Samford University
Suburban, 247 acres (100 ha) | |
Colors | Blue and Red[3] |
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Nickname | Bulldogs |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division I – Southern Conference |
Website | samford |
Samford University is a
History
19th century
In 1841, Samford University was founded as Howard College in
In 1865, the college reopened.
In 1887, Howard College's board of trustees accepted an offer of land from the East Lake Land Company owned by Robert Jemison, Sr. and relocated to the newly developing community of East Lake, six miles from the center of Birmingham, Alabama, and moved the institution there.[17] Faculty who remained in Marion formed Marion Military Institute (MMI) on the old campus.[18] MMI continues to operate in Marion.
20th century
In 1913, the college became fully and permanently coeducational. Howard College added its School of Music in 1914 and School of Education and Journalism the following year. The college introduced its Department of Pharmacy in 1927. At the time, it was the only program of its kind in the Southeastern United States.[19] During World War II, Howard College hosted a V-12 Navy College Training Program, allowing enlisted sailors to earn college degrees while receiving military training.[14][20]
After the war, the number of veterans attending the college under the
In addition to the law school, Howard College added a new school of business and reorganized to achieve university status in 1965.[14] Since the name "Howard University" was already in use by a school in Washington, D.C., Howard College was renamed as "Samford University" in honor of Frank Park Samford, a longtime trustee of the school.[14] In 1973, the university acquired Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing.[23] Samford University established a study center in 1984 for students to study abroad in Kensington, England.[24] On September 21, 1989, a Samford University professor, William Lee Slagle, fatally stabbed one of his debating team students and escaped. Slagle was finally captured six months later.[25]
In 1994, Samford's board of trustees voted to allow the board to elect its own members. This gave the university formal independence from the Alabama Baptist State Convention, but until 2017 convention leaders retained ex officio seats on the board, were consulted on trustee selection, and the new trustees were presented to the convention for affirmation.[26][27]
Civil rights
As a private,
Segregation by private universities was outlawed by the
21st century
The university ended its long financial connection with the
In May 2022, the university received a $100 million gift from the estate of alumnus Marvin Mann,[47] making it the largest single-donor gift ever made to a higher education institution in Alabama.[48]
LGBTQ rights
Samford has been involved in several well publicized incidents in which the university rejected LGBTQ+ students' requests to form student organizations or refused to work with Christian groups that were LGBTQ+ affirming. In 2017, President Westmoreland rejected Samford Together, an organization that sought to create a space for students to discuss topics related to sexual orientation and gender identity “in an open-minded and accepting environment,” even though the organization had been approved by both the Student Government Association and the faculty.[49]
Similar actions occurred again in 2022. In late August, Samford administration “uninvited” representatives of Episcopalian and Presbyterian campus ministries from a campus event because these ministries were affirming of LGBTQ+ individuals. In justifying the move, Vice President of Student Affairs Phil Kimrey stated, “Throughout its history, the university has consistently subscribed to and practiced biblically orthodox beliefs," and "the university has a responsibility to formally partner with ministry organizations that share our beliefs.”[50] On-campus protests against the change included a silent vigil outside a university-wide worship service on September 20.[51] On September 30, President Beck Taylor stated more explicitly in a video message that "we decided to limit Samford’s formal ministry partnerships to churches and to organizations that support Samford’s traditional view of human sexuality and marriage."[52] This ended Samford’s nearly thirty-year relationship with Birmingham Episcopal Campus Ministries.[53] In October, Taylor declined university recognition to a chapter of OUTLaw at Samford's Cumberland School of Law. OUTLaw is a national organization supporting LGBTQ+ law students. [54][55]
As of 2023, an off-campus student group, Samford Prism, had been formed to support LGBTQ+ students. Another group of alumni and other community members, SAFE Samford, also advocated on behalf of students.[56]
Academics
Forbes[57] | 169 | |
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U.S. News & World Report[58] | 143 | |
WSJ/College Pulse[59] | 170 |
Samford, a
Admissions
In 2023, the college accepted 83.3% of applicants, with those admitted having an average 3.8 GPA and an average 1160 SAT score or average 26 ACT score.[63]
Campus
Samford has moved four times during its history. Originally, Howard College was located in Marion, Alabama, a black-belt town between Selma and Tuscaloosa; it was later the birthplace of Coretta Scott King. The college moved twice in the town. Its second campus is now the home of Marion Military Institute. In 1887, the college moved to the East Lake community in Birmingham across the street from Ruhama Baptist Church. The university is now located approximately 5 miles (8 km) south of downtown Birmingham in Homewood, Alabama's Shades Valley along Lakeshore Drive in Homewood, just 2 miles (3 km) from Interstate 65. It is built in the Georgian Colonial style based on Colonial Williamsburg as envisioned by Lena Vail Davis, wife of then President Harwell Davis when the campus was moved to the Shades Valley area of Jefferson County in 1953-57.[64] The campus was designed by the Birmingham architectural firm Van Keuren & Davis, and most later buildings have also been designed by the same firm, known as Davis Architects since 1986.[65]
In 1983 the university established a study center in London, England, to facilitate students studying abroad. Named the Daniel House, the center is located at 12 Ashburn Gardens in South Kensington and hosts 15-24 students each semester.[66]
In 2014 the university purchased the campus of the Southern Progress Corporation which borders its main campus to the east. (The land had originally been part of Samford's undeveloped campus and was previously sold by Samford to Southern Progress.) The three huge buildings on the former Southern Progress campus are strikingly modern in their architecture and nestled among trees. This contrasts with the Georgian Colonial classicism of the central campus.[67]
Student demographics
In 2023, Samford University enrolled 3,832 undergraduate and 1,959 graduate and professional students.[68] Students from 49 states and 16 countries attend Samford,[68] with 74 percent of the undergraduate student body coming from outside the state of Alabama.[69] 97 percent of all May 2019 undergraduate alumni were employed or enrolled in graduate school or in internships within six months of graduation.[70][71] 81 percent of May 2015 graduates completed an internship during their time at Samford.[72] During 2015, Samford students completed 716,902 hours of community service.[61]
Athletics
The university fields 17 varsity sports and participates in the NCAA at the Division I level as a member of the Southern Conference.[73] Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, tennis and indoor and outdoor track and field. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor and outdoor track and field and volleyball.
In the NCAA's 2013 report, Samford student-athletes achieved an average Academic Progress Rate of 990, the highest in Alabama.[74] It marked the eighth consecutive year that Samford has been a leader in APR measures, beginning in 2005 when it placed 7th in the nation in the inaugural ranking.[74] The university is one of only 61 schools to have received an NCAA Public Recognition Award for academic excellence in the past eight years.[75]
In 2019, Samford's athletics teams were ranked first in Alabama and the Southern Conference and 18th in the country among all NCAA Division 1 schools for Graduation Success Rate by the NCAA with an average score of 97%. Nine teams posted perfect scores.[76] Samford is first among Division I schools in Alabama and in the Southern Conference.
The Bulldogs have won 74 conference championships since joining the Southern Conference in 2008.[75] In the last 20 years, 28 Samford baseball players have been selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, and 19 Bulldog football players have been chosen in the National Football League Draft.[75] Past student-athletes include national-championship football coaches Bobby Bowden[77] and Jimbo Fisher[78] All-Pro defensive back Cortland Finnegan,[79] NFL standouts include James Bradberry (Carolina Panthers), Michael Pierce (Baltimore Ravens) and Jaquiski Tartt (San Francisco 49ers), and baseball’s Phillip Ervin, who has had success with the Cincinnati Reds.
Notable alumni
The university has more than 57,000 alumni, including U.S. congressmen, seven state governors, two U.S. Supreme Court justices, four Rhodes Scholars, multiple Emmy and Grammy award-winning artists, two national championship football coaches, and recipients of the Pulitzer and Nobel Peace prizes.[80] Some notable alumni include:
Politics and government
- United States Congressmanfrom Alabama
- Michael F. Bolin (1970), associate justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama (2005-2023)
- Karon O. Bowdre (1977), United States district judge
- Andrew L. Brasher, United States District Judge (Samford University, Harvard School of Law)
- Benjamin Franklin Cameron, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Joyce Chandler, former educator and member of Georgia House of Representatives.[81]
- Charles Crist, former Florida governor, graduated from Cumberland School of Law (1955-1964)
- Stephen Louis A. Dillard[82](1992), Chief Judge, Court of Appeals of Georgia
- Jim Folsom (non-graduate), governor of Alabama from 1947-1951 and 1955-1959
- Cordell Hull, 47th U.S. secretary of state (1933-1944), Nobel Peace Prize winner (1945)
- Jody Hunt (1982), United States Assistant Attorney General (2018-2020)
- Howell Edmunds Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Lem Johns, U.S. Secret Service agent
- Doug Jones, United States Senator from Alabama (2018-2021)
- Horace Harmon Lurton, U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Carter Manasco, Congressman from Alabama (1941-1949)[83]
- Nina Miglionico (1932), Birmingham City Council, 1963-1985
- Eric Motley (1996) State Department official[84][85]
- James Mattis
- Edwin L. Nelson, United States federal judge (Samford University, Cumberland School of Law - 1969)
- Kevin Newsom, judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Rusty Paul, 2nd Mayor of Sandy Springs, Georgia
- Stacey E. Pickering, State Auditor of Mississippi
- John Russell Tyson (1877), judge of Supreme Court of Alabama and U.S. Representative for the State of Alabama.
- Janie Shores (1992), judge on the Supreme Court of Alabama, the first woman on that court and considered by Bill Clinton as nominee to the Supreme Court
- Randall Woodfin, mayor of Birmingham, Alabama (Samford University Cumberland School of Law)
Arts and letters
- Mary Anderson, actress
- Zane Birdwell (2003), recording engineer
- Philip Birnbaum, author and translator of Jewish works
- John Crist, comedian[88]
- Karen Fairchild & Kimberly Schlapman of the Country Group Little Big Town
- Wayne Flynt (1961), historian
- Elizabeth Futral, opera singer
- Anne George, mystery author
- Tony Hale, TV actor
- Harold E. Martin (1923–2007), newspaper man
- Gail Patrick, motion picture actress and television producer
- Susan Patterson,[89] international opera star[90]
- Jeanne Ellison Shaffer (2007), composer and musician
- Kristian Stanfill, Christian rock singer-songwriter
Religion
- Charles Billingsley, singer
- Cedrick D. Bridgeforth, United Methodist bishop
- Scott Dawson, evangelist
- Adam W. Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (2019-2022)
- Herschel Hobbs, pastor, Southern Baptist Convention president
- Anglican Church in North Americabishop
- Hollis Chair at Harvard Divinity School
- Andrew Manis, clergyman and civil rights historian
- Albert Mohler, president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
- Harold H. Oliver, Professor of New Testament and Theology, Boston University School of Theology[91]
- Ed Stetzer, author
Sports
- James Bradberry, professional football player
- Bobby Bowden, second all-time winningest coach in Division I college football.
- Marv Breeding (1952), professional baseball player
- Phillip Ervin, professional baseball player
- Cortland Finnegan, professional football player
- Jennifer Pharr Davis, long-distance hiker and author
- Jimbo Fisher, college football coach, formerly head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies
- Sam Goldman, professional football player
- Devlin Hodges, professional football player
- Slick Lollar, professional football player
- Wendell Magee, professional baseball player
- Michael Pierce, professional football player
- Travis Peterson, professional soccer player
- Marc Salyers, professional soccer player
- Jaquiski Tartt, professional football player
- Jeremy Towns, professional football player and physician
- Montrell Washington, professional football player
- Corey White, professional football player
- Nick Williams, professional football player
Other
- Bubba Cathy, businessman, Chick-fil-A[92]
- Deidre Downs, (2002), Miss America 2005.
- Amie Beth Dickinson, first runner-up to Heather Whitestone in the 1994 Miss Alabama pageant. When Whitestone was crowned Miss America, Dickinson was elevated to Miss Alabama.
- Jimmy Rane, (1971) founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Great Southern Wood Preserving
- Melinda Toole, (2006), Miss Alabama 2006, 4th runnerup to Miss America
References
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External links
- Official website
- Samford University at College Navigator, a tool from the National Center for Education Statistics