Southern Adventist University is a liberal arts university located in Collegedale, Tennessee. It is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The university operates a radio station, WSMC-FM, which plays mainly classical music as well as news from the BBC, National Public Radio, and Public Radio International. The station also provides live broadcasts of services from the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Church.

History

Southern's roots stem from the establishment of Graysville Academy in Graysville, Tennessee, in 1892. The school moved to the community of Thatcher's Switch in 1916, renaming it Collegedale.

In 1942, Kenneth A. Wright became president of the school. During Wright's administration, Southern Junior College became accredited as a four-year institution. A new name, Southern Missionary College, was adopted in 1944. Two men and four women received Southern's first baccalaureate degrees two years later.

It earned the nickname "Southern Matrimony College" because many young people married while attending Southern.

Renamed Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists in 1982, the school became a university in 1996. On September 9, 1996, trustees voted on a new name: Southern Adventist University.

In mid-1997 Gordon Bietz became president of Southern Adventist University. Academic expansion has continued, with 10 graduate degrees now offered in business, education, psychology, nursing, computing, and religion. Fifty baccalaureate degrees are offered, 20 associate degrees, 38 minors, and two one-year certificate programs.

In the fall of 2005, undergraduate enrollment reached a record high in the school's 113-year history with 2,390 students pursuing their undergraduate degrees and 132 students studying for their graduate degrees. Southern is the largest undergraduate institution in the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.

April 2005 fire

On the morning of April 26, 2005, a fire broke out in the Thatcher Hall Dormitory. One student died and two others were injured. Though the fire has been ruled an accident, the cause has yet to be determined. The area of the building in which the fire occurred was not equipped with fire sprinklers, though smoke detectors and fire alarms were in place and functioned properly. Sprinkler systems are primarily, however, designed for building protection and not life safety (It should be noted that when fire sprinklers became mandatory the buildings predating this mandate were not required to be retrofitted with them provided that smoke detectors and fire alarms were in place and functional.) Sprinklers, as well as other fire safety measures that go well beyond what is required, have been installed in Thatcher Hall.

Names

Southern has had many names since its founding.

• 1892: Graysville Academy
• 1897: Southern Industrial School
• 1901: Southern Training School
• 1916: Southern Junior College
• :(Alumni from this period are known as So-Ju-Conians.)
• 1944: Southern Missionary College (SMC)
• :(Alumni from this period are known as SMC-ites).
• 1982: Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists
• 1996: Southern Adventist University

McKee Library

The McKee Library is located on the campus of Southern Adventist University.

[The library] provides you with more than 150,000 volumes on our shelves, over 25,000 electronic books, subscriptions to over 1,100 print periodicals and access to over 19,000 electronic journals.

• Thomas Memorial Collection

The library is defined by its major Civil War collection on the third floor.

"What's In the Collection:

More than 3,000 volumes concerning Lincoln and the Civil War,

Many authentic photos and newspapers of Lincoln and the Civil War,

Two original copies of the only biography ever read and approved by Lincoln,

A ten dollar check signed by Lincoln (located in the vault),

Oak from the floor of Lincoln's Springfield law office,

A section of Lincoln's original marble sarcophagus,

A gavel made from a tree planted by Lincoln,

& Several oil portraits of Lincoln."

Criticism

The late Adventist scholar Raymond Cottrell criticized,

"Southern [Adventist University] operates as an agency of Southern Bible belt obscurantism. Furthermore it was (and still is) to an appreciable extent, dependent on the largesse of committed ultra-fundamentalists, who insist that the college operate on ultra-fundamentalist principles.

Notable alumni

• Ronald L. Numbers

References

See also

• List of Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities
• McKee Library

External links

• Official website
• SAUwiki is a wiki for Southern run by students
• WSMC-FM is the radio station owned and operated by Southern Adventist University
• Secret Of The Cave, A student movie made by the Southern Adventist University