Troy University

Troy University is a flagship public university that is located in Troy, Alabama, United States. It was originally founded in 1887 as Troy Normal School. It is the flagship university of the Troy University System. Its main campus enrollment is 7,194 students. The total enrollment of all Troy University campuses is 29,689. Today, Troy University offers bachelor's, master's, and a doctoral degree in nursing practice.

History
Troy University is a public university with its main campus located in Troy, Alabama. It was founded as a normal school in 1887 with a mission to educate and train new teachers. The school has since evolved into a state university, located in four sites across the Alabama: Troy, Montgomery, Phenix City and Dothan. The university also has sites located throughout the United States and in international locations. Troy is known for both in class and online academic programs and service to traditional, nontraditional and military students. The main campus enrollment as of the fall of 2010 is 9,000 students.[4] The campus itself consists of 36 major buildings on 650 acres (1.9 km²) plus the adjacent Troy University Arboretum. [edit]

At least three prominent political figures have been associated with Troy University. George Wallace, Jr., son of the late Governor George C. Wallace, is a former administrator at the university. Max Rafferty, the California Superintendent of Public Instruction from 1963 to 1971, was dean of the education department from 1971 until his death in 1982. Former Governor John Malcolm Patterson, an intra-party rival of George Wallace, taught U.S. history at the institution during the 1980s.

Name change
On April 16, 2004, the Board of Trustees voted to change the name of the institution from Troy State University to Troy University. The transition to the new name was completed in August 2005. The name change was the fifth in the school's history. When created by the Alabama Legislature on February 26, 1887, it was officially named the Troy State Normal School. The school was located in downtown Troy until moving to the present location on University Avenue in 1930. In 1929, the name was changed to Troy State Teachers College and it subsequently conferred its first baccalaureate degree in 1931. In 1957, the legislature voted both to change the name to Troy State College and to allow it to begin a master's degree program. The name was changed once again in 1967 to Troy State University. In 2010, the University began offering its first, and to date only, doctoral degree, the Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Structure
Troy University cumulatively offers 46 bachelor's degree programs, 22 master's degree programs, and one doctoral program with an overall selective acceptance rate of 68%.

The University is composed of:


 * Five Colleges
 * The Graduate School
 * The Division of General Studies

Rankings
Troy University has acquired different institutional rankings from various sources:


 * Forbes Magazine ranks Troy among the top tier of institutions. Forbes’ overall ranking centers on the value of the degree obtained by a university’s students and measures, in part, the marketplace success of a school’s graduate.


 * The US News & World Report has Troy University ranked as the #67 Regional University in the South.


 * In the US News & World Report's Best Grad School national rankings, Troy is listed as having the #83 Rehabilitation Counseling program, along with the #442 ranked Nursing program.


 * For the seventh year in a row, the Princeton Review named Troy to its “Best in the Southeast” list due to excellence in academic programs and institutional data collected from the university.


 * In 2008, Troy University was ranked as the 25th best university in the United States for international students by the Institute of International Education.

Campus
Troy University's campus is located near downtown Troy. The campus sits along rolling hills with many old oak trees present along the streets and throughout campus. A very small lake named Lake Lagoona sits in front of university's Sorrell Chapel.

The university closed the Trojan Oaks Golf Course in order to build a new basketball arena, but remnants of the course are still present and are utilized freely for practice.

Student life


Students who live on campus at Troy have a choice of 12 halls.

Recreation
There are many recreational activities available on campus. The Trojan Fitness Center offers fitness machines, free weights, and cardiovascular machines. Trojan Games is a recreation room has two billiard tables, one table tennis tables, mounted televisions, and a video game system. The Natatorium houses an eight-lane 25 yard Olympic style pool. The Recreation Center Gym has two basketball courts, cardio room, a dance room, and a large outside pool. Wright Hall Gym, located adjacent from the Natatorium, offers a basketball court, two volleyball courts, and four badminton courts. The Intramural Fields consist of four flag football fields, two softball fields, and one soccer field.

There are plans in place to renovate Sartain Hall, which currently in its last season as home to the men's and women's varsity basketball teams. Currently, it is expected to be turned into a large recreational facility.

Transportation
The Troy University Transportation Service offers students a free shuttling service across campus at various stops across campus.

Greek Life
There are 21 traditional Greek organizations on Troy's campus.

Religious and other organizations
The university is home to numerous religious campus organizations such as: Gamma Phi Delta Christian Fraternity, The Campus Awakening, Chi Alpha, Wesley Foundation, Baptist Campus Ministries, Pentecostal Campus Ministries, The Newman Center (Roman Catholic), The Christian Student Center (Church of Christ), and The Troy Secular Association. Some of these religious organizations have stand-alone physical facilities on the Troy campus.

Music organizations
There are six music organizations that function under the supervision of the John M. Long School of Music :
 * Phi Mu Alpha
 * Kappa Kappa Psi
 * Sigma Alpha Iota
 * Tau Beta Sigma
 * Phi Boota Roota
 * CMENC, a student affiliate of the National Association for Music Education

Student Media
The school newspaper, the Tropolitan (commonly referred to as "The Trop"), is located on the bottom floor of Wallace Hall. It is a weekly publication, written and produced entirely by students. The Palladium, is located in adjacent offices in the same building. Also located in Wallace Hall is Troy University Television, also referred to as Troy TrojanVision. Troy University Television broadcasts three live entirely student produced newscasts twice daily. TrojanVision Global News, TrojanVision Midday & TrojanVision Nightly News. Troy TrojanVision also produces a 30 minute sports show, Trojan Sports Now, every week. TrojanVision streams live online and can be seen at the university's youtube page.

The "Sound of the South" marching band
Music is an integral part of Troy University. The university boasts 29 faculty in the School of Music, over 200 undergraduate music majors, and fields a variety of music ensembles including a Symphonic Band, two Concert Bands, two Jazz Bands, a Trumpet Ensemble, Pep Band, Brass Quintet, and more. The school of music also hosts a Brass Symposium every spring semester.

Athletics


Troy State Normal School began its sports program in 1909 when it fielded its first football team. Through the early years Troy's athletics nicknames were not official and varied by the sport and the coach. Eventually teams all began to use the name "Troy State Teachers," but when the athletic teams moved into NAIA competition the nickname was then was changed to the "Red Wave". In the early 1970s the student body voted to change the name to Trojans after many felt that Red Wave was too similar to the University of Alabama's nickname, the Crimson Tide. Prior to becoming a member of NCAA Division I athletics in 1993, Troy University was a member of the Gulf South Conference of the NCAA Division II ranks. Troy's primary rivals were Jacksonville State University, Livingston University (now the University of West Alabama), and the University of North Alabama. In 2004, Troy joined the Sun Belt Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision.



Football
Troy University began playing football in 1909. The program has won three national championships, the NAIA national football championship in 1968 and the NCAA Division II national football championship in 1984 and 1987. Troy transitioned to the NCAA's Division I-A in 2001, became a football only member of the Sun Belt Conference in 2004, and joined the conference for all other sports in 2005. In 2001, Troy defeated Mississippi State at Scott Field in Starkville, Mississippi, by a score of 21–9 which was the Trojans' first victory over a BCS level program. In 2004, the Trojans defeated a ranked BCS program for the first time ever, defeating #17 Missouri 24-14 at home on ESPN2. The Trojan football team made its first bowl game appearance in the Silicon Valley Football Classic on December 30, 2004, but lost to Northern Illinois, 34–21. In 2006, Troy won the Sun Belt Conference for the first time after defeating Middle Tennessee State toward the end of the 2006 season. Troy represented the Sun Belt Conference in the 2006 New Orleans Bowl as the conference champion for the first time where the Trojans defeated the Rice Owls of Conference USA by a score of 41–17. Troy has most recently participated in the 2010 New Orleans Bowl where the Trojans routed Ohio by a score of 48–21. Troy football head coach Larry Blakeney is entering his 20th season as head coach. He has led the program to three Southland Football Conference titles and five Sun Belt Conference titles, as well as guided the Trojans to seven FCS playoff appearances and five FBS bowl games. Blakeney boasts an overall record of 161–80–1 as head coach at Troy. Blakeney is the winningest coach in the Troy University history and he is the 4th winningest collegiate coach all-time in the state of Alabama, only behind greats Paul "Bear" Bryant, Cleve Abbott, and Ralph "Shug" Jordan. Blakeney is one of two coaches in college football history to be the head coach of a football program during its transition from Division II to I-A (the other being UCF’s Gene McDowell).



Basketball
The Troy University men's basketball team is under the direction of head coach Don Maestri. Head coach Don Maestri is the winningest coach in Troy University history and he has won numerous conference coach-of-the-year awards during his tenure at Troy University. The program has won 11 conference championships in basketball, with six of them coming in the Division I era. On January 12, 1992, Troy defeated DeVry University of Atlanta by the score of 258–141, in what is the highest scoring game in college basketball history. The Trojans competed in the 2003 NCAA Tournament in Nashville against Xavier University after winning the Atlantic Sun Conference title. In 2004, Troy was an NIT participant in a match-up against Niagara University. In 2009, the Trojans finished 3rd place in the Sun Belt Conference and competed in the CBI against College of Charleston. After winning the Sun Belt regular season title in 2010, the Trojans would be invited to play in the NIT once again against Ole Miss.

In 2008, Don Maestri was inducted into the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Dothan, Alabama. The Troy University women's basketball team is currently under the direction of head coach Michael Murphy. The women's basketball program last competed in the NCAA tournament in 1997 against the University of Virginia under the direction of head coach, Jerry Hester. Chanda Rigby, a junior college standout and coaching veteran, is the incoming head women's basketball coach.

Baseball
The Troy University baseball team won two Division II national championships in 1986 and 1987 under the leadership of coach Chase Riddle. One of Troy's biggest victories in baseball came in April 1998 when the Trojans knocked off the #3 nationally ranked University of Alabama Crimson Tide by a score of 8–4 at Riddle-Pace Field on the Troy campus. Under the direction of current head coach Bobby Pierce, the Trojan baseball program has competed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament in 2006 and 2007. Troy also competed in the 1995 and 1997 NCAA Division One tournament under head coach John Mayotte. In 1999, the program broke the NCAA Division 1 record for most hits in an inning, belting 14 hits in a 34–4 rout of Stetson.

Rodeo
The program's governing body is the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association. The rodeo program's home facility is the Pike County Cattlemen's Arena in Troy where it hosts a three-day rodeo each October that features college rodeo programs from throughout the southern region of the United States. Troy University calf roper Ben Mayworth won the 2007 national title in Casper, Wyoming, at the National Finals Collegiate Rodeo.

Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors
Main article: National Band Association Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors The Hall of Fame of Distinguished Band Conductors was established on the campus of what was then known as Troy State University in Troy, Alabama by the National Band Association in 1979. The Hall of Fame contains the picture and biographies of band directors who have distinguished themselves in some way or who have made significant contributions to the field of band directing, conducting, or leadership.



Confucius Institute
The Confucius Institute is a non-profit public institute that aims at promoting Chinese language and culture and supporting local Chinese teaching internationally through affiliated Confucius Institutes. Its headquarters is in Beijing and is under the Office of Chinese Language Council International or Hanban. The first Confucius Institute in the state of Alabama opened at Troy University in the fall of 2008.

The Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy
Troy University’s Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy was formed in September as the result of a $3.6 million gift from Troy alumnus Dr. Manuel H. “Manley” Johnson, BB&T bank and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. The Center’s mission is the advancement of free market economic ideas and its research and teaching efforts explore the idea that economic freedom improves the quality of life for citizens. The new Center will be part of the University’s Sorrell College of Business and will be housed inside Bibb Graves Hall. Dr. Scott Beaulier serves as the center’s executive director.