Ouachita Baptist University
Encyclopedia
Ouachita Baptist University is a private, liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...

, undergraduate institution located in Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Arkadelphia is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 10,548. The city is the county seat of Clark County. The city is situated at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Two universities, Henderson State...

, which is about 65 miles southwest of Little Rock. The university's name is taken from the Ouachita River, which forms the eastern campus boundary. It is affiliated with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention
Arkansas Baptist State Convention
The Arkansas Baptist State Convention was founded on 1848-09-21, at Brownsville Church in Tulip in Dallas County, Arkansas. Its first president was Isaac Perkins, and its first secretary Samuel Stevenson...

. The student body is approximately 45% male and 55% female.

History

Ouachita Baptist University (OBU) was founded as Ouachita Baptist College on September 6, 1886 and has operated continually since that date. It was originally located on the campus of Ouachita Baptist High School. Its present location is on the former campus of the Arkansas School for the Blind, which relocated to Little Rock.

The first president was Professor J. W. Conger who was elected to the post on June 22, 1886. The OBU Board of Trustees unanimously selected Dr. Rex Horne, former pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock, as the fifteenth president of Ouachita Baptist University on April 6, 2006. Those who have served as president include: J.W. Conger (1886–1907), Henry Simms Hartzog (1907–1911), R.G. Bowers (1911–1913), Samuel Young Jameson (1913–1916), Charles Ernest Dicken (1916–1926), Arthur B. Hill (1926–1929), Charles D. Johnson (1929–1933), James R. Grant (1933–1949), Seaford Eubanks (1949–1951), Harold A. Haswell (1952–1953), Ralph Arloe Phelps Jr. (1953–1969), Daniel R. Grant (1970–1988), Ben M. Elrod (1988–1998), and Andrew Westmoreland (1998–2006).

In 1965 the College changed its name to Ouachita Baptist University. Recent years have seen a steady expansion of the campus, including the Harvey Jones Science Center (1997), the Frank D. Hickingbotham School of Business in Hickingbotham Hall (2006) and the Student Village residence halls (2009).

Academics

Ouachita Baptist University focuses on undergraduate programs in the liberal arts. It offers 64 degree programs in eight academic schools: School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Frank D. Hickingbotham School of Business, Chelsey and Elizabeth Pruett School of Christian Studies, Michael D. Huckabee School of Education, School of Fine Arts, Sutton School of Social Sciences, J. D. Patterson School of Natural Sciences, and School of Humanities. Most students earn a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), but the school also offers Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and Bachelor of Music (B.M.) programs. Study abroad programs are offered through the Center for International Studies. Two classes in religion are part of the core curriculum and graduation requires seven credits of chapel (earned by regular chapel attendance during a semester).

OBU operates on the traditional credit hour system. The student to faculty ratio is approximately 13:1.
The university has been highly ranked in a number of college surveys, including being ranked the No. 1 Regional College in the South by U.S. News & World Report for four consecutive years since 2008. There is a joint Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program with neighboring Henderson State University. The OBU ROTC program dates back to 1886 and has at times been called the "West Point of the Ozarks" for the large number of U.S. Army officers it produced.

The University is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools , also known as the North Central Association, is a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states, that is engaged in educational accreditation...

, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business was founded in 1916 to accredit schools of business worldwide. The first accreditations took place in 1919. The stated mission is to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation and thought leadership. It is regarded...

 (AACSB International), National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education
The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education was founded in 1954 to accredit teacher certification programs at U.S. colleges and universities. NCATE is a council of educators created to ensure and raise the quality of preparation for their profession. NCATE is recognized by the U.S....

, National Association for Schools of Music
National Association of Schools of Music
The National Association of Schools of Music is an association of post-secondary music schools in the United States and the principal U.S. accreditor for higher education in music...

, the Commission on the Accreditation of Athletic Training Education Programs (CAATE), and the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE) of the American Dietetic Association.

Campus

Ouachita Baptist has an 85 acre campus. There are eight academic buildings: Jones Performing Arts Center (which includes the Verser Theatre), Moses Provine Hall, Mabee Fine Arts Building, McClellan Hall, Lile Hall, Hickingbotham Hall, the Harvey Jones Science Center and the Berry Bible Building. The campus also houses a number of administrative buildings, two school libraries, conference centers, residence halls and a dining facility. OBU operates five off-campus apartment complexes for upperclassmen.

Student life

Ouachita is primarily a residential campus, with 94% percent of the students living in one of eight on-campus dorms and five off-campus apartment complexes. Only students who have family in the area or who are over the age of 22 are allowed to live elsewhere. Campus policies restrict students visiting the rooms of those of the opposite sex to special visiting hours and under strict guidelines.

Ouachita does not allow nationally-affiliated social fraternities or sororities, but there are local fraternities and sororities called "social clubs." Approximately 20% of the student body are members of such clubs. Annually during Homecoming Weekend the social clubs produce a musical show called Tiger Tunes. There are also more than 40 student organizations. The Campus Activities Board offers concerts, movies and the Office of Campus Ministries offers other activities for students.

Athletics

OBU fields intercollegiate men's teams in football, baseball, basketball, golf, swimming, tennis, soccer and wrestling. Women's sports include basketball, swimming, tennis, volleyball, cross country, soccer, softball and golf. The school mascot is the Tiger, and colors are purple and gold. As of Fall 2011, Ouachita will begin competition in the Great American Conference
Great American Conference
The Great American Conference is a college athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division II, and is scheduled to begin play in the 2011-12 school year.- Members :...

, after previously being a member of the Gulf South Conference. The Great American Conference consists of 6 schools from Arkansas and 3 schools from Oklahoma.

Ouachita has an intense crosstown rivalry with Henderson State University, a public university located across a small ravine from the Ouachita campus. The annual "Battle of the Ravine" between the two schools is the fifth oldest football rivalry in college sports. The teams first met in 1895.

Successful intercollegiate teams include the 2009 swimming teams, with the men's team finishing fifth in the nation and the women's team sixth. The 2008 Ouachita baseball team finished second in Division II.

Several intramural sports are also available for both men and women. These include football, basketball, softball, racquetball, volleyball, dodgeball, indoor hockey and tennis.

Notable alumni

  • Shelley Breen
    Shelley Breen
    Shelley Lynn Phillips Breen is one-third of the Contemporary Christian Music group Point of Grace. She has won 12 Dove Awards with Point of Grace.-Background:...

    , Heather Payne
    Heather Payne
    Heather Lynaye Floyd Payne is a solo Contemporary Christian music artist and founding member of group Point of Grace. She announced her retirement from the group in June 2008...

    , Denise Jones
    Denise Jones
    Denise Radon Masters Jones is one-third of the Contemporary Christian music group Point of Grace. She has won 12 Dove Awards with Point of Grace.-Background:...

    , and Terry Jones (singer)
    Terry Jones (singer)
    Teresa "Terry" Lea Lang Jones is a founding member of Contemporary Christian music group Point of Grace. She announced her retirement from the group in late 2003 and officially left in early 2004. She has won 7 Dove Awards with Point of Grace.-Background:Jones became a Christian at an early age...

     of Christian
    Christian
    A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

     pop music
    Pop music
    Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

     group Point of Grace
    Point of Grace
    Point of Grace is an all-female Contemporary Christian music group. The trio consists of Shelley Breen, Denise Jones, and Leigh Cappillino. The group started out as a quartet in 1991, with original members Breen and Jones, as well as Terry Jones and Heather Payne...

  • Winston Bryant
    Winston Bryant
    Winston Bryant is a former Democratic Secretary of State , the tenth Lieutenant Governor and attorney general of the U.S. state of Arkansas.He was born in Malvern, the seat of Hot Spring County...

     - Attorney General of Arkansas, 1990 to 1999
  • Doak S. Campbell
    Doak S. Campbell
    Doak Sheridan Campbell was president of Florida State College for Women, as it made the transition from an all-female school under that name to the coeducational Florida State University, between 1941 and 1957.-Early life:...

     - president of Florida State College for Women (1941–1947) and then Florida State University (1947–1957)
  • Mark Darr
    Mark Darr
    Mark A. Darr is the 15th Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected to succeed Democrat Bill Halter in 2010, defeating Democratic challenger State Senator and former Speaker of the House Shane Broadway by a margin of 51% - 49%. -Early life and career:Mark...

     - Arkansas Lt. Governor, 2011 to present
  • Alyse Eady
    Alyse Eady
    Alyse Cynthia Eady, holds the title of Miss Arkansas 2010 and was 1st Runner-Up in the Miss America 2011 Pageant on January 15, 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is a 22-year-old graduate of Ouachita Baptist University with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications and Speech Communication...

     - Miss Arkansas 2010
  • Kristen Glover
    Kristen Glover
    Kristen Nicole Glover is an American beauty pageant titleholder from Stuttgart, Arkansas who was named Miss Arkansas 2011.-Biography:She won the title of Miss Arkansas on July 16, 2011, when she received her crown from outgoing titleholder Alyse Eady...

     - Miss Arkansas 2011
  • Leon Green - noted legal scholar, dean of Northwestern University
    Northwestern University
    Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....

     School of Law
  • Cliff Harris
    Cliff Harris
    Clifford Allen Harris is a former professional American football safety who played for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League for ten seasons.-Professional career:...

     - former All-Pro Dallas Cowboys
    Dallas Cowboys
    The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...

     safety
  • William Holloway - Governor of Oklahoma, 1929 to 1931
  • Mike Huckabee
    Mike Huckabee
    Michael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...

     - Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007, 2008 Republican President candidate
  • Travis Jackson
    Travis Jackson
    Travis Calvin Jackson was a Major League Baseball player during the 1920s and 1930s. His exceptional range at shortstop led to the nickname "Stonewall."...

     - Baseball Hall of Fame shortstop for New York Giants in 1920s and 1930s
  • Susan McDougal
    Susan McDougal
    Susan McDougal is one of the few people who served prison time as a result of the Whitewater controversy although fifteen individuals were convicted of various federal charges...

     - involved in Whitewater
    Whitewater (controversy)
    The Whitewater controversy was an American politics controversy that began with the real estate investments of Bill and Hillary Clinton and their associates, Jim and Susan McDougal in the Whitewater Development Corporation, a failed business venture in the 1970s and 1980s.A New York...

     scandal, author of The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk
  • Linda Gamble
    Linda Gamble (basketball)
    Linda Gamble was an American women's basketball player of the 1960's and 1970's, and Pan American Games silver medalist in 1971. She is considered one of the female pioneers in the sport, having helped bring women's basketball international attention.-Basketball career:Gamble was born and raised...

    , pioneer in women's basketball
    Women's basketball
    Women's basketball is one of the few women's sports that developed in tandem with its men's counterpart. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast , in large part via women's colleges...

  • William Miller
    William Miller (football player)
    William Miller is a former award winning running back in the Canadian Football League.Miller played his college football at Ouachita Baptist University from 1975 to 1978, where he rushed for 3813 career yards and was inducted into their Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.He joined the CFL's Winnipeg...

     - professional football player in the Canadian Football League
    Canadian Football League
    The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....

     and the USFL
  • William Edward "Big Ed" Neal
    Ed Neal
    William Henry Edward Neal William Henry Edward Neal William Henry Edward Neal (born December 31, 1918 was an American football defensive tackle who played seven seasons for the Green Bay Packers in the National Football League....

     - professional football player (1945–51) in the National Football League
    National Football League
    The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...

     with the Green Bay Packers
    Green Bay Packers
    The Green Bay Packers are an American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The Packers are the current NFL champions...

    .
  • Julius Pruitt
    Julius Pruitt
    Julius Pruitt is an American football wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins of the National Football League. He was signed by the Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2009. He played college football at Ouachita Baptist. He was waived by Miami Dolphins on September 3, 2011.-External links:*...

     - a professional football wide receiver (2009 to present) for the Miami Dolphins
    Miami Dolphins
    The Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...

    .
  • Bob C. Riley
    Bob C. Riley
    Bob Cowley Riley was an American educator and politician who served as Acting Governor of Arkansas for 11 days in 1975. He had previously been a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1946 to 1950, the mayor of Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in 1966 and 1967, and the eighth Lieutenant...

     - Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas and interim Governor of Arkansas, decorated veteran of World War II
  • Russ Taff
    Russ Taff
    Russell Taff is an American gospel singer who is originally from Farmersville, California. Taff later then moved to Arkansas where he graduated from Cutter-Morning Star High School in Hot Springs, Arkansas....

     - former Gaither Vocal Band
    Gaither Vocal Band
    The Gaither Vocal Band is a Grammy award-winning Christian music vocal group, headed by Bill Gaither. They originally recorded contemporary Christian music, but after the popularity of the Gaither Homecoming videos, the group has become known for southern gospel.-Group history:The Gaither Vocal...

     and Imperial Quartet member and renowned soloist in the Southern gospel music industry
  • Aaron Ward - infielder for New York Yankees (1917–26), Chicago White Sox (1927) and Cleveland Indians (1928)
  • Kendra Ann Thomas - author of young adult novels Ravenheart and Sorrowheart
  • Steven Bryant
    Steven Bryant (composer)
    Steven Bryant is an active American composer and conductor with a varied catalog, including works for orchestra, wind ensemble, electronics, and chamber music. Mr. Bryant states: "I strive to write music that leaps off the stage to grab you by the collar and pull you in...

     - American composer and conductor for wind ensemble and orchestra, studied under W. Francis McBeth
    W. Francis McBeth
    William Francis McBeth was born March 9, 1933, in Ropesville, Texas .McBeth is a prolific composer, whose wind band works are highly respected. His primary musical influences include Clifton Williams, Bernard Rogers, and Howard Hanson...


See also

  • Southern Baptist Convention
    Southern Baptist Convention
    The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...

  • Arkansas Baptist State Convention
    Arkansas Baptist State Convention
    The Arkansas Baptist State Convention was founded on 1848-09-21, at Brownsville Church in Tulip in Dallas County, Arkansas. Its first president was Isaac Perkins, and its first secretary Samuel Stevenson...

  • List of Southern Baptist Convention affiliated people

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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