HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The University of Lynchburg, formerly Lynchburg College, is a private university associated with the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...
and located in Lynchburg, Virginia. It has approximately 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students. The university's campus spans 264 acres.


History

The University of Lynchburg was founded in 1903 by Dr. Josephus Hopwood as Virginia Christian College, a selective, independent, coeducational, and residential institution, which is affiliated with the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...
. Hopwood was president of
Milligan College Milligan University is a private Christian university in Milligan College, Tennessee. Founded in 1866 as the Buffalo Male and Female Institute, and known as Milligan College from 1881 to May 2020, the school has a student population of more than ...
in Tennessee when a group of ministers and businessmen approached him about establishing a college in Lynchburg. He agreed to serve as president, after which the group purchased the failed Westover Hotel resort for $13,500, securing Lynchburg's current campus. Hopwood worked with his wife Sarah Eleanor LaRue Hopwood to establish the college based on their shared vision. The University of Lynchburg was the first institution in the United States to train nuclear physicists and engineers for the NS ''Savannah'' project under the order of President Eisenhower, to aid in the development and operation of the world's first nuclear-powered ship. The institution officially changed its name to Lynchburg College in 1919, citing a constituency that had expanded beyond Virginia. Beginning with 11 faculty and 55 students, the institution has grown to 159 full-time faculty and 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students. For undergraduate students, the university offers 39 majors, 49 minors, two dual-degree programs, and the Westover Honors Program. It also confers the Masters of Arts, Masters of Business Administration, Masters of Education, and Masters of Science in Nursing as well as doctoral degrees in physical therapy, physician assistants, and educational leadership. The University of Lynchburg hymn was written by alumnus Paul E. Waters. Its melody is derived from J. S. Bach's "
O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
" Op. 135a, No. 21. The college fight song includes the phrase, "Hornet Born and Hornet Bred and when I die I'll be Hornet dead." In fall 1994, a few months after Intel introduced its Pentium microprocessor, Thomas R. Nicely, from the University of Lynchburg, was performing computations related to the distribution of prime numbers and discovered the
Pentium FDIV bug The Pentium FDIV bug is a hardware bug affecting the floating-point unit (FPU) of the early Intel Pentium processors. Because of the bug, the processor would return incorrect binary floating point results when dividing certain pairs of high- ...
. Nicely left Lynchburg College in 2000. In July 2018, the university changed its name from Lynchburg College to the University of Lynchburg.


Presidents


Campus

The University of Lynchburg is located in Lynchburg, Virginia, about 180 miles southwest of Washington D.C., in the Central Virginia foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It occupies in Lynchburg and has a separate environmental research center on , the Claytor Nature Study Center, located about 40 minutes from campus. Most students live on campus and in nearby university-owned houses.


Student life

The University of Lynchburg has over 40 clubs and organizations for students to participate in. Examples of organization types are Greek life, student government, spiritual life, volunteer organizations, leadership programs, and publications.


Greek life

Fraternity life began on the University of Lynchburg campus in 1962, with the arrival of Sigma Mu Sigma, whose Sigma Chapter was active until disbanded in the mid-1980s. Fraternities and sororities appeared on campus again in 1992. All official Greek houses are located on Vernon Street and are currently owned by the university. UofL is 17% Greek. Listed below are the chapters of the social fraternities and sororities that comprise Greek life at UofL. Fraternities Sororities
National Pan-Hellenic Council The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent ...
Fraternities and Sororities


Athletics

The University of Lynchburg Hornets participate in NCAA Division III and the
Old Dominion Athletic Conference The Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference. Of its 15 member schools, all but one are located in Virginia; the other full member is in North Carolina. The conference also has an associate member in N ...
(ODAC). The Hornets program offers 24 intercollegiate athletics programs, 23 which compete in Division III, along with equestrian, which competes in both the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association and
National Collegiate Equestrian Association The National Collegiate Equestrian Association ('NCEA''), formerly known as Varsity Equestrian, was created as the governing body for NCAA Equestrian teams. The NCEA is headquartered in Waco, Texas. Currently the NCEA has 24 official member colle ...
formats. Since joining the ODAC as a charter member in 1976, the Hornets have recorded 205 conference titles. In recent years, Lynchburg athletics has competed for three team national championships. The women's soccer program won Lynchburg's first-ever team national championship in 2014, defeating Williams College in penalty kicks to take the crown. In 2010, the Hornets men's soccer program reached the Division III national championship match, where they fell in overtime to Messiah College. In 2015, the men's lacrosse team made its own run to the national title game, losing to Tufts University in the championship game, 19–11. Multiple men's cross country, indoor, and outdoor track & field athletes have captured NCAA Division III titles over the years as well. In 2009, Ricky Flynn won the Division III men's cross country championship.


Notable alumni

Kathrine Switzer Kathrine Virginia Switzer (born January 5, 1947) is an American marathon runner, author, and television commentator. In 1967, she became the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as an officially registered competitor. During her run, race man ...
was the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon. She attended for two years.


References


External links

*
Official athletics website
{{authority control Universities and colleges affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Educational institutions established in 1903 Education in Lynchburg, Virginia Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Tourist attractions in Lynchburg, Virginia 1903 establishments in Virginia Buildings and structures in Lynchburg, Virginia Non-profit organizations based in Lynchburg, Virginia Private universities and colleges in Virginia