Maryville College

This article is about Maryville College in Maryville, Tennessee. For Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri, see Maryville University.
Maryville College
Motto Stretch Your Mind
Established 1819
Type Private: Liberal Arts
Endowment $36.9 million[1]
President Dr. Tom Bogart
Academic staff 79, with student faculty ratio of 1/12
Undergraduates 1,103
Location Maryville, Tennessee, USA
Campus Suburban 320 acres
Mascot Scots
Colors Orange and Garnet
Nickname Scots
Website maryvillecollege.edu

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 1,103 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.

Contents

Academics

As a liberal arts school, the college promotes a well-rounded education. The school requires numerous general education courses to achieve this. The courses are taken through the conclusion of the student's education, contributing to the graduating student's becoming knowledgeable in a number of fields.

Maryville College offers the following degrees:

American Sign Language and Deaf Studies Art
Art History Biochemistry
Biology Business
Chemical Physics Chemistry
Child Development and Learning Computer Science/Business
Computer Science Economics
Engineering English
Environmental Studies Health Care (Nursing)
History International Business
International Studies Mathematics
Music Outdoor Recreation
Philosophy Political Science
Psychology Religion
Sign Language Interpreting Sociology
Spanish Teaching English as a Second Language
Theatre Studies Writing/Communication
Liberal Arts

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 a comprehensive exam in their major and conduct an extensive senior thesis.

Maryville College was ranked No. 3 in U.S. News & World Report for "Best Comprehensive-Bachelor’s” category for southern colleges and universities in both 2006 and 2007.

Maryville College operates on the nontraditional 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.

History

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 1819.[2]

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".[3] 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.[4]

Maryville College was closed during the Civil War, but, upon reopening, it again admitted students regardless of race, assisted by the Freedman's Bureau.[5]

When the State of Tennessee forced Maryville College to segregate in 1901, the College gave $25,000—a little more than a tenth of its endowment at the time—to Swift Memorial Institute, the College's sister school. Swift was founded by William Henderson Franklin, the first African-American to graduate from Maryville College (1880). His Institute educated black students during the era of imposed segregation.

After the Brown v. Board of Education decision, Maryville College immediately reenrolled African Americans.

In 1875 Maryville College conferred the first college degree to a woman in the state of Tennessee. The recipient was Mary T. Wilson, the older sister of Samuel T. Wilson, who later served as president of the College from 1901 until 1930.

Campus

Campus housing

The vast majority of Maryville College students reside in one of the many on-campus residence halls, which are:

Campus Improvement Plan

In 2010 Maryville College finished the construction of the Clayton Center for the Arts.[6] This new CCA building is home to a large theatre, a flex theatre, and also classrooms and offices for professors of Maryville College.[7] There are also plans to renovate Anderson Hall in the future.

Features of the College

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.

The college's oldest building, Anderson Hall, built in 1870, is currently used as a classroom building. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Student organizations

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. Maryville College played in the first Tangerine Bowl (now the Capital One Bowl) in 1947, losing 31 - 0 to Catawba College.

Prominent alumni

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 —

References

  1. ^ As of June 30, 2009. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value and Percentage Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2008 to FY 2009" (PDF). 2009 NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments. National Association of College and University Business Officers. http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2009_NCSE_Public_Tables_Endowment_Market_Values.pdf. Retrieved February 17, 2010. 
  2. ^ Contributions to American Educational History, by Herbert Baxter Adams, 1893. Available from Google Books
  3. ^ College receives award from Race Relations Center, by Karen B. Eldridge, November 9, 2004. Maryville College News
  4. ^ Maryville College; An Early Leader in the Struggle for Biracial Education in Tennessee, 1819-1901, by James B. Jones, Jr., available from Southern History
  5. ^ When Lawyers Go Wrong, Historians Set the Record Straight, by Ralph Luker, History News Network
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ [2]
  8. ^ [3]
  9. ^ Abelson, Reed. "Richard B. Sellars, Former Chief of Johnson & Johnson, Dies at 94", The New York Times, June 26, 2010.

External links