Vanderbilt University

History

Founding

In the years prior to the Civil War, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South had been considering creating a regional university for the training of ministers. Through the lobbying of Nashville bishop Holland McTyeire, church leaders voted in 1872 to create a "Central University" in Nashville. However, lack of funds (not to mention the war-ravaged state of the South) delayed the opening of the college.

Related Topics:
Civil War - Methodist Episcopal Church, South - 1872

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The following year, on a medical trip to New York, McTyeire stayed at the residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose second wife was the cousin of McTyeire's wife. Vanderbilt, the wealthiest man in America at the time, had been considering philanthropy 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. However, McTyeire successfully convinced him to donate $500,000 to endow Central University. The endowment (later increased to $1 million) would be Vanderbilt's only philanthropy. Though he never expressed any desire to having the university named after himself, McTyeire and his fellow trustees soon rechristened the school as the Vanderbilt University.

Related Topics:
New York - Cornelius Vanderbilt - Staten Island - New York

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Early Years

In the fall of 1875, about two hundred 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. However, most of this crop of star faculty left after disputes with Bishop McTyeire.

Related Topics:
1875 - Landon Garland - Randolph-Macon College - Virginia - Chancellor - University of Mississippi

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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 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.

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Contemporary Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt experienced the peak of its intellectual influence during 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.

Related Topics:
Fugitives - Agrarians

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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.

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During the Civil Rights movement, Vanderbilt exhibited both the best and worst of the attitude prevalent in the South during that time. In the late 1950s, the Vanderbilt Divinity School became something of a hotbed of the emerging movement, and the university responded rashly by expelling one of its leaders, James Lawson. Much later, in 1996, he was made a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements. 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. Nationwide attention resulted, in part due to a lawsuit by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who had helped pay for the building's construction in 1933 with a $50,000 contribution. http://www.confederate-rose.org/Violations/TN-Vanderbilt.htm

Related Topics:
James Lawson - United Daughters of the Confederacy

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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. In late July, 2005, the university announced that although it has officially renamed the building and all university publications and offices will continue to refer to it solely as Memorial Hall, the university will neither appeal the matter further nor remove the inscription and pay damages. Meanwhile, racial diversity in campus admissions has increased but past and present students still complain about "little or no interaction between the races."

Related Topics:
Davidson County - Chancery Court - Court of Appeals

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