Rhodes College

Rhodes College is a private, predominantly undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Originally founded by freemasons in 1848, Rhodes became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1855. Rhodes enrolls approximately 1,800 students pursuing bachelor's and master's degrees. The college is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

History
Rhodes College traces its origin as a degree-granting institution to the Masonic University of Tennessee, founded in 1848 in Clarksville, Tennessee, by the Grand Masonic Lodge of Tennessee. The institution became Montgomery Masonic College in 1850 and later was renamed Stewart College in honor of its president, William M. Stewart. Under Stewart's leadership in 1855, control of the college passed from the Masons to the Presbyterian Church. In 1875, the college added an undergraduate School of theology and became Southwestern Presbyterian University. The School of Theology operated until 1917.

In 1925, president Charles Diehl led the move to the present campus in Memphis, Tennessee (the Clarksville campus would later become Austin Peay State University). At that time, the college shortened its name to Southwestern. In 1945, the college adopted the name Southwestern at Memphis, to distinguish itself from other colleges and universities containing the name "Southwestern."

Finally, in 1984, the college's name was changed to Rhodes College to honor former college president, and Diehl's successor, Peyton Nalle Rhodes. Since 1984, Rhodes has grown from a regionally recognized institution to a nationally ranked liberal arts college. As enrollment has increased over the past twenty years, so has the proportion of students from outside Tennessee and the Southeast region.

Dr. James Daughdrill served as president for over a quarter century. His successor is the current president of Rhodes, Dr. William E. Troutt, who joined the college as its 19th president in 1999.

Academics
The academic environment at Rhodes centers around small classes and an emphasis on student research and writing. Students are encouraged to participate in off-campus activities and "service learning." They are also given the opportunity to participate in a variety of research-based programs, such as the Summer Plus program at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Rhodes Institute for Regional Studies, the Center for Outreach and Development of the Arts, the Mike Curb Institute for Music, and the Rhodes Service Fellows program.

About one third of Rhodes students go on to graduate or professional school soon after graduation. The acceptance rates of Rhodes alumni to law and business schools are around 95%, and the acceptance rate to medical schools is nearly twice the national average.

Rhodes was featured in Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives and on the cover of the 2008 Princeton Review Complete Book of Colleges. U.S. News and World Report consistently ranks Rhodes among the nation's "top-tier" liberal arts colleges, ranking the school 47th among liberal arts colleges in 2010. Forbes rated Rhodes 47th among all American colleges and universities in its 2010 publication of America's Best Colleges

Campus
The campus covers a 100 acre tract in Midtown, Memphis across from Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo. Often cited for its beauty, the campus design is notable for its stone Gothic architecture buildings, thirteen of which are currently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The original buildings, including Palmer Hall (1925), Kennedy Hall (1925), and Robb and White dormitories (1925), were designed by Henry Hibbs in consultation with Charles Klauder, who designed many buildings at Princeton University, alma mater of college president Charles Diehl.

Later buildings were designed by H. Clinton Parrent, a young associate of Hibbs who was present from the beginning. Parrent's buildings include the Catherine Burrow Refectory (1957), which was an expansion of Hibbs' original dining hall. Parrent also added Halliburton Tower (1962) to Palmer Hall. The 140 ft bell tower was named in honor of explorer Richard Halliburton. The Paul Barret, Jr. Library holds a collection of Halliburton's papers.

Rhodes maintains its Collegiate Gothic architecture. The latest example is the new Barret Library (2005), designed by the firm of Hanbury Evans Wright and Vlattas.

The campus was used as the setting of the movie Making the Grade.

Students and faculty
Rhodes enrolls 1820 undergraduate students from 48 states, the District of Columbia, and 12 foreign countries. About 74% are Caucasian, 7% are African American, 5% are Asian, 3% are Hispanic, 1% are multi-racial, 4% are international, and the ethnicity of about 5% is unknown. Fifty-seven percent of students are female. The student-to-faculty ratio is 10:1. Some of the approximately 30 majors include Economics and Business Administration, Biology, Political Science, English, and International Studies.

Traditions and clubs
Rhodes is one of 62 colleges recently classified for both "Curricular Engagement" and "Outreach & Partnerships" in the "Community Engagement" category by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Approximately 80% of Rhodes students participate in some form of community service by the time they graduate. The curriculum includes a requirement that students participate in activities that broaden the connection between classroom experiences and the outside world. The mission statement of the college also reinforces community engagement, aspiring to "graduate students with...a compassion for others and the ability to translate academic study and personal concern into effective leadership and action in their communities and the world."

Central to the life of the college is its Honor Code, administered by students through the Honor Council. Every student is required to sign the Code, which reads, "As a member of the Rhodes College community, I pledge my full and steadfast support to the Honor System and agree neither to lie, cheat, nor steal and to report any such violation that I may witness." Because of this, students enjoy a relationship of trust with their professors and benefits such as taking closed book final exams in the privacy of their own rooms.

Rites of Spring is a three day music festival in early April. A major social event of the school year, it typically attracts several major bands from around the country. Rites to Play has in recent years brought elementary-school-age children to the campus. Rhodes students plan, organize, and execute a carnival for the children, who are sponsored by community agencies and schools that partner with Rhodes.

Athletics
The college mascot is the lynx and the school colors are red and black.

The athletic teams compete in the Southern Athletic Association in the NCAA's Division III. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

Rhodes has one athletic national championship to its credit, awarded to the 1961 baseball team.

The J. Hal Daughdrill Award is given to the "Most Valuable Player" of the Lynx football team. The award honors James Harold Daughdrill, Sr. (1903–1986), outstanding football player, athlete, business leader, and the father of Rhodes' eighteenth President. The Rebecca Rish Gay Award and Walter E. Gay Award are given to the "Athletes of the Year" and are named after the parents of former President Daughdrill’s wife, Libby Daughdrill.

Mock Trial
With four national championships and eight national final round appearances, Rhodes's undergraduate mock trial program is one of the most prestigious in the country. Founded in 1986 by Professor Marcus Pohlmann, Rhodes has qualified to the American Mock Trial Association's National Championship tournament every year since its inception, with twenty-seven top ten finishes and over seventy All-American attorney and witness awards.

At the 2013 AMTA National Championship tournament in Washington, D.C., Rhodes A earned the national runner-up spot while Rhodes B placed fifth in its division. The teams are currently ranked second and seventeenth in the nation, respectively.

Buckman Hall houses a replica courtroom used by the teams for practicing. Every spring, Rhodes hosts one of the six AMTA Opening Round Championship tournaments in the Shelby County Courthouse in downtown Memphis. The program also hosts an informal invitational scrimmage tournament in Buckman Hall every autumn.

Greek system
There are a number of social fraternities and sororities at Rhodes. Approximately 45% of the students are members of Greek organizations. Fraternity and sorority lodges at Rhodes are not residential.

Sororities
(in order of establishment at Rhodes)
 * Chi Omega 1922
 * Alpha Omicron Pi 1925
 * Kappa Delta 1925
 * Delta Delta Delta 1931
 * Alpha Kappa Alpha
 * Sigma Gamma Rho
 * Delta Sigma Theta 1990

Fraternities
(in order of establishment at Rhodes)
 * Pi Kappa Alpha 1878
 * Alpha Tau Omega 1881
 * Kappa Sigma 1882
 * Sigma Alpha Epsilon 1882
 * Kappa Alpha Order
 * Sigma Nu 1934

Faculty and administrators

 * Richard Batey, W. J. Millard Professor of Religious Studies
 * Mark Behr, South African novelist
 * Susan Bies, Member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve
 * Art Carden, Assistant Professor of Economics, Forbes.com contributor, LearnLiberty.org personality
 * Marshall Gramm, Associate Professor of Economics, son of former US senator Phil Gramm and economist Wendy Lee Gramm
 * Andrew A. Michta, M.W. Buckman Distinguished Professor of International Studies
 * Marcus Pohlmann, Political Scientist, founder and coach of the mock trial team.
 * William E. Troutt, President, former Chair of the American Council on Education and the National Commission on the Cost of Education and member of the Lincoln Commission on Study Abroad.
 * Robert Penn Warren, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of All The King's Men, began his teaching career at Rhodes in 1930.
 * Dave Wottle, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Emeritus, 1972 Olympic gold-medal winner.

Academics

 * David Alexander '53, President of Rhodes College and Pomona College.
 * John Churchill, '71 - Secretary of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.
 * Lindley Darden, '68 - Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland.
 * James C. Dobbins, '71 - James H. Fairchild Professor of Religion, Oberlin College.
 * C. Lee Giles, '68 - David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems, Pennsylvania State University.
 * Harry L. Swinney, '61 - Director of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Texas at Austin.
 * Mark D. West, '89 - University of Michigan Law School Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Nippon Life Professor of Law.

Athletics

 * Tom Mullady, New York Giants tight end, 1979 to 1984.

Business

 * John H. Bryan '58 - former CEO of Sara Lee and member of the board of Goldman Sachs

Government and Military

 * Bill Alexander '57 - US Congressman from Arkansas (1969–1993), Chief Deputy Majority Whip
 * Theodore M. Brantley ~1880 - longest-serving Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, serving for 23 years (1899–1922)
 * Abe Fortas '30 - U.S. Supreme Court justice (1965–1969) and unsuccessful nominee for Chief Justice of the United States, authored the opinion in the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines School District
 * Alison Lundergan Grimes 2001 - Secretary of State of Kentucky, 2012-present
 * Claudia Kennedy '69 - first woman to hold a three-star rank in the U.S. Army, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame
 * Joseph Williams Vance, Jr. (1918-1942) - an officer in the United States Navy decorated with the Bronze Star Medal for action in the Battle of Makassar Strait during World War II during which he gave his life. Attended Southwestern from 1936 to 1938. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Vance (DE-387), which saw duty in the latter part of World War II, was named in his honor.

Literature and Arts

 * Anne Howard Bailey '45 - television writer
 * John Boswell '67 - author and publisher
 * Dixie Carter '62 - Emmy-nominated actress
 * Carroll Cloar - Guggenheim Fellow and artist
 * John Farris '58 - prolific writer of popular fiction and suspense novels, and stage and screen plays
 * Charlaine Harris '73 - Best-selling mystery writer
 * George Hearn '56 - two time Tony Award winning actor and singer
 * Sarah Lacy '99 - technology journalist
 * Hilton McConnico - film director
 * Allison Miller - actress and singer
 * Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor '39 - Pulitzer Prize-winning author
 * Verner Moore White '1884 - Noted landscape and portrait artist

Other

 * Cary Fowler '71, Hon. '11 - American agriculturalist and the former Executive Director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.