Vanderbilt's Reputation

[rubio]

Vanderbilt was more than a rich person. He is the original robber barron, from the first Guilded Age, as opposed to our current Guilded Age.

I think he was also totally uneducated.

He has an unbelievable mansion, I think, in Va., that is now owned by the state as the family can't afford it.

The most famous mansion at Newport Beach is also a Vanderbilt mansion, also owned by the city or state, as the family abandoned it.

I would imagine the school is well endowed with excellent facilities. And, if Gee is still the President, he is an excellent fund raiser.

[Chipmoney]

Gee is not the chancellor any more. he returned to Ohio State.

And there are multiple Vanderbilt Mansions scattered across the nation. Adjusted for inflation Vanderbilt was one of the top 5 richest people in American History.

I lived in Nashville and had 2 parents go to and work at Vanderbilt so my view of it is probably a bit higher then the average person's.

[2VU0609]

Interesting article in the latest issue of Vanderbilt Magazine, a publication for alumni and parents, notes the most significant family contributing to the college is not the Vanderbilts, but the Rockefellers. They have provided millions for development of one of the South's premier medical facilities and nursing training, as well as funding for other projects.
Seriously, if you want to evaluate the school's reputation, this magazine is an excellent way to note the impact of the school nationwide. One of the articles features Elyn Saks, current associate dean of the University of Southern California and author of The Center Cannot Hold, a book documenting her experience with schizophrenia. At the time of her graduation she was the recipient of The Founders Medal, Vanderbilt's highest honor, as well as a Marshall Scholar.
The other feature articles are on the impact of Vanderbilt professors and graduates on the problem of high school drop-outs (including a story featured on the national news about a professor who has provided wireless internet access and tutoring for students who have long bus rides), development of nanotechnology programs, and an article on Holocaust survivors who attended Vanderbilt which notes that Vanderbilt was the first university to feature an annual event of remembrance featuring survivor stories.
Each time this publication arrives I find that I read more articles than I skip, but this particular issue was especially compelling.
Vanderbilt Magazine

[midmo]

rubio, I think you mean gilded. As in gold. Cornelius Vanderbilt probably was poorly educated, as he was entirely what is now called "a self-made man"; he started a ferry business as a teenager and went from there to make a fortune in both the shipping industry and in railroads. At some point not long after the Civil War, he was visited by a man who wanted to start a church-based college in Nashville. As the story goes, Vanderbilt had been looking for an opportunity to use a college to bridge the North-South divide, so he made an initial donation to get the college started, then followed up with another once he was convinced it was a serious effort. After the second donation, the college founders changed the name to Vanderbilt. A couple of decades later (maybe more) the religious affiliation was dropped. Vanderbilt never saw the place.

Do you think his idea of bridging the North/South divide with a university was successful? I'm afraid he might think not, if he witnessed the regular anti-Vanderbilt chatter on cc, which seems to be based largely on its geographic location.

I remember the stories about Vanderbilt's effort to diversify its campus, including getting Jewish students to consider the school. I don't remember any of the stories being negative. Most people thought it was a good idea to become more heterogeneous.

As for robber barons and crooked politicos who got major universities named after themselves, check out Leland Stanford's bio.

[midmo]

2VU, this issue of Vanderbilt magazine is a must-read for anyone who is really interested in the issue of meaningful school reform. There are several very interesting stories along those lines.

Sorry for the interruption, folks.

[rubio]

Sorry Midmo, I don't always edit my online posts, and I am struggling with a computer that needs some repairs. Add that to multi-tasking.

I have no feelings either way about Vanderbilt, and agree all philathropists should contribute to education. My lack of knowledge re to Vandy is due to where I have lived geographically all my life. Aside from Gee's comment, I have never heard a bad thing about Vanderbilt. Of course, any man with the kind of money Vanderbilt made, does not do so without abusing others. And no, attempting to make philanthropic amends doesn't always cut it.

My son will have his second degree (undergrad and grad) from Stanford in a couple months, obtained mostly by merit scholarships and very hard work, so I am aware of the history there, also.

Thanks for the Vandy history lesson, which I enjoyed!

[2VU0609]

midmo,
Couldn't agree more. As a Vanderbilt parent I get to see the growth in my children and their friends, their successes, and, through publications like Vanderbilt Magazine, the best results that higher education can produce. Professionally, as a cc professor, I deal with many students who are not academically prepared for basic college work and who will struggle to advance in our competitive, globally focused marketplace. It is hard for me to accept that there are so many who would make a substantial part of our student population look gifted due to their failure to complete high school, but I know it is true. As a fan of Tom Friedman's bestseller, The World is Flat, I'm keenly aware that we must change the face of K-12 if we expect to maintain the global leadership we now possess. It makes me proud to see so many with ties to VU associated with these change initiatives, both big and small.

[patient]

4 years ago there was a very high-achieveing student on this site who was admitted to Yale and had a full scholarship at Vandy. After a lot of debate with himself and on this site, he went to Vandy and has posted on another site about his experiences. He has been quite satisfied with his academic experience. His name here was evilrobot I think. I don't remember too many of the details.

[icy9ff8]

Vanderbilt University is an outstanding school with an excellent reputation. When Vanderbilt Univ. is mentioned, I think of Emory University, the Univ. of Virginia & Tufts University as equal in stature. Vanderbilt's reputation is stronger in the South than in other parts of the country.

[midmo]

patient, he was a computer science student, as I remember. I think he must be a senior by now. I'd be curious to know what his "final thoughts" are about his choice; the update I saw, which he made after a year or two at Vanderbilt, was extremely glowing. He offered very positives reviews about both the academic and social experience, and acknowledged the peace of mind that accompanies a full tuition/some fees/stuff scholarship.

[rubio]

"I remember the stories about Vanderbilt's effort to diversify its campus, including getting Jewish students to consider the school. I don't remember any of the stories being negative. Most people thought it was a good idea to become more heterogeneous."

"While I have no idea what rubio is getting at above (???), Vanderbilt's Hillel is a thriving organization on campus, located in a lovely facility (complete with a vegetarian kosher restaurant). Here's a link: Shalom Vanderbilt!"

To those making the above comments, I am not aware of your religion, but you apparently do not understand the seriousness of such a comment being made by a University president, or a leader of any organization. Think about it. Let's recruit
JEWS, so we can outperform Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, SUN this quarter. In how many boardrooms will you find this being blatantly said?
Thought possibly. Said?

Would you stand for that?

In addition, the Ivy League has a long history of bigotry with Judaism, the longest being with Princeton, but also Harvard and Yale. Segregation and out and out rejection of brilliant men occurred for many years because of their religion.

And now Vanderbilt wanted to use Jews as a magnet?

I don't live in a predominanty Jewish area, but after this was in the paper, a friend of my child's, whose mother is a College Counselor told my son to go to Vanderbilt because they were recruiting Jews.

If Vanderbilt is having problems, it is probably because of its PR.

[Faline2]

rubio here is the link to a very interesting if out of date story...that I referenced when discussing this issue with my friends..my husband is a Vandy graduate school person and we lived there many years. The undergrad school until a few years ago...suffered from a time warp where they drew repeatedly from the same corridors in Alabama, Georgia, Texas etc..and from the same ethnic groups while the rest of the excellent peer colleges diversified.
The Law School has been top ranked and diverse for decades, the Div School is very diverse, and the medical complex is also very diverse and serves as the bulwark to an entire region in central USA.
The undergrad college voted something like 80% for Reagan when I was a student and was a place where debate was stifled and they just kept losing ground with students who might have matriculated but feared the old ways of the undergrad school.

Atlanta Jewish Times -- Cover Story (although there was a WSJ article that preceeded this one)

I think your point is not accurate at all about Vanderbilt...although your questions are valid and of course the history of the Ivies on this matter are well documented in recent NYT's best sellers.
Gee was quite the anomaly..in Nashville..take my word for it..and he had just been let go out of his contract by Brown. He not only sported a bow tie..he was a Mormon (!)and Nashville holds the publication offices of the mainstream Protestant Methodists and Baptists as well as a solid Catholic base, and is most definitely a stronghold for the Bible Belt in many respects. Nevertheless, Vanderbilt was tired of the status quo and tired of losing Jewish students in the region to Emory and Duke. Vanderbilt like all colleges in the USA also competed most heartedly and intentionally for African American students...in a city that already holds Meharry Medical College, Fisk Univeristy and Tennessee State University.
As a graduate of an undergraduate school that was mind-numbingly mainstream Protestant...I can tell you that many alum in my alma mater would be thrilled if the President and Trustees got serious about making my undergrad school a place where Jewish students and students of other faiths felt stimulated intellectually and socially happy. Change is what leadership is about.
I believe someone named Shulman (sp)built a Jewish studies center on campus (Duke, where my son is living with his second Jewish roommate... has a fantastic Jewish Center with Shabbat dinner open to all students of any faith as guests weekly). To that effort at Vanderbilt and to its results I say Mazel Tov. Right action brings right results and this year's class was way more selective than just a handful of years ago..and this class is diverse in many levels.

I am also a big fan of Vandy's new plan for freshmen to live together and for the campus to have several "little college" communities..which will also address the issue of the stronger impact the frats had on Vandy as a core part of the social life. Girls at Vandy have historically liked sororities but the new campus lifestyle plan offers a change of pace so who knows what that will create.

In 2005, when my son went on an overnight at Vandy he met people from Chicago, Alabama and Atlanta and New York......and the undergraduate student body was shifting towards a long needed National draw. Nashville has a bang up economy and a great vibrancy as a city, and mini...I am afraid you might not be aware of the ways that Vanderbilt impacts a huge region in the USA and the wonderful way Vanderbilt works well with Nashville.

[frazzled1]

To those making the above comments, I am not aware of your religion, but you apparently do not understand the seriousness of such a comment being made by a University president, or a leader of any organization.

well, rubio, I didn't intend to offend you by missing your point. At the time, you had exactly two posts to your credit, one of which was an off-putting couplet misattributed to Ogden Nash. (In fairness, no one seems to want to claim it, though it's been credited to Hillaire Beloc, Lord Alfred Douglas, William Norman Ewer, and others. If you ask me, Nash seems much more likely to have written the rejoinder: "Not odd of God. Goyim annoy 'im." But even that was apparently Leo Rosten.)

I don't see how I could have known what you were getting at from your first post. By the way, I understand plenty.

[rubio]

What a fabulous idea Faline! In fact, I just texted Sergei Brin that it might be a good idea to bring in some Jews to get my stock back up to 750!

My next door neighbor, not in Utah is a Mormon. I would never think of mentioning it to anyone. Gee's wife had a terrible bout with cancer and died, which may account for his oddities.

Imagine, wearing a bowtie!

Thanks for the Southern Hospitality and spelling lesson. Apparently, I am due for a redo at Cotillion! Oh, no wait, that is horribly exclusive and I don't do those types of things.

Enjoy the South, and remember, VOTE OBAMA!

Ogden Nash was and is the only author of How Odd of God, until the Internet came into being.

[rodney]

As a parent of a prospective 2012 Vandy student (yes, Jewish) I find this discussion fascinating....I, as well, had no idea where Rubio was going and couldn't imagine why his/her 1st two posts on CC were about this topic...(still kind of suspicious)

I completely understand where rubio was coming from, but as an open-minded person, I also can see that Vanderbilt was not stupid; they were looking at peer schools and examined where Vandy was lacking.....for whatever reason.....I don't think this applied just to the Jewish pop however, but, from what I can glean, other minority populations as well.......