Rollins College

Rollins College
Motto Fiat Lux
(Let there be Light)
Established 1885
Type Private, coeducational
Endowment $261.7 million[1]
President Lewis M. Duncan
Provost Carol Bresnahan
Academic staff 203[2]
Students 2,715[2]
Undergraduates 2,331[2]
Postgraduates 384[2]
Location Winter Park, Florida, U.S.
Campus Suburban, 70 acres (280,000 m2)
Colors      Royal Blue
     Gold
Athletics NCAA Division II
Sunshine State Conference
Mascot Tars
Website www.rollins.edu

Rollins College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in Winter Park, Florida (a suburb of Orlando, Florida), along the shores of Lake Virginia.

Rollins is a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), National Association of Schools of Music, American Chemical Society, Florida Department of Education, American Association of Museums, AACSB International-The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, Council for Accreditation of Counseling, and Related Educational Programs.[2]

Contents

History

Rollins was founded by New England Congregationalists who sought to bring their style of liberal arts education to what was then the Florida frontier. It is the oldest post-secondary institution in the state of Florida,[3][4] and has been independent, nonsectarian, and coeducational from conception.[5]

Academics

Rollins has three divisions that offer a variety of programs: College of Arts and Sciences, Crummer Graduate School of Business, and Hamilton Holt School.

Rankings

Rollins is currently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as the number one regional educational institution in the South, a ranking held for seven consecutive years now.[6][7] Rollins held the number two spot on that list for the ten consecutive years prior to that.[6]

College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences has 1,773 students and a student to faculty ratio of 10 to 1.[2] Ninety-two percent of the faculty possess a Ph.D. or the highest degree in their field. The College offers twenty-eight undergraduate majors and a variety of interdisciplinary programs that allow students to design their own courses of study.

Like many liberal arts programs, the College of Arts & Sciences operates on the philosophy that students should receive a well-rounded education regardless of their chosen specialty. As such, completion of a Bachelor of Arts degree requires the 140 credits required for graduation to be approximately evenly derived from general education courses, major/minor courses, and elective courses.

Classes in the College of Arts and Sciences are typically worth four credits, in contrast to the traditional 3 credits per class structure of many American Universities. The college also requires 140 credit hours to graduate instead of the traditional 120.

Crummer Graduate School of Business

The Crummer Graduate School of Business[2] offers a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) through four different programs:

The Crummer School also offers a Management and Executive Education program. This program targets organizations that wish to provide training and development to their current or future managers and executives. While courses in this program do not generally lead to a degree, they are tailored to the specific requests of the client organizations. Courses may be single-day training workshops or a long-term program of study, such as their 18-week Mini-MBA, and they may be conducted on the college campus or another site selected by the client.

Hamilton Holt School

Adult education courses at Rollins were initially only offered to returning World War II veterans. On September 7, 1960, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Rollins College gave formal authorization for the Institute for General Studies to award degrees upon completion of program requirements. On November 6, 1987, the school's name would be changed to Hamilton Holt School, in honor of Rollins’ eighth president.[8]

The Hamilton Holt School[2] offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in a variety of majors as well as several graduate degrees. Like the College of Arts & Sciences, the undergraduate program at the Hamilton Holt School requires a combination of general education courses, major/minor courses, and electives. Unlike its residential counterpart, however, the Hamilton Holt School's focus is on the non-traditional student, identified as a working individual seeking professional advancement and therefore schedules most courses in the evenings and on weekends. Students enrolled in the Hamilton Holt School pay tuition per credit hour and are not eligible for on-campus housing, although surrounding communities offer off-campus housing specifically for Rollins students.

The Hamilton Holt School requires 140 hours to graduate and will also transfer up to 64 credit hours or equivalent to an A.A. degree from a 2 year community college. Students can also transfer in courses from 4 year colleges and universities. In addition, the program allows for students to register for the course load suitable to their schedule during any of the Hamilton Holt School's three semester terms (Fall, Spring, Summer). Taking smaller course loads will extend the students completion date.

Graduate programs offered through the Hamilton Holt School include:

Special Programs

Rollins also has four special programs: the Rollins College Conference, Honors Degree Program, Accelerated Management Program, and International program.

Rollins College Conference (RCC)

The Rollins College Conference,[9] taken in the first semester of a student's freshman year, is required of all non-transfer students in the College of Arts and Sciences. The course serves as both an orientation course and a topic course in a student's area of interest. The professor for this course will serve as the enrolled students' academic advisor until they select a major and choose a new advisor from the corresponding department. One or two peer mentors (upperclassmen with special training) join the course and offer counseling and support to the new students. The conference also contains a fourth hour time block each week where students participate in bonding and socialization activities.

Honors Degree Program

The Honors Degree Program[10] allows the top students in each entering class of the College of Arts and Sciences to complete a series of special interdisciplinary seminars, which replace approximately two-thirds of the school's general education requirements. To earn an honors degree, students must also complete a thesis in their major field during their junior and senior years.

Accelerated Management Program (AMP)

The Accelerated Management Program[11] allows selected students to earn both a BA from the College of Arts and Sciences and an MBA from the Crummer Graduate School of Business in a total of five years. Students enrolled in this program must complete all general education and major/minor requirements prior to the conclusion of their third year. In their fourth year, students take courses from the Early Advantage MBA program, from which credits are applied to both their undergraduate and graduate transcripts. Upon completion of the fourth year, AMP students graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences and walk with their class at commencement. In the fifth year, students complete the MBA degree and graduate a second time.

International programs

All three schools at Rollins offer international courses[12] to destinations such as London, Sydney, and Madrid, among others. Some programs are offered directly through Rollins, while others are offered through partnerships with other colleges and universities. Students may study abroad for a week or an entire semester.

Athletics

Rollins participates in NCAA Division II's Sunshine State Conference. It's athletic teams are called the Tars (an archaic name for a sailor).[13]

The school sponsors twenty-two varsity teams:[13]

Campus life

Fox Day

Fox Day is an annual tradition at Rollins. Since 1956, each spring, the President cancels all classes, providing students with a surprise day off to explore local beaches and amusement parks,[14][15][16][17][18] together as a college,[19] returning in the late afternoon for a barbecue. It's known as Fox Day, because a statue of a fox is placed on Mills Lawn (the school's main lawn), signifying the day off.

In the past, most students waited for the fox statue by camping out on Mills Lawn. In 2010, a student with a dorm room directly overlooking Mills Lawn, pointed an HD camera at the site, and streamed the video feed digitally at FoxDayCam.com, so that students could monitor the site for the arrival of the fox statue from their dorm room.[20] With an undergraduate population of 2,331, the site had 3003 unique IP viewers its first year.[21]The site is currently running for 2011 and will end on Fox Day.

Bach Festival

Since 1935, the Winter Park Bach Festival, the third-oldest continuously operating Bach festival in the United States,[22] has brought some of the highest caliber[23][24][25] of classical performers from around the world to campus,[26] for a two week event.[27] The 150-voice[27] Bach Festival Society is regarded as one of the finest oratorio societies in America.[23][28]

Campus

The Rollins 70-acre (280,000 m2) campus contains a range of amenities, including a theater for performing arts, the Cornell Campus Center, and the Alfond Sports Center.

Peace Monument

In 2000, the Rollins College's Peace Monument was featured in a New York Times article.[29]

Erected in 1938 and dedicated on Armistice Day by college president Hamilton Holt, it consists of a German artillery shell, surrendered by Germany at the end of the First World War, mounted on a pedestal, bearing this inscription:[30]

Pause, passerby and hang your head in shame
This Engine of Destruction, Torture and Death Symbolizes:
The Prostitution of the Inventor
The Avarice of the Manufacturer
The Blood-guilt of the statesman
The Savagery of the Soldier
The Perverted Patriotism of the Citizen
The Debasement of the Human Race
That it can be Employed as an Instrument of Defense of Liberty, Justice and Right in Nowise Invalidates the Truth of the Words Here Graven.
—Hamilton Holt

The top half of the monument was stolen by vandals during World War II, but the bottom half survives and is in the stairwell leading to the second floor of the Mills Memorial building.

Winter Park Institute

The Winter Park Institute located on campus, brings scholars, leaders, and artists from diverse fields of disciplines and expertise, to Rollins grounds for symposiums, seminars, lectures, interviews, exhibits, readings, and master classes, that are also open to the Winter Park community.[31] It launched in the fall of 2008, the first guest being[32] U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, who has returned every year since. Other guests include environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to singer-songwriter Paul Simon.[33]

Olin Library

Rollins' Olin Library was dedicated in 1985, with a $4.7 million gift from the F.W. Olin Foundation. It is four stories high, with 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2) of over 280,000 volumes, 1,500 periodical subscriptions, 700 serial subscriptions, 4200 periodicals and 4200 serials available through electronic resources, 74,000 government documents, a number of special collections, and hundreds of compact discs, videodiscs, and videotapes.[34]

Olin Electronic Research and Information Center

The Olin Electronic Research and Information Center was also established with a second gift of $2.7 million from the F.W. Olin Foundation. The center features the latest technology, including computer stations, color printers, scanners, audio and video digitizers, compact discs, videodiscs, and videotapes. These tools facilitate creativity as students pursue research questions, prepare multimedia presentations, and create Web pages.[34]

Bush Science Center

The Bush Science Center[3][35] at Rollins has state of the art SMART classrooms, faculty offices, and 38 teaching and research laboratories for the physical and behavioral sciences, mathematics, and computer science.[36] The science center is where Donald J. Cram launched his chemical studies, becoming the 1987 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry.[37]

Cornell Fine Arts Museum

The Cornell Fine Arts Museum is located on school grounds and contains works of art and objects from antiquity to the 21st century. The museum was built instead of what would have been the Ackland Art Museum at Rollins; millionaire and amateur art collector William Hayes Ackland wanted to leave his fortune to a Southern university for an art museum and narrowed his choices to Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Rollins, in that order.[38][39] After Ackland's death, Duke refused the request and UNC and Rollins, excised from Ackland's final will, both brought suit to locate Ackland's museum on their campuses.[38] In a case that went to the United States Supreme Court, Ackland's trustees sided with UNC, but a lower court ruled for Rollins; a higher court finally granted the bequest to UNC. Rollins was represented in the case by former U.S. Attorney General Homer Cummings.

Annie Russell Theatre

The Annie Russell Theatre is a historic theater in Winter Park, Florida, located on the premises of Rollins College. The theatre was named after the English-born actress Annie Russell in 1931, who taught at Rollins until she died of lung disease in 1936. It was designed by the architect Richard Kiehnel of Kiehnel and Elliott. On July 15, 1998, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Knowles Memorial Chapel

The Knowles Memorial Chapel is a historic chapel on the Rollins campus. On December 8, 1997, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Walk of Fame

The Rollins Walk of Fame consists of more than 500 stones taken from houses of historic people including Christopher Columbus, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and many others.[38]

Controversy

Notable alumni

References

  1. ^ "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year 2009 Endowment Market Value". National Association of College and University Business Officers. http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2009_NCSE_Public_Tables_Endowment_Market_Values.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "At a Glance: Quick Facts & Figures about Rollins". Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/our-people/ataglance.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  3. ^ a b Peterson's Four-Year Colleges: 2005. Peterson's. http://books.google.com/books?id=NsmPI4NOiuMC&pg=PA2256&dq=florida+oldest+college+rollins&lr=&cd=2#v=onepage&q=florida%20oldest%20college%20rollins&f=false. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
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  8. ^ "Hamilton Holt School Celebrates 50 Years of Educating Working Adults". Hamilton Holt School News, Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/holt/news/2010/09/50-year-anniversary.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  9. ^ "Rollins College Conference (RCC)". Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/admission/academic_programs/rollins_college_conference. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  10. ^ "Honors Degree Program at Rollins". Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/as/academics/honors.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
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  15. ^ "It’s Fox Day at Rollins College…and the rest of us would love a free day too". Orlando Sentinel. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2009/04/its-fox-day-at-rollins-collegeand-were-all-envious.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  16. ^ "Student Nearly Drowns On 'Skip' Day". Click Orlando, WKMG Local 6. http://www.clickorlando.com/news/15828023/detail.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  17. ^ "About Fox Day". Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/foxday/about.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  18. ^ "Best Colleges 2011: The Basics About Rollins College - Student Life at Rollins College". U.S. News & World Report. http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/winter-park-fl/rollins-college-1515. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  19. ^ "Fox Day History: How Fox Day Began". Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/foxday/history/. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  20. ^ "Fox Day Cam: A New Fox Day Tradition?". The Sandspur. http://media.www.thesandspur.org/media/storage/paper623/news/2010/04/09/News/Fox-Day.Cam.A.New.Fox.Day.Tradition-3903266.shtml. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  21. ^ "STP powers FoxDayCam.com". Simple Thought Productions. http://www.simplethoughtproductions.com/2010/04/12/stp-powers-foxdaycam-to-success/. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  22. ^ "2011 Winter Park Bach Festival". Orlando-Florida.net. http://www.orlando-florida.net/events/february/winter-park-bach-festival.htm. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
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  24. ^ "Bach Festival Society ends Fred Rogers series". Orlando Sentinel. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_arts_letter/2010/07/bach-festival-society-ends-fred-rogers-series.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  25. ^ "Top Picks:Bach-analia". Orlando Magazine. http://www.orlandomagazine.com/Orlando-Magazine/February-2010/Top-Picks/. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
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  27. ^ a b "Just for Fun". Rollins College. http://www.rollins.edu/campuslife/justforfun.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  28. ^ "Bach Festival Society Announces Their Summer Music Academy". BroadwayWorld. http://florida.broadwayworld.com/article/Bach_Festival_Society_Announces_Their_Summer_Music_Academy_62026_20100318. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  29. ^ "Timid at the Top: A Question of Leadership". New York Times. 2000-01-26. http://partners.nytimes.com/library/national/012600lessons-edu.html?Partner=iVillage&RefId=mLmyyW=jEFnnnnuFw. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
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  37. ^ "Donald J. Cram, Ph.D.: A 1941 Rollins College Chemistry Alumnus and winner of the 1987 Nobel Prize in Chemistry". Chemistry Department, Rollins College. http://tars.rollins.edu/chemistry/People/DCram.shtml. Retrieved 2010-09-25. 
  38. ^ a b c "Mr. Ackland's Wills". TIME magazine. 1947-06-30. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854736,00.html. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
  39. ^ "Fight for a Fortune". TIME magazine. 1946-02-04. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,776624,00.html. Retrieved 2008-11-30. 
  40. ^ Honan, William H. (1994-10-24). "Okinawa Seeks Return Of Statue". New York Times, 1994. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/10/24/arts/okinawa-seeks-return-of-statue.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  41. ^ "College Is Returning Statue to Okinawa". The New York Times, 1994. 1994-11-05. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/05/arts/college-is-returning-statue-to-okinawa.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  42. ^ Honan, William H. (1996-05-27). "New Twist in Cultural Saga". The New York Times, 1996. http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/27/us/new-twist-in-cultural-saga.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  43. ^ Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking from Google Books retrieved 11 February 2011
  44. ^ "SLAYINGS INQUIRIES MAY LACK EXPERTISE; A ROLLINS CASE HAS BEEN DEBATED BECAUSE SOME EXPERTS THINK A KILLER HAS GONE FREE.". Orlando Sentinel, 2004. 2004-03-28. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/orlandosentinel/access/591161601.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Mar+28%2C+2004&author=Henry+Pierson+Curtis%2C+Sentinel+Staff+Writer&pub=Orlando+Sentinel&edition=&startpage=A.1&desc=SLAYINGS+INQUIRIES+MAY+LACK+EXPERTISE+%3B+A+ROLLINS+CASE+HAS+BEEN+DEBATED+BECAUSE+SOME+EXPERTS+THINK+A+KILLER+HAS+GONE+FREE.. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  45. ^ "Toxicologist Rules Death Of Rollins Student Overdose". WPBF, 2004. http://www.wpbf.com/news/2899203/detail.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  46. ^ "Death Of Rollins Student Ruled Suicide". WPBF, 2005. http://www.wpbf.com/news/4378434/detail.html. Retrieved 2010-09-30. 
  47. ^ Jamie Pizzi, Rollins College Columnist, Compares Illegal Aliens To Home Intruders from the Huffington Post 28 March 2011
  48. ^ Anchor Babies" Are Still A Myth, Poorly Written College Op-Eds Notwithstanding from Media Matters for America 28 March 2011
  49. ^ Student's op-ed piece stirs controversy from Fox News 25 March 2011
  50. ^ Rollins Plans New Security Measures Crimes Shake Campus from WESH 27 September 2011
  51. ^ Suspect in violent robbery at Rollins College on the run from Central Florida News 13 26 September 2011
  52. ^ Arrests At Rollins Unrelated To Love Triangle Shooting from WKMG 19 September 2011

External links