Rust College

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rust College is a historically black liberal arts college located in Holly Springs, Mississippi, United States, approximately 35 miles southeast of Memphis, Tennessee. It is the second-oldest private college in the state and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

1 History
2 Academics
3 Campus Problems
4 Notable Alumni/ae
5 References
6 External links

The second college for African Americans in the United States, Rust was founded on November 24, 1866 by Northern missionaries known as the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1870, the college was named Shaw University; the named changed again to Rust University in 1882. Both names were applied in honor of major donors to the college. The name was finally changed to "Rust College" in 1915. Rust is one of only ten historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) founded before 1868 still to be in operation.

According to the Princeton Review, the most popular majors at Rust are biology, general studies, business administration, and computer science. Upon completion of their studies at Rust, students can receive Associate's degrees or Bachelor's degrees.

Rust College operates on what is called a module system, which is an 8-week semester class system. While the fast-paced module system causes problems for the support staff and for Rust's many low-performing students, the module system does allow the college to constantly enroll a steady stream of transfer students every 8 weeks.

Most classes have between 10-19 students and 42% of all faculty have obtained a PhD. There are 42 faculty members and a student/faculty ratio of 20:1. 57% of students return for their sophomore year.

Although Rust accepts only 48% of its applicants, it is considered by U.S. News & World Report's influential America's Best Colleges 2006 guide to be a "less selective" institution, going unranked in the fourth-tier of the "Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelor's (South)" category. Rust consideres only high school grade point average (GPA) for admission and does not require an ACT or SAT score for entering freshmen.

Like other HBCUs, Rust College has had increasing problems with enrollment and attracting quality students since the 1960s and 1970s. Lately, the college has focused its recruitment on low performance schools in the inner cities in places such as Chicago, Detroit, and Memphis.

Rust College has had considerable crime and increasingly poor conditions on campus during the previous years. It is difficult to obtain exact figures and data on campus problems from the college's administrative offices, but according to the Southern Accreditation of Southern Colleges, Rust has consistently failed to retain 50% of its entering freshman class. The college's graduation rate is even lower.

Rust has also had to deal with difficult publicity during the past couple of years. One such incident was the early morning fire of March 16, 2005 that almost completely destroyed E.L. Rust Hall, a dormitory for freshmen girls. According to student Amber Johnson, "The fire alarm didn't go off...all we heard was the banging on the doors."

The official account of the fire was that it was caused by incense left burning overnight. However, other official details are in conflict with individual student accounts. There are some accounts that the fire exits had been previously locked by college employees in order to prevent theft of dorm materials, which made it difficult for some students to escape the fire.