Samford University

Samford University is a private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama.[4] In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College.[5] Samford University is the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.[6] The university enrolls 5,692 students from 46 states and 28 countries.[7]

Bird's-eye view of the campus
Not to be confused with Stanford University or Stamford University.
Samford University
Former name
Howard College
(1841–1965)
MottoFor God, For Learning, Forever
TypePrivate
Established1841 (1841)
Endowment$302 million (Fall 2018)[1]
PresidentAndrew Westmoreland
Academic staff
347
Students5,692 (Fall 2019)[2]
Undergraduates3,591 (Fall 2019)
Postgraduates2,101 (Fall 2019)
Location
Homewood
,
Alabama
,
United States
CampusSuburban
ColorsBlue and Red[3]
         
NicknameBulldogs
Sporting affiliations
NCAA Division I – Southern Conference
Websitesamford.edu

History

19th century

In 1841, Samford University was founded as Howard College in Marion, Alabama.[8][9] Some of the land was donated by Reverend James H. DeVotie, who served on the Samford Board of Trustees for fifteen years and as its President for two years.[10][11] The first financial gift, $4,000, was given by Julia Tarrant Barron and both she and her son also gave land to establish the college.[12] The university was established after the Alabama Baptist State Convention decided to build a school for men in Perry County, Alabama. The college's first nine students began studies in January 1842 with a traditional curriculum of language, literature and sciences.[13] In those early years the graduation addresses of several distinguished speakers were published, including those by Thomas G. Keen of Mobile, Joseph Walters Taylor, Noah K. Davis and Samuel Sterling Sherman.[14] In October 1854, a fire destroyed all of the college's property, including its only building.[13][15] While the college recovered from the fire, the Civil War began.[13] Howard College was converted to a military hospital by the Confederate government in 1863.[15] During this time, the college's remaining faculty offered basic instruction to soldiers recovering at the hospital.[13] For a short period after the war, federal troops occupied the college and sheltered freed slaves on its campus. In 1865 the college reopened. Howard College's board of trustees accepted real estate and funding from the city of Birmingham, Alabama in 1887.[16]

20th century
Cumberland School of Law in 2006

In 1913, the college became fully and permanently coeducational. Howard College added its School of Music in 1914 and School of Education and Journalism the following year. The college introduced its Department of Pharmacy in 1927. At the time, it was the only program of its kind in the Southeastern United States.[17] During World War II, Howard College hosted a V-12 Navy College Training Program, allowing enlisted sailors to earn college degrees while receiving military training.[13][18] The number of veterans attending the college after the war boosted enrollment beyond capacity. In result, the college was moved to the Shades Valley in Homewood, Alabama. The new campus opened in 1957.[19] In 1961, the college acquired Cumberland School of Law, one of the nation's oldest law schools.[20] In addition to the law school, Howard College added a new school of business and reorganized to achieve university status in 1965.[13] Since the name "Howard University" was already in use, Howard College was renamed in honor of Frank Park Samford, a longtime trustee of the school.[13] In 1973, the university acquired Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing.[21] Samford University established a study center for students to study abroad in Kensington, England in 1984.[22] On September 21, 1989, a Samford University professor, William Lee Slagle, stabbed one of his debating team students to death before going on the run; Slagle was finally captured six months later.[23]

Civil rights

As a private, segregated institution, Samford University was to some degree insulated from the activities of leaders and protesters of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and early 1960s. The officers of the Samford Student Government Association challenged a segregated concert held on campus by the Birmingham Symphony by inviting as guests the student government officers of nearby Miles College,[24] a historically black school.

Segregation by private universities was ended by the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by the US Congress. Initially, the school's leaders declined to express their commitment to desegregation. For example, the university declined to apply for the NDEA Student Loan Program for 1965-66 because it would have to affirm desegregation.[25] Cumberland School of Law faced the greatest immediate risk of losing accreditation. In 1967, it admitted Samford's first black student, Audrey Lattimore Gaston.[26] The entire university proceeded with integration.[27] In the fall of 1969 Elizabeth Sloan Ragland became the first African American student to live on campus.[28]

21st century

Dr. Andrew Westmoreland was appointed president of the university in 2006.[29] That year, the Jane Hollock Brock Recital Hall was dedicated as part of the university’s fine arts complex. A new soccer and track facility opened in 2011, part of a decade-long expansion of new athletics facilities that included a tennis center, a basketball arena, a football field house and a softball stadium.[30] For the 2016–17 academic year, the economic and fiscal impacts of the university on Alabama were $424.8 million, 2,424 jobs, $16.1 million in state income and sales taxes, and $6 million in local sales tax.[31] In 2013, the university established a new College of Health Sciences, including Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, the School of Health Professions and the School of Public Health.[32] The university announced the construction of a new facility to house Brock School of Business that year. In 2014, the West Village residence complex opened. That December, the university purchased the adjacent headquarters of Southern Progress, a subsidiary of Time, Inc., that houses the College of Health Sciences.[33][34]

Academics
University rankings
National
Forbes[35] 169
THE/WSJ[36] 170
U.S. News & World Report[37] 137
Washington Monthly[38] 277
Beeson Divinity School

Samford, a Christian university,[39] offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs, with 170 undergraduate majors, minors and concentrations.[7] The university is divided into the School of the Arts, Howard College of Arts and Sciences, Brock School of Business, Beeson Divinity School, Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education, Cumberland School of Law, Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing, McWhorter School of Pharmacy, School of Health Professions and School of Public Health. The faculty-to-student ratio at Samford University is 1:13.[40] Approximately two-thirds of the university's classes have fewer than 20 students.[7][40]

Campus

Samford's campus has moved several times during its history. Originally, Howard College was located in Marion, Alabama, a black-belt town between Selma and Tuscaloosa; it was the birthplace of Coretta Scott King. In 1887, the college moved to the East Lake community in Birmingham. The university is now located approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of downtown Birmingham in Homewood, Alabama's Shades Valley along Lakeshore Drive in Homewood, just 2 miles (3 km) from Interstate 65. It is built in the Georgian Colonial style based on Colonial Williamsburg as envisioned by Lena Vail Davis, beloved wife of then President Harwell Davis when the campus was moved to the Shades Valley area of Jefferson County in 1953-57. {https://www.samford.edu/about/history} The campus was designed by the Birmingham architectural firm Van Keuren & Davis, and most later buildings have also been designed by the same firm, known as Davis Architects since 1986.[41]

Student demographics

In 2019, Samford University enrolled 3,591 undergraduate and 2,101 graduate and professional students.[2] Students from 46 states and 28 countries attend Samford,[7] with 66 percent of the undergraduate student body coming from outside the state of Alabama.[42] 97 percent of all May 2019 undergraduate alumni were employed or enrolled in graduate school or in internships within six months of graduation.[43][44] 81 percent of May 2015 graduates completed an internship during their time at Samford.[45] During 2015, Samford students completed 716,902 hours of community service.[7]

Athletics
Main article: Samford Bulldogs

The university fields 17 varsity sports and participates in the NCAA at the Division I level as a member of the Southern Conference.[42] Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis and indoor and outdoor track and field. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field, volleyball and equestrian.

In the NCAA's 2013 report, Samford student-athletes achieved an average Academic Progress Rate of 990, the highest in Alabama.[46] It marked the eighth consecutive year that Samford has been a leader in APR measures, beginning in 2005 when it placed 7th in the nation in the inaugural ranking.[46] The university is one of only 61 schools to have received an NCAA Public Recognition Award for academic excellence in the past eight years.[47]

In 2019, Samford's athletics teams were ranked first in Alabama and the Southern Conference for Graduation Success Rate by the NCAA with an average score of 97%. Nine teams posted perfect scores.[48] Samford is among Division I schools in Alabama and in the Southern Conference.

The Bulldogs have won 37 conference championships since joining the Southern Conference in 2008.[47] In the last 15 years, 25 Samford baseball players have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and five Bulldog football players have been chosen in the National Football League Draft.[47] Past student-athletes include national-championship football coaches Bobby Bowden[49] and Jimbo Fisher[50] All-Pro defensive back Cortland Finnegan,[51] NFL standouts James Bradberry (Carolina Panthers), Michael Pierce (Baltimore Ravens) and Jaquiski Tartt (San Francisco 49ers), and baseball’s Phillip Ervin, who has had success with the Cincinnati Reds.

Notable alumni

The university has more than 51,000 alumni, including U.S. congressmen, seven state governors, two U.S. Supreme Court justices, four Rhodes Scholars, multiple Emmy and Grammy award-winning artists, two national championship football coaches, and recipients of the Pulitzer and Nobel Peace prizes.[52] Some notable alumni include:

Politics and government

Arts and letters

Religion

Sports
  • Bobby Bowden, head football coach, Florida State University (1976–2009), national champion (1993, 1999); College Football Hall of Fame (2006)
  • Marv Breeding (1952), MLB player
  • Cortland Finnegan, player, National Football League— Tennessee Titans, St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins (2006–14); Carolina Panthers (2015); Pro Bowl (2009)
  • Jennifer Pharr Davis, record-setting long-distance hiker and author
  • Jimbo Fisher, head football coach, Florida State University (2010–2017), national champion (2013); Texas A&M University (2018–present)
  • Sam Goldman, former NFL player
  • Slick Lollar, former NFL player
  • Michael Pierce, current NFL player for the Baltimore Ravens (2016–present)
  • Travis Peterson, European FIBA player
  • Marc Salyers, European FIBA player
  • Corey White, player, National Football League—New Orleans Saints (2012–2014); Dallas Cowboys (2015–present)
  • Jaquiski Tartt, player, National Football League—San Francisco 49ers (2015–present)
  • James Bradberry, NFL player for the Carolina Panthers (2016–present)
  • Phillip Ervin, MLB player for the Cincinnati Reds (2017–present)
  • Devlin Hodges, NFL Quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers (2019–present)

Other
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References
  1. "Annual Report". Samford University. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  2. "Samford Announces 11th Consecutive Record Enrollment". Samford University.
  3. Samford Brand Identity Standards (PDF). April 1, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2019.
  4. Dawn Kent Azok (February 25, 2014). "Samford University purchases Homewood office building". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  5. "Samford University" (PDF). Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  6. "Samford University by the Numbers". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  7. "Annual Report". Samford University. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  8. Harris, W. Stuart (1991). Heritage of Perry County. Marion, Alabama: Perry County Historical and Preservation Society. pp. 70–92.
  9. Wilson, Mabel Ponder (1973). Some Early Alabama Churches. Marion, Alabama: Alabama Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. pp. 134–144. ISBN 978-0-88428-029-3.
  10. "DeVotie Legacy Society - Samford". samford.plannedgiving.org.
  11. Mitchell Bennett Garrett, William R. Snell, Janet Snell, Sixty Years of Howard College, 1842-1902, Howard College, 1927, p. 19
  12. Flynt, Wayne (1998). Alabama Baptists: Southern Baptists in the Heart of Dixie. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-8173-0927-5.
  13. "Samford University". July 7, 2008. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  14. "Alfred L. Brophy, The Southern Scholar: Howard College Before the Civil War, Cumberland Law Review 46 (2015): 289-309" (PDF).
  15. "Marion Military Institute". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  16. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-10. Retrieved 2009-04-24.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. "History of the McWhorter School of Pharmacy". Archived from the original on December 31, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  18. "Howard College Navy V-12 Program cadets at Berry Field". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  19. "Then and Now". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  20. Eric Velasco (April 8, 2012). "Cumberland School of Law celebrates 50 years at Samford University". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  21. "History". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  22. "Timeline of Major Accomplishments During the Presidency of Thomas E. Corts". May 2005. Archived from the original on December 31, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  23. https://apnews.com/7164deb617cba8105d2dd57723675acb
  24. Flynt, Wayne Flynt (2011). Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. University of Alabama Press. p. 113. ISBN 0817317546.
  25. Center, Lauren (Spring 2020). "The Role of Finances and Religion in Samford University's Desegregation". Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa. 44: 83.
  26. Flynt, Wayne Flynt (2011). Keeping the Faith: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives. University of Alabama Press. p. 116. ISBN 0817317546.
  27. "Presidents of Samford University". Archived from the original on June 18, 2010. Retrieved April 24, 2009.
  28. "Elizabeth Sloan-Ragland, Award Winner". Samford University. Retrieved 2020-07-09.
  29. Ginny Cooper (November 12, 2013). "Westmoreland is March of Dimes Citizen of the Year". Archived from the original on 2014-12-31. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  30. Mary Wimberley (April 22, 2012). "Samford Opens New Track/Soccer Stadium". Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  31. "Samford's annual economic impact $424.8 million, study says". Alabama News Center. September 6, 2018. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  32. Mike Oliver (February 26, 2013). "Samford University boosts its health care profile creating new College of Health Sciences". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  33. "Samford University intends to buy Southern Progress campus from Time Inc". November 3, 2014. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
  34. "Samford closes on $58 million purchase of Southern Progress HQ". January 7, 2015. Retrieved September 3, 2015.
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  43. "Samford University". Retrieved December 20, 2019.
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  49. Richard Johnson (September 8, 2018). "FSU's Week 2 opponent was the catalyst for the last 40 years of Seminole greatness". SBNation. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  50. Tom D'Angelo (September 3, 2010). "FSU's Jimbo Fisher has deep roots at Samford and close ties to Terry Bowden". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  51. "Samford's Cortland Finnegan gets 5-year, $50 million deal with Rams". March 14, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  52. "Samford University". Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  53. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com.
  54. "Wil Haygood, "A Path All His Own For Eric Motley, the Measure of a Man Isn't His Politics", The Washington Post, 11 Jun 2006); Page A01". Retrieved 19 September 2014.
  55. "Eric Motley". The Aspen Institute.
  56. "Michael (Mick) P. Mulroy > U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE > Biography View". dod.defense.gov.
  57. "Senior Executive Service Announcements". U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.
  58. "Thomas, Lee Emmett". Louisiana Historical Association, A Directory of Louisiana Biography (lahistory.org). Archived from the original on September 23, 2010. Retrieved December 29, 2010.
  59. Saxon, Wolfgang (1995-12-02). "Herschel H. Hobbs, 88, Southern Baptist Leader". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-06-07.
  60. "About Bubba Cathy". Chick-fil-A.
  61. "Samford to Honor Wanda Lee Marvin Mann as Alumni of Year". Sanford University.
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