Rhodes College

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Coordinates: 35°09′21″N 89°59′28″W / 35.155810615149804, -89.99096632003784

Rhodes College
Motto:	Truth, Loyalty, Service
Established:	1848
Type:	liberal arts college
Endowment:	US $252 million
President:	William E. Troutt
Faculty:	167 (137 full-time, 30 part-time)
Undergraduates:	1690
Location:	Memphis, Tennessee, United States
Campus:	Urban, 100 acres (400,000 m²)
Mascot:	Lynx
Affiliations:	Presbyterian
Website:	http://www.rhodes.edu/

Rhodes College is a four-year, private, perennial top-tier liberal arts college located in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1848, Rhodes enrolls approximately 1,700 students. About one third of Rhodes students go on to graduate and professional school soon after graduation^[1]. The acceptance rates to law and business schools are around 95%, and the acceptance rate to medical school is nearly twice the national average.^[2]

Rhodes College is featured in Loren Pope's, Colleges That Change Lives and is featured on the cover of the 2008 Princeton Review Complete Book of Colleges.

[edit] History

Rhodes College traces its origin as a degree-granting institution to the Masonic University of Tennessee, founded in 1848 in Clarksville, Tennessee. The institution became Montgomery Masonic College in 1850 and later was renamed Stewart College in honor of its president William M. Stewart. It was under Stewart's leadership that control of the college passed from the Masons to the Presbyterian Church in 1855. In 1875, the college added to its undergraduate program a School of Theology and became Southwestern Presbyterian University. The School of Theology operated until 1917.

In 1925, president Charles Diehl led the college in a move to its present campus in Memphis, Tennessee (the Clarksville campus would later become Austin Peay State University). At that time, the college shortened its name to Southwestern. In 1945, the college adopted the name Southwestern at Memphis, to distinguish itself from other colleges and universities containing the name "Southwestern." Finally, in 1984, the college's name was changed to Rhodes College to honor former college president Peyton Nalle Rhodes.

Since 1984, Rhodes has grown from a regionally recognized institution to a nationally ranked liberal arts college."^[3] Even as overall enrollment has increased over the past twenty years, the student body has comprised increasing proportions of students from outside Tennessee and the Southeast region.^[4]

The current president of Rhodes is Dr. William E. Troutt, who joined the college as the 19th president in 1999. His predecessor, Dr. James Daughdrill, served as president for over a quarter century.

[edit] Campus

The campus covers a 100-acre (0.40 km²) tract in midtown Memphis across from Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo. Often cited for its beauty,^[5] the campus design is notable for its stone Gothic architecture buildings, thirteen of which are currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1] The original buildings, including Palmer Hall (1925), Kennedy Hall (1925), and Robb and White dormitories (1925), were designed by Henry Hibbs in consultation with Charles Klauder, who designed many buildings at Princeton University, alma mater of college president Charles Diehl. Later buildings were designed by H. Clinton Parrent, a young associate of Hibbs who was present from the beginning. Parrent's buildings include the Catherine Burrow Refectory (1957), which was an expansion of Hibbs' original dining hall. Parrent also added Halliburton Tower (1962) to Palmer Hall. The 140-foot (43 m) bell tower was named in honor of explorer Richard Halliburton. Rhodes maintains its Collegiate Gothic architecture, including the new Barret Library (2005) designed by the firm of Hanbury Evans Wright and Vlattas.

[edit] Students and faculty

Rhodes enrolls 1690 undergraduate students from 43 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 foreign countries; about 86% are Caucasian, 6% are African American, 5% are Asian and 1.6% are Hispanic. Fifty-seven percent of students are female. The student-to-faculty ratio is 11:1.^[6] Popular majors include Economics and Business Administration, Biology, Political Science, English, and International Studies.

[edit] Traditions, sports, and clubs

Rhodes is one of 62 colleges recently classified for both "Curricular Engagement" and "Outreach & Partnerships" in the "Community Engagement" category by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Approximately 80% of Rhodes students participate in some form of community service by the time they graduate.^[7] The college's new curriculum includes a requirement that students participate in activities that broaden the connection between classroom experiences and the outside world. The mission statement of the college also reinforces community engagement, aspiring to "graduate students with...a compassion for others and the ability to translate academic study and personal concern into effective leadership and action in their communities and the world."

Central to the life of the college is its Honor Code, administered by students through the Honor Council. Every student is required to sign the Code, which reads, "As a member of the Rhodes College community, I pledge my full and steadfast support to the Honor System and agree neither to lie, cheat, nor steal and to report any such violation that I may witness." Because of this, students enjoy a relationship of trust with their professors and benefits such as taking closed book final exams in the privacy of their own rooms.

The college mascot is the lynx and the school colors are red and black. The athletic teams compete in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in the NCAA's Division III. Rhodes counts five national championships to its credit - one awarded to the 1961 baseball team, and four awarded to its outstanding mock trial team.

Rites of Spring, a three day music festival in early April, is a major social event of the school year, and typically attracts several major bands from around the country. In recent years, an adjunct celebration called Rites to Play has brought to campus elementary aged children from all of the various community agencies and schools that partner with Rhodes. The Rhodes students plan, organize, and execute a carnival for the kids.

[edit] Greek Life

There are a number of social fraternities and sororities at Rhodes. Approximately 50% of the students are members of Greek organizations. The fraternity and sorority lodges are not, however, residential.

[edit] Sororities

(in order of establishment at Rhodes)

• Chi Omega 1922
• Alpha Omicron Pi 1925
• Kappa Delta 1925
• Delta Delta Delta 1931
• Alpha Kappa Alpha
• Sigma Gamma Rho
• Delta Sigma Theta

[edit] Fraternities

(in order of establishment at Rhodes)

• Pi Kappa Alpha 1878
• Alpha Tau Omega
• Sigma Alpha Epsilon 1882
• Kappa Sigma
• Kappa Alpha Order
• Sigma Nu
• Kappa Alpha Psi

[edit] Noted alumni

[edit] Business

• John H. Bryan '58, former CEO of Sara Lee
• RJ Harper '78, Senior Vice President, Golf, Pebble Beach Resorts
• Cliff Watson '92, Creative Director, advertising agency Bozell
• Stinson Liles '92, Co-Founder, Red Deluxe Brand Development
• William J. Michaelcheck '69, CEO Mariner Capital
• Vicki Gilmore Palmer '75, Executive Vice President, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc.
• Knox Phillips '67, CEO Phillips Recording Studio
• Marcie Allen Cardwell '96, President MAC Presents
• Arthur Rollins '81, one of the country's top financial advisers^[8]

[edit] Medicine

• John Robertson '68, President, American Association of Neurologic Surgeons

[edit] Civic

• Cary Fowler '71, Executive Director, Global Crop Diversity Trust

[edit] Culture and Performing Arts

• Ken Cameron '89, Associate Curator, New York Botanical Garden
• Dixie Carter '62, Emmy-nominated Actor
• Carroll Cloar, Guggenheim Fellow and internationally recognized artist.
• Dina Facklis '93, Director, Second City National Touring Company
• Sid Selvidge '65, Executive Producer, Beale Street Caravan, a globally-syndicated radio program

[edit] Scholars

• Joseph M. Ajello '62, Senior Research Scientist, Cassini UVIS Co-Investigator, Earth and Space Sciences Division, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• John H. Churchill '71, Secretary, The Phi Beta Kappa Society; President, The National Humanities Alliance
• Lee Giles, '68, David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Pennsylvania State University; Fellow of the ACM and IEEE
• Mark D. West '89, University of Michigan Nippon Life Professor of Law; Director of the Academic Program for the Center for Japanese Studies
• Sidney Strickland ’68, Vice President for Educational Affairs and Dean of Graduate and Post Graduate Studies, Rockefeller University

[edit] Authors

• Charlaine Harris '73, Best-selling mystery writer
• John Boswell '67, author; Publisher, John Boswell Associates
• Richard Jennings '66, author of children's books
• Steve Stern '70 author of "Lazar Malkin Enters Heaven" and "The Angel of Forgetfulness"
• Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor '39, award-winning author
• Anne Howard Bailey '45, television writer

[edit] Government and Military

• Bill Alexander '57, served as Chief Deputy Majority Whip while representing eastern Arkansas in the United States House of Representatives from 1969-1993.
• Abe Fortas '30, U.S. Supreme Court justice (1965-1969) & President Lyndon Johnson's nominee for Chief Justice of the United States. He authored the opinion in the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines School District, accepting the rights of schoolchildren to wear black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.
• Claudia Kennedy '69, U.S. Army Lt. General and Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence. Gen. Kennedy is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, and the first woman to hold a three-star rank in the U.S. Army.

[edit] Noted staff

[edit] Administrators

• Timothy Sharp, Dean of Academic Affairs-Fine Art. Conducted the Rhodes Singers and MasterSingers Chorale in performances at Carnegie Hall.
• William E. Troutt, President, former Chair of the American Council on Education and the National Commission on the Cost of Education and member of the Lincoln Commission on Study Abroad.
• Dave Wottle, Dean of Admissions, Olympic gold-medal winner.

[edit] Professors

• Andrew Terjesen, award-winning Philosopher.
• Tina Barr, award-winning poet.
• Eric Gottlieb, Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, 2004 Fulbright Scholar
• Timothy Huebner, Professor of History, 2004 Tennessee Professor of the Year by The Carnegie Foundation and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education
• Michael Leslie, Professor of English and the Dean of British Studies at Oxford (the oldest American exchange program at Oxford University)
• David McCarthy, Professor of Art, Smithsonian Fellow[2].
• Mark Muesse, Associate Professor of Religious Studies. Produced two lecture series and companion books on Hinduism and on Axial Age Religions for The Teaching Company.
• Michael Nelson, Professor of Political Science, author, and media analyst focused on the American presidency.
• Marcus Pohlmann, Professor of Political Science, coach of the Rhodes Mock trial program, President of the American Mock Trial Association. Coached Rhodes to record numbers of national championships (4), finals appearances (7), top-ten finishes (16), and consecutive top-ten finishes.
• Westley Busbee, Professor of History and Political Science at Belhaven College; Chair of the History and Political Science Department, M.A., Ph.D., University of Alabama. Author, "Mississippi: A History" (Harlan-Davidson, 2004)

[edit] See also

• Rhodes Singers

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Rhodes College