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University of Montevallo
Established: 1896
Type: Public Liberal Arts University
President: Philip C. Williams
Faculty: 200
Staff: 175
Students: 3,000
Undergraduates: 2,571
Postgraduates: 428
Location: Montevallo, AL, USA
Campus: Rural
Colors: Purple and Gold
Nickname: Falcons
Affiliations: NCAA Division II; GSC
Website: www.montevallo.edu

The University of Montevallo is a four-year public university located in Montevallo, Alabama, USA. Founded in 1896, it is Alabama's only public liberal arts college and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Programs are offered through the Michael E. Stephens College of Business, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Education, College of Fine Arts, and graduate studies in English, Speech-Language Pathology and Education. Its current president, Philip C. Williams, was formerly Provost at Methodist College in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Dr. Williams succeeded Robert M. McChesney Sr., who retired August 1, 2006 after fourteen years of service to the university.

Contents

History

The University of Montevallo opened October 1896 as the Alabama Girls’ Industrial School (AGIS), a women-only technical school that also offered high school-level courses. AGIS became the Alabama Girls’ Technical Institute in 1911, further adding "and College for Women" in 1919. The school gradually phased into being a traditional degree-granting institution, becoming Alabama College, State College for Women in 1923.

The school's supporters lobbied the Alabama Legislature which passed a bill on January 15, 1956 that dropped the designation "State College for Women", effectively making the school coeducational ( though its student body still maintains a 7:5 ratio of women to men). The first men entered the school that same month. On September 1, 1969, Alabama College was renamed the University of Montevallo.

Montevallo is located in the geographic center of the state of Alabama in an area rich with Civil War history. With slightly over 3,000 students, the university generates a significant economic impact on the surrounding communities in Shelby County.

Many of the buildings on campus predate the founding of the college, including King House and Reynolds Hall. The King House is reserved for special guests of the campus, and Reynolds Hall is still used by the Theater Department and alumni relations. King House was reportedly the first home in Alabama to receive pane glass windows.

Montevallo's campus is considered an architectural jewel. Its appearance is more in line with private, elite institutions. The central part of campus is a National Historic District. The main portion of the campus was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, who also designed Central Park in New York City and the Biltmore House grounds in North Carolina.

Montevallo is often regarded as primarily a teacher's college; however other courses of study are available. Music, theater, art, and mathematics majors are common.

Courses of study

College of Arts and Sciences

Michael E. Stephens College of Business

College of Education

  • Early Childhood - BA, BS
  • Elementary - BA, BS
  • Family & Consumer Sciences - BA, BS
    • Concentration in Child & Family Studies
    • Concentration in Dietetics
    • Concentration in Family & Consumer Sciences Education
    • Concentration in Interior Design
    • Concentration in Retail Merchandising
  • Kinesiology - BS

College of Fine Arts

The Graduate School

The James Wylie Shepherd Observatory

The James Wylie Shepherd Observatory, *James Wylie Sheperd Observatory, at the University of Montevallo is currently under construction. When completed later this year, the facility will provide incomparable observing and educational opportunities. Located 3 miles from the main campus at the University’s 150-acre Gentry Springs property, the JWSO will feature a state-of-the-art Meade 20 inch RCX 400 Advanced Ritchey-Chrétien telescope installed in a fully robotic 15 foot diameter observatory dome. The remote location provides ideal dark skies, far removed from city lights, and offers spectacular views of any part of the night sky. When further planned development is completed, the Observatory Complex will offer the region’s premiere completely accessible telescope as well as an outdoor planetarium/amphitheatre, educational exhibits and a visitor center in which groups can see images generated by the main telescope. Additional smaller scopes for solar and planetary observing will be placed at various locations outside the main dome.


Athletics

The University of Montevallo fields 10 NCAA Division II athletic teams that currently compete in the East Division of the Gulf South Conference. Men's athletics include baseball, basketball, soccer, golf. Women's athletics include basketball, soccer, golf, cross-country, tennis and volleyball.

The university announced on June 27, 2008 their intention to move their athletic programs to the Peach Belt Conference, beginning with the 2009-10 season.1

Men's basketball

  • 2004 GSC Champion
  • 2005 GSC Champion
  • 2006 NCAA South Region Champions
  • 2006 NCAA Elite Eight Quarterfinalists
  • 2007 GSC Champion
  • 2007 NCAA South Region Champions
  • 2007 NCAA Elite Eight Quarterfinalists

Men's baseball

  • 2006 NCAA South Central Region Champions
  • 2006 NCAA National Semifinalist

Men's soccer

  • 1999 GSC Champion Champion
  • 2005 GSC Champion Champion

Notable faculty and staff

  • William Sledge Cobb, the university's writer-in-residence for 13 years, is a critically acclaimed novelist and short-story writer whose works include Coming of Age at the Y, A Walk through Fire (nominated for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize), Harry Reunited, and A Spring of Souls. He is the 2007 recipient of the Alabama Writers' Forum's Harper Lee Award for a Distinguished Alabama Writer.
  • Eugene Bondurant Sledge, PhD, recounted his experiences in the Pacific theater of World War II in the book With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa. He was a professor of biology and a specialist in ornithology at the university until his death in 2001.
  • Eva Olivia Golson, PhD, a longtime professor of English, was one of the first female graduates of the University of Chicago, earning a doctorate in literature. An annual scholarship named in her memory is awarded to an outstanding rising senior majoring in English.
  • Julia Tutwiler, 19th-century champion of equal educational opportunities for Alabama women, secured the funding that enabled AGIS to open in 1896. She also served as the first president of Alabama Normal College (now the University of West Alabama) and wrote a poem, "Alabama," that was later adapted as the official state song.

Notable alumni

Traditions

The school mascot is a Falcon, and the colors are purple and gold.

Crook Week/Senior March

Traditionally, Crook Week was a week in late October when the senior class women would hide the "crook"--a staff shaped roughly like a shepherd's crook--and give obscure clues for the underclass women who were to find it. At the end of Crook Week was Senior March. When the chimes struck thirteen, if the underclass women did not find the crook, the seniors march on them, getting them out of their rooms and onto Main Quad where they would have a shaving cream and water balloon battle. If the underclass women found the crook, they were safe that year. This tradition ended in the 1990s because the administration considered it hazing despite that fact that participation on either side was purely optional.

Today, Crook Week occurs the week before Founder's Day. The administration hides the crook and leaves clues as to where it can be found. The finder of the crook gets recognized at Founder's Day with a small cash prize.

College Night

The oldest tradition at Montevallo is called College Night, an intramural competition between the Purple Side and the Gold Side. The tradition officially began on March 3, 1919, in honor of the school adding the name "college" to its title.

The homecoming competition consists of sports events, management of the side finances and spirit. While these are key to the game of College Night, the primary focus is two student written, produced, and performed musicals--one for each competing side. For a small University in which the student-to-faculty ratio is only about 16-to-1, participation is key. A noticeable number of people participate in bringing the tradition together; at least 400 actually participate in the activities, but it is a tremendous success that draws those who do participate back after many years of being out of college. Each year, the school's Palmer Auditorium--a stately building boasting a large stage, orchestra pit and seating for 1200--is standing room only as alumni and spectators gather to witness the unique tradition that is College Night.

College Night originated as a liberal arts school's response to its lack of a "proper Homecoming" - meaning an American football game. The campus is split into two teams, the Purple Side and the Gold Side. The two colors of the school, purple and gold, compete for the title of either "PV" (purple victory) or "GV" (gold victory). The student involvement is all-inclusive: there are athletic intramurals that count for points toward victory, cheerleading competitions, signs designed and painted by students to be judged and even community efforts and fund raising drives to gain points toward a victory.

College Night has been cited by some as the longest running homecoming tradition in the United States. The fact that College Night is the oldest college homecoming tradition in the U.S. has been recorded for posterity by Alex Trebek - it has been a question (or rather, answer) on Jeopardy! two times.citation needed

References

  1. ^ Perrin, Mike (2008-06-27). "University of Montevallo leaving Gulf South Conference", Birmingham News. 

External links

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Gulf South Conference
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Public colleges and universities in Alabama
Flag of Alabama
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Birmingham Area Consortium for Higher Education

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