Vincennes University
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Vincennes University |
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| Established | 1801 (details) |
| Type | land grant public coeducational |
| President | Richard E. Helton |
| Students | 4,522 |
| Undergraduates | 4,522 |
| Location | Vincennes, IN, USA |
| Campus | small town: 120 acres (0.486 km²) |
| Athletics | 7 NJCAA teams, called Trailblazers |
| Website | www.vinu.edu |
Vincennes University (VU) is a public university in Vincennes, Indiana in the United States. Founded in 1801 as Jefferson Academy, VU is the oldest public institution of higher learning in Indiana. Since 1889, VU has been a two-year university, although baccalaureate degrees in seven select areas are now available. Unlike most other two-year higher-education institutions, however, VU is a residential campus and has been since its inception over two hundred years ago. VU was chartered in 1806 as the Territory of Indiana's four-year university and remained the State of Indiana's sole publicly-funded four-year university until the establishment of Indiana University. Until 2005, Vincennes University served as the state-mandated coordinator of the Ivy Tech Community College system.[1]
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[edit] Academics
Vincennes University offers a diverse set of majors that are focused on careers in teaching and industry.
Vincennes University is organized into six divisions:
- Business / Public Service Division
- Health Sciences / Human Performance Division
- Humanities
- Social Science / Performing Arts
- Department of Science / Mathematics
- Department of Technology
Vincennes University is also the only college in the nation that offers a Bowling Management and Technology program.
[edit] History
| Jefferson Academy | Established | 1801 |
| Type | four-year private | |
| Vincennes University | Renamed | 1806 |
| Type | four-year territorial land-grant | |
| Rechartered | 1889 | |
| Type | two-year state-funded |
[edit] Founding as Indiana territory’s university
Vincennes University is the oldest university north of the Ohio River and west of the Alleghenies. This institution was founded in 1801 as Jefferson Academy and incorporated as Vincennes University on November 29, 1806. Founded by William Henry Harrison, VU is one of only two U.S. colleges founded by a President of the United States; the other is the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson. For over two-hundred years, VU was historically the only two-year university in Indiana, although baccalaureate degrees in seven select areas are now available and were available prior to 1889.
Vincennes University, also known colloquially as Territorial University during the early 19th century, was the first and only land-grant public university established by the Indiana Territory, prior to the formation of the states of Indiana and Illinois. The town of Vincennes was chosen as the location of both the capital of the Indiana Territory and of VU because Vincennes was centrally located at the approximate population-density center of the Indiana Territory. Upon the later formation of the Illinois Territory in 1809 as Indiana Territory prepared for statehood, Vincennes fell slightly east of the State of Indiana/Illinois Territory border. As territorial policy progressed through the formation of the Illinois Territory in 1809 (which drastically reduced the size of the Indiana Territory that VU served), the formation of the State of Indiana in 1816 (which considered itself an entirely new and separate legal entity from Indiana Territory that created VU, where the State of Indiana had little or no financial responsibility for VU), and the formation of the State of Illinois in 1818—, funding for Vincennes University became less and less certain with VU considered to be owned by the now-defunct Indiana Territory that was one legal step removed from the State of Indiana and two legal steps removed from the State of Illinois, immediately to VU’s west.
Because of Vincennes’ status as the capital of the Indiana Territory complete with a federally-recognized territorial land-grant university, the Indiana territorial capital of Vincennes figured prominently in the early Indiana-Illinois territorial and statehood policy. For example, the Tenth U.S. Congress established the Indiana-Illinois border, not with reference to a landmark along Lake Michigan near Chicago, but rather via direct reference to Vincennes, when that congress passed legislation establishing the separate Indiana Territory in preparation for Indiana’s proposed statehood on February 3, 1809[2]. The Act established the boundaries as follows: “...all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies west of the Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada...”
[edit] Vis a vis State of Indiana’s state university
Further complicating the question of funding for VU was the State of Indiana's desire to establish its own state-controlled public university in Bloomington, Indiana as a separate institution than Territorial University. Until the establishment of Indiana University as a state-controlled public university, Vincennes University, as a territory-controlled institution, was the sole public university within the whole territory of Indiana and then more narrowly within the state of Indiana. The State of Indiana and the State of Illinois partially abandoned their financial responsibility for Territorial University once they desired to establish their own separate state-controlled public universities without the legal complications of an institution whose legal control perhaps spanned the borders of at least two states and was established by a then-defunct governmental entity: the Territory of Indiana. These complications set the stage for Trustees for Vincennes University v Indiana. Conversely, these complications also set the stage for VU's rich two-century long history with some of the most architecturally-significant beautiful early 19th-century buildings to be found at any two-year institution in the USA.
In the mid 1800s, the Indiana state legislature tried to reclaim the original VU land grant, to be used for what would become Indiana University. The resulting lawsuit (Trustees for Vincennes University v Indiana, 1853) ended up being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, who decided in VU's favor, based on its earlier decision in a similar case regarding Dartmouth College. The legal dispute arose in part because a portion of VU's land-grant public university status derives from the fact that VU is the inheritor of the land-grant and facilities of Territorial University.[3]
To clarify the mission of VU vis a vis Indiana's other institutions of higher education at the time—Indiana University and Purdue University and the State Normal School—, the State of Indiana rechartered VU from a four-year university to a two-year university in 1889.
[edit] Tau Phi Delta and the Sigma Pi Fraternity
In 1897, a small literary society called Tau Phi Delta (ΤΦΔ) was started at VU, which soon after became the founding ("Alpha") chapter of Sigma Pi (ΣΠ) Fraternity, making that organization the first of its kind to be founded west of the Ohio Valley. A clocktower on the VU campus commemorates that event and the Fraternity, despite having grown into one of the largest collegiate fraternities and having relocated its headquarters to Tennessee, recognizes VU as its birthplace. The VU chapter is still active today and counts among its members some of the University's most famous and successful alumni, including three VU Presidents.
[edit] Relationship with Ivy Tech Community College statewide
From 1995 to 2005 the State of Indiana mandated that Vincennes University serve as the coordinator of the then Ivy Tech State College system.[4][5] This relationship was largely forced upon VU and was never fully embraced by VU. During 2005 the rechartering of Ivy Tech State College into a statewide system of community colleges named Ivy Tech Community College, Vincennes University was relieved of this relationship that never came to full fruition.
[edit] Athletics
VU is a member of the NJCAA. In honor of its historical herritage, the VU team moniker is the Trailblazers, which sometimes is affectionately clipped to “Blazers” in reference to VU’s V-with-flame logo. Trailblazers refers to the early years of Vincennes as outpost in the frontier of the Northwest Territory and its later period as capital of the Indiana Territory. When the Trailblazers moniker needs to be personified as a mascot, VU depicts a Trailblazer as minute man or woodsman-type frontier settler, such as inspired by George Rogers Clark who resided in Indiana after his military career.
VU Trailblazers compete in baseball, bowling, golf, basketball, cross country, tennis, volleyball, swimming & diving, and track & field. Its bowling team is particularly well known as it has won 14 NJCAA national championships over the years.
[edit] Notable alumni
[edit] Richard "Red" Skelton
Richard "Red" Skelton was a comedian who was born in Vincennes, Indiana on July 18, 1913. During his career in the mid 1900's, he was involved in many forms of entertainment including shows on Broadway and radio. He is most famous for being the star of "The Red Skelton Show," which aired from 1951-1971. Red Skelton died on September 17, 1997. The university has recently built the 'Red Skelton Center for Performing Arts' which opened in February 2006.
[edit] Other notable alumni
- Bruce Bouillet
- John R. Gregg 1974
- Shawn Marion 1998
- Bob McAdoo 1971
- John Mellencamp 1973
- Curtis Shake 1906
- Rickey Green
- Carl Landry 2004
[edit] External links
| Colleges and Universities in metropolitan Indianapolis |
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| Anderson University • Butler University • Franklin College • Indiana Bible College • Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis • Indiana Wesleyan University-Indianapolis • ITT Technical Institute • Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana • Marian College • Martin University • Oakland City University-Indianapolis • University of Indianapolis • Vincennes University Aviation Technology Center • Wilson College |
