy members of the Board began, culminating in a vote to limit the power of the Bishops in the administration of the school. The Methodist Church took the issue to court and won at the local level; however, on March 21, 1914, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the Commodore, and not the Methodist Church, was the university's founder and that the board could therefore seat whomever it wished.[6] The General Conference in 1914 voted 151 to 140 to sever its ties with Vanderbilt; it also voted to establish a new university, Southern Methodist University, and to greatly expand Emory University.[7]

Vanderbilt University enjoyed early intellectual influence during the 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.[6] During the same period, Ernest William Goodpasture and his colleagues in the School of Medicine invented methods for cultivating viruses and rickettsiae in fertilized chicken eggs. This work made possible the production of vaccines against chicken pox, smallpox, yellow fever, typhus, Rocky mountain spotted fever, and other diseases caused by agents that propagate only in living cells.[8] These innovations helped to propel Vanderbilt's reputation as a research institution to equal some of the older and more prestigious U.S. schools at the time.

In the late 1950s, the Vanderbilt Divinity School became involved in the emerging American civil rights movement. A prominent leader and colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Lawson enrolled at the university's Divinity School. There he conducted nonviolence training workshops for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and launched the Nashville sit-ins to challenge racial segregation in downtown stores. Along with activists from Atlanta, Georgia, and elsewhere in the South, they formed the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in April 1960. SNCC and Lawson's students played a leading role in the Open Theater Movement, the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, the Birmingham Children's Crusade, the Selma Voting Rights Movement, and the Chicago Open Housing Movement, activities which resulted in Lawson's expulsion from the school. Much later, in 2005, Lawson was named a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements and re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006–2007 academic year.[9]

James Lawson speaking at a community meeting in Nashville, Tennessee in 2005.

Some years later, the university drew national attention once again; this time for an act of inclusion. In 1966, the university recruited the first African American athlete in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), Perry Wallace.[10] Wallace, from Nashville, played varsity basketball for Vanderbilt from 1967-1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues. Over the years, he received numerous awards for his efforts in integrating the SEC. A statue of him in front of Buttrick Hall memorializes his efforts.

From the mid-twentieth century onward, Vanderbilt University expanded, with the addition of new colleges, such as the Owen Graduate School of Management and the acquisition of Peabody College. Research and facilities also greatly improved and were continuously upgraded as Vanderbilt's reputation for excellence in the area of research became more widely recognized.

Beginning in 1981, under the leadership of Roscoe Robinson, the Medical Center rose in importance to become the nation's best. When Robinson retired in 1997, Vanderbilt University Medical Center had become a billion-dollar enterprise, with the best overall patient care facility in the region, and a reputation for world-class research.[11]

During the chancellorship of Joe B. Wyatt, from 1982 until 2000, great emphasis was placed on improving the quality of faculty and instruction. Wyatt oversaw a substantial increase in the university's endowment, greater student diversity, and the renovation of many campus buildings. The Wyatt Center on Peabody's campus is named for Wyatt and his wife. During Wyatt's tenure Vanderbilt rose to the top 25 in the U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings for the first time.[12]

Facilities

The Vanderbilt campus is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of downtown in the West End neighborhood of midtown Nashville. 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 as the Medical Center. The historical core of campus encompasses approximately 30 acres (0.1 km²).

Arboretum plaque (between Garland Hall and Rand Dining Facility)
Bicentennial Oak, facing Buttrick Hall

The oldest part of the Vanderbilt campus is known for its abundance of trees and green space, which stand in contrast to the surrounding cityscape of urban Nashville. The campus was designated as a national arboretum in 1988 by the Association of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta.[13] Every tree indigenous to the state of Tennessee can be found on the campus. The oak tree between Garland Hall and Rand Dining Facility is known as the Bicentennial Oak, as it predates the American Revolution.[14]

In the northeast corner of the campus is the original campus, which has many historic buildings that date back to the establishment of the university. To the south are the more modern additions, including many of the science and medical facilities. Directly across from the Medical Center sits the campus of the Peabody College of Education and Human Development. The campus is home not only to Peabody College but also to The Commons, where all freshmen live together as part of the College Halls plan.

The Commons, located on the Peabody campus, is part of the new College Halls system at Vanderbilt.

Due to their separate histories until the merger, the Peabody campus was configured in a radically different style than the original Vanderbilt campus. Whereas the latter has an unplanned organic design with buildings scattered throughout, Peabody campus was planned as a geometric design, similar to the Jeffersonian style of the University of Virginia.

The Jean and Alexander Heard Library is the University's main library. Originally established in 1873, the library suffered a fire that destroyed most of the collection.[15] It took many years to rebuild the collection to where it stands today at approximately two million. The Library also houses several unique collections, such as the Television News Archive, the University Memorabilia Room, Photograph Archives, and a selection of specialty manuscripts.

There are also seven library branches located on campus, specializing in different academic areas:

Vanderbilt University has several athletic and health related facilities. College basketball teams play in the the Memorial Gymnasium, which has a seating capacity of over 14,000.[16] Vanderbilt Stadium is where football is played, a stadium built in 1981 with a seating capacity of almost 40,000.[17] Other facilities include Hawkins Field for baseball, the Vanderbilt Track, a soccer and lacrosse field, the Brownlee O. Currey Jr. Tennis Center, and the John Rich Complex for athletic training. The Vanderbilt Legends Club of Tennessee is a 36 hole golf course that is located off campus. The university also has several exercise and health centers for students, most of which are located in the Student Recreation Center.

Programs

Vanderbilt University offers Bachelor's (undergraduate), Master's (graduate), and Doctorate/PhD (post-graduate). The College of Arts and Sciences offers both classic and more modern variants of the Liberal Arts and Sciences majors, including African American and Diaspora Studies, Ancient Ancient Mediterranean Studies Studies, Anthropology, Art Studio, Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Economics, English, Film Studies, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Psychology, and Women’s and Gender Studies.

The Blair School of Music offers four undergraduate degrees: Musical performance, composition/theory, musical arts, and musical education. The school of engineering offers several variety of undergraduate degrees, including Biomedical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The school offers graduate and post-graduate degrees in general engineering science.

The Divinity School offers Master's and Doctorate degrees in Theological Studies, Ethics and Society, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel, Historical Studies, History and Critical, Theories of Religion, Homiletics and Liturgics, Jewish Studies, New Testament and Early Christianity and Religion, Psychology, and Culture. The Law school offers the Master's level Jurispuridence degree as well as a PhD in Law and Economics. The Owen Graduate School of Management offers the general Master of Business Administration, Finance and Accountancy. The School of Medicine offers a Medical degree as well as health-related but non-medical degrees such as Biomedical Informatics, Chemical and Physical Biology Program, Hearing and Speech Sciences, and Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in the Biological Sciences. The School of Nursing offers both a Master's and PhD in Nursing.

Colleges and institutes

The Wyatt Center on the Peabody campus.

Vanderbilt University has four undergraduate schools:

  • College of Arts and Science
  • Blair School of Music
  • School of Engineering
  • Peabody College of Education and Human Development

The University also has six graduate and continuing education colleges:

  • Divinity School
  • Graduate School
  • Law School
  • School of Medicine
  • Owen Graduate School of Management
  • School of Nursing

In addition, the University has over 50 separate Research Centers and Facilities, which include:

The 11-story Doctor's Office Tower of the Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital, which was completed in 2004.

The Vanderbilt Medical Center is a vital component of the university and is the only Level I Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee.[18]

Student life

All undergraduate students not living with relatives in Davidson County are required to live on campus all four years to the extent that on-campus student housing facilities can accommodate them. In practice, approximately 83 percent of undergraduates—freshmen, sophomores, nearly all juniors, and most seniors—currently live on campus. The remaining undergraduates join graduate and professional students in living off-campus. Student life at Vanderbilt is consequently heavily intertwined with campus life.

The university recognizes nearly 400 student organizations, ranging from academic societies to recreational sports clubs, the oldest of which is the Vanderbilt Sailing Club. There are also more than 30 service organizations on campus, giving students the opportunity to perform community service across the country and around the world. Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc., (VSC) owns eight print publications, a broadcast radio station, and a closed-circuit television station. One publication, The Vanderbilt Hustler, was established in 1888 and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Nashville (the newspaper's name references another nickname for the Commodore based on his business practices, namely that he "hustled" people out of their money). The on-campus radio station, WRVU, represents the student body by playing a range of music from bluegrass to choral, with a focus on non-mainstream music,[19] while the campus television station, Vanderbilt Television (VTV), showcases student-produced films, skits, and news and entertainment-based shows. Additional student publications include those published by the Vanderbilt University Law School, which publishes three law reviews; the flagship journal is the Vanderbilt Law Review. Greeks are an active part of the social scene on and off campus, and the university is home to 21 fraternities and 14 sororities.

Vanderbilt's basketball teams play in Memorial Gymnasium.

Vanderbilt is a charter member of the Southeastern Conference and is the conference's only private school. With fewer than 6,600 undergraduates, the school is also the smallest in the conference. Vanderbilt therefore fields fewer teams than any of its rivals—only 16—and sometimes lacks the national prominence enjoyed by schools such as the University of Florida or the University of Kentucky. The school is a member of the American Lacrosse Conference for women's lacrosse, as the SEC does not sponsor that sport. Conversely, Vanderbilt is the only league school not to field teams in softball and volleyball.

Men's and women's tennis and men's and women's basketball are traditionally Vanderbilt's strongest sports, with the more recently founded women's lacrosse and bowling programs as well as the long-standing men's baseball program experiencing moderate national success.

Vanderbilt's intercollegiate athletics teams are nicknamed the Commodores, in honor of the nickname given to Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made his fortune in shipping. The term "commodore" was used by the Navy during the mid- to late-nineteenth century, a commodore being the commanding officer of a task force of ships, and therefore higher in rank than a captain but lower in rank than an admiral. Since the term was used most during the nineteenth century, Vanderbilt's mascot is usually portrayed as a naval officer named "Mr. Commodore," or just "Mr. C," dressed in the style of the late 1800s, complete with sideburns, cutlass, and uniform.[13] Students and alumni refer to Vanderbilt athletic teams as the "Dores" and use the cheer "Go Dores!"[13]

Traditions

Vanderbilt has many traditions. The one taken most seriously is the Code of Honor. As a part of their first act together as a class, each entering class meets together at the Honor Code Signing Ceremony, where every member of the class pledges their honor and signs the code. The signature pages are then hung in Sarratt Student Center.[13] The ceremony is one of only two occasions where a class will be congregated in a single place at the same time (the other being Commencement).

Commodre Quake is an annual concert held in the Memorial Gym that starts homecoming week. Rites of Spring is another musical event, a festival held right before finals that has brought such famous bands and performers as Dave Matthews Band and Nelly.[20]

The University has a special hand sign to indicate a V and U for the school's initials: Extend your thumb, index, and middle fingers of the right hand (palm facing out) to form a "V" and "U."[20]

Notable alumni and faculty

Notable alumni and affiliates include two Vice Presidents of the United States, 25 Rhodes Scholars, five Nobel Prize laureates, and several Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winners among others.[21]

Alumni

  • John D. Arnold, founder of Centaurus Energy.
  • Rosanne Cash, singer and songwriter.
  • William Prentice Cooper—former Governor of Tennessee and Ambassador to Peru.
  • Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück—biophysicist and Nobel laureate.
  • James Dickey—poet and novelist.
  • Michael L. Gernhardt—NASA Astronaut.
  • Al Gore, 45th Vice President of the United States, former U.S. Senator, former U.S. Representative, environmental activist.
  • Amy Grant—Contemporary Christian music artist.
  • Marci Hamilton—lawyer, won Boerne v. Flores (1997), Constitutional law scholar.
  • James Clark McReynolds—Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
  • James Patterson—bestselling contemporary writer of thrillers.
  • H. Ross Perot, Jr.—Chairman of Perot Systems, real estate investor.
  • Wendell Rawls, Jr.—journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner.
  • Allen Tate - United States Poet Laureate.
  • Fred Dalton Thompson—former U.S. Senator, actor on NBC's Law & Order television series.
  • Robert Penn Warren—Pulitzer Prize winner, United States Poet Laureate.
  • Jack Watson—Chief of Staff under President Jimmy Carter.
  • Muhammad Yunus—Bangladeshi banker and economist who developed the concept of microcredit. Yunus and Grameen Bank, which he founded, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."[22]

Faculty

  • Stanley Cohen—biochemist, discoverer of cellular growth factors, Nobel prize winner (1986).
  • Alain Connes—mathematician, Fields Medal Winner (1982).
  • Ellen Goldring—education scholar.
  • Ernest William Goodpasture—pioneering virologist.
  • Elijah Embree Hoss—chair of Ecclesiastical History, Church Polity and Pastoral Theology (1885-1890), later a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
  • Roy Neel—Campaign Manager for Howard Dean, Deputy Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton and Chief of Staff for Al Gore.
  • Margaret Rhea Seddon—astronaut.
  • Ronald Spores—archaeologist, ethnohistorian and Mesoamerican scholar
  • Earl Sutherland—physiologist, discoverer of hormonal second messengers, Nobel Prize winner.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Vanderbilt University, "Mission, Goals and Values." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Vanderbilt University, The History of Vanderbilt. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ U.S. News & World Report, "Vanderbilt University," Best Colleges, 2011.
  4. ↑ Times Higher Education THE World University Rankings 2010 Retrieved January 13, 2011.
  5. ↑ Edward J. Renehan, Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Basic Books, 2007, ISBN 0465002552).
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Bill Carey, Chancellors, Commodores, & Coeds: A History of Vanderbilt University (Clearbrook Press, 2005, ISBN 097256800X).
  7. ↑ Frank Gulley, "Vanderbilt University and Southern Methodism,"Nashville Historical Newsletter, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  8. ↑ Robert D. Collins, Ernest William Goodpasture: Scientist, Scholar, Gentleman (Hillsboro Press, 2002, ISBN 1577362519).
  9. ↑ Jim Patterson, "The Rev James Lawson to return as visiting professor," The Vanderbilt Register, January 30, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  10. ↑ Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, "Perry Wallace." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Roscoe R. Robinson, Onward and Upward: Vanderbilt University Medical Center 1981-1997 (Providence House Publishers, 2006, ISBN 157736368X)
  12. ↑ Vanderbilt University, Joe B. Wyatt 1982-2000. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Matthew Woolsey, Vanderbilt University 2007 (College Prowler, 2006, ISBN 1427402086).
  14. ↑ Vanderbilt University, "Self-Guided Tours." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  15. ↑ Vanderbilt University, "History of the Library". Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  16. ↑ Vanderbilt University, "Historic Memorial Gym." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  17. ↑ Vanderbilt University, "Vanderbilt Stadium." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  18. ↑ Vanderbilt University, "RE:VU: Quick Facts about Vanderbilt." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  19. ↑ Kelly Taylor and Sam Patton, Letter: Greer column fails to mention diversity of campus radio station, The Vanderbilt Hustler, April 4, 2007. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 Vanderbilt University, "Traditions and Lore." Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  21. ↑ Vanderbilt University, Notable Alumni Retrieved January 13, 2011.
  22. ↑ The Norwegian Nobel Committee, "The Nobel Peace Prize for 2006," NobelPrize.org, October 13, 2006. Retrieved February 23, 2009.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Carey, Bill. Chancellors, Commodores, & Coeds: A History of Vanderbilt University. Clearbrook Press, 2005. ISBN 097256800X
  • Collins, Robert D. Ernest William Goodpasture: Scientist, Scholar, Gentleman. Hillsboro Press, 2002. ISBN 1577362519
  • McGaw, Robert A. The Vanderbilt Campus: A Pictorial History. Vanderbilt University Press, 1978. ISBN 0826512100
  • Renehan, Edward J. Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Basic Books, 2007. ISBN 0465002552
  • Robinson, Roscoe R. Onward and Upward: Vanderbilt University Medical Center 1981-1997. Providence House Publishers, 2006. ISBN 157736368X
  • Stiles, T.J. The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vintage, 2010. ISBN 978-1400031740
  • Woolsey, Matthew. Vanderbilt University 2007. College Prowler, 2006. ISBN 1427402086

Gallery

  • Amy Grant
  • Max Delbrück
  • James Clark McReynolds

External links

All links retrieved May 3, 2023.


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