Stillman College

Stillman College is a historically black liberal arts college located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The college offers programs of study leading to the bachelor's degree in arts and sciences, business, and education. It currently enrolls approximately 1500 students. Dr. Ernest McNealey is the college's current president.

Related Topics:
Historically black - Liberal arts - Tuscaloosa - Alabama - Bachelor's degree - Arts and sciences - Business - Education

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Stillman?s history dates back to 1874 when a group of Presbyterians from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, headed by the Reverend Doctor Charles Allen Stillman, presented an overture to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States asking the Church to establish a training school for Black male ministers. Authorized by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States in 1875, Stillman held its first classes in the Fall of 1876 and was chartered as a legal corporation by the State of Alabama in 1895.

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In the years that followed, the young school enlarged its academic program. In 1898, the school, now named Stillman Institute in honor of Dr. Stillman who had died in 1895, moved to its present location in the western section of Tuscaloosa. The General Assembly of 1899 approved the opening of the school to all who wished to enter.

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This decision led to the second phase of Stillman?s growth. In the next five decades, with the aid of the Church and under the able leadership first of Professor W.F. Osburn and later of Professor A.L. Jackson, the school grew in size and expanded in purpose. During these years, the school acquired its present campus tract of over 100 acres, organized a junior and senior high school and established a junior college program, which was accredited in 1937. In addition between 1930 and 1946, it operated a hospital and nurses training school.

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These accomplishments led into the third and present phase of Stillman?s history, which dramatically links Stillman?s continuing vital educational role and the changing face of the South. This phase grew out of the following elements: the raising of educational aspirations created by the College?s concentration on Christian-inspired education rather than training for the ministry, the stiffening of state requirements for teaching certificates, and the gradual but inevitable increase in employment opportunities for blacks.

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With the administration of Dr. Samuel Burney Hay, from 1948 to 1965, Stillman sought to pursue a goal to which both the demands of the times and its own developing concept of its educational purpose directed it; namely, a senior liberal arts insitution. In 1948, the name was changed to Stillman College, and the following year Stillman was expanded into a four-year college. Stillman graduated its first baccalaureate class in 1951 and was accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1953.

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Dr. Harold N. Stinson, the first African American to assume the presidency, served from 1967 to 1980. New programs designed to improve educational quality were instituted, and new facilities added included residence halls, faculty apartments, maintenance buildings, and a mathematics-science center.

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Dr. Cordell Wynn, the fourth President, served from January 1982 through June 1997. During Dr. Wynn's tenure, the enrollment grew beyond 1,000 students; the endowment increased signicantly; and the educational programs were broadedn to include the Stillman Management Institute and a community-service component.

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Dr. Ernest McNealy, the fifth President, assumed office in July 1997. Dr. McNealey brought an emphasis on technology to the College, admission standards were raised, the Harte Honors College created, and the guaranteed outcome pre-professional programs established.

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Proud of its history and its relationship to the Presbyterian Church, Stillman aims to utilize the best of its heritage as it moves into the future by providing an environment that is both Christian and intellectual. The College?s enrollment is small enough to permit personalized and individualized attention to students while providing a vast educational experience

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The college's intercollegiate athletic teams, the Tigers and Lady Tigers, compete in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference of Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Related Topics:
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference - Division II - National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)

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