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Longwood
College and Its Programs
LONGWOOD
COLLEGE MISSION
Longwood
College is an institution of higher learning dedicated to
the development of citizen leaders who are prepared to make
positive contributions to the common good of society.
Building upon its strong foundation in the liberal arts and
sciences, the College provides an environment in which
exceptional teaching fosters student learning, scholarship,
and achievement. As the only four-year public institution in
south central Virginia, Longwood College serves as a
catalyst for regional prosperity and advancement.
VISION
Longwood
College prepares citizen leaders for the common good. To
achieve this vision, all members of the Longwood community
will be dedicated to the highest standards of academic
distinction and quality of life, and will examine, reaffirm,
and refine those aspects of the college experience that
collectively form a meaningful learning environment. To
ensure the vitality of the learning environment, the College
will increase enrollment while maintaining its inherent
character and enhancing its academic quality.
The learning environment will be characterized by
dynamic, exceptional teaching and scholarship that directly
influence student learning and increase academic
achievement. Student accomplishments will be defined by
established competencies that demonstrate a sound grasp of
the liberal arts and sciences as well as the ability to
think critically, to respond creatively, and to apply
knowledge to the resolution of practical issues.
The curriculum, including the appropriate use of
instructional technology, will be refined to ensure its
relevancy to the mission of developing citizen leaders.
Longwood College will enhance its rigorous foundation in the
liberal arts and sciences and will elevate its exceptional
professional programs, such as teacher education and
business, to the highest regional and national standards.
The institution’s dedication to learning will
extend beyond the degree-seeking student to embrace all
members of the diverse college community, leading to a
collegial climate where divergent ideas are respected.
Longwood will be committed to community service and outreach
devoted to local, regional, national, and global
advancement.
The improvement of learning and quality of life will
permeate all institutional practices including the design of
student co-curricular programs and the development of
physical facilities. Longwood’s careful and responsible
stewardship of human, fiscal, and environmental resources
will be continuously improved to incorporate the most
effective methods and practices to support the
institution’s vision.
Approved
by the Board of Visitors, July 25, 1997.
Location
The
College is located in historic Farmville, Virginia -- 65
miles west of Richmond and Petersburg, 48 miles east of
Lynchburg, and 60 miles south of Charlottesville. U.S.
Highways 15 and 460 intersect in town. Commercial bus
systems provide service to the town.
Farmville is a pleasant college town with a
population of 6,500; it is the business and education center
of the area. Located in and near town are churches, hotels,
motels, a country club, a municipal airport, and a community
hospital. Hampden-Sydney College, a liberal arts college for
men, is five miles south of the campus. Many points of
interest are within a short distance of Farmville, including
Appomattox Courthouse and Sailors Creek Battlefield.
History
Longwood
College, a pioneer first in private and later in public
education, is one of the oldest colleges in the United
States. The College was founded on March 5, 1839, this being
the date that the Farmville Female Seminary Association was
incorporated by the General Assembly of Virginia.
In the succeeding years the increasing prosperity of
the Farmville Female Seminary led the stockholders to expand
the seminary into a college, and the Farmville Female
College was incorporated in 1860. On April 7, 1884, the
State of Virginia acquired the property of the Farmville
Female College, and in October of the same year the Normal
School opened with 110 students enrolled. This was the first
state institution of higher learning for women in Virginia.
With the passage of the years, the Normal School
expanded its curriculum and progressed through a succession
of names. It became the State Normal School for Women in
1914, the State Teachers College at Farmville in 1924, and
Longwood College in 1949.
The College was first authorized to offer a four-year
curriculum leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in
Education in 1916. It was authorized to offer Bachelor of
Arts in 1935, the Bachelor of Science in 1938, a curriculum
in business education the same year, courses leading to a
degree in music education in 1949, and the Bachelor of
Science in Business Administration in 1976. In 1978, the
College was authorized to offer the Bachelor of Fine Arts,
and in 1981, the Bachelor of Music. In 1954, graduate
programs were authorized. Longwood became fully
coeducational in June 1976.
Buildings
The
Longwood campus provides excellent facilities while
reflecting the charm, beauty, and character associated with
its long heritage.
The landmark Rotunda
and Ruffner buildings, while undergoing a major $12 million
renovation, were destroyed during a fire on April 24, 2001.
Fortunately, all of the artifacts, paintings, and college
memorabilia, including the dome paintings, had been removed
over a year before in anticipation of the renovation. Plans
are underway to reconstruct the Rotunda and adjoining
Ruffner buildings based upon their original architectural
design.
The newly remodeled Lancaster Hall houses the
President’s Office and the administrative offices of
Academic Affairs, Administration and Finance, Student
Affairs, and Institutional Advancement.
The newest building on campus is the two-story,
60,000 square foot dining hall located on Pine Street which
opened for the spring semester 2000.
This multi-purpose facility, with its curved,
colonnaded portico overlooking Iler Field, is the first on
campus to utilize geothermal heating and cooling.
The flexible interior design provides space for
banquets, meetings, and special events along with a Grand
Dining Room seating 500 and an arcade seating an additional
700.
Behind and alongside this area are broad malls,
lawns, 11 tennis courts, four athletic fields, an
indoor-outdoor swimming pool, and numerous late-20th century
buildings, including the library, residence halls, the
Lankford Student Union, and various academic facilities.
The campus has six auditoriums ranging in size from
150 seats to 1,227.
Lancer Hall is a 4.5 million-dollar health, physical
education, and recreation complex. It has a gymnasium with
3,000 seats; a complete weight-training laboratory; an
olympic-size pool with a three-meter board and underwater
sound, lighting, and observation window; a 500-seat
natatorium; a modern dance studio with a floating floor and
staging capacity; and one of the state's best-equipped
laboratories for the study of human performance as it
relates to exercise, sports, health, and the arts.
Students also can enjoy the facilities at Longwood
Estate, about a mile from the campus. These include
"The Cabin," the Dell, and a nine-hole golf
course. The President's home is on the Estate.
College
Library and Resources
The
Library, occupied in 1991 and conveniently located near the
center of the campus, is open for use 99 hours each week
during regular sessions. Entry is through a two-story
atrium, which facilitates visual orientation to each of the
major service points for the Library. The Library
collections offer 225,000 cataloged titles. The Library
currently subscribes to 2,050 journals. Some 700,000
microform units, sound and video recordings, and CDROMs
supplement the book and journal collections. The Library
also provides access to the holdings of other libraries
through its interlibrary loan service. Access to and control
of its collections are through the Library’s online
catalog and circulation system, which can be consulted from
any point on the campus network or the Internet. The Library
complements its collections by providing users access to
electronic information found throughout the Internet and by
making selected information more accessible through the
Library’s World Wide Web offerings. To aid users in
finding information expeditiously and in gaining expertise
for information literacy, the Library provides a variety of
reference services, including individual reference
assistance, group bibliographic instruction, and online
searching assistance to commercial and non-commercial
information providers.
The
College Year
The
college year consists of a regular session, including two
semesters of 15 weeks each, and a summer session. The summer
session for undergraduate students consists of three
four-week terms. The graduate summer session consists of two
four-week terms. The summer session makes it possible for an
undergraduate student to complete a degree program in three
calendar years as compared to the traditional four academic
years generally required to complete such a program. Both
undergraduate and graduate classes during the summer are
scheduled for five days a week.
Summer
Session
Longwood
welcomes a variety of students to its summer sessions by
offering basic courses and advanced courses in the majors in
a wide variety of academic disciplines. Specialized
instruction is also available through a broad range of
intensive course offerings.
Registration
procedures for summer sessions are published in the summer
brochure, which is usually available on or about January 1
and may be obtained by calling the Office of Registration
(804.395.2580).
Commencement
Commencement
is held once a year, in May. Students completing a degree
program in August or December may participate in the
following May commencement.
Graduating seniors must buy from the college
bookstore the caps, gowns, and hoods required for
commencement exercises.
Longwood's
Honor System
A
strong tradition of honor is fundamental to the quality of
living and learning in the Longwood community. The Honor
System was founded in 1910, and its purpose is to create and
sustain a community in which all persons are treated with
trust, respect, and dignity. Longwood affirms the value and
necessity of integrity
in all intellectual and community endeavors. Students are
expected to assume full responsibility for their actions and
refrain from lying, cheating, stealing, and plagiarism.
Upon
entering the College, students sign the Honor Pledge:
I,
.........................................having a clear
understanding of the basis and spirit of the Honor Code
created and accepted by the student body of Longwood
College, Farmville, Virginia, pledge myself to govern my
college life according to its standards and to accept my
responsibility for helping others to do so, and with
sensitive regard for my college, to live by the Honor Code
at all times and to see that others do likewise.
Longwood College
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