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Vanderbilt University (colloquially known as '''Vandy''') is a Private , nonsectarian, Coeducational Research University in Nashville , Tennessee . It was founded in 1873 with a gift of $1 million by Shipping and Rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt . Vanderbilt, despite having never been to the South, hoped his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War . Today, Vanderbilt enrolls around 11,000 students in ten schools—four undergraduate and six graduate and professional. Also affiliated with the university are several research facilities and a world-renowned medical center, the Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), which is the only Level 1 Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee. Vanderbilt is one of North America's top research institutions and is a member of the Association Of American Universities , to whose membership Vanderbilt was elected in 1950. HISTORY Founding In the years 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 (and the war-ravaged state of the South) delayed the opening of the college. The following year, on a medical trip to New York , McTyeire stayed at the residence of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt , whose second wife was the cousin of McTyeire's wife. Vanderbilt, the wealthiest man in America at the time, had been considering philanthropy causes as he was at an advanced age. His original plan was to establish a university on Staten Island , New York in honor of his mother. However, McTyeire successfully convinced him to donate $500,000 to endow Central University. The endowment (later increased to $1 million) would be Vanderbilt's only philanthropy. Though the Commodore never expressed any desire to have the university named after himself, McTyeire and his fellow trustees soon rechristened the school as Vanderbilt University. Vanderbilt passed away never having even visted the school named after him. Early years In the fall of 1875, about 200 students enrolled at Vanderbilt; the university was dedicated in October of that year. Bishop McTyeire, who had been named chairman of the Board of Trust for life by Vanderbilt as a stipulation of his endowment, named Landon Garland , his mentor from Randolph-Macon College in Virginia and then- Chancellor of the University Of Mississippi , as chancellor. Garland shaped the school's structure and hired the school's faculty, many of whom were renowned scholars in their respective fields. However, most of this crop of star faculty left after disputes with Bishop McTyeire. For the first 40 years, the Board of Trust (and therefore the university itself) was under the control of the general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. However, tensions began rising between the university administration and the Conference over the future of the school, particularly over the methods by which members of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust would be chosen. Conflicts escalated with the appointment of James Kirkland as chancellor in 1893. The final straw, at least in the mind of Kirkland, was a failed campaign to raise $300,000 from Southern Methodist congregations (only $50,000 was raised). Further disputes between the bishops and Kirkland, which erupted into litigation in 1912, led the Methodist conference to sever all ties with Vanderbilt University in June 1914. Contemporary Vanderbilt Vanderbilt experienced an early peak of its intellectual influence during the 1920s and 1930s 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 1966, Oberlin Graduate School of Theology moved from Ohio to Nashville, in order to merge with the Vanderbilt Divinity School. In 1979, Vanderbilt absorbed its neighbor Peabody College . In the late 1950s, the Vanderbilt Divinity School became something of a hotbed of the emerging Civil Rights movement, and the university expelled one of its leaders, James Lawson . Much later, in 2005, he was made a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements and re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006-07 academic year. The Rev. James Lawson to return as visiting professor by Jim Patterson, "Vanderbilt Register", January 30, 2006. Access date unknown. As with Lawson, the university drew national attention in 1966, when it recruited the first African American athlete in the Southeastern Conference, Perry Wallace . Wallace, from Nashville, played varsity basketball for Vanderbilt from 1967-1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues. In 2004, a student-led drive to have Wallace's jersey retired finally succeeded. History, race, and civil rights issues again came to the fore on the campus in 2002, when the university decided to rename a dormitory on the Peabody campus, Confederate Memorial Hall, to Memorial Hall. Nationwide attention resulted, in part due to a lawsuit by the United Daughters Of The Confederacy , who had helped pay for the building's construction in 1933 with a $50,000 contribution. The Davidson County Chancery Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2003, but the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled in May 2005 that the university would have to pay damages based on the present value of the United Daughters of the Confederacy's contribution if an inscription bearing the name "Confederate Memorial Hall" were to be removed from the building or altered. In late July of 2005, the university announced that although it has officially renamed the building and all university publications and offices will refer to it solely as Memorial Hall, the university would neither appeal the matter further nor remove the inscription and pay damages. Meanwhile, racial diversity in campus admissions has increased in recent years, with 22.7% of the Class of 2009 being students of color. ORGANIZATION Board of Trust Vanderbilt University, as any private corporation, is wholly governed by an independent, self-perpetuating Board of Trust. The Board is comprised of 45 regular members (plus any number of trustees emeriti) and the Chancellor. Each trustee serves a five-year term (except for four recently-graduated undergraduates, whom serve four-year terms). A complete, up-to-date listing of the members of the Board of Trust can be found here . Martha Rivers Ingram is the current Chairman Of The Board Of Trust . Chancellor Gordon Gee is the current Chancellor of Vanderbilt University. Appointed by the Board of Trust, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the university, and serves only at the pleasure of the Board. Prior to his appointment in February 2000, Gee served as president of Brown University in Providence , Rhode Island . Prior to Gee, the following men served as chancellor: Academic divisions Vanderbilt University is currently divided into ten degree-granting units. Each division except the Graduate School is headed by a dean. The divisions of the university (and their current heads) are: |
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