Marshall University

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Old Main , the oldest building on the Marshall University campus, the tower of which is a symbol of the university

The Marshall University is a public university based in Huntington in the American state of West Virginia . It is named after John Marshall , the fourth presiding judge in the history of the United States Supreme Court , whose portrait is also found on the university's emblem. The college was founded in 1837 as the Marshall Academy and received its current name and university status in 1961.

At Marshall University, which has a medical faculty and exercises the right to award doctorates , around 9,700 students study as undergraduates and around 4,100 in the postgraduate sector . Above all, the university is known nationwide for its training programs for the health sector in rural areas and for its master’s degree in forensics . The university's sports teams are called Thundering Herd and start in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in Conference USA .

history

John Marshall, namesake of the university

Marshall University was founded in the then state of Virginia in 1837 as a secondary educational institution under the name Marshall Academy and was named Marshall College a year later . After the end of the American Civil War , which had led to the separation of the western part of Virginia and the establishment of the state of West Virginia in 1863, the institution was named State Normal School of Marshall College in 1867 and thus the status of a college .

Bachelor degrees have been awarded by the university since 1920 . In 1938 it received the right to award master’s degrees and the status of a college with university rank. It was fully recognized as a university in 1961 when the university was given its current name. Since the establishment of the medical faculty in 1977, the university has also awarded doctoral degrees in various subjects.

Course offer

Marshall University has departments in liberal arts , arts , education and social affairs , information technology and engineering , economics , science , healthcare, and journalism and mass communication , as well as a graduate college and a medical school . These institutions offer 68 bachelor's degree programs and 52 advanced degree programs.

In addition to the training of educators and teachers for primary and secondary schools, the subjects accounting , management , marketing and economics , music , theater and the visual arts , dietetics and health and nursing , computer science , journalism , communication studies , various linguistic studies are among the subjects Subdisciplines, geography , history and political science , psychology and sociology , mathematics , physics , chemistry , biology , geology and medicine are part of the Marshall University degree program. The university has a supraregional reputation especially for the training of specialists for the health care system in rural areas as well as for its courses in forensics .

Location and facilities

The
John Deaver Drinko Library opened in 1998

The main campus of Marshall University, which also includes the university library and sports facilities, is spread across several locations in the city of Huntington with a total area of ​​around 240,000 square meters. Are beyond the medical school also (in Huntington Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine ) and the University Hospital ( Marshall University Medical Center ), which was created by extension of a 1956 opened hospital 1998th Since the merger with the previously existing West Virginia Graduate College in 1997, there is a second campus in South Charleston with the Marshall University Graduate College .

Additional branch offices of the college where certain courses can be taken are located in Gilbert ( Learning Resource Center ), Hurricane ( Teays Valley Regional Center ), Point Pleasant ( Mid-Ohio Valley Center ) and in Beckley ( Beckley Center ). The areas of the university, which existed in Logan and Williamson from 1960 , were spun off as an independent community college in 1971 under the name Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College . Both locations cooperate with Marshall University via the Southern Mountain Center in South Charleston.

University sports

Joan C. Edwards Stadium , Marshall University's football
stadium

Marshall University's sports teams are called Thundering Herd . Green and white are used as the team colors, and a bison acts as the logo and mascot . Within the sports operations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the teams start in the top division called Division I. In college football , the Marshall University team has been part of the former Division IA, known as the Bowl Subdivision , since 1997 . The university has been a member of Conference USA since 2005 . The football team's venue is the Joan C. Edwards Stadium on campus, with around 38,000 seats. The basketball games are played at the Cam Henderson Center with a capacity of 9,600 spectators.

For men, the university provides teams in American football , basketball , baseball , soccer , golf and cross-country running . The women's sports in which the college's teams are active include basketball, softball , soccer, golf, cross-country skiing, swimming and diving , tennis , athletics and volleyball . Thundering Herd's greatest successes were winning the state championship in Division I-AA in college football in 1992 and 1996 and the national championship title in 1947 in men's basketball in the National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball (NAIB).

On November 14, 1970, 37 players, eight coaches and 25 supporters of the Thundering Herd football team died during the return flight from a game against East Carolina University in the crash of a DC-9 operated by Southern Airways , in which all passengers and crew members were killed . To commemorate this event, which is considered to be the most serious misfortune in American sports history, a fountain was built on the campus in November 1972 in addition to various monuments , the fountain of which is turned off annually from November 14th until the spring of the following year. In addition, based on this event in 2006, the film They Were Heroes was made , which director McG produced with actors Matthew McConaughey , Matthew Fox and Kate Mara in the lead roles.

Well-known graduates

Marshall University graduates include climate researcher Lonnie G. Thompson , politicians Robert Byrd and Earl Ray Tomblin , science fiction writer Nelson Slade Bond , Pulitzer Prize winners Julia Keller and Jack Maurice , the singer and Grammy winner Michael W. Smith and actress Conchata Ferrell . Well-known athletes who completed their college careers at Marshall University included American football players Frank Gatski , Chad Pennington , Ed Ulinski , Randy Moss and Troy Brown, and basketball player Jason Williams basketball player and coach Mike D'Antoni .

further reading

  • James E. Casto: Marshall University. Series: The Campus History Series. Arcadia Publishing, Charleston 2005, ISBN 0-7385-4190-7
  • Ralph J. Turner, Cora P. Teel: Marshall Memories: A pictorial History of Marshall University 1837−1987. Marshall University, Huntington 1987
  • Rick Nolte: The Marshall Story: College Football's greatest Comeback. Henchard Press, Macon 2006, ISBN 0-9776711-9-4

Web links

Commons : Marshall University  - collection of pictures, videos, and audio files