Samford University - Entre Nous Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

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ix . ,I Xyiilgg f' 12 ,!, ,f A new era began at Samford Univer- sity this fall as Dr. Thomas E. Corts be- g came the 17th president of the 142-year old Baptist institution. Dr. Corts. former president of Win- gate College. succeeded Dr. Leslie S. Wright, who retired to the post of chan- cellor on Aug. 31 after 25 years as the school's leader. Samford opened this fall term with some 4,000 students enrolled, including approximately 1,100 new students in four categories-undergraduate, trans- fer, law, and graduate programs. The students hail from every Alabama coun- ty and more than 30 other states. Dr. Corts, in his semester-opening ad- dress to students, defined education as a confronting of people and ideas and I circumstances that makes a dramatic impact upon who we are, the values we believe in, what we stand up for, what we sit down for, and what we say we are willing to die for. All of that is here, the new president said, and all of it will come cascading across your countenance in the course ofthis year in a way that it may never have come to you before. He described Samford as a place of people and ideas, and one fine gem of a place, but reminded the students that the educa- tion that takes or does not take with you is more dependent on you than any person in this room. Dr. Corts begins his Samford tenure committed to continuing the quest for excellence. I like to do things right the first time, he told a reporter in early September. I believe you should do your research, involve a lot of people in the decision-making process, and get thejob done. I would like to do what we do even better. Oftentimes, that means money. There are numerous good ideas in the world of education. All of them have a price tag. So I would like to find the resources to do some of the things we are doing. and do them even better. The Georgetown College and Indiana University graduate, who will be 42 on Oct. 7, is a strong believer in international education. I want to bring a dimension of internationalism to Samford, he said. I am very committed to the idea that a Christian who grows up without a world vision is less than he ought to be, since we of all people ought to be concerned about the othermost parts I -1 of the world. And I think that if you were not a i Christian, from a strictly educational standpoint, from the standpoint of simply world citizenship, that this would be a vital component of educa- tion in our time. An education that does not con- front the internationality of life, or that does not admit that we are all global citizens, is second rate, he said. At Wingate, Dr. Corts initiated a unique Winternational program which allowed a student at the mid- point of the sophomore year to travel abroad at almost no additional cost. At Samford, the international em- phasis could focus on such areas as world missions and international business, he said. Already, the school has added a new interdisciplinary program in International Relations. Offered through the Department of History and Political Science, the new program enables a student to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations by completing prescribed courses in history, political science, the humanities, economics, behavioral sciences, and foreign lan- guages. The program seeks to produce generalists who are able to synthesize information from many fields rather than specialists, according to Dr. David M. Vess, head of the Department of History and Political Science. Samford is comprised of eight component schools and colleges and three separate divisions. School and colleges are the Howard College of Arts and Sciences, Cumberland School of Law, Orlean Bullard Beeson School of Education, Ida V. Moffett School of Nursing and schools of business, graduate studies, music and pharmacy. Separate divisions include Air Force ROTC, Anesthe- sia and Paralegal Studies. Through this variety of academic programs, Samford offers courses leading to 21 degrees. Samford was chartered as Howard College by Alabama Bap- tists in Marion, Alabama, in the fall of 1841. The school moved to the East Lake section of Birmingham in 1887 and to its present Homewood location in 1957. Samford has known its greatest growth at its present site. The school's enrollment has increased more than 175 percent and the