Mars Hill College

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Mars Hill College is a private, coed, liberal-arts college affiliated with the North Carolina Baptist Convention. The college is located in the small town of Mars Hill, North Carolina, 15 miles (24 km) due north of Asheville, western North Carolina's largest city. Mars Hill College is easily accessible from Asheville via Interstate 26, which runs about a mile east of the college.

[edit] History

Mars Hill College was founded in 1856, and it is the oldest college or university in western North Carolina. The college was originally named the French Broad Baptist Academy, after the nearby French Broad River. In 1859 the college changed its name to Mars Hill, in honor of the hill in ancient Athens on which the Apostle Paul debated Christianity with the city's leading philosophers. During the American Civil War the college was closed for two years, but it reopened after the war. From 1897 to 1938 the college, under the leadership of Dr. Robert Moore, enjoyed substantial financial and physical growth. In 1921 Mars Hill became an accredited junior college. Dr. Hoyt Blackwell served as president from 1938 to 1966, and under his leadership Mars Hill became an accredited four-year college in 1962. In 1966 Dr. Blackwell retired, and was succeeded by Dr. Fred Blake Bentley. Dr. Bentley was, at the time of his appointment, the youngest college president in the United States. During Dr. Bentley's tenure the college grew in stature and developed a competitive football, and basketball program. In addition the academic reputation of the college increased. Dr. Bentley retired in 1996 after nearly 30 years as president of the college. In 1996, Dr. Max Lennon was appointed president and served until 2002. Dr. Dan Lunsford, a 1969 graduate of Mars Hill, is currently the college's president; he holds a doctorate in education, Ed.D, from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Under Dr. Lunsford the college has constructed a new dormitory and science building, greatly upgraded its athletic facilities, tripled its endowment, and seen an increase in student enrollment. Mars Hill is fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS).

[edit] Mars Hill College today

The college's enrollment typically runs from 1300 to 1600 students. In its annual survey of "America's Best Colleges", Mars Hill is listed by U.S. News and World Report as a "first-tier" regional (Southern) liberal-arts college. The college is a Division II member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and it is also a member of the South Atlantic Conference. Mars Hill's sports mascot is the Mountain Lion; the college's colors are blue and gold. The men's cross country team has recently been the most successful sport at the college; they have won 12 straight conference titles and have competed in the NCAA Division II meet numerous times. The college offers five degrees (Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Social Work), and 31 majors. The most popular majors are in the fields of education, business, and music; the college is known for its excellent departments in music and other fine arts. The "Bailey Mountain Cloggers", the college's dance team, have won 16 national championships in clogging[1][2], and they have performed all over the United States and internationally in Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, Austria, and Ireland[3]. In 2002 the college opened the Ramsey Center for Regional Studies. Named after an MHC alumnus who served a record four terms as the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, the center is dedicated to preserving the heritage and culture of the people of the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

The college has a scenic 180-acre (0.73 km²) campus; most of the dormitories are located atop two hills, named "men's hill" and "women's hill" respectively. The main campus is located in a small valley between the two hills. The college is surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains; from various points on campus it is possible to see Mount Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River. Bailey Mountain (nicknamed "Old Bailey") is located less than a mile from campus and is a local landmark.

In 2007 MHC joined with four other Baptist-affiliated schools (Campbell University, Gardner-Webb University, Wingate University, and Chowan University) to file a joint proposal to the North Carolina Baptist Convention. Although all five schools stated that they had no wish to formally withdraw from the convention, they did propose to significantly loosen their ties to the Southern Baptist Convention. The five schools proposed to eliminate the requirement that the state convention have final approval over who could serve as trustees over their schools. This would allow each school to choose the best candidate available (Baptist or non-Baptists) to serve on their Boards of Trustees. The schools also proposed to transfer funds traditionally given directly to the institutions from the state convention into a scholarship fund for Baptist students. This change reduces some of the convention's direct financial influence over the college's but also removes a financial safety net. This will force the schools to become increasingly competitive in recruiting students and increases the possibility that at sometime in the future one or more of the schools will have to cease operations for financial reasons. These changes allow the schools to be more flexible and not reliant on the convention's approval and support in budgetary and capital improvement matters. Previously the convention was able to use the power of the purse to decide how the colleges could spend the money. In November 2008 the state convention gave final approval to the proposal. As a result, Mars Hill College has a great deal more autonomy from the Southern Baptists convention, but is still affiliated and reliant on being approved of by the convention so that it can receive funds from the scholarship fund.

[edit] Notable alumni

• John S. Battle, (1890 - 1972), Governor of Virginia from 1950 to 1954, served on President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Civil Rights Commission. Attended Mars Hill when it was a junior college, later earned a law degree from the University of Virginia.
• William L. Brown, (1922 - 2005), President and CEO of the Bank of Boston from 1971 - 1989. Doubled the bank's assets from $18 billion to $36 billion before his retirement.
• Dr. Dan Locklair (born 1949), Professor of Music at Wake Forest University, internationally-known composer who has won awards from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. His work "The Peace May Be Exchanged" was performed at the funeral service for President Ronald Reagan at the Washington National Cathedral.
• Graham Martin, (1912 - 1990), Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Ambassador to Thailand (1963-1969); U.S. Ambassador to Italy (1969-1973); U.S. Ambassador to South Vietnam (1973-1975). He was the last ambassador to South Vietnam before that nation collapsed and fell to Communist forces from North Vietnam in 1975. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
• Dr. Wayne Oates (1917 - 1999), psychologist and minister at the University of Louisville medical school who fused psychology and theology to create many of the practices used in modern pastoral counseling. He is also credited with coining the word "workaholic".
• Dr. Kenneth E. Peacock (born 1948), Chancellor of Appalachian State University since 2004.
• Dr. Tina Pippin (born 1956), Chair of the Religious Studies department at Agnes Scott College; she is an expert on feminist interpretation of the Bible, and in apocalyptic literature.
• Dr. David Price (born 1940), United States Congressman from North Carolina's Fourth District from 1987-1995 and 1997 to the present. He is the Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Homeland Security. After graduating from Mars Hill, he earned divinity and doctoral degrees from Yale University and taught political science at Duke University.
• Dr. H. Dean Propst (born 1934), Chancellor Emeritus of the University System of Georgia; holds a doctorate in education from Vanderbilt University.
• Liston B. Ramsey (1919 - 2001), North Carolina state legislator who served 19 terms in the state assembly. He was elected Speaker of the State House of Representatives four times in the 1980s, and was the first legislator in the state's history to have been elected to the Speaker's office for four terms.
• Eugene L. Roberts, Jr., (born 1932), National Editor of The New York Times from 1969 - 1972; Executive Editor of The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1972 - 1990; Managing Editor of The New York Times from 1990 - 1997. In 2007 he won the Pulitzer Prize in history for his book The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation.
• Lacy Thornburg, (born 1929), North Carolina State Attorney General from 1985 - 1993; United States Federal District Judge for Western North Carolina, 1995 - Present.
• LaVonda Wagner, (born 1964), Head Women's Basketball Coach at Oregon State University, assistant coach at the University of Illinois from 1994 - 2002 and at Duke University from 2002 - 2005. Named the Oregon State Women's Coach of the Year by the Corvallis Gazette-Times in 2006; she is also a WNBA television analyst for the Fox Sports Network (FSN).

[edit] External links

• Mars Hill College website

Coordinates: 35°49′34″N 82°33′03″W / 35.82603°N 82.55070°W / 35.82603; -82.55070