Davidson College

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Davidson College
Motto: Alenda Lux Ubi Orta Libertas (Let Learning Be Cherished Where Liberty Has Arisen)
Established 1837
Type: Private
Endowment: $428 million [1]
President: Thomas W. Ross
Undergraduates: 1,700
Location Davidson, North Carolina, USA
Campus: Suburban area, 450 acre main campus and a 106 acre Lake Campus
Colors: Red and Black           
Nickname: Wildcats
Mascot: Mr. Cat
Website: www.davidson.edu

Davidson College is a private liberal arts college for 1,700 students in Davidson, North Carolina, USA. Both the town and college were named for Brigadier General William Lee Davidson, a Revolutionary War commander. The land for Davidson College came from Brig. Gen. Davidson's estate, a large portion of which was donated by his son.

The College was established by Presbyterians in 1837, though as recently as 2005 it has adjusted and rearticulated its now largely nominal religious affiliation. According to its Board of Trustees, the dedication of the college "extends beyond the Christian community to the whole of humanity and necessarily includes openness to and respect for the world’s various religious traditions."[2] Majors are offered in over twenty fields, as are several minors and self-designed interdisciplinary options. The college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently ranked in the top ten liberal arts colleges in the country by U.S. News and World Report magazine.

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The campus is located near Lake Norman, in the town of Davidson, North Carolina (pop. 8,100) about 20 miles north of Charlotte.

Davidson is known as an extremely academically rigorous college and is notorious for its difficult grading standards.

Moreover, according to The Princeton Review, it is ranked in the top twenty colleges nationally for the following categories: "Best Overall Academic Experience For Undergraduates," "Professors Get High Marks," "Professors Make Themselves Accessible," and "Their Students Never Stop Studying." [3] Davidson students used to complain about a lack of name recognition among the American public, but recent national media coverage, including articles in the New York Times Education supplement and Time and Newsweek magazines, have heightened Davidson's national profile.[4] Newsweek named Davidson as one of twenty-five "New Ivies." In 2007, Kiplinger's Personal Finance ranked Davidson fourth in the list of liberal arts colleges. On 19 March 2007, Davidson became the first liberal arts college in the country to eliminate loans from financial aid packages; all demonstrated need is met by grants and student employment.[5]

The school became co-educational in 1973, and today maintains a 50/50 ratio of men to women. A very high percentage of Davidson graduates enter the legal profession, medicine, or government service.

Chambers Building, Davidson College, NC
Chambers Building, Davidson College, NC

For the class of 2011, the admissions rate was approximately 25%. The middle 50% of the SAT range for that class is 2010-2260.

The Davidson College Office of Admission & Financial Aid presents the college as one "dedicated to intellectual and cultural growth in the broadest sense." Davidson prides itself on a student body made up of the nation's most talented young people, chosen not only for their academic promise, but also for their character.

Faculty and admission personnel work together to select students for admission. The selection process is composed of three major elements: 1) the evaluation of academic performance and potential; 2) the assessment of individual characteristics; and 3) the recognition of outstanding interests, achievements, and activities. These three elements are used to gain an understanding of each student's academic and personal strengths and, thus, give an overall evaluation of the individual's eligibility for admission." [6]

Davidson has a student-faculty ratio of 11-1, 89% of its classes are under 30 students, and no classes have more than 50 students.[7]

Davidson has 167 instructional faculty members, of whom 159 are full-time employees. Almost all faculty members have terminal degrees in their field, with 163 of the 167 faculty members holding a PhD or their field's terminal degree. [8]

E. H. Little Library, Davidson College, NC
E. H. Little Library, Davidson College, NC

Davidson students are bound by a strict honor code that every student must sign at the beginning of their Freshman year.

The Davidson College Honor Code states: "Every student shall be honor bound to refrain from cheating (including plagiarism). Every student shall be honor bound to refrain from stealing. Every student shall be honor bound to refrain from lying about College business. Every student shall be honor bound to report immediately all violations of the Honor Code of which the student has first-hand knowledge; failure to do so shall be a violation of the Honor Code. Every student found guilty of a violation shall ordinarily be dismissed from the College. Every member of the College community is expected to be familiar with the operation of the Honor Code."

Because of this Honor Code, Davidson students take self scheduled un-proctored finals, and many exams (known as "reviews" in Davidson vernacular) are take-home, timed, and closed book — with the proctor and the test-taker being one and the same. On every piece of submitted work, Davidson students (sometimes implicitly) sign: "On my honor, I pledge that I have neither given nor received help on this work, I have followed and will continue to observe all regulations regarding it, and I am unaware of any violations of the Honor Code by others." The subscription of students to this honor code extends beyond 'reviews,' essays, or research papers. Students have been noted to move items out of the rain (including bags, laptops, books, etc. to prevent damage) after leaving notes (wrapped in plastic or otherwise water-proofed) with their names, numbers, the items found, and the reasons for moving it. [9]

Davidson offers majors in 20 subject areas, which include Anthropology, Art, Biology, Chemistry, Classics, Economics, English, French, German, History, Mathematics, Music, Philosophy, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Sociology, Spanish, and Theater. Students can also design their own major through the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies. In addition to the one major required for graduation, students may pursue a second major, a minor, or a concentration. Interdisciplinary concentrations are offered in Applied Mathematics, Asian Studies, Computer Science, Education, Ethnic Studies, Film and Media, Gender Studies, Genomics, International Studies, Medical Humanities, Neuroscience, and Southern Studies.


In February 2002, the Royal Shakespeare Company opened the Duke Family Performance Hall, one of the premier performance spaces in the Southeast. In 2007 and 2008, the Cunningham Fine Arts building, home to several smaller performance spaces, faculty offices, classrooms and set construction facilities, will be completely renovated.

Davidson’s new President, Judge Thomas W. Ross, has repeatedly credited Davidson's Classics Abroad program with redirecting his life. Begun by Professor George Labban in the 1960s, the program has survived the retirement of Labban and his successor Dirk French. Presently, it is the most popular of the college’s study abroad programs, along with the Semester in India program.

Davidson Wildcats logo
Davidson Wildcats logo

Davidson competes at the Division I level in 21 sports (Football plays for the Pioneer league, a non-scholarship football conference). Of these sports, 11 are men's sports and 10 are women's sports. Approximately 24% of the Davidson on-campus student body participates in varsity sports.[1] Davidson has the second smallest enrollment of any school in Division I football (nearby Wofford College, which plays in the Southern Conference, has the smallest enrollment of 1200).

Davidson's sports teams are known as the Wildcats and their colors are red and black. The Wildcats participate in the NCAA's Division I as a member of the Southern Conference in most sports. The sports that compete in conferences other than the Southern Conference are as follows: its football program competes in the Division I-AA Pioneer Football League, Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving compete in the Colonial Athletic Association, Field Hockey competes in the NORPAC conference, and the Lacrosse team is a member of the American Lacrosse Conference.[10]

Main article: Davidson Wildcats basketball

The basketball team reached the height of its success in the 1960s under Coach Lefty Driesell when it was ranked as the number one team in the country prior to the 1964-65 season by Sports Illustrated[11].

Davidson's men's basketball team has competed in 9 NCAA tournaments (1966, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1986, 1998, 2002, 2006, and 2007). Their last NCAA tournament victory was in 1969 vs. St. John's, 79-69, advancing Davidson to the Elite Eight before losing 87-85 to North Carolina in the East Regional Final. [12]

Now under the guidance of Coach Bob McKillop, the Wildcats consistently post winning seasons. In 2006-07, they completed the regular season conference schedule with only one loss and enter the conference tournament as a No. 1 seed, earning a first round bye. On March 3, 2007, the Wildcats beat College of Charleston in the finals of the Southern Conference Tournament to become conference tournament champions for the second consecutive season. The championship won the school an automatic bid to the 2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, where the Wildcats lost in the first round to Maryland, 82-70. In 2005-2006, the Wildcats posted a 20-10 overall record and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament after winning the Southern Conference Tournament in Charleston, South Carolina. In 2004-2005, the Wildcats were undefeated in conference play with a 16-0 record and advanced to the 3rd round of the NIT. In 2001-2002, the Wildcats won the Southern Conference Tournament and lost a close game to Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.

In addition to Driesell and McKillop, a number of notable NCAA men's basketball head coaches have coached at Davidson. Matt Doherty, current head coach at SMU and former head coach of Notre Dame, North Carolina and Florida Atlantic, experienced his first coaching job as an assistant under McKillop, who ironically was Doherty's high school coach on Long Island. Former Virginia head coach and current East Carolina athletic director Terry Holland is a Davidson graduate (Class of 1964) and was Driesell's first recruit at Davidson, before advancing to assistant coaching, head coaching and athletic director duties at Davidson. Larry Brown (basketball), who would go on to win an NCAA championship with Kansas in 1988 and NBA championship with Detroit in 2004, began his nomadic head coaching career at Davidson, managing to depart before the start of his first season. Jim Larranaga, who took George Mason to the 2006 Final Four is a former Davidson assistant coach.

The men's soccer team at Davidson was declared a varsity sport in 1956 and had their first All-American player, Claude Finney, just four years later in 1960.

The peak of the soccer program was in 1992 when the team made a magical run to the NCAA Men's Soccer Tournament Final Four. Led by two-time All-American Rob Ukrop, Davidson finished the regular season 17-5-5, earning an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Three electrifying wins -- two on penalty kicks and one in sudden death overtime -- propelled Davidson into the Final Four, which miraculously was being hosted by Davidson on the school's campus. Davidson lost 3-2 in overtime against San Diego in the semifinal game, but the team received plenty of accolades. Ukrop led the nation with 31 goals and 72 points and was awarded the Adi Dassler Award, given to the nation's best player. Head coach Charlie Slagle was awarded NCAA Division I Coach of the Year for men's soccer. Remarkably, all of this was accomplished without the use of a single athletic scholarship on the 1992 team, leading The New York Times to herald the team as "22 educated feet." [13]

The main student newspaper on campus is the Davidsonian, which is published weekly on Wednesday evenings. The Davidsonian was founded in 1914, its name coming from the contest-winning entry submitted by sophomore William H. Neal of Winston-Salem, NC, and has published a volume every year since then. [14]

Davidson offers a large number of student organizations on campus, such as Black Student Coalition, Asian Cultural Awareness Association, Gay-Straight Alliance [2], Environmental Action Coalition, and Muslim Students Association. Any time a student is interested in an organization that does not currently exist, he or she is encouraged to visit the Student Activities Office to discuss founding a new organization. [15]

Most student events are sponsored by the Union Board, the student organization in charge of the student union. In addition to hosting concerts throughout the Fall and Spring semesters, the Union Board organizes events such as pancake breakfasts at midnight, free Chic-Fil-A, movies, and Freshmen welcome events.

The fraternity and eating house system at Davidson is known as Patterson Court and is governed by the Patterson Court Council.

Davidson has a self-selecting eating house system for female students. There are eight national fraternities, one NPHC sorority, and four local eating houses on campus. The houses included on Patterson Court are as follows:Kappa Alpha Order, Pi Kappa Alpha, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Phi Gamma Delta, Connor House, Phi Delta Theta, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Warner Hall, Kappa Sigma, Black Student Coalition, Rusk House, Turner House, and Alpha Phi Alpha. Approximately 65% of the female students and 38% of male students belong to a fraternity or an eating house.[16]

In 2002, the Royal Shakespeare Company performed William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice in residency at Davidson College, which was the RSC's second residency at a US college or university. The performance inaugurated the Duke Family Performance Hall on the campus.[17] In March 2005, the RSC returned to Davidson and was in residency for most of the month, performing The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, as well as numerous educational activities, many of which were open to the general public. In February 2006, their artists directed scenes from Shakespeare's plays and other theatric materials inspired by Shakespeare, called For Every Passion, Something, with Davidson students as actors. The productions Infinite Variety and For Every Passion Something were presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. In February 2007, the Royal Shakespeare Company performed Shakespeare's Pericles and The Winter's Tale, as well as Roy Williams's Days of Significance, in the Duke Family Performance Hall.[18] In 2008, the RSC is to conduct educational programs, similar to those they presented in 2006.[19]


Davidson has also graduated a relatively high number of Division I baseball head coaches, some of who have had intersecting careers. This includes Peter Hughes, current head coach of Virginia Tech formerly of Boston College, Mikio Aoki, current head coach of Boston College formerly of Columbia University, Brett Boretti, current coach of Columbia University formerly of Franklin & Marshall and Chris Pollard, current coach of Appalachian State University.

On 19 March 2007, Davidson College announced that all students would have their demonstrated financial need met by grants and student employment; loans would no longer be a component of any Davidson financial aid package.[23] Davidson became the first liberal arts college in the country to do so. On 7 June 2007, the Duke Endowment pledged $15,000,000 to support the initiative.[24]

On June 8, 2006, President Bobby Vagt announced his intention to retire at the end of the 2006-2007 academic year, and asked the Board of Trustees to form a search committee to seek his successor. The search concluded with the announcement on March 28, 2007 that Thomas W. Ross, a 1972 Davidson graduate and former state superior court judge, would become the seventeenth president of the College.[25]

In early 2005, the College's Board of Trustees voted in a 31-5 decision to allow 20% of the board to be non-Christian. John Belk, the former mayor of Charlotte and one of the heirs of Belk Department Store, was a casualty of this decision, resigning in protest after more than six decades of affiliation with the college. Stephen Smith also resigned. Belk, however, continued his strong relationship with his alma mater, and was honored in March 2006 at the Tenth Anniversary Celebration of the Belk Scholarship.

Davidson College was founded in 1837 by The Concord Presbytery after purchasing 469 acres of land from William Lee Davidson II, whose father the college was named after. The first students graduated from Davidson in 1840 and received diplomas with the newly created college seal designed by Peter Stuart Ney, who is believed by some to be Napoleon's Marshal Ney.[26]

In the 1850s, Davidson underwent financial troubles but was able to remain financially solvent by instituting "The Scholarship Plan" which allowed people to buy a scholarship to Davidson for $100 that could be redeemed for free tuition to Davidson at any point in the next 20 years. This plan generated necessary revenue to survive through the early 1850's. The college's financial situation improved dramatically in 1856 with a $250,000 donation by Maxwell Chambers, making Davidson the wealthiest college south of Princeton. The Chambers Building, which (through several stages of renovations) remains the main academic building on campus, was built to commemorate this gift. On November 28, 1921, the Chambers Building is destroyed in a fire, but is rebuilt 8 years later in nearly the same location with funds provided by a generous gift from the Rockefeller family.[27]

In 1923, the Gamma chapter in North Carolina of Phi Beta Kappa was established at Davidson. Over 1500 men and 500 women have been initiated into Davidson's chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.[28]

In 1924, James Duke forms the Duke Endowment, which has provided millions of dollars to the college since then including a $15 million dollar pledge in 2007 to help eliminate student loans.

On May 5, 1972 the trustees voted to allow women to enroll at Davidson as degree students for the first time, although they were permitted to attend classes in earlier years. The first women actually attended classes at Davidson in the 1860's when President Kirkpatrick's 5 daughters attended classes to increase the size of the student body during the Civil War. Art major Marianna "Missy" Woodward ‘73 was the first woman to graduate from Davidson, as the only woman in a class of 217 students.[29]

  • Robert Hall Morrison (1837-1841)
  • Samuel Williamson (1841-1855)
  • Drury Lacy (1855-1860)
  • John Lycan Kirkpatrick (1860-1866)
  • George Wilson McPhail (1866-1871)
  • John Rennie Blake (1871-1877) - served as Chief Administrative Official for 6 years after President McPhail died in 1871, during which period there was no official president of the college
  • Andrew Dousa Hepburn (1877-1885)
  • Luthar McKinnon (1885-1888) - The first alumnus to serve as president
  • John Bunyon Shearer (1888-1901)
  • Henry Louis Smith (1901-1912) - Henry Smith and his students at Davidson are credited with producing one of the first (if not the first) X-ray photographs in the United States on January 12th and 13th 1901
  • William Joseph Martin, Jr. (1912-1929)
  • Walter Lee Lingle (1929-1941)
  • Dr. John Rood Cunningham (1941-1958)
  • David Grier Martin (1958-1968)
  • Dr. Samuel Reid Spencer, Jr. (1968-1984)
  • Dr. John Wells Kuykendall (1984-1997)
  • Robert Fredrick Vagt (1997-2007)
  • Thomas W. Ross (2007-present)

  1. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/administration/adm/ir/ir_ff-Endow.asp
  2. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/home/home_purpose.asp
  3. ^ http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/profiles/schoolsays.asp?category=1&listing=1023530<ID=1&intbucketid=
  4. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1226150,00.html
  5. ^ http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x24693.xml
  6. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/admission/apply_icprofile.asp
  7. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/administration/admin_docs/0506cds_I.pdf#search=%22full%20time%20faculty%22
  8. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/administration/admin_docs/0506cds_I.pdf#search=%22full%20time%20faculty%22
  9. ^ http://www.davidson.edu/administrative/admission/whydav/honor.html
  10. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/athletics/ath_prog.asp
  11. ^ http://www.davidson.edu/administrative/library/archives/exhibits_basketball_press.asp
  12. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/athletics/prog_mv/mvbsk/mbskseasons/2005-06/notes/NCAAGuide.pdf
  13. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/athletics/prog_mv/mvsoc/msocseasons/2006/MSOGuide2006.pdf
  14. ^ http://library.davidson.edu/archives/ency/davidsonian.asp
  15. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/studentlife/involved/inv_orgs.asp
  16. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/studentlife/involved/pcourt/pcourt_home.asp
  17. ^ http://www.prnewswire.com/broadcast/5166/5166_press.html
  18. ^ http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x20205.xml
  19. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/common/templates/news/news_tmp03.asp?newsid=2225
  20. ^ http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=4586
  21. ^ http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/entertainment/books/14781460.htm
  22. ^ http://www2.davidson.edu/common/templates/news/news_tmp03.asp?newsid=988
  23. ^ E-mail from Bobby Vagt to all Davidson College students, 19 March 2007
  24. ^ http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x24693.xml
  25. ^ http://www.charlotte.com/204/story/67925.html
  26. ^ http://library.davidson.edu/archives/ency/ney.asp
  27. ^ http://www.davidson.edu/administrative/library/archives/college_history/timeline_CMS.asp
  28. ^ http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x23153.xml
  29. ^ http://library.davidson.edu/archives/ency/coed.asp
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