![]() In December, 2009, President Roger Parrott announced that the board of trustees had voted unanimously to change the name from "Belhaven College" to the current name of Belhaven University, effective on January 1, 2010. In 1915, the board of trustees further changed the school's name to Belhaven College. After the original location burned in a fire in 1910, Belhaven was reopened as the Belhaven Collegiate and Industrial Institute in 1911 at its current location on Peachtree Street in the historic Belhaven Neighborhood in Jackson. The school was founded as Belhaven College for Young Ladies in 1894. Four major name changes have taken place, although the name "Belhaven" has been common to them all. The college receives both financial support and students from these three denominations as well.īelhaven has gone through various name changes over the years. Many faculty and staff members are drawn from various Presbyterian denominations, primarily the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Presbyterian Church in America, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The school maintains a close church connection. The size of the student body has nearly quadrupled during his tenure. Under his leadership, Belhaven has added seven major buildings, a variety of new undergraduate academic majors and graduate programs, intercollegiate football, campuses in Memphis, Orlando, Houston, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, online programs, the "Christian Worldview Curriculum", and earned national accreditation in all four of the major arts ( Music, Theater, Visual Arts, and Dance). In January 1996, Doctor Roger Parrott became the tenth president of the college, with about 1,300 enrolled students. Fredericks served as acting president in 1995. Under Kennedy, Belhaven joined the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.īy 1995, over 80 percent of Belhaven's faculty held doctoral or equivalent degrees. Kennedy reaffirmed the college's commitment to Christian service and its relationship with various Presbyterian denominations. ![]() Kennedy followed as president, and was the first Belhaven alumnus to serve as the school's chief officer. His nine-year term saw the greatest growth in the history of the college, from just over 600 students to more than 1,100. In June 1986, another alumnus of Belhaven, Dr. In his eight years as president he reaffirmed the commitment to Christian service and the covenant relationship with the Presbyterian Church, and installed a more efficient administrative structure. Kennedy became the first Belhaven alumnus to serve as the chief executive of Belhaven College. ![]() In 1972, the Synod of Mississippi officially transferred ownership of the college to the board of trustees, making Belhaven a fully independent college. In 1965, a faculty member was fired for being gay. Under Cleland's 17-year tenure, an ambitious expansion program resulted in six major new buildings, while enrollment and the college budget tripled. Cleland, then principal of nearby Murrah High School, to replace him. Cooper served as acting president until the board selected Dr. The first singing Christmas tree in the world debuted at Belhaven in 1933.įrom 1960 to 1961, Dr. McFerran Crowe succeeded Gillespie as president and over the next six years he expanded and upgraded the faculty, while also reorganizing and modernizing business operations. The school added men's basketball and men's tennis as intercollegiate sports in 1956. In 1954, the board of trustees voted to allow the enrollment of male students, making Belhaven a fully co-educational institution. Today, Fitzhugh and Preston Halls are the remnants of the main building destroyed in the fire. The columns that stand in the middle of campus are the approximate site of the fire. This date was adopted by the board of trustees as the official founding date of Belhaven as it represented the oldest founding date of all of the institutions which were eventually absorbed into the college.Ī major fire devastated the college on August 9, 1927, when lightning struck the school's only building. In 1939, Belhaven was merged with the Mississippi Synodical College, a college in Holly Springs, Mississippi which had been opened in 1883. Gillespie of Lexington, Mississippi, began a 33-year presidency during which Belhaven was first accredited, an endowment fund begun, and scholarships made available. The school took the name Belhaven in honor of Hamilton's mansion, which was named after his ancestral home in Scotland. ![]() Hamilton, a Confederate veteran who became a millionaire after the war through investments in railroads run by convicts he leased. The school opened in the residence of Colonel Jones S. ![]()
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