Maryville College

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This article is about Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. For Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri, see Maryville University.

Maryville College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Maryville, Tennessee, near Knoxville. It was founded in 1819 by Presbyterian minister Isaac L. Anderson for the purpose of furthering education and enlightenment into the West. The College is one of the fifty oldest colleges in the United States and the twelfth oldest institution in the South. It is associated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). It enrolls about 1,176 students. Maryville College's mascot is the Scots. The sports teams compete in NCAA Division III athletics in the Great South Athletic Conference and the USA South Athletic Conference.

[edit] Academics

As a liberal arts school, the college promotes a well rounded education. This is evidenced by the large quantity of general education courses that the school requires. These courses continue through the conclusion of the student's education, attempting to make a graduating student knowledgable in a number of fields.

Maryville College offers the following degrees:

In addition to these majors, a number of degree programs are available for teacher licensure.

Maryville College is one of the few colleges in the nation that require graduating students to complete both a comprehensive exam in their major of choice as well as conduct an extensive senior thesis.

Maryville College operates on the untraditional 4-1-4 schedule. During the month of January, students take a "J-Term" course which lasts for the month and typically incorporates experiential learning. Study abroad trips are also offered during J-term.

[edit] History

[edit] Founding

Maryville College was founded as the Southern and Western Theological Seminary in 1819 by Isaac L. Anderson, a Presbyterian minister. Anderson had founded a school, Union Academy, in nearby Knox County, before becoming minister at New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville. He expressed to his fellow clergy the need for more ministers in the community, including a request to the Home Missionary Society and an appeal to divinity students at Princeton University in 1819. The new seminary was intended to help fill this need for ministers. It opened with a class of five men, and the new school was adopted by the Synod of Tennessee and formally named the Southern and Western Theological Seminary in October of 1819.[1].

[edit] Integration

In 2004, Maryville College was recognized by the Race Relations Center of East Tennessee for its history of "contributing to improving the quality of life for all in East Tennessee" .[2] Maryville College was racially integrated from its earliest days. An ex-slave named George Erskine studied there in 1819, sponsored by the Manumission Society of Tennessee. Erskine went on to preach during the 1820s and was formally ordained by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in 1829.[3]

Maryville College was closed during the Civil War, but, upon reopening, it again admitted students regardless of race, assisted by the Freedman's Bureau [4]

When the State of Tennessee forced Maryville College to segregate in 1901, the college gave one-quarter of its endowment to Knoxville College, an historically black college also affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, the College immediately reenrolled African Americans.

[edit] Campus Life

The vast majority of Maryville College students reside in one of the many on campus residence halls, promoting a tight-knit community among the students. Students may reside in any one of the following residence halls.

• Gamble Hall: Features all male, typically freshman housing. Rooms are available as both doubles and singles. Also features communal bathrooms.
• Davis Hall: Features all female, typically freshman housing. Rooms are available as both doubles and singles. Also features communal bathrooms.
• Copeland Hall: Features co-ed, typically freshman housing. Rooms are available as both doubles and singles. Also features communal bathrooms.
• Pearsons Hall: Upper class housing that consists of both double and single rooms. Some rooms have individual bathrooms and/or kitchens but communal bathrooms and kitchens are also available. One of the wet residence halls on campus.
• Lloyd Hall: Primarily upper class, Lloyd Hall offers suite style living. These rooms are composed of a living room, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. Some rooms also contain kitchens. Lloyd Hall is a "wellness hall," which means that students must refrain from drinking, smoking and drug use within the building.
• Carnegie Hall: Upper class living that includes a variety of different room types. Rooms can be suite style or single, with all rooms containing individual bathrooms and some with individual kitchens. This is also a wet residence hall.
• Beeson Village: A complex of primarily upper class residences. Beeson Village offers apartment style living and is one of the newer campus living accommodations.
• Court Street Apartments: Located just off campus, Court Street Apartments offer single bedroom apartments shared by two students.

[edit] Athletics

Maryville College sponsors 13 varsity sports under the guidelines of the NCAA Division III. Men's and women's soccer, men's and women's cross country, volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, baseball, and softball compete in the Great South Athletic Conference. Maryville's football team competes in the USA South Athletic Conference.

[edit] Campus Improvement Plan

Recently, Maryville College announced a campus wide improvement plan. One component of this plan will be the construction of a new residence hall, a mirror of the current Lloyd Hall. Also, Maryville College will be building a Civic Arts Center on campus.

[edit] Prominent alumni

• Richard Battaglia - Tour manager, live audio engineer and studio engineer for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.
• Edwin J. Best - Local historian, author of A Place Called Greenback.
• Frank Moore Cross - a Professor Emeritus of the Harvard Divinity School, notable for both his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as his analysis of the Deuteronomistic History (DH).
• Bryant Cureton - 12th President of Elmhurst College.
• Donald West Harward - President of Bates College.
• Sen Katayama, co-founder of Japanese Socialist Party, Stalin was a pallbearer at his funeral and is interred at the Kremlin
• Roy Kramer - Former Commissioner of the Southeastern Conference.
• Jack Llewellyn - National author, and sports psychologist for the Atlanta Braves, NASCAR.
• Wiley Blount Rutledge, Associate Justice of United States Supreme Court from 1943-1949.
• Roy Arthur Taylor - U.S. Representative from North Carolina, 1960-1977
• George Verwer - Evangelist and founder of Operation Mobilisation
• Delores Bowen Ziegler - Opera singer and voice professor at the University of Maryland School of Music

[edit] Alma Mater

Where Chilhowee’s lofty mountains Pierce the southern blue Proudly stands our Alma Mater, Noble, grand, and true.

CHORUS: Orange, Garnet, float forever, Ensign of our hill! Hail to thee, our Alma Mater, Hail to Maryville!

As the hilltop crowned with cedars Ever green appears, So the memory fresh shall linger Through life’s smiles and tears.

— CHORUS —

Lift the chorus, wake the echoes, Make the welkin ring! Hail the queen of all the highlands, Loud her praises sing!

— CHORUS —

[edit] Trivia

• Maryille College played in the first Capital One Bowl (Known then as the Tangerine Bowl) in 1947 vs. Catawba College losing 31 - 0.

• The College’s current heating system started as an experiment by the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Department of Energy and the College in 1982. Coinciding with the World’s Fair in Knoxville, the experiment tested the efficiency of burning wood waste as an energy source. Tours of the plant and demonstrations were held at the College.

• In 1875 Maryville College conferred the first college degree to a woman in the state of Tennessee. It was awarded to Mary T. Wilson, who was the older sister of Samuel T. Wilson, president of the College from 1901 until 1930.

[edit] References

1. Contributions to American Educational History, by Herbert Baxter Adams, 1893. Available from Google Books
2. College receives award from Race Relations Center, by Karen B. Eldridge, November 9, 2004. Maryville College News
3. Maryville College; An Early Leader in the Struggle for Biracial Education in Tennessee, 1819-1901, by James B. Jones, Jr., available from Southern History
4. When Lawyers Go Wrong, Historians Set the Record Straight, by Ralph Luker, History News Network

[edit] External links

• Maryville College website