Southwestern University
| Southwestern University Seal | |
| Motto | Non Quis Sed Quid ("Not Who But What") |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1840 |
| Endowment | USD $277,687,120 [1] |
| President | Jake Schrum |
| Undergraduates | 1,265 |
| Location | , , |
| Campus | Suburban, 700 acres (2.8 km²) |
| Colors | Gold, black |
| Mascot | Pirates |
| Website | www.southwestern.edu |
Southwestern University is a private, selective, four-year, undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Georgetown, Texas, USA
Campus
Southwestern University is in Central Texas about 30 miles (50 km) north of Austin in Georgetown.
Notable buildings
The Cullen Building (formerly called the Administration Building) was completed in 1896 and houses the administration, admissions office, business office, and classrooms. Throughout different times in its history, it has also housed the campus auditorium, gymnasium, chapel, and library.
Mood-Bridwell Hall, originally a men's dormitory, was completed in 1908 and houses classrooms, office space, and a large indoor atrium.
The Lois Perkins Chapel was built in 1950 and includes an Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ and stained glass windows along the east and west sides depicting Reformation leaders and the educational institutions they were affiliated with.
The A. Frank Smith Library Center was opened originally in 1939 as the Cody Memorial Library as part of a WPA project. It was expanded in 1966 and again in 1989, receiving the new name as a result of the second expansion.
The McCombs Campus Center opened in 1998, replacing the Bishops' Memorial Student Union Building and University Commons, which includes dining facilities, the campus bookstore, ballrooms, and student organization offices.
Organization
The university offers 37 majors and 33 minors in the Brown School of Arts and Sciences and the Sarofim School of Fine Arts, including offerings for pre-professional programs in Athletic Training, Law, Medicine, and Theology.
Faculty and students
As of 2004, 1,265 undergraduate students were enrolled, with 125 faculty. The class of 2008 has a male to female ratio of 2:3, with SAT scores of the middle 50% between 1180 and 1340. The class comes from 17 different states, but with a vast majority from the state of Texas. Southwestern University is very selective, accepting about a third of the applicants.
More than 95% of the faculty have earned doctoral or similar terminal degrees in their respective fields. The student to faculty ratio is 10:1, a major selling point for most students. This low ratio allows for students and faculty to engage in a less formal interaction as well as maintain a working relationship in the classroom.
Sports, clubs, and traditions
Southwestern is a member of the NCAA Division III Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). The school mascot is the pirate. Southwestern has not played football since the late 1940s, after the program fizzled following World War II. During the war years of 1944 and 1945 with Southwestern a participant in the Navy's V-12 College Training Program, the Pirates won the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.
Southwestern hosts several national social fraternities and sororities, including the fraternities Pi Kappa Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Sigma, and Kappa Alpha Order, along with sororities Alpha Delta Pi, Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Xi Delta, and Zeta Tau Alpha. Over the past couple decades, the traditional Greek dominance of social life has lessened, with about 1/3 of campus belonging to a social fraternity or sorority, a decline from being a majority of students. There are also over 100 student organizations on campus, from political to special interest groups. The school also hosts chapters of several academic honor organizations, including Alpha Chi, and Phi Beta Kappa. The national co-ed service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega also has a chapter, along with the national Christian fraternity Kappa Upsilon Chi and Christian sorority Sigma Phi Lambda.
History
Prior to its founding in Georgetown, charters had been granted by the Legislature (Texas Congress 1836-1845) to establish four earlier educational institutions: Rutersville College of Rutersville, Texas in 1840, Wesleyan College of Saint Augustine, Texas in 1844, McKenzie College of Clarksville, Texas in 1848, and Soule University of Chappell Hill, Texas in 1856. Southwestern thus claims its founding date as 1840, when Rutersville opened its doors, the basis of its claim as Texas' First Institution of Higher Learning.
None of these four institutions lasted very long, but in 1873, the union of these four institutions opened in Georgetown as Texas University, after a group had been founded for its creation in 1870 as Methodism's central university in Texas during a meeting in Galveston by church donors. Wanting the name for a state school of nearly the same name, the University of Texas, in Austin, the state granted the new university a charter in 1875 under the name of Southwestern University continuing in the tradition of the original charter for Rutersville.
Southwestern was a charter member of the Southwest Conference in 1915 and for decades the main sports rival was Southern Methodist University, as remembrance over the near-removal of Southwestern to Dallas, leading to the founding of Methodism's second institution of higher learning in Texas. SMU, however, grew to the point of no longer being near Southwestern in size. In the 1970s and 1980s, Southwestern transformed itself into a small rigorous liberal arts institution, getting rid of its post-graduate degrees and completely rebuilding the campus with a massive capital campaign. The endowment also rose substantially, as did academic standards.
Southwestern has a history of drawing prolific lecturers to campus, including Helen Keller and alumnus J. Frank Dobie stopping off from the train on their way to or from Austin, giving their lectures, and catching the next train in the earlier part of the 20th century to the topical lectures more common on campus nowadays. Speakers at the annual Brown Symposium have included author Isaac Asimov (through a videoconference) in the early 1980s and Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz in 2002. The Fleming Lecture series has drawn such names recently as presidential advisor Karen Hughes (2003), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2004), former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (2005), and former Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean (2006).
Noted alumni
- J. Frank Dobie – Author
- Bill Engvall - stand-up comedian
- Red McCombs – Businessman, former owner of the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, and the Minnesota Vikings
- Pete Sessions – U.S. Congressman from Texas
- Mike Timlin – Major League Baseball Player
- John Tower – longtime U.S. Senator from Texas
References
- Jones, Ralph Wood (1973). "Southwestern University 1840-1961". Austin: San Felipe Press.
- Southwestern University (2000-2004). http://www.southwestern.edu/