Emory University
Emory University is a
private university near
Atlanta,
Georgia. It was founded in
1836 and is named after
John Emory, a popular bishop of the Georgia Methodist Conference. It is comprised of nine academic divisions including schools of arts and sciences, theology, business, law, medicine, public health, and nursing. In 2006, Emory was ranked 20th among national universities according to
U.S. News and World Report and has ranked as high as 9th by the same publication in the past. More recently, the undergraduate business program of its
Goizueta Business School was ranked 5th nationally by
BusinessWeek in 2006.
Approximately half of its students are enrolled in the
undergraduate program and the other half are enrolled in one of Emory University's seven
graduate programs. Its nine academic divisions include:
*
Emory College*
Oxford College*
Emory Graduate School of Arts and Sciences*
Candler School of Theology *
Goizueta Business School*
Emory Law School*
Emory School of Medicine*
Rollins School of Public Health*
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of NursingThe current president of the university is Dr.
James W. Wagner, an engineer who attended the
University of Delaware as an undergraduate and received his master and doctoral degrees from
John Hopkins University. Wagner came to Emory in the autumn of 2003, after serving as provost and interim president of
Case Western Reserve University.
Early days in Oxford, Georgia
In 1833 the Georgia Methodist Conference first contemplated the establishment of a church-sponsored manual labor school, where students would combine farm work with a college preparatory curriculum. In doing so, they planted the seed that became
Emory College — and later
Emory University.
Events preceding the chartering of Emory College began in 1834. That year, at a meeting of the Georgia Methodist Conference, a preacher known as "Uncle" Allen Turner suggested that Georgia Methodists should have their own college instead of supporting Randolph-Macon in Virginia. On December 18, 1834, the
Georgia General Assembly chartered the Georgia Methodists Conference Manual Labor School. In 1835, the school opened in Newton County, with physician and minister
Alexander Means as superintendent. During the first year of operation the Board of Trustees, at the urging of
Ignatius Alphonso Few, asked the Conference to expand the school into a college.
Ignatius Alphonso Few was a Princeton-educated lawyer and skeptic-turned-Methodist who would later be elected the first president of Emory College.
On December 10, 1836, the
Georgia General Assembly granted the Georgia Methodist Conference a charter to establish a college to be named for
John Emory, a popular bishop who had presided at the 1834 conference but was killed in 1835 from a carriage accident. In 1837, at its first meeting, the Board of Trustees accepted land belonging to establish both a "contemplated college" and a proposed new town of
Oxford, Georgia. By 1838, Emory College began admitting students.
For the duration of the nineteenth century, Emory College remained a small institution which offered students both a classical curriculum and professional training. Its students studied four years of
Greek,
Latin, and
mathematics and devoted three years to the English
Bible and the
sciences of
geography,
astronomy, and
chemistry. In 1875, the first
laboratory-based studies for students commenced, alongside a rise of activity by the college's debating societies. Such debates included the justifiability of
war, women's
suffrage, the
morality of
slavery, and
prohibition.
One of Emory College's most famous alumni from this early period was
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (II), a native Georgian who graduated from Emory College in 1845. Lamar married the daughter of Augustus Baldwin Longstreet, one of the school's early presidents. Lamar would go on to represent
Mississippi in the
United States Senate and become the lone Mississippian to have served on the
Supreme Court of the United States.
Emory College was closed briefly during the
American Civil War. In the autumn of 1861, academic activity almost completely ceased when students left to fight in the conflict. During the war, the college's buildings saw duty both as a
Confederate hospital and
Union headquarters. Sadly, the school's library and other archives were destroyed. It was not until the summer of 1865 that the campus was able to fully return to its academic functions.
In the autumn of 1866, Emory College reopened its doors with a limited endowment and few students. The first postbellum commencement was held in 1867 and conferred degrees on the class of 1862, most of whom had fought in the war and with some already interred in military graves. In the years following the Civil War, Emory, along with the rest of the South, struggled to overcome financial devastation. A key moment came in 1880, when Emory president
Atticus G. Haygood preached a Thanksgiving Day sermon urging southerners to cultivate industrial growth. The printed sermon was read by
George I. Seney, a New York banker and Methodist, who responded by giving Emory College $5,000 to repay its debts, $50,000 for construction, and $75,000 to establish a new endowment — enormous sums for the time.
Emory College remained small and financially limited for the next thirty years. Its enrollment peaked at about 400 students. Nonetheless, Emory College produced several notable graduates during this transitional era.
Alben W. Barkley went on to represent
Kentucky in both the
United States House of Representatives and the
Senate before becoming — at age 71 in 1949 — the oldest
Vice-President of the United States in history.
Thomas M. Rivers became one of the nation's premier virologists at the
Johns Hopkins University Medical School, investigating
encephalitis and
smallpox and later leading the
National Science Foundation's quest for a
polio vaccine.
Dumas Malone went on to become the head of
Harvard University Press, one of the nation's leading academic publishers, and completed a
Pulitzer Prize-winning six-volume study of
Thomas Jefferson when he was past 90 years of age.
Move to Atlanta
In 1913, Bishop
Warren A. Candler, a former Emory College president, persuaded the General Conference of the
United Methodist Church to make Emory the nucleus of a new university. At the same time, Emory began its long-standing association with
The Coca-Cola Company, as the bishop's brother was
Asa Griggs Candler, who had gained ownership of the company by purchasing it from the inventor of the drink, John Pemberton. Asa had become wealthy from promoting the popular soft drink and agreed to endow the school with one million dollars. He also convinced the school's administration to move to the Atlanta area. The Candler family provided a hilly 75 acres (304,000 m²) in the new emerging Druid Hills neighborhood northeast of downtown Atlanta in
DeKalb County. The campus is less than a mile from the current Atlanta city limits. For Asa's generosity, the new campus library at the east end of the quadrangle — recently restored to its original 1920s look — was named after him.
In light of these developments, Emory College was rechartered by
DeKalb County on January 25, 1915, as Emory University, which explains both the dates 1836 and 1915 sometimes featured on the school's seal.
Henry Hornbostel was chosen to design many of the buildings on Emory University's new campus. His designs incorporated local stone and materials in the Georgia
marble and red
terracotta tile of the structures, which established the institution's unique architectural character. Emory University first opened its
theology and
law schools on the new campus
quadrangle.
In 1919, Emory College moved from Oxford to Atlanta. Emory University later added graduate,
business,
medical,
public health,
nursing, and
dental schools. The Emory Dental School has since been closed. Doctoral studies at Emory University were established in 1946, and the school has continued to strengthen its graduate and professional schools since. In 1949, Alben Barkley returned to Emory to receive an honorary LLD degree and give the commencement address, the first Emory event to be
televised.
Expansion since 1950
Formerly an all-male school, in 1953 Emory University opened its doors to women. Sororities soon followed, and first appeared in 1959. In 1962, in the midst of the
American Civil Rights Movement, Emory University embraced the initiative to end racial restrictions when it asked the courts to declare portions of the Georgia
statutes unconstitutional. Previously,
Georgia law denied tax-exempt status to private universities with racially integrated student bodies. The
Georgia Supreme Court ruled in Emory's favor and Emory became officially racially integrated.
In the 1970s, Emory University embarked on an ambitious building program, substantially improving its facilities. New concrete
brutalist structures appeared, including the Robert W. Woodruff Library in 1969, the
Sanford S. Atwood Chemistry Center in 1974, the
Goodrich C. White Hall in 1977, and the
Paul Rudolph-designed
William R. Cannon Chapel in 1982. Spurred on by the recent expansion of Emory University, Robert W. Woodruff — president of the
Coca-Cola Company -- and his brother George presented the institution with a gift of $105 million in 1979. This was largely in Coca-Cola
stock and represented the largest one-time endowment gift to a university in
United States history.
An important factor in the university's growth over the last two decades has been its location on the outskirts of Atlanta. The 631-acre Emory campus in the historic
Druid Hills neighborhood shares the Clifton Corridor with the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
American Cancer Society. A few miles away is the
Carter Center. Former U.S. president
Jimmy Carter, winner of the 2002
Nobel Peace Prize, occasionally visits classes and lectures students.
[[Image:emory-university-quad.jpg|200px|right|thumb|Aerial view of the Emory Quad]]
The latest additions to the Emory campus include the Rollins School of Public Health, the O. Wayne Rollins Research Center, the
Michael C. Carlos Museum (designed by
Michael Graves), the
Roberto C. Goizueta Business School, the Whitehead Biomedical Research Building, the Mathematics and Science Center, the Donna and Marvin Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, a recent expansion to the business school that was completed in 2005, as well as the continuous expansion of Emory University Hospital. Emory has approximately 19,200 employees (including 2,700 faculty).
Emory's five libraries have also seen enormous growth over the 1990s as they increased their holdings to more than 2.7 million volumes. The Special Collections Department of Woodruff Library houses the papers of the British poet
Ted Hughes, as well as an extensive Irish collection (
W. B. Yeats,
Lady Gregory,
Maud Gonne, and several contemporary Irish writers). Emory's Special Collections also has concentrations on southern imprints and writers (
James Dickey,
Alfred Uhry, and certain papers of
Huey Long, for example), and a growing concentration of African American papers, including the work of activist
Malcolm X and the recently acquired Hatch/Billops Collection.
The Michael C. Carlos Museum houses a permanent collection of some 18,000 objects, including art from
Egypt,
Greece,
Rome, the
Near East, the
Americas,
Asia,
Africa, and
Oceania as well as European and American prints and drawings ranging from the
Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Twenty-nine galleries are maintained for permanent collections, and eight galleries present special exhibitions from all periods.
Emory University celebrated its
sesquicentennial anniversary in 1986, when it featured a student body of about 8,500 undergraduate and graduate students. Emory is generally considered a shortlist member of the so-called "
Southern Ivy League" and consistently ranks among the top universities in the United States. In 2004, Emory University's endowment was ranked 8th in the nation at an estimated $4.4 billion.
Emory University recently completed a strategic planning process in 2005 led by Emory President
James W. Wagner, Provost
Earl Lewis and Executive Vice President Mike Mandl. After broad consultation with the entire Emory community, the comprehensive plan was put forward and approved by the Board of Trustees. The anticipated $3 billion plan will strengthen Emory University's programs in specific areas focused on key themes centered on major world issues.
Emory College is the undergraduate institution of Emory University located in
Atlanta, Georgia with 66 majors, 53 minors, 17 joint concentrations, and 10 interdepartmental programs leading to a bachelor's degree. It enrolls approximately 6,000 undergraduate students.
Oxford College of Emory University, located in
Oxford, Georgia enrolls about 600 students. Students at Oxford traditionally complete their first two years of their degree at Oxford and then continue on to Emory College on the Atlanta campus to complete their bachelor's degree. Oxford College is known for its rigorius academics, low student-teacher ratios, and close-knit social community.
The
Emory Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has degree programs in 26 divisions in which students receive either
master's or
doctoral degrees. The
Candler School of Theology is allied with the
United Methodist Church, but enrolls students from many denominations. The
Goizueta Business School was ranked 20th nationally by
BusinessWeek and 18th by
Forbes for their MBA program; the undergraduate program was ranked 5th by
BusinessWeek in 2006. The
Emory Law School is highly ranked nationally.
The
Emory Healthcare System is the largest healthcare provider in
Georgia and educates doctors, nurses, and other health professionals. The
Emory School of Medicine enrolls approximately 425 medical students, 1,000 residents and fellows, and 350 allied health students. Collaborating with the nearby
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other public health organizations, the
Rollins School of Public Health has about 700 graduate students. The
Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing enrolls approximately 175 undergraduate students and 175 graduate students.
|
Dooley, the unofficial mascot of Emory University |
Traditions at Emory include Dooley, the "Spirit of Emory" and the unofficial mascot of the university. Dooley is a
skeleton and is usually dressed in black. The name "Dooley" was given to the unofficial mascot in 1909. Each year in the spring, during Dooley's Week, Dooley roams Emory's campus with a team of bodyguards and lets students out of class with unscheduled appearances in their classrooms. He typically walks slowly with an exaggerated limp. He adopts the first name and middle initial of the University's current president. As such, Dooley's current full name is James W. Dooley. Dooley's Week culminates with Dooley's Ball, a grand celebration that takes place in the center of campus on McDonough Field held in celebration of Dooley and Emory University.
Fraternities on Emory's campus have existed, officially and unofficially, since 1840. Sororities first came to campus in 1959. For undergraduates, Greek life comprises approximately 30% of the Emory student population, with the Office of Greek Life at Emory University consisting of 12 Fraternities and 13 Sororities. For most students, student life includes involvement in one or more of the 200 campus organizations, which includes a nationally ranked chess team and nationally ranked
debate team (the
Barkley Forum). According to the school website, about 25% of Emory students volunteer with Volunteer Emory, Emory's umbrella community service group. For the 2004-2005 academic year, undergraduates put in over 5,000 hours of community service. Approximately 40% of students study abroad during their careers at Emory. Over 30% of undergraduates pursue independent research or work with faculty on research projects during their four years at Emory. Emory also has four
secret societies — DVS, Ducemus, the Order of Ammon, and the Paladin Society.
After graduation, 42% of undergraduates plan to continue to graduate/professional school; 30% of those pursue an MD; and 20% plan to pursue a JD. Emory College has produced 16
Rhodes Scholars and 10
Marshall Scholars. In terms of class size, two-thirds of all Emory College classes have fewer than 20 students; 7% have more than 50.
Since the 1960s, Emory's student body has become more regionally and ethnically diverse. According to the school's website, more than 50% of its students are from outside the South, with about 30% from either the mid-Atlantic or northeast United States. For the 2009 class of Emory College, 31% identify themselves as a member of one or more minority group. Since the early 1990s, Emory has also been one of a few Southern universities to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy. The school offers benefits to the domestic partners of gay and lesbian students, staff and faculty. In addition, the campus features centers devoted to female students, Jewish students, international students, "multicultural" students, and LGBT students.
As of 2006, tuition, room, and board for the school totals at about $40,000 a year. According to the Princeton Review, 38% percent of undergraduates receove need-based financial aid and the average freshman aid package is $21,616.
History
In 1897, Emory College became a pioneer with intramural sports. Emory's "athletics for all" program, which emphasizes the physical and social aspects of student development and learning, in addition to academic pursuits, soon rose to national prominence during the 1920s, prompting many other institutions to emulate it. In 1986, Emory formed the
University Athletic Association (UAA) with seven other urban research universities â€"
Carnegie Mellon University,
Case Western Reserve University,
Johns Hopkins University,
New York University,
University of Chicago,
University of Rochester, and
Washington University in St. Louis. Johns Hopkins University no longer participates in the UAA and
Brandeis University has since joined. The UAA is sometimes referred to as the "
Nerdy Nine" (even though there are now only eight members).
The Emory from 1945 was simply a converted
World War II airplane hangar, with some renovations and modifications. However, in 1983 it was replaced by the new George W. Woodruff Physical Education Center (WoodPEC for short), built into the side of a hill opposite the old 1949 Alumni Memorial University Center building. By 1985, the Alumni Memorial University Center itself had been extended and remodeled into the R. Howard Dobbs University Center (the DUC for short). Today, the WoodPEC houses
racquetball and
tennis courts, an outdoor
track and field, and a
swimming pool.
Modern Emory athletics
Emory's sports teams are called the
Eagles. They participate in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association's
Division III and the UAA. The eagle mascot of the university is named "Swoop". The previous Emory eagle logo, in use since the 1980s, was redesigned in 2005. To this day, the school fields no
football team, prompting students to wear shirts that humorously claim that the Emory football team is "still undefeated".
Emory offers intercollegiate teams for men and women in cross country, swimming, tennis, track and field, basketball, and soccer, as well as golf and baseball for men, and volleyball and softball for women. The teams consistently top the UAA standings and are consistently ranked among the best in NCAA Division III, both regionally and nationally. The men's tennis team finished first in the nation in 2003 and 2006, the women's tennis team finished first in the nation in 1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006, and the women's swimming and diving team placed first in 2005 and 2006. In 2003 and 2004, Emory finished second in the nation among more than 395 NCAA Division III schools in the
NACDA Director's Cup for the best all-around athletic program.
Club sports, recreation, and intramural sports provide additional competitive opportunities. Club teams include crew, rugby, ultimate frisbee, ice hockey, lacrosse, racquetball, volleyball, sailing, and table tennis, among others. Emory's women's crew, women's ultimate frisbee, and men's lacrosse teams have had considerable success and deserve particular note. Intramural sports offered at Emory range from basketball to dodgeball and from wrestling to golf. The student body participates heavily in athletics, with eighty percent of students participating in intercollegiate, club, recreation, or intramural sports during their time at Emory. Many students also participate in the Outdoor Emory Organiztion (OEO) — an organization that sponsors weekend trips of outdoor activities, such as rafting, rock climbing, and hiking.
|
The Presidential Seal of Emory University |
*
Sante Uberto Barbieri -
Bishop of
The Methodist Church in
Latin America*
Alben W. Barkley - 35th
United States Vice President*
Rowland Barnes - Former Atlanta Superior Court Judge
*
Sanford Bishop - United States Representative from Georgia
*
David Brinkley - Journalist and television newscaster
*
Peter Buck - Lead guitarist,
R.E.M. (dropped out)
*
Ely Callaway - founder of Callaway Golf
*
Sonny Carter - Astronaut, physician, and professional
soccer player
*
Max Cleland - Former United States Senator from Georgia
*
John B. Cobb -
Process theologian*
Kenneth Cole - Clothing designer
*
Tinsley Ellis - Blues singer
*
Tillie Fowler - Former United States Representative from Florida
*
Newt Gingrich - Former United States
Speaker of the House*
Joel Godard - Television announcer
*
Ernie Harwell - Baseball broadcaster
*
Spessard Holland - Former Governor of and US senator from Florida
*
Charles H. Jenkins, Jr. - CEO, Publix
*
Bobby Jones - Golfer and founder of the Masters
*
Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (II) - Former
United States Supreme Court Justice and
Senator from Kentucky
*
Dumas Malone -
Pulitzer Prize winning historian, former head of Harvard University Press
*
Christopher McCandless - Subject of "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
*
Sam Nunn - Former United States Senator from Georgia
*
Amy Ray - Singer, the
Indigo Girls*
Ralph E. Reed, Jr. - Former Executive Director of the Christian Coalition
*
Thomas M. Rivers - Famous virologist, headed the
National Science Foundation's search for a polio vaccine
*
Kai Ryssdal - Host of Marketplace, a business program that airs weekdays on U.S. public radio stations affiliated with American Public Media
*
Emily Saliers - Singer, the
Indigo Girls*
Andy Slater - President and CEO, Capitol Records
*
Jack Stahl - President and CEO, Revlon
*
Bob Varsha - Auto racing broadcaster, currently for SPEED Channel
*
Robert Wexler - Congressman from Florida (attended the college for two years, then transferred to the
University of Florida)
*
Robert W. Woodruff - Former President of the
Coca-Cola Company (left to work at Coca-Cola after two semesters)
*
C. Vann Woodward -
Pulitzer Prize winning historian
*
Alan Abramowitz - Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science
*
Merle Black - Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Politics and Government
*
Jimmy Carter - University Distinguished Professor since 1982 and former
United States President
*
Frans de Waal - Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior
*
Richard Ellmann - late Robert Woodruff Professor and preeminent
James Joyce scholar
*
James W. Fowler - Charles Howard Candler Professor of Theology and Human Development
*
Sanjay Gupta - Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Emory and Associate Chief of the Neurosurgery Service at Grady Memorial Hospital; CNN Medical Correspondent
*
Narasimhan Jegadeesh - Dean's Distinguished University Chair in Finance at the Goizueta Business School
*
Harvey Klehr - Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History
*
Benn Konsynski - George S. Craft Distinguished University Professor of Decision & Information Analysis at the Goizueta Business School
*
Deborah Lipstadt - Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies and Director, Rabbi Donald A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies
*
Jean-François Lyotard - late Robert Woodruff Professor and prominent French philosopher
*
Harriet Robinson - Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and Director, Microbiology and Immunology at Yerkes Primate Center
*
Paul Rubin - Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics and Law
*
Vaidy Sunderam - Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Computer Science
*"Emory University,"
New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved July 1, 2006: http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.
*Gleason, Jan. "Emory ranked 9th-best national university by U.S. News & World Report magazine" in
Emory Report (Atlanta: Emory Report, 1997), Volume 50 No. 1.
*Hauk, Gary S.
A Legacy of Heart and Mind : Emory since 1836 (Atlanta: Emory University, developed and produced by Bookhouse Group, Inc., 1999).
*Young, James Harvey. "A Brief History of Emory University," in
Emory College Catalog 2003-2005 (Atlanta: Emory University Office of University Publications, 2003), 9-15.
*
Oxford College*
Candler School of Theology *
Goizueta Business School*
The Emory Wheel, Emory's Student Newspaper
*
University Athletic Association*
James W. Wagner*
Official site*
An Emory History*
Emory Libraries*
The Emory Wheel, Emory's Student Newspaper*
Emory Report*
News @ Emory, University Media Relations*
Emory Athletics Homepage
