Rhodes College is a private liberal arts college in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), it is a member of the Associated Colleges of the South and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Rhodes enrolls about 2,000 students, and its Collegiate Gothic campus sits on a 123-acre wooded site in Memphis' historic Midtown neighborhood.

History

The early origins of Rhodes can be traced to the mid-1830s and the establishment of the all-male "Montgomery Academy" on the outskirts of Clarksville, Tennessee. The city's flourishing tobacco market and profitable river port made Clarksville one of the fastest-growing cities in the then-western United States and quickly led to calls to turn the modest "log college" into a proper university. The college's early growth halted during the American Civil War, during which its buildings served as a headquarters for the Union Army throughout the federal occupation of Clarksville.

By the early 20th century, the college had still not fully recovered from the Civil War and faced dwindling financial support and inconsistent enrollment. Diehl's application of an Oxbridge-style tutorial system, in which students study subjects in individual sessions with their professors, allowed the college to join Harvard as the only two colleges in the United States then employing such a system.

Rhodes has grown into a nationally ranked liberal arts and sciences college. Under the leadership of James H. Daughdrill, Jr. (president from 1973 to 1999) and William E. Troutt (president from 1999 to 2017), the college's physical expansion continued, and Rhodes offers more than 50 majors, interdisciplinary majors, minors, and academic programs . Additionally, the school has built partnerships with numerous Memphis institutions to provide students with a network of research, service, and internships opportunities.

In July 2017, Marjorie Hass began her tenure as the 20th president of Rhodes College, and the college's first female president. She departed Rhodes in June 2021 after being named the president of the Council of Independent Colleges and was succeeded by Jennifer Collins.

Academics and reputation

The academic environment at Rhodes centers around small classes, faculty mentorship, and an emphasis on student research and writing. The average class size is 14, and the college has a 10:1 student-to-faculty ratio. In 2017, The Princeton Review ranked Rhodes #9 for Most Accessible Professors.

Through 18 academic departments and 13 interdisciplinary programs, Rhodes offers more than 50 majors, interdisciplinary majors, minors, and academic programs. If students are unable to find a major that meets their specific interests, the college may allow them to design their own major that is better tailored to their goals.

Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were:

  • Business Administration & Management (63)
  • Biology/Biological Sciences (46)
  • Neuroscience (36)
  • English Language and Literature (29)
  • Chemistry (27)
  • Psychology (27)
  • Computer Science (24)
  • International Relations & Affairs (22)

At the core of the Rhodes academic experience is the Foundations Curriculum, which gives students freedom to follow their academic interests and aspirations while developing the critical-thinking and communication skills that are fundamental to a liberal arts education. It also requires students to connect their classroom experience to the real world through an internship, research, and/or study abroad opportunities. More than 400 different courses are offered to fulfill the Foundations course requirements. Rhodes is in the top 10% of all U.S. colleges for the percentage of students who earn Ph.D.s in the sciences and among the top five in the Southeast. Rhodes is also a top 10 undergraduate source of psychology Ph.D.s. Additionally, Rhodes' partnership with the George Washington University School of Medicine allows Rhodes students that meet certain criteria by their sophomore year to receive a guarantee of later acceptance to the George Washington University School of Medicine.

In 2015, the college's website claimed that Rhodes had produced eight Rhodes Scholars, was named perennially as a "Top Producing Institution" for Fulbright Scholars, and boasted numerous Truman Scholars, Goldwater Scholars, Henry Luce Scholars, National Science Foundation Graduate Fellows, and recipients of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. and the college has the oldest collegiate chapter of Habitat for Humanity and the longest student-run soup kitchen in the country.

Internships and research

In 2017, The Princeton Review ranked Rhodes #16 for Best Schools for Internships and #16 for Best Career Services. Students are encouraged to take advantage of Rhodes' metropolitan backdrop to participate in off-campus internships and "service learning". They are also given the opportunity to participate in a variety of research programs, such as the Summer Plus program at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, the Rhodes/UT Neuroscience Fellowship, the Center for Outreach and Development of the Arts, the Mike Curb Institute for Music, the Shelby Foote Fellowship, and the Mayor's Urban Fellows Program.

Rhodes also helps students obtain internships across the country and overseas. As a part of one of the oldest and largest international relations undergraduate programs in the United States, Rhodes' Mertie W. Buckman International Internship Program provides funding for outstanding students majoring in International Studies to work abroad during the summer months. In addition to the work experience, Buckman interns are provided with a stipend to use for cultural enrichment while abroad. Additionally, the Political Science Department offers semester programs in Washington, D.C.

Study abroad

The Institute of International Education's Open Doors Report, listed Rhodes as one of Top 35 Colleges in the United States for Students Who Study Abroad. Rhodes offers a number of its own study abroad programs, including European Studies, a fall semester program in which students travel to various locations in Europe while studying at the University of Oxford. Additionally, students can explore a variety of summer programs in locations such as Belgium, London, and Ecuador.

In order to lower the financial obstacles to studying abroad, Rhodes allows students to use their federal and institutional aid on any one of more than 300 Rhodes-affiliated semester-long study abroad programs. The college's Buckman Center for International Education maintains a list of affiliated programs that Rhodes students can attend for one semester with no additional tuition or fees. Through the areas of preservation, research, leadership, and civic responsibility, the Institute provides support and opportunities for students and faculty, in partnership with the community, to experience and celebrate what Curb called the "Tennessee Music Miracle." He lived there for thirteen months with his parents and grandmother before they moved to Graceland. During this time, Elvis would make his iconic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, record such hits as "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel," and begin his storied movie career. In 2006, Mike Curb purchased the home for Rhodes, with the idea that it would be used by the college as an extension of the Curb Institute. Curb Fellows now use the house for interviews, recording, and projects like The Audubon Sessions.

The Audubon Sessions is a student-produced house concert series that takes place at 1034 Audubon Drive. Guest artists are invited to the house to perform and discuss their careers and thoughts about music and life, especially in the context of Memphis and the region.

The 2016 Rhodes College Course Catalogue offers this description of the Search course: <blockquote>Throughout its sixty-six year history, Search has embodied the College's guiding concern for helping students to become men and women of purpose, to think critically and intelligently about their own moral views, and to approach the challenges of social and moral life sensitively and deliberately. Students are encouraged to engage texts directly and to confront the questions and issues they encounter through discussions with their peers, exploratory writing assignments, and ongoing personal reflection. Special emphasis is given to the development and cultivation of critical thinking and writing skills under the tutelage of a diverse faculty drawn from academic disciplines across the Humanities, Fine Arts, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences.</blockquote>Although the exact assignments vary year to year, students read from primary sources that span the millennia of recorded Western history and thought.

The campus covers a 123-acre tract in Midtown, Memphis across from Overton Park and the Memphis Zoo. Often cited for its beauty, the campus design is notable for its stone Collegiate Gothic buildings, thirteen of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Southwestern at Memphis Historic District. Additionally, Rhodes is a certified Class IV Arboretum, the highest designation granted by the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, and contains over 120 tree species and more than 1,500 individual trees. In 2017, The Princeton Review named Rhodes the #1 Most Beautiful College Campus in America in its edition of The Best 381 Colleges. Since 2006, four Collegiate Gothic sorority houses have also been listed on the National Register as the Southwestern at Memphis Sorority Row Historic District.

<gallery mode=packed heights= 100>

file:20201018 172420 Townsend Hall - New Dorm.jpg|Townsend Hall

File:BurrowHall.jpg|Burrow Hall

File:Ashner Gateway.jpg|Ashner Gateway and Robb Hall Dormitory

File:Palmer in Ivy.jpg|Southwestern Hall viewed from Oak Alley

File:Elvis' Audubon House.jpg|1Elvis' first home in Memphis, now owned by Rhodes College

File:Catherine Burrow Refectory.jpg|Catherine Burrow Refectory

20201018 173232 Paul Barret, Jr. new library.jpg|Paul Barret Library

File:AmphitheatreFJ.jpg|Frazier Jelke (FJ) Amphitheatre and Southwestern Hall (back)

File:Halliburton Snow.jpg|Halliburton Tower in the snow

File:PBJ Star Room.jpg|Reading room in the Paul Barrett Library

</gallery>

Students and faculty

The Rhodes student body represents 46 states, the District of Columbia, and 43 foreign countries. Some of the college's approximately 50 majors and minors include International Studies, Economics, Computer Science, Commerce and Business, Biology, Political Science, and Political Economy. Over 95% of Rhodes' 224 faculty members hold the highest degree in their field, and no classes at the college are taught by teaching assistants.

Rites of Spring is Rhodes' annual three-day music festival in early April that typically attracts several major bands from around the country. Past performers include The Black Keys, Coolio, Old Crow Medicine Show, Grace Potter, and G-Easy. Rhodes' Rites to Play has in recent years brought elementary-school-age children to the campus. Rhodes students plan, organize, and execute a carnival for the children, who are sponsored by community agencies and schools that partner with Rhodes.

Athletics

thumb|170px|Rhodes athletics wordmark

Rhodes' mascot is the lynx, and the school colors are cardinal and black. The Lynx compete in NCAA Division III in the Southern Athletic Association. Prior to joining the SAA, Rhodes was a founding member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming & diving, tennis, and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball.

Rhodes has four team athletic national championships to its credit, with the baseball team earning a title in 1961 and the women's golf team earning three from 2014 to 2017.

Rivalry with Sewanee

thumb|220px|A 2016 field hockey matchup between Rhodes and Sewanee

In 2012, Sports Illustrated reported that the annual football rivalry between Rhodes and Sewanee: The University of the South is the longest continuously running college football rivalry in the Southern United States:<blockquote>The longest consecutively played college football game below the Mason-Dixon line (since 1899) has the manners and traditions of the South without all the excesses of big-time conferences.</blockquote>The exchange of the Edmund Orgill Trophy was added to the series in 1954, and the prize takes the form of a large silver bowl that is engraved with the result of each year's game.

Rhodes currently leads the trophy series 32–28–1, and is one game behind Sewanee in the overall series, with Rhodes winning thirteen of the last sixteen meetings.

Mock trial

thumb|220px|The Marcus D. Pohlmann Mock Trial Courtroom

Rhodes College provides an undergraduate mock trial program that has won four national championships and participated in ten national final rounds. The program was founded in 1986 by Professor Marcus Pohlmann. Rhodes qualified to the American Mock Trial Association's National Championship tournament every year since its inception (a national record) until 2021, with thirty-two top ten or Honorable Mention finishes and over one hundred and thirty All-American attorney and witness awards.

Buckman Hall houses a replica courtroom used by the teams for practicing. Every spring, Rhodes hosts one of the nine AMTA Opening Round Championship tournaments in the Shelby County Courthouse in downtown Memphis. The program also hosts an informal invitational scrimmage tournament in Buckman Hall every autumn.

Greek system

There are a number of social fraternities and sororities at Rhodes.

President Charles Diehl prescribed certain rules regarding the design of the fraternity and sorority lodges. Each features the same Arkansas sandstone walls, Vermont slate roofs, Indiana limestone trim, and stained glass windows as the rest of campus. As a result, Rhodes' fraternity and sorority rows are composed of domestic-scale Gothic lodges featuring variations on the college's distinctive architecture.

  • Bobby Rush (musician) (b.1933) – musician
  • James H. Daughdrill, Jr. (b.1934, d.2014) – president of Rhodes College
  • Susan Bies (b.1947) – member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve from 2001 through 2007
  • William E. Troutt (b.1949) – president of Rhodes College
  • Michael Nelson (b.1949) – political scientist
  • Dave Wottle (b.1950) – olympic gold medalist in running
  • Ming Dong Gu (b.1955) – literary scholar
  • Mark Behr (b.1963, d.2015) – novelist
  • Andrew A. Michta (b.1956) – dean of the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
  • Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi (b.1975) – Islamic scholar
  • Marcus Pohlmann (b.1950) – political scientist
  • Joseph Ruggles Wilson (b.1822) – theologian and father of President Woodrow Wilson
  • Mark W. Muesse (b.1957) – professor of religious studies and philosophy

Alumni

Academia

  • David Alexander, '53 – president of Rhodes College and Pomona College
  • Harry L. Swinney, '61 – director of the Center for Nonlinear Dynamics at the University of Texas at Austin
  • Lindley Darden, '68 – professor of philosophy, University of Maryland
  • Clyde Lee Giles, '68 – professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Pennsylvania State University
  • Carol Strickland, '68 – art historian
  • James C. Dobbins, '71 – professor of religion, Oberlin College
  • Mark D. West, '89 – University of Michigan Law School Dean
  • Julie Story Byerley, '92 – Vice Dean for Education for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
  • Bryan Coker, '95 – president of Maryville College

Athletics

  • Challace McMillin, '64 – first head coach of James Madison Dukes football, sports psychologist
  • Tom Mullady, '79 – New York Giants tight end, 1979 to 1984

Business

  • John H. Bryan, '58 – Former CEO of Sara Lee, member of the board of Goldman Sachs, philanthropic driving force behind the creation of Millennium Park in Chicago

Government and military

thumb|170px|Justice [[Abe Fortas]]

thumb|170px|Justice [[Amy Coney Barrett]]

  • Thomas Watt Gregory, 1883 – U.S. Attorney General 1914–1919
  • Jennings Bailey, 1884 – U.S. District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
  • William L. Frierson, 1887 – Solicitor General of the United States 1920–21; Assistant U.S. Attorney General 1917–1920
  • Key Pittman, 1890 – U.S. Senator from Nevada 1913–40; chairman, Senate Foreign Relations Committee
  • Theodore M. Brantley, 1875 – longest-serving Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court, serving for 23 years (1899–1922)
  • Nathan Lynn Bachman, 1897 – U.S. Senator from Tennessee
  • Julian P. Alexander, 1906 – U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi 1918–21; Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi 1941–1953
  • Abe Fortas, '30 – Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court (1965–1969); as an attorney, argued Gideon v. Wainwright before the Supreme Court (affirming the Sixth Amendment right to counsel in all criminal cases)
  • Gwen Robinson Awsumb, 1937 – American politician and social activist who became the first woman to be elected to the Memphis City Council in 1968; Chair of Memphis City Council 1970–1975
  • Joseph Williams Vance, Jr. – United States Navy officer, received Bronze Star Medal for action in the Battle of Makassar Strait (1942) during World War II, attended Southwestern from 1936 to 1938. He later gave his life during the Guadalcanal landings. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Vance (DE-387), which saw duty in the latter part of World War II, was named in his honor.
  • Bill Alexander, '57 – U.S. Congressman from Arkansas (1969–1993), Chief Deputy Majority Whip
  • Claudia J. Kennedy, '69 – first woman to hold a three-star rank in the U.S. Army, Lieutenant General, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame
  • Amy Coney Barrett, '94 – Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, former U.S. Circuit Court Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit; former Diane and M.O. Miller Research Chair of Law at Notre Dame Law School
  • Charles McGrady, '75 – President of the Sierra Club 1998–2000; North Carolina House of Representatives, District 117
  • Catherine Eagles, '79 – U.S. District Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina
  • Willie Hulon, ‘79 – Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch of the FBI
  • Kelley Paul, '85 – writer, former political consultant; wife of US Senator Rand Paul
  • A. Marvin Quattlebaum, Jr., '86 – U.S. Circuit Court Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit
  • Alison Lundergan Grimes, '01 – former Secretary of State of Kentucky
  • Dustin Burrows, '01 – Texas State Representative, District 83
  • Jasmine Crockett, '03 – U.S. Congresswoman for Texas's 30th congressional district

Literature and the arts

  • Verner Moore White, 1884 – Noted landscape and portrait artist; completed commissions for three U.S. Presidents
  • Dorothy Jordan, '25 – Stage and film actress; played John Wayne's brother's wife in The Searchers
  • Carroll Cloar, '34 – Guggenheim Fellow and artist; one of the South's most highly regarded and widely collected artists
  • Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor, '39 – Pulitzer Prize-winning author
  • Marion Keisker, '39 – former Sun Studios employee, first person to record Elvis Presley
  • Anne Howard Bailey, '45 – Emmy Award-winning television writer (Adams Chronicles, Bonanza, Lassie)
  • Mignon Dunn, '49 – Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano, longtime star of New York's Metropolitan Opera
  • George Hearn, '56 – two-time Tony Award winning actor and singer; star of Broadway's Sunset Boulevard and La Cage aux Folles
  • John Farris, '58 – prolific writer of popular fiction and suspense novels, and stage and screen plays
  • Hilton McConnico – artist, designer, and film director; the first American to have work permanently inducted into the Louvre's Decorative Arts collection
  • Lara Parker – actress, known for Dark Shadows and Save the Tiger
  • Allen Reynolds, '60 – record producer and songwriter, inducted to Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
  • David Ramsey, '61 – music professor, Memphis Redbirds organist for 36 seasons
  • Dixie Carter, '62 – Broadway actress and Emmy-nominated television actress, starred in hit CBS sitcom Designing Women
  • John Rone, '71 – director, stage actor, former director of college events, former director of the Meeman Center for Lifelong Learning
  • Charlaine Harris, '73 – New York Times best selling writer of The Southern Vampire Mysteries series, which HBO later adapted for its series True Blood
  • Bill Mobley, '76 – American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player
  • Paul Buchignani, '89 – American drummer, performed on the Afghan Whigs' Black Love album
  • Greg Krosnes, '89 – stage actor, voice actor, director
  • Sarah Lacy, '99 – technology journalist; former columnist at Bloomberg BusinessWeek and TechCrunch; founder of PandoDaily

Other

  • J. Vernon McGee, '30 – Former pastor of the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles and founder of Thru the Bible Radio Network.
  • Margaret Polk, '43 – former fiancée of the pilot of the Memphis Belle B-17, after whom the plane was named
  • Louis Pounders, '96 – American architect, fellow at the American Institute of Architects (FAIA)

Honorary alumni

  • Edward J. Meeman, 1960 – journalist, editor of Memphis Press-Scimitar, namesake of Meeman Center for Lifelong Learning
  • Malcolm Forbes, 1983 – editor of Forbes Magazine
  • William R. Ferris, 1997 – head of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, co-edited Encyclopedia of Southern Culture
  • Isaac Tigrett, 1997 – founder of Hard Rock Cafe and House of Blues
  • Peter C. Doherty, 1998 – Australian veterinary surgeon and researcher
  • Priscilla Presley, 1998 – American actress and businesswoman, former wife of Elvis Presley
  • Bill Frist, 1999 – American physician, businessman, and politician
  • Joseph R. Hyde, III, 1999 – founder of AutoZone, part-owner of the Memphis Grizzlies, founder of Hyde Family Foundation
  • Cary Fowler, 2011 – American agriculturalist and the former executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, attended the school 1967–1969 before transferring

See also

  • Rhodes Singers

References

  • Athletics website