Drury University

Drury University
Established	1873
Type	Private University
Religious affiliation	United Church of Christ Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Endowment	$74.1 million
President	Todd Parnell
Students	5,474
Undergraduates	1,560
Postgraduates	3,914
Location	Springfield, MO, USA 37.2196°N 93.2857°W / 37.2196; -93.2857
Campus	Urban, 88 acres (35.6 ha)
Colors	Scarlet and Grey
Mascot	Panther
Website	www.drury.edu

Drury University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Missouri. The university enrolls about 1,550 undergraduates, over 2,000 adult part-time undergraduates and around 400 graduate students in six master's programs. In total, its enrollment numbers at about 3,550 students.

History

Drury was founded as Springfield College in 1873 by Congregationalist church missionaries in the mold of other Congregationalist universities such as Dartmouth College and Yale University. Rev. Nathan Morrison, Samuel Drury, and James and Charles Harwood provided the school's initial endowment and organization; Samuel Drury's gift was the largest of the group and the school was soon renamed in honor of Drury's recently deceased son.

The early curriculum emphasized educational, religious and musical strengths. Students came to the new college from a wide area, including the Indian Territories of Oklahoma. The first graduating class included four women.

When classes began in 1873, they were held in a single building on a campus occupying less than 1+¹⁄₂ acres (0.61 ha). Twenty-five years later the 40-acre (16.2 ha) campus included Stone Chapel, the President’s House and three academic buildings. Today, the university occupies a 115-acre (46.5 ha) campus, including the original historic buildings.

Drury College became Drury University on January 1, 2000. In addition to the academic programs of the early years, Drury students today study in the Breech School of Business Administration, the Hammons School of Architecture, and the departments of education, mathematics and sciences, social sciences, exercise and sport science. The list of majors and minors at Drury has also grown and now includes high tech studies in computer science, computer information systems and e-commerce.

The College of Graduate and Continuing Studies serves nearly three thousand students in Springfield and at nine branch campuses.

On April 28, 1960, Drury College was the setting for an episode of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford. Tennessee Ernie Ford sang his trademark "Sixteen Tons" and the hymn "Take My Hand, Precious Lord".

Mission

Drury is an independent, church-related university, grounded in the liberal arts tradition, and committed to personalized education in a community of scholars who value the arts of teaching and learning. Education at Drury seeks:

• to cultivate spiritual sensibilities and imaginative faculties as well as ethical insight and critical thought
• to foster the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge
• to liberate persons to participate responsibly in and contribute to a global community

Religious affiliations

Since its founding, Drury has been affiliated with the Congregationalist church and its successor, the United Church of Christ. It has also been affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) since the founding of the Drury School of Religion in 1909. The religious foundation of the university still manifests itself in a faith community on campus.

Academic departments

• Architecture
• Art & Art History
• Behavioral Sciences
• Biology
• Business Administration
• Chemistry
• Communication
• Education
• English
• Environmental Studies
• Exercise and Sports Science
• Global Studies & GP21
• History, Political Science, and Geography
• Languages
• Library Science
• Mathematics and Computer Science
• Music
• Philosophy and Religion
• Physics
• Theatre

Professional schools

• Hammons School of Architecture
• Breech School of Business Administration
• School of Education & Child Development

Housing

The University provides the following on-campus housing options for undergraduate students.

Residence Halls (Dorms)

• Smith Hall
• Wallace Hall
• Sunderland Hall

Freshmen are required to live in one of the three residence halls. Smith Hall and Wallace Hall are suite-style double-occupancy rooms, where two rooms share a bathroom. Sunderland Hall has suite-style single-occupancy rooms, with four students and two bathrooms in a suite. Freshmen in Sunderland Hall live in Living Learning Communities (LLC's), which is a group of students who have CORE Class together and are grouped by similar interests.

Students are required to live on-campus until they are age 21 or older, or are married. The majority of students live on-campus. Other options for upperclassmen include:

• University Suites (NEW Fall 2012)
• Summit Park Leadership Community†
• College Park
• Jefferson Park
• Midtown Houses‡
• Manley Hall
• Honors House
• Fraternity Houses

†Students (usually sophomores) in teams of four or eight are required to design their own year-long service project and present it to a panel in the year prior in order to earn their spot in one of these 10 apartment units.

‡These are historic houses adjacent to campus that have been procured by the university.

Global Perspectives 21

The Global Perspectives 21 (GP21) program is an interdisciplinary curriculum "designed to prepare students for the 21st century by providing the breadth of understanding and skills needed in our rapidly changing global society." A practical benefit of the program is that all traditional Drury day students receive a minor in Global Studies for completing their general education requirements.†

Drury explains the program in this way: "The GP21 program is rooted in the liberal arts and thus helps develop the knowledge and skills associated with a bachelor’s degree. Students develop their reading, writing, and oral communication skills. They extend their abilities to think critically and creatively and to solve problems. They explore values and ethical issues in many ways and develop a deeper awareness of what divides and unites global cultures. This integrated program of study thus prepares students for meaningful and successful lives as persons and professionals."

†As of Spring 2012, students who were current freshmen through juniors were given the choice of whether to continue with GP21 and graduate with the minor, or to forgo it and take classes under the CORE curriculum instead. The CORE curriculum cuts down on certain subjects, such as science and research classes. Students entering Drury in Fall 2012 as freshmen are not eligible to complete the minor.

Study abroad

Although not directly tied to the GP21 curriculum, Drury's study abroad program is an integral part of the college experience. Almost half of the student body studies overseas at some point in short-term, semester, or year-long programs. Foreign learning is a requirement for most students with majors in the schools of Business and Architecture.

Drury also maintains a satellite campus in Volos, Greece, that is home to several of the university's most distinctive courses. Though the Center is quite popular with architecture students, it is attended by students across disciplines and majors.

Athletics

The school was a founding member of the Heartland Conference. In the Fall of 2005, the Drury Panthers joined the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Drury sponsors NCAA Division II intercollegiate athletic teams in men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, men's baseball, women's softball, and women's volleyball.

On April 7, 2013, Drury won the Division II Men's National Championship in Basketball, defeating Metro State of Denver 74-73 after rallying from a 17-point deficit. The Panthers won their final 23 games of the season - a school record - to finish 31-4 on the season. They also captured their second Great Lakes Valley Conference championship and first NCAA-II Midwest Regional along the way. In keeping with recent custom, the Division II champions were invited to play an exhibition game against Duke University.

Baseball, in hiatus since the 1970s, was reorganized for the 2007 season by new Head Coach Mark Stratton. The 2007 team was composed mainly of freshmen, with two seniors (Tony Lewis and Michael York) on the roster. In the pre-season picks, Drury Baseball was picked to finish last in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. However, the Drury Panther Baseball team won a bid into their conference tournament. They took this opportunity, and went undefeated to become the 2007 Great Lakes Valley Conference Champions. This gave them an automatic bid into the NCAA Division-II tournament. While they eventually were defeated by Grand Valley State (ranked 6th in the nation), the Drury Panthers sent home two Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference teams (Ashland and Saginaw Valley State, which out ranked the last seeded Drury), and finished third in the NCAA Division-II Regional. Tony Lewis was the recipient of the Rawlings Golden Glove Award. Lewis and Joe Rohlfing were named to the All-Tournament team for the NCAA Division-II North Central Regional. Drury ended the season going 33–24.

Drury men's swimming head coach Brian Reynolds was recently inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame.

Notable alumni

• Bob Barker, former gameshow host and executive producer of The Price Is Right
• Ernest R. Breech, chairman of Ford Motor Company and Trans World Airlines
• Charles H. Brown, member of the United States House of Representatives from 1957–1961
• David Clohessy, director of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)
• Bob Dixon, a current member of the Missouri Senate
• Betty Cole Dukert, producer of NBC's Meet the Press
• Dan Glass, president of Kansas City Royals
• Dabbs Greer, actor
• Durward Hall, member of the United States House of Representatives from 1961–1973
• Frederic Aldin Hall, chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis 1913–1923
• Michael Mallory, author and journalist
• Todd Parnell, banker and president of Drury University
• Mary Jane Pool, The Conde Nast Publications, Inc
• Jeanie Riddle, Republican member of the Missouri House of Representatives
• James Edward Ruffin, member of the United States House of Representatives from 1933–1935
• "Si" Siman, music industry executive
• David E. Sweet, founding president of Metropolitan State University and later president of Rhode Island College
• Larry O'Reilly, Rosalie O'Reilly Wooten, & David O'Reilly O'Reilly Auto Parts
• Johnny Morris, founder and owner of Bass Pro Shops
• Ismael Ortiz, Panamanian swimmer
• John William Yettaw, The Suu Kyi swimmer

Recent events

In 2005, Drury was one of 16 colleges and universities in the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) project “Shared Futures: General Education for Global Learning,” which focuses on linking the liberal arts to global issues. In the same year John Sellars was appointed president.

On April 23, 2007 Drury's 15th president, John Sellars, resigned effective May 31, 2007. He later was named president of Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. Alumnus Todd Parnell, a member of Drury's Board of Trustees, assumed the role of interim president.

On January 21, 2008, Todd Parnell was named Drury's 16th president.

In late 2012, David P. Manuel, Chancellor of Louisiana State University at Alexandria, was selected to be Drury's 17th President. He will start at Drury in the summer of 2013.

Greek organizations

Drury currently has four sororities and four fraternities.

Sororities:

• Delta Delta Delta
• Kappa Delta
• Pi Beta Phi
• Zeta Tau Alpha

Fraternities:

• Kappa Alpha Order
• Lambda Chi Alpha
• Sigma Nu
• Sigma Pi

References

• Drury University (2007). "Drury's Accolades". Drury University. Retrieved 2007-05-16. 
• Drury University (2007). "Drury History". Drury University. Retrieved 2007-05-16. 

External links

• Official website
• Official athletics website