Longwood University

Seal of Longwood University

Established	1839
School type	Public
President	Patricia P. Cormier
Location	Farmville, Virginia
Enrollment	4,350 undergraduate, 100 graduate
Campus	Rural
Athletic Mascot	The Lancers File:Longwoodsports.jpg
Homepage	LU

Longwood University is a four-year public, liberal-arts university located in Farmville, Virginia. It was founded in 1839, and became a university on July 1, 2002. It currently has an undergraduate enrollment of about 4,350 students.

History

Longwood University, a pioneer first in private and later in public education, is one of the oldest universities the United States and was the fifth oldest college for women. The College was founded on March 5, 1839, this being the date that the Farmville Female Seminary Association was incorporated by the General Assembly of Virginia.

In the succeeding years the increasing prosperity of the Farmville Female Seminary led the stockholders to expand the seminary into a college, and the Farmville Female College was incorporated in 1860.

On April 7, 1884, the state of Virginia acquired the property of the Farmville Female College, and in October of the same year the Normal School opened with 110 students enrolled. This was the first state institution of higher learning for women in Virginia.

File:Ruffner hall.jpg

Ruffner Hall

With the passage of the years, the Normal School expanded its curriculum and progressed through a succession of names. It became the State Normal School for Women in 1914, the State Teachers College at Farmville in 1924, and Longwood College in 1949.

In 1954, graduate programs were authorized. Longwood became fully coeducational in June 1976. Governor Mark Warner officially signed legislation changing Longwood's designation to university in March of 2002.

The main University building, Ruffner Hall was built in 1839 and evolved through several stages of construction and expansion from 1839 to 1907. For decades the sprawling Ruffner, whose image appears on the university's logo and seal, was the main administration building, with administrative offices on the first floor and student housing on the upper two floors. After students vacated the building by the early 1970s, dorm rooms were converted to office and classroom space. The former library, Lancaster Hall, was renovated and reopened in 1996 as the main administration building. Ruffner was then used primarily for classrooms and faculty offices before being closed in 1999 for renovation.

Ruffner Hall burned down on April 24, 2001, near the end of its renovation period and was subsequently rebuilt. A popular myth on the University campus holds that just before the college changes its name, catastrophe occurs such as the Ruffner fire, deemed "The Great Fire of 2001."

File:Longwood estate.jpg

The President's Home at Longwood Estate

Academics

Longwood’s academic reputation begins squarely with its education department. With a long history as a teacher’s college, teachers produced by Longwood are heavily sought after throughout the country and consistently win local and national education awards.

Although more often compared to similarly-sized University of Mary Washington and Radford, Longwood shares a closer selectivity rating to Virginia Tech, UVA and Auburn. The University is consistently ranked in the top ten among all southern universities offering Master’s degrees, according to U.S. News and World Report, and was recently selected by USA Today as one of the top 20 schools in the country that foster student success.

Longwood offers over 100 majors and minors, with business as the most popular, followed by education and psychology.

Student Life

Student life at Longwood revolves around many traditions, such as the annual Oktoberfest and Spring Weekend celebrations and Founders Day celebration. Oktoberfest is usually held on the first weekend in October, while Spring Weekend typically occurs on the third weekend in April. One part of Spring Weekend is called "Bandfest," a concert on the Friday of Spring Weekend, and is run by the student radio station WMLU. Such artists as Something Corporate, Yellowcard, and Andrew W.K. have performed in the past.

Many myths also abound on Longwood’s campus, thanks in part to the annual Longwood Ghost Stories. Told at Halloween by legendary professor of anthropology, Dr. James Jordan, students are reminded every year of the cemetery that still remains beneath the North Cunninghams residence hall; the infamous University Bell, which now sits in the lobby of Greenwood Library and is rung only on highly special occasions, is said to be cursed, having caused the mysterious deaths of more than one student. Also said to have caused the mysterious departing of students is the once massive network of underground tunnels. Although remaining portions of the tunnels are officially said to not exist, many students believe they do and are haunted by the ghosts of past students.

Also popular at Longwood is the secret society, Chi. Shrouded in mystery, Chi was founded on October 15, 1900, and promotes and maintains the spirit of Longwood. Members are secretly “tapped” and are revealed only at the conclusion of their senior year during the annual Chi Burning, a large bonfire held on campus.

Chi members hold four or five “Chi Walks” a year. Members, completely covered in blue and white robes of their own making follow one another from one area of campus to another at midnight. Walks are announced silently with the draping in white and blue rope of “Joanie on the Stoney” a plaster statue of the University’s patron saint, Joan of Arc, located in the lobby of Ruffner Hall. During these walks, members drop small cloths emblazoned with the year and either an “X,” the word “Chi” or the seal of the university. These “pieces of Chi” are said to bring good luck as obtaining one is very rare.

Sororities

Longwood is the founding home of four national sororities: Kappa Delta (1897), Zeta Tau Alpha (1898), Sigma Sigma Sigma (1898) and Alpha Sigma Alpha (1901). This is the most of any college or university in the country.

The Dos Passos Prize

Annually, the English department at Longwood University awards the prestigious John Dos Passos Prize For Literature.

The Prize was founded at Longwood University in 1980, and is meant to honor one of the greatest--and most often ignored--American writers of the twentieth century by recognizing other writers in his name. It is administered by a committee from the Department of English and Modern Languages; the chair of the committee also serves as the chair of the prize jury. Other members on the committee include the immediate past recipient and a distinguished critic, editor, or scholar.

Recipients of the prize are American creative writers who have produced a substantial body of significant publication that displays characteristics of John Dos Passos's writing: an intense and original exploration of specifically American themes, an experimental approach to form, and an interest in a wide rage of human experiences.

Notable past recipients:

• Graham Greene, 1980
• Tom Wolfe, 1984
• Shelby Foote, 1988
• Ernest J. Gaines, 1993
• Annie Proulx, 1996
• Richard Powers, 2002

External link

• http://www.longwood.edu/

• http://www.longwoodlancers.com

• http://www.longwood.edu/dospassosreview/