Rollins College

Rollins College is a private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution, it has an approximate enrollment of 3,000 students, composed of roughly 2,500 undergraduates and 500 postgraduates.

History

Rollins College is Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institution,<ref name=PetersonsBook>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=FLHoRRollinsDay>Template:Cite web</ref> and has been independent, nonsectarian, and coeducational from conception.<ref name=RollinsCollegeProfile>Template:Cite web</ref> Lucy Cross, founder of the Daytona Institute for Young Women in 1880, first placed the matter of establishing a college in Florida before the Congregational Churches in 1884.<ref name="rollins.edu">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1885, the church put her on the committee in charge of determining the location of their first college in Florida.<ref name="rollins.edu"/> Cross is known as the "Mother of Rollins College."<ref name="rollins.edu"/> Rollins was incorporated, organized, and named in the Lyman Park building in nearby Sanford, Florida, on April 28, 1885, opening for classes in Winter Park on November 4 of that year.<ref name="centralfloridatop5.wordpress.com"/> It was established by New England Congregationalists who sought to bring their style of liberal arts education to the frontier St. John's basin. A commemorative plaque listing the names of the founders was dedicated 1 March 1954 and is displayed in historic Downtown Sanford.

Early benefactors of Rollins College included Chicago businessman Alonzo Rollins (1832-1887), for whom the college is named. Rollins made substantial donations to enable the founding of the college, and was a trustee and its first treasurer.<ref>Gayle Prince Rajtar, Steve Rajtar, Winter Park Chronicles, 2011, page 35</ref>

Another early benefactor was Franklin Fairbanks of St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Fairbanks was president of the family business, Fairbanks Scales, and was a founder of Winter Park, a donor to Rollins College and a trustee.<ref>Winter Park Public Library, Winter Park History Digital Collections: Colonel Franklin Fairbanks, retrieved January 14, 2014</ref>

In March of 1936 during a visit to Central Florida, U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt was conferred an honorary degree in literature at the Knowles Chapel on campus. Other U.S. presidents who have visited the campus include Calvin Coolidge (1930), Harry Truman (1949), Ronald Reagan (1976; prior to his 1980 election), and Barack Obama (2012).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Firing of John Andrew Rice and required loyalty pledge

President Hamilton Holt decided to require all professors to make a "loyalty pledge" to keep their jobs. In March 1933, Holt fired John Andrew Rice, an atheist scholar and unorthodox teacher, whom Holt had hired, along with three other "golden personalities" (as Holt called them), in his push to put Rollins on the cutting edge of innovative education, for refusing to sign the loyalty pledge. The American Association of University Professors censured Rollins. The widely publicized case was investigated by the American Association of University Professors, and it is known as the "Rollins College Case" among historians of tenure. The four fired faculty quickly founded experimental Black Mountain College, with a gift from a former Rollins College faculty member.<ref>Mary Seymour, "The Ghosts of Rollins (and Other Skeletons in the Closet)", Rollins Magazine, fall 2011, http://www.rollins.edu/magazine/fall-2011/ghosts-of-rollins-2.html Template:Webarchive; https://www.jstor.org/stable/40218822</ref>

Okinawa statue

In October 1994, the school made international headlines when the government of Japan, per the request of its Okinawa Prefecture, asked for the return of a statue that was taken as war loot after the Battle of Okinawa in 1945 by Clinton C. Nichols, at that time, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and a Rollins alumnus. Nichols had presented the statue of Ninomiya Sontoku, a prominent 19th-century Japanese agricultural leader, philosopher, moralist, and economist, to then-President Hamilton Holt, who promised to keep the statue permanently in the main lobby of the Warren Administration Building.<ref name=SeekingOkinawaNYT>Template:Cite news</ref> At first, the school rejected the offer made by Okinawan officials, who suggested that a replica of the statue will be presented to the school if the original was returned to the island. After consulting both with the U.S. State Department and the school's board of trustees, then-President Rita Bornstein accepted the offer and the statue was returned to Okinawa in 1995 in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.<ref name=ReturningOkinawaNYT>Template:Cite news</ref> In addition to providing the school with a replica of the original statue, the government of Okinawa and Rollins signed "an agreement of cooperation" that pledges to develop additional cooperative projects between the college and Shogaku Junior and Senior High School, the Okinawan school where the original statue has been placed.<ref name=OkinawaTwistNYT>Template:Cite news</ref>

Kairis case

On March 31, 1998, the body of Jennifer Leah Kairis, a sophomore student, was found in her Ward Hall dormitory room by a residential assistant. Kairis, who had attended a fraternity party held by the Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter on campus hours before she had died, was both legally intoxicated and had a large amount of prescription drugs in her system.<ref>Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking from Google Books. Retrieved on 2011-02-11</ref> At first, the assistant medical examiner at the Orange County coroner's office ruled Kairis' death as a homicide. However, that conclusion was quickly changed after Shashi Gore, the county's chief medical examiner ruled that she had died as a result of an accidental prescription drug overdose. Kairis' parents, who always believed their daughter was raped and murdered by her college boyfriend,<ref name="KairisOrlanSent">Template:Cite news</ref> requested a lengthy state investigation into their daughter's death due to their belief that the Winter Park Police Department botched the case. On March 4, 2004, Bruce Hyma, the Miami-Dade County chief medical examiner and expert toxicologist hired by State Attorney Lawson Lamar ruled that Kairis had committed suicide via a prescription drug overdose.<ref name="KairisWPBF">Template:Cite web</ref> The seven-year investigation was officially closed on April 13, 2005.<ref name="KairisCaseClosedWPBF">Template:Cite web</ref> Regardless of the investigation's outcome, the Kairis family asked then Governor Jeb Bush to bring in an outside medical examiner to take another look at the case and autopsy results and order an independent investigation of their daughter's death to resolve what they called the "Dueling Medical Examiners".

Security measures

In September 2011, as a result of robbery suspects' use of the campus to hide from law enforcement officers as well as the armed robbery of two students who were sitting in a car outside their dormitory within one week, the college's administration initiated discussions on new security measures. Some measures included blocking or limiting access to four of the school's entrances and installing new security cameras to assure student and faculty safety on campus.<ref>Rollins Plans New Security Measures Crimes Shake Campus from WESH 27 September 2011</ref><ref>Suspect in violent robbery at Rollins College on the run Template:Webarchive from Central Florida News 13 26 September 2011</ref><ref>Arrests At Rollins Unrelated To Love Triangle Shooting Template:Webarchive from WKMG 19 September 2011</ref> On January 7, 2014, a full-scale drill with armed police officers was held to make sure the college was ready in the event a hostile incident was to take place on campus.<ref>Emergency drill held at Rollins College in Winter Park Template:Webarchive from www.myfoxorlando.com 8 January 2014</ref> In October 2014, school officials alerted the student body of four incidents at one of its public parking garages near the campus where female students were threatened by a male aggressor.<ref>Rollins College alerts students of four suspicious incidents at parking garage Template:Webarchive from WFTV 3 October 2014</ref>

Campus

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Rollins College theatre

The Template:Convert campus<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> contains a range of amenities, including a theater for performing arts; the Cornell Campus Center; and the Alfond Sports Center.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The college is located in a picturesque setting in Winter Park, FL right across from Park Avenue.

Architecture

File:Rollins college viewfromlake.jpg

View of buildings from Lake Virginia

The Rollins campus is well known for its highly decorative Spanish and Mediterranean Revival style architecture.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to College Historian and Professor Emeritus Jack C. Lane, the Spanish-Mediterranean style blended best with the natural environment of Florida, and that Rollins 8th president Hamilton Holt felt "the college's unified curriculum should be reflected in the architectural style." Lane goes on to state that Rollins' campus architecture has stayed consistent since its opening, and that "the college has been extremely fortunate to have leaders who recognized the significance of architectural style for the educational process. By making certain that new buildings retained a harmony of design, these leaders left present and future generations a deeply profound legacy: architectural beauty and unity create a spiritual sense of place that inspires the entire educational and social life of a college."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pugsley Hall and Mayflower Hall

In 1930, President Holt announced the gifts of Cornelius Pugsley and an anonymous donor for the construction of two women's dormitories, with their interiors designed by Virginia Huntington Robie.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> Pugsley and Mayflower Halls were dedicated in 1931. Mayflower Hall received its name from the Pilgrim ship. The Society of Friends at Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, gave Rollins a 16-inch section of beam from the ship, which, it had been discovered, had been salvaged to build a haybarn in England. The block of wood was placed above the fireplace in Mayflower Hall.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity moved into Pugsley Hall in 1997 and have occupied it all but one academic year since. In the 1990s, there were rows of shrubbery on either side of the sidewalk leading up to Pugsley Hall, which sits at the end of Park Avenue.

Chase Hall

Chase Hall was built in 1908 and named for Loring Augustus Chase. It was built using white sand-lime brick with stone trim and a Ludowici tile roof. At its construction it contained eight double and six single rooms, along with a large common room.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The hall was used as a men's dormitory through 1966, then until 1999 it was used by the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, followed by the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Lucy Cross Center for Women and Their Allies was established in 2010 at Rollins College in Chase Hall, Room 205.<ref name="ReferenceA">Template:Cite web</ref> The center is named after Lucy Cross, the "Mother of Rollins College".<ref name="http://www.rollins.edu/lucycross">Template:Cite web</ref>

Cross Hall

Cross Hall is named after Lucy Cross, the "Mother of Rollins College" (see above).<ref name="http://www.rollins.edu/lucycross"/>

Hooker Hall

Hooker Hall was named after, the first president of Rollins College, Edward Payson Hooker (1838-1904). The building was originally used as housing for the Theta Kappa Nu fraternity then, in 1939, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity moved in.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Hooker was a Chi Psi at Middlebury College (Mu '54) and played an integral part in bringing the Chi Psi chapter, Alpha Mu Delta, to Rollins in 1977. Today, Hooker Hall is home to the Chi Psi fraternity, and is known to many faculty and students as The Chi Psi Lodge.

Pinehurst Cottage

The Rollins College website states that Pinehurst Cottage and Knowles I, the two structures established when the college founded, suffered a fire in 1909 which destroyed Knowles Hall and scorched Pinehurst's exterior. Pinehurst, originally a women's residence hall, over the years transformed into a men's dormitory, co-ed dormitory, the home of President Ward, a Library, chemistry lab, infirmary and then classroom. In November 1985, Pinehurst received Winter Park's Historic Preservation Commission's Historic Landmark award. The college renovated to maintain the building's original appearance. Today, Pinehurst is a co-ed residence hall that houses a special interest group which promotes academic fulfillment outside the classroom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Alfond Boathouse

Built in 1988 to fulfill the Rollins College waterski and sailing teams' needs. The Alfond Boathouse sits on lake Virginia and has a total of 3 offices used by the waterski and sailing coaches, as well as a classroom, boat bay and observation deck.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The exterior was renovated in 2016.

Peace Monument

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Sunrise over Lake Virginia from Rollins College campus

Erected in 1938 and dedicated on Armistice Day by college president Hamilton Holt, it consists of a German artillery shell, surrendered by Germany at the end of the First World War, mounted on a pedestal, bearing this inscription:<ref name=PeaceMonLibPhoto>Template:Cite web</ref>

Pause, passerby and hang your head in shame

This Engine of Destruction, Torture and Death Symbolizes:

The Prostitution of the Inventor

The Avarice of the Manufacturer

The Blood-guilt of the statesman

The Savagery of the Soldier

The Perverted Patriotism of the Citizen

The Debasement of the Human Race

That it can be Employed as an Instrument of Defense of Liberty, Justice and Right in Nowise Invalidates the Truth of the Words Here Graven.

—Hamilton Holt

The top half of the monument was stolen by vandals during World War II, but the plaque from the bottom half survives and is in the stairwell leading to the second floor of the Mills Memorial building.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2000, the Rollins College's Peace Monument was featured in a New York Times article.<ref name=PeaceMonumentNYT>Template:Cite news</ref>

Winter Park Institute

The Winter Park Institute, located in the Osceola Lodge on Interlachen Avenue, brings scholars, leaders, and artists from diverse fields of disciplines and expertise to the Rollins campus for symposiums, seminars, lectures, interviews, exhibits, readings, and master classes that are always free and open to the public.<ref name="WPIAbout">Template:Cite web</ref> Following the legacy began by President Hamilton Holt and continued by President Hugh McKean,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Institute launched in the fall of 2008, the first guest being<ref name="WPILaunch">Template:Cite web</ref> U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, who has returned every year since. Other guests include Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ken Burns, Gloria Steinem, Jane Goodall, Paul Simon, Itzhak Perlman, Nicholas Kristof, Sheryl Wu Dunn, Jane Pauley, and most recently, Sir Paul McCartney.<ref name="WPIGuestSpeakers">Template:Cite web</ref>

File:Rollins College Carnegie Library.jpg

Rollins College Carnegie Library (Now Olin Library)

Olin Library

Rollins' Olin Library was dedicated in 1985, with a US$4.7 million grant from the F.W. Olin Foundation ($Template:Formatprice today). It is four stories high, with Template:Convert containing thousands of volumes, periodicals, serials, electronic resources, a number of special collections, and hundreds of compact discs, DVDs, and videotapes. From 1909 until 2011, the library was a federal government documents repository. Olin still provides access to hundreds of online government resources.<ref name="HistOlinLibrary">Template:Cite web</ref> Olin Library was one of three recipients of the 2013 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2021, Olin Library collaborated with Rollins' Department of Art & Art History and the Rollins Museum of Art to establish the Rollins Book Arts Collection, an interdisciplinary teaching collection, directly supporting the college's curriculum and its long tradition of liberal education. The purpose of the collection is to use art as a medium through which students can better understand multifaceted issues — global politics, economies, cultures; the tensions around social structures and marginalized populations; conflicts between human development and the environment; art as a concept, expression, and a communication tool; and other contemporary issues that students will encounter in their coursework and everyday lives. It can be accessed in the reading room of Olin Library's Archives and Special Collections.

Olin Electronic Research and Information Center

The Olin Electronic Research and Information Center was also established in 1998 with a second gift of US$2.7 million from the F.W. Olin Foundation ($Template:Formatprice today). The center features the latest technology, including computer stations, color printers, scanners, audio and video digitizers, compact discs, videodiscs, and videotapes. These tools facilitate creativity as students pursue research questions, prepare multimedia presentations, and create Web pages.<ref name="HistOlinLibrary"/>

Origins as a "Carnegie Library"

Olin Libraries' collection is one of the oldest and most extensive in Central Florida, dating back (1909-1951) to its Carnegie Library founding as one of the original 14 Florida libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie. The original collection, at the founding of Rollins College in 1885, consisted of one Christian Bible and one dictionary.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> According to Cohen (2006), Carnegie's "donation of 108 libraries to colleges in the first two decades of the twentieth century assisted 10% of the institutions of higher learning in the United States. Carnegie had a preference for colleges and universities that served African-American students, which Rollins College president William Fremont Blackman noted the school did in a letter to Carnegie appealing for a library in 1904:<ref>Cohen, D.K. (2000). Andrew Carnegie and Academic Library Philanthropy: The Case of Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida. Libraries & Culture, 35(3), 389-408. Template:JSTOR</ref>

Blackman's request consisted of $35,000 in total ($Template:Inflation today): "$20,000 for a fireproof building, $3,000 for books, and $12,000 as an endowment for the continued purchase of books" ($Template:Inflation, $Template:Inflation and $Template:Inflation today respectively). Blackman received a response from Carnegie's secretary James Bertram that noted the request was too general for consideration, and that Carnegie would need a profile of the university before consideration. Little progress was made for over a year, when Blackman again wrote to Carnegie, noting the university's need for a library. Trustees and friends of the university wrote to Carnegie on Blackman's behalf, including W.W. Cummer, a trustee from Jacksonville who served on the board of the city's new Carnegie Library. A letter dated 22 June 1905 and written from Carnegie's home in Scotland brought the welcome news of the offer of a library. Carnegie offered $20,000 ($Template:Inflation today) for the construction of a library provided that the same amount would be raised for the library's upkeep. While grateful for Carnegie's proposal, Blackman was uneasy with its terms because the amount of funding required to match Carnegie's offer would put a strain on those who had donated to start the college's endowment fund of $200,000 as well as paid a debt of $30,000 ($Template:Formatprice combined today). In correspondence to Bertram dated July 11, 1905, Blackman wrote (according to Cohen):

In a January 1906 letter Blackman wrote to Carnegie expressing concern about meeting the conditions for the gift, noting that the college had a large debt that took "considerable self-sacrifice on the part of our friends". That summer, another Florida college, Stetson University, was awarded $40,000 ($Template:Inflation today) for a library from Carnegie. Upon learning this Blackman again wrote to Carnegie, seeking to amend the original terms of the agreement to match the amount that Stetson was awarded. He was turned down, but a year later was able to notify Carnegie that the school's trustees had been able to match the $20,000 necessary for the gift to be awarded. Bertram wrote to Blackman to inform him that Carnegie had "authorized his Cashier...to arrange payments on Library Building, as work progresses, to the extent of Twenty Thousand Dollars." ($Template:Inflation today) The library, to be named Carnegie Hall, was dedicated on February 18, 1909.

The building had over 8,000 square feet of space, and was the school's first dedicated library building. It served as a library from 1909 until 1951. In addition to its function as a library, Carnegie Hall also served as the school's post office. Since the library was moved from Carnegie to the newly built Mills Memorial Library, it has also housed a bookstore, admissions office, faculty offices, and human resources office.<ref>Rollins Olin Library. (2012). History of the Rollins Library-Library Buildings. Retrieved from http://www.rollins.edu/library/about/history2.html Template:Webarchive</ref>

Archibald Granville Bush Science Center

The Bush Science Center<ref name=PetersonsBook/><ref name="BushSciCentChemJourn">Template:Cite journal</ref> at Rollins has state of the art SMART classrooms, faculty offices, and 38 teaching and research laboratories for the physical and behavioral sciences, mathematics, and computer science.<ref name="BushSciCentBuilder">Template:Cite web</ref> The science center is where Donald J. Cram launched his chemical studies, becoming the 1987 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry.<ref name=RollinsCramBio>Template:Cite web</ref> Construction of the redesign of the Archibald Granville Bush Science Center began in the spring of 2012<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and was completed prior to the beginning of the fall 2013 semester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The science center, which has 103,580 square feet and cost $30 million to upgrade ($Template:Formatprice today), is now the largest building at Rollins. It has three floors and includes 51 offices, 15 classrooms, 15 teaching labs, 19 research labs and 18 student/faculty lounges.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Rollins Museum of Art

The Cornell Fine Arts Museum is located on school grounds and contains works of art and objects from antiquity to the 21st century. The museum was built instead of what would have been the Ackland Art Museum at Rollins; millionaire and amateur art collector William Hayes Ackland (1855-1940) wanted to leave his fortune to a Southern university for an art museum and narrowed his choices to Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Rollins, in that order.<ref name="time 1947">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="time 1946">Template:Cite magazine</ref> After Ackland's death, Duke refused the request, and UNC and Rollins, excised from Ackland's final will, both brought suit to locate Ackland's museum on their campuses.<ref name="time 1947"/> In a case that went to the United States Supreme Court, Ackland's trustees sided with UNC, but a lower court ruled for Rollins; a higher court finally granted the bequest to UNC. Rollins was represented in the case by former U.S. attorney general Homer Cummings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Annie Russell Theatre

The Annie Russell Theatre is a historic theater in Winter Park, Florida, located on the premises of Rollins College. The theatre was named after the English-born actress Annie Russell in 1931, who taught at Rollins until she died of lung disease in 1936. It was designed by the architect Richard Kiehnel of Kiehnel and Elliott. In October 1998, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Knowles Memorial Chapel

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Knowles Memorial Chapel

The Knowles Memorial Chapel is a historic chapel on the Rollins campus. In February 1998, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Ground was broken for the chapel on March 9, 1931, and the cornerstone was laid on May 12 of the same year. The dedication service for the chapel took place just a year later on March 29, 1932. Though founded by a Congregational Church educational committee, Rollins has no religious affiliation, so the chapel is interdenominational. A Protestant service is held on Sunday mornings, and Catholic Mass is held on Sunday evenings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

A highlight of the chapel is a circular window of the seven liberal arts designed by Ralph Adams Cram and William Herbert Burnham.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Walk of Fame

The Rollins Walk of Fame, which circles Mills lawn, consists of stones taken from places connected to historic people. Past college president Hamilton Holt came up with the idea in the 1920s, and based the Walk of Fame on the "ancestral walk" at his home in Connecticut.<ref name=":1">Walk of Fame: A Rollins Legacy. Compiled by Wenxian Zhang with David Smith and Patricia Strout. Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida (2003), p. 4</ref> The idea, Holt wrote, was "unique in conception and execution".<ref name=":2">Hamilton Holt, "The Walk of Fame." Winter Park, FL 1939. In Walk of Fame: A Rollins Legacy.</ref>

Holt officially dedicated the Walk of Fame in October 1929, originally calling it the Memorial Path of Fame. Holt presented 22 stones, including stones from the homes of American luminaries George Washington, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Daniel Webster, Calvin Coolidge, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.<ref name=":1" /> Early additions to the Walk of Fame were predominantly American, but later additions would include stones from places associated with internationally famous figures as diverse as St. Augustine, Emperor Humayun, and William Wordsworth. By 1932 the Walk of Fame had over 200 stones,<ref>"Path of Fame Has Over 200 Stones." The Sandspur April 26, 1932.</ref> many of which Holt himself had brought back to campus: the Charles Dickens stone he had picked up while visiting Gad's Hill, and he claimed that the Mohammed stone was brought back from Mecca by a student's sister, "at the risk of fine and imprisonment".<ref name=":2" />

After Holt retired as president of the college in 1949, there no longer existed a central authority for the Walk of Fame, and over the next two decades stones began to disappear, often around graduation time; many were thrown into Lake Virginia.<ref name=":1" /> Only in the 1980s, under the presidency of Thaddeus Seymour (president from 1978 to 1990), was there an Official Lapidarian responsible for taking care of the stones.<ref name=":1" /> As of 2003, the Walk of Fame had about 530 stones, the vast majority (455) honoring men.<ref name=":1" /> Most stones are associated with specific people, but a few—like the stones from Australia and the Berlin Wall—honor places or events.

Academics

Rollins has three divisions that offer a variety of programs: College of Arts and Sciences; Crummer Graduate School of Business; and Hamilton Holt School.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

US News states that undergraduates at Rollins can choose from about 30 majors, ranging from Latin American and Caribbean studies to computer science and biochemistry to theatre arts and dance. In addition to its undergraduate programs, Rollins offers an M.B.A. program through the Crummer Graduate School of Business. Other graduate degrees granted include Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Arts in teaching, Master of Education in elementary education, Master of Human Resources, and Master of Liberal Studies.<ref name="colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com">Template:Cite web</ref> Its most popular undergraduate majors, by number out of 593 graduates in 2022, were:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• Business Administration and Management (120)
• Communication (63)
• International Business/Trade/Commerce (56)
• Psychology (50)
• Music (30)

Admissions

Rollins' admissions process is "more selective" according to U.S. News & World Report.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

For the class entering Fall 2018, 3,635 freshmen were accepted out of 5,455 applicants, a 66.6% acceptance rate, and 549 enrolled. Fall 2018 enrolling students had an average GPA of 3.31; the middle 50% range of SAT scores was 590–680 for reading and writing, and 560–680 for math, while the ACT Composite range was 24–30.<ref name=CommonDataSet>Template:Cite web</ref> Women constituted 58.3% of the incoming freshmen class, men 41.7%.<ref name=CommonDataSet/>

Rankings

Rollins College was again named No. 1 in the U.S. News & World ReportTemplate:'s 2021 "Best Regional Universities South Rankings".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The institution was also named "No. 13 overall for Best Value Universities in the South".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rollins earned the first overall spot on U.S. News & World ReportTemplate:'s 2021 "Best Regional Universities South Rankings". The college was also named No. 1 for "Best Undergraduate Teaching" and 14th for "Best Value Schools" in the Regional Universities South category.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

According to U.S. News & World ReportTemplate:'s 2020 "Best Regional Universities South Rankings", Rollins was ranked first overall in the southern United States out of 136 regional universities whose highest degree is a Master's, first for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied for fourth for "Most Innovative Schools", seventh for "Best Value", and tied for 87th in "Top Performers on Social Mobility".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The college has also been named one of the top national producers of Fulbright Scholars among Masters granting institutions throughout the U.S.<ref name=Fulbright>Template:Cite web</ref> Since inception of the scholarship in 1951, 48 Rollins students have been awarded the honor, Template:As of.<ref name=Fulbright/>

College of Arts and Sciences

File:Old Knowles Hall, Rollins College, Winter Park, FL.jpg

Old Knowles Hall, 1886–1909, the college's first classroom building.Template:Citation needed

In 2010, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Professional Studies have a total of 1,884 students and a student to faculty ratio of 10 to 1.<ref name=AtaGlance>Template:Cite web</ref>

Crummer Graduate School of Business

The Rollins College Crummer Graduate School of Business<ref name=AtaGlance/> offers a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) through three different programs:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• The Early Advantage MBA Program is a full-time day program designed for recent college graduates with little to no work experience. Students can complete the program within 16 to 21 months.
• The Professional MBA Program is a 24-27-month program designed for students with a wide range of educational and professional experience.
• The Executive MBA Program is designed for mid-to senior-level professionals who prefer a blend of online and Saturday classes. It can be completed in 15 months.

The Rollins MBA programs are listed in several national rankings of business schools, including:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

• Forbes: 44th in the Nation (2017)<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
• Leadership Excellence: #1 in Florida (2018)

As of 2018, the Rollins Full-Time and Part-Time MBA programs are listed as Rank Not Published, or "RNP".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The bottom quarter of rank-eligible full-time MBA programs are listed as Rank Not Published.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> Rank Not Published means that U.S. News calculated a numerical rank for that program but decided for editorial reasons not to publish it.<ref name="auto"/>

The Rollins MBA is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Hamilton Holt School

Adult education courses at Rollins were initially only offered to returning World War II veterans. On September 7, 1960, the executive committee of the Board of Trustees of Rollins College gave formal authorization for the Institute for General Studies to award degrees upon completion of program requirements. On November 6, 1987, the school's name was changed to The Hamilton Holt School, in honor of Rollins' eighth president.<ref name=HH50Yrs>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Hamilton Holt School<ref name=AtaGlance/> offers Bachelor of Arts degrees in a variety of majors as well as several graduate degrees. Its focus is on the non-traditional student, identified as a working individual seeking professional advancement and therefore schedules most courses in the evenings and on weekends.

Special programs

Rollins College Conference (RCC)

The Rollins College Conference,<ref name=RCC>Template:Cite web</ref> taken in the first semester of a student's freshman year, is required of all non-transfer students in the College of Arts and Sciences. The course serves as both an orientation course and a topic course in a student's area of interest. The professor for this course will serve as the enrolled students' academic advisor until they select a major and choose a new advisor from the corresponding department. One or two peer mentors (upperclassmen with special training) join the course and offer counseling and support to the new students.Template:Citation needed

Honors Degree Program

The Honors Degree Program<ref name=HonorsDegProgram>Template:Cite web</ref> allows the top students in each entering class of the College of Arts and Sciences to complete a series of special interdisciplinary seminars, which replace approximately two-thirds of the school's general education requirements. To earn an honors degree, students must also complete a thesis in their major field during their junior and senior years.Template:Citation needed

Accelerated Management Program (AMP)

The Accelerated Management Program<ref name=AMP>Template:Cite web</ref> allows selected students to earn both a BA from the College of Arts and Sciences and an MBA from the Crummer Graduate School of Business in a total of five years. Students enrolled in this program must complete all general education and major/minor requirements prior to the conclusion of their third year. In their fourth year, students take courses from the Early Advantage MBA program, from which credits are applied to both their undergraduate and graduate transcripts. Upon completion of the fourth year, AMP students graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences and walk with their class at commencement. In the fifth year, students complete the MBA degree and graduate a second time.Template:Citation needed

International programs

All three schools at Rollins offer international courses<ref name=Int>Template:Cite web</ref> to destinations such as London, Sydney, and Madrid, among others. Some programs are offered directly through Rollins, while others are offered through partnerships with other colleges and universities. Students may study abroad for a week or an entire semester.Template:Citation needed

Athletics

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1898 track team

Rollins participates in NCAA Division II's Sunshine State Conference for the majority of its sports; the college's women's lacrosse program competes as a DII independent program.

The rowing teams compete in the Southern Intercollegiate Rowing Association and Florida Intercollegiate Rowing Association while the sailing squad competes in the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Sailing Association. The Rollins water skiing teams compete in NCAA Division I, the only school program to do so. Rollins' athletic teams are called the Tars (an archaic name for a sailor).<ref name=RollinsAthleticsQuickFacts>Template:Cite web</ref>

Rollins' Athletic Tradition includes 23 National Championships and 67 Sunshine State Conference titles. The school sponsors twenty-three varsity teams:<ref name=RollinsAthleticsQuickFacts/> The most successful sport in the history of Rollins is Women's Golf. They have 13 national championship titles.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1950 and 1956, Betty Rowland and Marlene Stewart Streit, respectively, won the women's individual intercollegiate golf championship (an event conducted by the Division of Girls' and Women's Sports (DGWS) — which later evolved into the current NCAA women's golf championship). In later years, Bettina Walker (1988, 1989), Debbie Pappas (1990, 1991, 1992), Mariana De Biase (2006) and Joanna Coe (2008) also became individual national champions at the Small College and NCAA Division II levels.

Campus life

Rollins College is located in Winter Park, a few minutes from downtown Orlando. There are more than 150 student clubs and organizations on campus, including a wakeboard club and ballroom dance club. The Tars, Rollins's athletic teams, compete in the NCAA Division II Sunshine State Conference and field a varsity waterskiing team among others. A sizeable Greek life on campus comprises more than 10 fraternities and sororities. About 75 percent of students live on campus in one of the residence halls or apartment complexes.<ref name="colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com"/> In addition, there are weekly shuttles, "Rolly Trolly", to provide transport to a shopping area for the students.

Fox Day

Fox Day is an annual tradition at Rollins. Since 1956 (except during the tenure of President Jack Critchfield, 1969–1978),<ref name="Fox Day History">Template:Cite web</ref> each spring, the president cancels all classes, providing undergraduate students with a surprise day off to explore local beaches and amusement parks,<ref name=FoxDayLoC>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=FoxDayOrlandSent>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=FoxDayWKMG>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=AboutFoxDay>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=FoxDayUSNews>Template:Cite magazine</ref> together as a college,<ref name=FoxDayHist>Template:Cite web</ref> returning in the late afternoon for a barbecue. It's known as Fox Day, because a statue of a fox is placed on Mills Lawn (the school's main lawn), signifying the day off.<ref name=AboutFoxDay/>

The fox statue, originally accompanied with a cat statue were a gift from Senator Murray Sams in 1934 to President Hamilton Holt as he thought it would be "fittingly enshrined" at Rollins. They originally came from France, and believed to be satirical pieces, depicting, "the Populace (Cat) making his sweeping bow in hypocritical salute to the Papacy (Fox). The statues were placed on pedestals near the old Recreational Hall which is now replaced by the pool.<ref name="social.rollins.edu">Template:Cite web</ref> Holt created a "Cat Society" for women and a "Fox Society" for men, these groups consisted of four people each, selected by an annual vote by the opposite gender of the student body for the opposite group. The statues were only allowed to be touched by the respective privileged members. Occasionally, the statues were taken and hidden as practical jokes.<ref name=AboutFoxDay/> However, the cat statue had been mysteriously destroyed in 1949 with the location of the remains unknown.<ref name="social.rollins.edu"/> Since then, the fox is hidden and only brought out for Fox Day.

During Fox Day season 2015, a petition was widely circulated to include Holt and Crummer students in the popular tradition. Currently, these students are not excused from classes, limiting their involvement in the annual festivities; furthering the disconnect between the evening and graduate students on campus. In March 2020, the campus shut down and sent students home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in no Fox Day occurrence during the 2019–2020 academic year.

Winter Park Bach Festival

Since 1935, the Winter Park Bach Festival, the third-oldest continuously operating Bach festival in the United States,<ref name=BachFestivalOrland-FLnet>Template:Cite web</ref> has brought some of the highest caliber<ref name=BachFestivalBroadwayWorld>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=BachFestivalOrlandoSent>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name=BachFestivalOrlandoMag>Template:Cite web</ref> of classical performers from around the world to campus,<ref name=BachFestivalUSAToday>Template:Cite news</ref> for a two-week event.<ref name=CampusLifeJustforFun>Template:Cite web</ref> The 150-voice<ref name=CampusLifeJustforFun/> Bach Festival Society is regarded as one of the finest oratorio societies in America.<ref name=BachFestivalBroadwayWorld/><ref name=BachFestivalBroadwayWorld2>Template:Cite web</ref>

WPRK 91.5 The Best in Basement Radio

WPRK 91.5 FM the Best in Basement Radio is a non-commercial college radio station located in Winter Park, Florida, owned and operated by Rollins College. Its signal is audible in most of the Orlando metropolitan area, or from Seaworld to Sanford as said by DJs on-air.

In popular culture

After a speaking appearance at Rollins in 1988,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kurt Vonnegut used it as one of the models for the school in Hocus Pocus in which Rollins is the former place of employment of the fictional school's president.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

See also

• Rollins College Interracial Committee
• William Phillips Hall, a one time trustee and director of the college.

External links

• Template:Official website
• Athletics website