Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

File:Vanderbilt University logo.png
Type	Private
Established	1873
Endowment	US$2.92 billion
Chairman	Martha Rivers Ingram
Chancellor	Gordon Gee
Academic staff	3,004
Students	11,607
Undergraduates	6,378
Postgraduates	5,229
Location	Nashville , Tenn. , USA 36°08′55″N 86°48′18″W / 36.148649°N 86.804972°W / 36.148649; -86.804972
Campus	Urban, 330 acres
Colors	Black and Gold
Nickname	Commodores Vanderbilt Commodores logo
Affiliations	AAU
Website	www.vanderbilt.edu

Vanderbilt University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in Nashville, Tennessee.

Vanderbilt was founded in 1873 with a gift of $1 million from shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt who, 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 11,600 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 I Trauma Center in Middle Tennessee.^[1]

History

In the years prior to the American Civil War, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had been considering creating a regional university for the training of ministers located centrally for the congregations of the church. Through the lobbying of Nashville bishop Holland McTyeire, church leaders voted in 1872 to create "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 philanthropic 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. McTyeire, however, successfully convinced him to donate $500,000 to endow Central University in order to "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country."^[2]

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 "the Vanderbilt University." Vanderbilt died in 1877 having never even visited the school named after him.

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.^[2] However, most of this crop of star faculty left after disputes with Bishop McTyeire.

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For the first 40 years, the Board of Trust (and therefore the university itself) was under the control of the general conference (the governing body) 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.^[2]

Vanderbilt enjoyed early 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. During the same period, Ernest William Goodpasture and his colleagues in the Medical School invented methods for cultivating viruses and rickettsiae in fertilized chicken eggs. This work made possible the production of vaccines against chicken pox, smallpox, yellow fever, typhus, Rocky mountain spotted fever and other diseases caused by agents that only propagate in living cells.

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.^[3]

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. Harold Vanderbilt was president of the Board of Trust between 1955 and 1968 when racial integration was a very prominent topic at the school. Today a statue of him in front of Buttrick Hall memorializes his efforts.

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.

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.^[4] Nationwide attention resulted, in part due to a lawsuit by the Tennessee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who had helped pay for the building's construction in 1933 with a $50,000 contribution.^[5]

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.^[6]

In late July 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.^[7]

Organization

Board of Trust

Vanderbilt University, as a private corporation, is wholly governed by an independent, self-perpetuating Board of Trust. The board comprises 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, who 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 board's current chairman.

Chancellor

File:Gordon gee.jpg

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, Gordon Gee served as president of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Gee also serves on the board of directors of several companies, including Massey Energy and Gaylord Entertainment Company.

Since the opening of the university in 1875, only six other individuals have served as chancellor.^[8] Landon Garland was the university's first chancellor, serving from 1875 to 1893. Garland organized the university and hired its first faculty. Garland Hall, an academic building on campus, is named in his honor.

The next chancellor was James H. Kirkland—serving from 1893 to 1937, he had the longest tenure of any Vanderbilt chancellor. He was responsible for severing the university's ties with the Methodist church and relocating the medical school to the main campus. Vanderbilt's Main Building was renamed Kirkland Hall after Kirkland left in 1937.

The longest-tenured chancellor was followed by the shortest-tenured. Oliver Carmichael served Vanderbilt for just 9 years, 1937 to 1946. Carmichael developed the graduate school, and established the Joint University Libraries for Vanderbilt, Peabody, and Scarritt College. Carmichael Towers, a set of high-rise dormitories on the northern edge of campus, were named for Chancellor Carmichael.

Carmichael's successor was Harvie Branscomb. Branscomb presided over a period of major growth and improvement at the university that lasted from 1946 until 1963. He was responsible for opening the admissions policy to all races. Branscomb Quadrangle is a residence hall complex named for the chancellor.

Alexander Heard, for whom the campus library system was named, served as chancellor from 1963 to 1982. During his twenty-year tenure, the Owen Graduate School of Management was founded, and Vanderbilt's merger with Peabody College was negotiated.

Joe B. Wyatt was the chancellor who served immediately before Gee, from 1982 until 2000. Wyatt oversaw a great increase in the university's endowment, an increase in student diversity, and the renovation of many campus buildings. The Wyatt Center on Peabody's campus is named for Wyatt and his wife.

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:

Academic Division	Dean
College of Arts and Science	Richard McCarty
Blair School of Music	Mark Wait
School of Engineering	Kenneth F. Galloway
Peabody College of Education and Human Development	Camilla Benbow
Graduate School	Dennis Hall[1]
Divinity School	James Hudnut-Beumler
Law School	Edward L. Rubin
School of Medicine	Steven G. Gabbe
School of Nursing	Colleen Conway-Welch
Owen Graduate School of Management	Jim Bradford

Medical Center

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The Vanderbilt University Medical Center is a vital component of the university and comprises:

• Vanderbilt University Hospital (VUH)
• The Monroe Carell, Jr., Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt
• Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital
• Vanderbilt Stallworth Rehabilitation Hospital
• The Vanderbilt Clinic
• Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
• Vanderbilt University School of Nursing

In 2003, the medical center was placed on the Honor Roll of U.S. News and World Report's annual rating of the nation's best hospitals, placing it alongside other well-known medical centers, such as the Cleveland Clinic and the Duke University Medical Center.

Students and faculty

As of December 2006, the university had an enrollment of 6,378 undergraduate and 5,229 graduate and professional students. Approximately 54% of the total student body comes from outside the Southeast, including some 8% from outside the United States.^[1] Moreover, 22% of the undergraduate class of 2010 was non-Caucasian.^[9]

With over 20,500 employees (including 2,689 full-time faculty), Vanderbilt is the largest private employer in Middle Tennessee and the second largest in the state (after FedEx, headquartered in Memphis). Approximately 74% of the university's faculty and staff are employed by the Medical Center.^[1]

In 2004, the university reported that 24.1% of non-Medical Center faculty were women, while 14.4% were of a racial or ethnic minority. In 2003, seventeen were members of one of the National Academies.

Campus

The Vanderbilt campus is located approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of downtown in the West End neighborhood of midtown Nashville. It has an area of 330 acres (1.3 km²), though this figure includes large tracts of sparsely used land in the southwest part of the main campus, as well as the Medical Center. The historical core of campus encompasses approximately 30 acres (12 ha). Vanderbilt is located at 36°08′45″N 86°48′05″W / 36.14583°N 86.80139°W / 36.14583; -86.80139. (Click here to see a campus map.)

Layout

The Vanderbilt campus is roughly fan-shaped (with the point at the corner of West End and 21st Avenues) and divisible into six sections, all of which are within walking distance from one another: the farthest distance on campus take about twenty-five minutes to walk.

Original campus
In the northeast corner of the campus (the "base" of the fan) is the original campus. The first college buildings, including Kirkland Hall, were erected here in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. This section stretches from West End Avenue south to the Stevenson Center and west from 21st Avenue to Alumni Lawn. The majority of the buildings of the arts and humanities departments of the College of Arts and Science, as well as the facilities of the Law School, Owen Graduate School of Management, and the Divinity School, are located in the original campus. Additionally, the Central Library (known to alumni as the JUL, or Joint University Library) and Sarratt Student Center/Rand Hall can be found on the original campus.

Stevenson Center
Flanking the original campus to the south are the Stevenson Center for Science and Mathematics and the School of Engineering complex (Jacobs Hall-Featheringill Hall). Housing the Science Library, the School of Engineering, and all the science and math departments of the College of Arts and Science, save for psychology, this complex sits between the original campus and the Medical Center.

Medical center campus
The Vanderbilt University Medical Center itself takes up the southeastern part of the campus. Besides the various associated hospitals and clinics and the facilities of the Schools of Medicine and Nursing, the medical center also houses many major research facilities.

Peabody campus
Directly across 21st Avenue from the Medical Center sits the campus of the Peabody College of Education and Human Development. Due to their separate histories until the merger, the Peabody campus was configured in a radically different style than the original Vanderbilt campus. Whereas the latter has an unplanned organic design with buildings scattered throughout, Peabody campus was planned as a geometric design, similar to the Jeffersonian style of the University of Virginia. The campus is home to not only Peabody College but also the future Commons, where all freshmen will live together as part of the College Halls plan.

Central campus and Greek Row
West of the original campus and the Medical Center, Greek Row and the bulk of Vanderbilt residence halls are found. From north to south, Carmichael Towers, Greek Row, Branscomb Quadrangle, and Highland Quadrangle house the vast majority of on-campus residents in facilities ranging from the double-occupancy shared-bathroom dorms in Branscomb and Towers to the apartments and lodges in Highland Quad.

This part of campus is newer than the others; Vanderbilt's westward growth did not start until the 1950s. This portion of campus was built by tearing down small single family houses and duplexes dating from the early 20^th century, and so the area has significantly less green space than the arboretum on the original campus and is more indicative of the university's urban locale.

Athletics and recreation facilities
Memorial Gymnasium, Vanderbilt Stadium, Hawkins Field, McGugin Center, and all the other varsity athletic fields and facilities are to be found in the extreme west of campus. The Student Recreation Center and its associated intramural fields are located south of the varsity facilities

Arboretum

The oldest part of the Vanderbilt campus is known for its abundance of trees and green space, which stand in contrast to the surrounding cityscape of urban Nashville. At least one specimen of every tree that is indigenous to the state of Tennessee grows on campus.

One tree, the Bicentennial Oak between Rand Hall and Garland Hall, is certified to have lived during the American Revolution and is the oldest thing on the campus.

The main (original) campus was designated by the Association of Botanical Gardens and Aboreta as a national arboretum in 1988, a status that the university does not take lightly. One interesting consequence of this designation that any visitor to the campus will quickly notice is the length to which trees on campus are protected. Signs posted on the trees by various student groups are actually bound to the trees with wire instead of being nailed to the tree, as it is unlawful to cause damage to any tree in a national arboretum.

Student life

Organizations

The university recognizes nearly 400 student organizations, ranging from academic major societies and honoraries to recreational sports clubs, the oldest of which is the Vanderbilt Sailing Club.

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There are religious groups like the Baptist Collegiate Ministries, Hillel, Reformed University Fellowship, Campus Crusade for Christ, Wesleyan/Canterbury Fellowship, and Vanderbilt Catholic Community.

The campus radio station, WRVU, represents the student body by playing a range of music from bluegrass to choral, with a focus on non-mainstream music.^[10]

The campus television station, Vanderbilt Television (VTV), showcases student produced films, skits, and news and entertainment-based shows.

There are also more than thirty service organizations on campus, giving students the opportunity to perform community service across the country and around the world, including the Vanderbilt-founded Alternative Spring Break.

Greek life

Greeks are an active part of the social scene on and off campus. As of spring 2004, 45% of the undergraduate student body was affiliated with one of the 22 fraternities or 12 sororities. Specifically, 34% of men were members of fraternities and 55% of women were members of sororities. More recently, several new chapters have been colonized at Vanderbilt, demonstrating the continued demand for available memberships.

In addition to the officially recognized fraternities and sororities, the Nu Society (an off-campus organization established by former members of Vanderbilt's chapter of Sigma Nu after that chapter lost its charter) maintains an active off-campus presence. In addition, an independent fraternity, PSK (Pages, Squires, Knights), existed between 1965 and 1975.^[11]

Honor Code

Since the first classes began at Vanderbilt, the Honor System has served to strengthen the academic integrity of the university. Its principles were outlined in a famous quote by long-time Dean of Students Madison Sarratt:^[12]

Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.

As a part of their first act together as a class, each Vanderbilt class meets together at the Honor Code Signing Ceremony, where every member of the class pledges their honor and signs the code. The signature pages are then hung in the Student Center. The ceremony is one of only two occasions where a class will be congregated in a single place at the same time (the other being Commencement).

The Undergraduate Honor Council was formed to help enforce and protect the tradition of the Honor Code. Today, the Honor Council serves two simultaneous aims: to enforce and protect the Honor Code and to inform members of the Vanderbilt community about the Honor System.

Student housing

All undergraduate students not living with relatives in Davidson County are required to live on campus all four years to the extent that on-campus student housing facilities can accommodate them. In practice, though, approximately 83% of undergraduates—freshmen, sophomores, nearly all juniors and most seniors—currently live on campus. The remaining undergraduates join graduate and professional students in living off-campus. Student life at Vanderbilt is consequently heavily intertwined with campus life.

However, the on-campus residential system is currently undergoing a radical change. The new system, announced by the administration in 2002, would change the current structure of quadrangle-based residence halls to a new system of residential colleges, to be called College Halls. Similar to the residential structures at Caltech, Harvard, Rice, and Yale, the new College Halls system would create residence halls where students and faculty would live together in a self-sustaining environment, complete with study rooms, cafeterias, laundry facilities, and stores. This project is now underway and is scheduled to be completed within the next twenty years.

The first step in the College Halls system will be The Commons, a collection of ten residential halls on the Peabody campus that will house all first-year students beginning in the fall of 2008. While the university currently houses freshmen in three separate and distinct residential areas, it is hoped that The Commons will give first-year students a unified (and unifying) living-learning experience. In order to accommodate these ten residential halls, the university is in the process of renovating five existing Peabody dormitories and building five new ones.

With the addition of these new residence halls, the university will be able to house all undergraduate students on campus. Since university policy requires undergraduates to live on campus when possible, Vanderbilt's Office of Housing and Residential Education will no longer grant students permission to live off campus, beginning with the class graduating in 2009.^[13] Many current students who came to Vanderbilt with the understanding that seniors were generally allowed to live off campus are now disappointed that they must live on campus all four years.^[14] However, university administrators believe the undergraduate community receives the greatest benefit from living in on-campus residence halls, citing increased interaction with faculty, better academic performance, and stronger interpersonal relationships.^[13]

Media

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The Vanderbilt community produces media of all genres and in all formats at a prolific rate by students, alumni, and faculty alike.

The Vanderbilt Register is the official newspaper of the university administration and faculty. Published once every two weeks, it does not publish opinion.

Exploration is the university's online research magazine. It publishes multimedia stories that explain campus research projects ranging from archeology to zoology, probe the motives that drive the modern-day explorers that perform these studies and describe the experiences of Vanderbilt students who become involved in actual scientific research.

In spite of the lack of an organized journalism curriculum, no less than nine editorially-independent media outlets are produced and controlled by students. Seven print publications, a broadcast radio station and a closed-circuit television station provide a forum for student opinion and issues. One publication, The Vanderbilt Hustler, was established in 1888 and is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Nashville (the newspaper's name supposedly references another nickname for the Commodore based on his cutthroat business practices, i.e., that he "hustled" people out of their money). These student media divisions are organized and controlled by Vanderbilt Student Communications, Inc. In addition, students at the Vanderbilt University Law School publish three law reviews; the flagship journal is the Vanderbilt Law Review.

Alumni produce fourteen publications, one for each school and one overall alumni publication: Vanderbilt Magazine. In addition, an electronic newsletter, .commodore, is produced.

• The Vanderbilt Register - Vanderbilt's official newspaper
• The Vanderbilt Hustler - student newspaper
• The Commodore - student yearbook
• Exploration - online research magazine
• Orbis - political publication (liberal leaning)
• The Slant - humor & satire publication
• The Spire - alumni magazine of the Divinity School
• Talented Tenth - African American student newspaper
• The Torch - political publication (libertarian/conservative leaning)
• Vanderbilt Business
• Vanderbilt Law Review
• The Vanderbilt Lawyer
• Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal
• The Vanderbilt Review - student literary and arts journal
• Versus - student general interest magazine
• Vanderbilt Television - student-run television station
• InsideVandy - online student media

Admissions and rankings

Vanderbilt is a highly selective institution. In 2006, it accepted 34% of its undergraduate applicants. The Princeton Review gave Vanderbilt a selectivity rating of 97 out of 100 in its 2006 edition.^[15]

In its 2007 edition, U.S. News and World Report placed Vanderbilt at 18th in its ranking of national universities.^[16] In the same publication's 2007 graduate program rankings, Peabody College was listed at 3rd among schools of education, the Vanderbilt Law School was listed at 16th, the School of Medicine was listed at 18th among research-oriented medical schools, the School of Nursing was listed at 19th, and the Owen Graduate School of Management was listed at 34th among business schools.^[17] Additionally, Vanderbilt is ranked 1st in the nation in the fields of special education^[18] and audiology.^[19]

In The Times Higher Education Supplement 2006, Vanderbilt is ranked 26th in North America and 53rd worldwide.^[20] The 2007 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, a measure of the scholarly output of the faculty of nearly 7,300 doctoral programs around the United States, ranked Vanderbilt 8th among large research universities, and 1st in the areas of comparative literature, educational leadership, pharmacology, Portuguese, Spanish, and special education.^[21]

The Wall Street Journal ranked Owen 2nd among "smaller" business schools in 2004.^[22]

Unusual research

As with any large research institution, Vanderbilt investigators work in a broad range of disciplines. However, among its more unusual activities, the university has institutes devoted to the study of coffee and of bridge. Indeed, the modern form of the latter was developed by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, a former president of the university's Board of Trust and a great-grandson of the Commodore. In addition, in mid-2004 it was announced that Vanderbilt's chemical biology research may have serendipitously opened the door to the breeding of a blue rose, something that had long been coveted by horticulturalists and rose lovers.

Vanderbilt's research record is blemished, however, by a study the university conducted on the effects of iron metabolism during pregnancy in the 1940s. Between 1945 and 1949, approximately 800 pregnant women were given without their knowledge an injection of radioactive iron. The injections were later suspected to be the cause of death for some of the children who were being carried in utero at the time.^[23] In 1998, the university settled a class action lawsuit with the mothers and surviving children for $10.3 million.^[24]

Myths

Vanderbilt's long history has given birth to several myths and urban legends. Some of the more well known:^[25]

• Furman Hall, the single stone building among the brick structures of the old campus, was built because a confused architect was designing buildings for both Duke University and Vanderbilt at the same time.

Fact: Although Furman Hall’s grey stone composition is in sharp contrast to adjacent brick buildings, it and the surrounding buildings were not built in the same era.

• The administration at Vanderbilt has canceled classes only twice, once because of a loose bull on campus.

Fact: Vanderbilt has canceled classes many times over its history, but not because of a loose bull.

• There is no bell at the top of Kirkland Hall, just a stereo system that imitates chimes.

Fact: After Kirkland Hall burned in 1905, Nashville schoolchildren collected money for a new 2,000-pound bell, which still chimes on the hour from Kirkland Tower.

• The teacher in Dead Poets Society is based on Vanderbilt professor John Lachs.

Fact: The film's screenplay was written by Tom Schulman, who is a Vanderbilt alumnus, but he based the story on his experiences at a Nashville prep school.

Athletics

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Vanderbilt fields teams in sixteen varsity sports, six men's and ten women's. Men's and women's tennis and men's and women's basketball are traditionally the school's strongest sports, with the more recently founded women's lacrosse and bowling programs as well as the long-standing men's baseball program experiencing moderate national success. After enjoying success in the first half of the 20th century, the football program has struggled in more recent times.

The school is a charter member of the Southeastern Conference, in which it is the only private school, in Division I of the NCAA. Additionally, the school is a member of the American Lacrosse Conference (women's lacrosse), as the SEC does not sponsor that sport. Conversely, Vanderbilt is the only league school not to field teams in softball and volleyball, two women's sports that are sponsored by the SEC.^[26]

The baseball team qualified for the NCAA Super Regionals in 2004, had the nation's top recruiting class in 2005 according to Baseball America,^[27] made the NCAA field again in 2006, and won the 2007 SEC regular-season crown. The Commodores were ranked first in most polls for a large portion of the 2007 season. In addition, All-American Curtis Casali will be attending Vanderbilt in 2007.^[28]

In 2007, the Vanderbilt women's bowling team brought the university its first team NCAA championship.^[29]

Mascot

Vanderbilt's intercollegiate athletics teams are nicknamed the Commodores, in honor of the nickname given to Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made his fortune in shipping. Thus, students and alumni refer to Vanderbilt athletic teams as "Dores" or use the cheer, "Go Dores!"

The term commodore was used by the Navy during the mid- to late-nineteenth century. A commodore was the commanding officer of a task force of ships, and therefore higher in rank than a captain but lower in rank than an admiral. The closest parallel to this now-defunct rank is rear admiral lower-half. (In the Royal Navy, the designation of commodore was applied to the commanding officer of a convoy in the Second World War.)

Since the term was used most during the late nineteenth century—and because it was then that Cornelius received his nickname—Vanderbilt's mascot is always portrayed as a naval officer from the 1880s, complete with chops, cutlass, and nineteenth-century naval regalia.

School colors

The school colors are black and gold. Opinions vary as to the reason for selecting black and gold as the colors for Vanderbilt's teams. Some say the original colors were orange and black, given to the university by Judge W.L. Granbery of Princeton. Others say that Commodore Vanderbilt's legacy was called upon to develop school colors for the university that bears his name: black for the magnate's control of coal and gold for his money.

When questioned about the subject in the 1930s, the few remaining members of the school's first football squad from 1890 did not recall why they suddenly began appearing in black and gold. Whatever the source of the colors, by 1892, the Commodores were known by the colors that Vanderbilt fans still wear today.^[30]

Athletics restructuring

Unique in NCAA Division I, Vanderbilt does not administer intercollegiate athletics separately from other student organizations, but as a part of the university's Division of Student Life, which oversees all student organizations and activities. When the change was instituted in September 2003, Chancellor Gordon Gee cited a need to reform college athletics, returning the emphasis to the student half of student-athletes.

Notable faculty and alumni

Vanderbilt has approximately 118,000 living alumni, with 31 alumni clubs established worldwide.^[1] Many Vanderbilt alumni have gone on to make significant contributions in politics, in the arts, and in the sciences. Lamar Alexander (B.A. 1962) is a former Governor of Tennessee and a current U.S. Senator; he filled the seat left vacant by the retirement of Fred Thompson (J.D. 1971).^[31] Two former Vice Presidents, John Nance Garner and Al Gore, Jr., attended the university, but did not graduate.^[32][33] However, Gore's wife, Tipper, is herself an alumna, receiving a master's degree from Peabody in 1975.^[34] Other alumni who are or have been involved in politics include former United States Supreme Court Associate Justice James Clark McReynolds (B.S. 1882), Congressman Steve Cohen (B.A. 1971), and David Boaz (B.A. 1975), who is executive vice president of the Cato Institute.^[31][35][36]

Given the university's location in Nashville, it is not surprising that many of its alumni become involved in the music industry. Dinah Shore (B.A. 1938), Rosanne Cash (B.A. 1979), Amy Grant (B.A. 1982), and Dierks Bentley (B.A. 1997) are all alumni.^[37] Shore later went on to star in a variety of films; other Vanderbilt alumni with Hollywood connections include Academy Award-winners Delbert Mann (B.A. 1941) and Tom Schulman (B.A. 1972) and actors Molly Sims (B.S. 1995) and Joe Bob Briggs (B.A. 1974).^[37][38]

In addition, the university has a rich literary and journalistic legacy. Three U.S. Poet Laureates are Vanderbilt alums: Allen Tate (B.A. 1922), Robert Penn Warren (B.A. 1925), and Randall Jarrell (M.A. 1938). Warren later went on to the win the Pulitzer Prize. Novelists James Dickey (B.A. 1949) and James Patterson (M.A. 1970) also graduated from Vanderbilt.^[37] Two well-known sportswriters, Grantland Rice (B.A. 1901) and Fred Russell (B.A. 1927) have a scholarship named after them at the university.^[38][39] Journalist David Brinkley attended briefly.^[40]

Two alumni, biochemist Stanford Moore (B.A. 1935) and economist Muhammad Yunus (Ph.D. 1971), have won the Nobel Prize.^[41][42] Four current or former members of the faculty also share that distinction: biochemist Stanley Cohen, neuroscientist Paul Greengard, physiologist Earl Sutherland, and pioneer molecular biologist Max Delbruck.^[1]

• Robert Penn Warren
  Robert Penn Warren
• 
  Muhammad Yunus
• James Clark McReynolds
  James Clark McReynolds
• 
  Al Gore
• David Brinkley
  David Brinkley
• 
  Dinah Shore
• Amy Grant
  Amy Grant
• Max Delbruck
  Max Delbruck

References

Notes

1. ^ Associate Provost for Research and Graduate Education

See also

• Cornelius Vanderbilt
• Holland McTyeire
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Vanderbilt Commodores
• Southern Ivy

External links

• Vanderbilt University homepage
• Vanderbilt University Athletics homepage
• Vanderbilt University Alumni homepage
• Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt University
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
• Vanderbilt Children's Hospital
• Panoramic photograph of Vanderbilt published in 1909