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Vanderbilt University



         


Vanderbilt University is a private, independent university located in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded as the result of a gift of one million dollars by shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt in 1873. He hoped that this gift and the work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds of the Civil War.

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History

Prior to the Civil War, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had been considering creating a regional university for the training of ministers. Through the lobbying of Nashville bishop Holland McTyeire, church leaders voted in 1872 to create a Central University in Nashville. However, lack of funds delayed the actual founding of the college.

The following year, on a medical trip to New York, McTyeire stayed at the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose second wife was McTyeire's cousin-in-law. Vanderbilt, the wealthiest man in America at the time, had been considering several philanthropies as he was in his advanced years. McTyeire successfully convinced Vanderbilt to donate $500,000 to endow Central University. The endowment (later increased to $1 million) would be Vanderbilt's only philanthropy. Though he never expressed any desire in making the university a namesake, McTyeire and his fellow trustees soon rechristened the school as the Vanderbilt University.

About two hundred students enrolled at Vanderbilt in the fall of 1875 and the university was dedicated in October of that year. Landon Garland was named Chancellor by McTyeire.

For the next 40 years of its existence, Vanderbilt would be under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The Vanderbilt Board of Trust severed its ties with the church in June 1914 as a result of a dispute with the bishops over who would appoint University trustees.

Probably the peak of Vanderbilt's intellectual influence was the 1920's and 1930's, when it hosted two partly-overlapping groups of scholars who had a large impact on American thought and letters, the Fugitives and the Agrarians.

In the late 1950's, the Vanderbilt Divinity School became something of a hotbed of the emerging Civil Rights movement, and the university responded rashly by expelling one of its leaders, James Lawson. Much later, in 1996, he was made a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements.

In 1979, Vanderbilt absorbed its near neighbor, Peabody College.

History, race, and civil rights issues again came to the fore on the campus in 2002, when the university decided to rename an old dormitory called Confederate Memorial Hall, and nationwide attention, plus a lawsuit by the resulted.

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Current Facts

As of 2003-2004, the university had approximately 6,300 undergraduates and 4,800 graduate and professional students. It is also the largest private employer in Nashville and one of the largest in Tennessee, with approximately 18,000 faculty and staff.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has grown to be an important part of the University and is distinguished in medical education, research, and patient care.

Both the University and the Medical Center rank highly in the U.S. News and World Report annual ratings of the best American educational and health care institutions. Vanderbilt currently ranks 18th in the nation among research universities in the U.S. News and World Report college rankings. In the U.S. News graduate program rankings Vanderbilt Medical School ranks 15th among research-oriented Medical Schools, Vanderbilt Law School ranks 17th, Vanderbilt's Peabody College ranks 4th among schools of education, and Vanderbilt's Owen School of Management ranks 39th among Business Schools. Vanderbilt is ranked first in the nation in the fields of Special Education and Audiology

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Unusual Research

As with any large research institution, Vanderbilt investigators work in a broad range of disciplines. However, among its more unusual activities, the university has institutes devoted to the study of coffee and of bridge (the game, due to the Vanderbilt family's interest in it). In addition, in mid-2004 it was announced that Vanderbilt's may have serendipitously opened the door to the breeding of a blue rose, something that had long been coveted by horticultralists and rose lovers.

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Schools

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Notable Alumni

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Notable Faculty

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See also

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