Belhaven University

Belhaven University ("Belhaven" or "BC") is a private liberal arts college located in Jackson, Mississippi, with satellite campuses in Memphis, Tennessee, Orlando, Florida, and Houston, Texas.

Founded by the now defunct Presbyterian Church in the United States the school is today independently run by a Board of Trustees.

Belhaven is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, and masters degrees. Eight bachelor's degrees and four master’s degrees are offered. In addition to traditional majors, programs of general studies are available. There are also pre-professional programs in the ministry, medicine, dentistry, law, nursing, and medical technology.

The school sponsors intercollegiate athletic teams which compete in the NAIA's Mid-South Conference in football and the NAIA's Gulf Coast Athletic Conference in other sports.

Belhaven maintains satellite campuses for graduate and undergraduate studies in Houston, Texas, Memphis, Tennessee and Orlando, Florida as well as virtual online programs.

The school is operated on a mission to "prepare students academically and spiritually to serve Jesus Christ in their careers, in human relationships, and in the world of ideas." ^[1]

Early history

Belhaven College was chartered in 1894 in Jackson, Mississippi as a privately-owned institution. In 1911 Belhaven was merged with McComb Female Institute, and in 1939 merged with the Mississippi Synodical College. The founding date of the latter institution, 1883, was adopted by the Board of Trustees as the official founding date of Belhaven College.

In 1894, Dr. Lewis Fitzhugh established Belhaven College for Young Ladies on Boyd Street at the former residence of Colonel Jones S. Hamilton. The College took the name of the house, Belhaven in honor of Hamilton's ancestral home in Scotland. A fire destroyed the main building in February, 1895, but with the help of Jackson citizens the College reopened in the fall of 1896 at the same site.

In September, 1911 the school was reopened by the Central Mississippi Presbytery as Belhaven Collegiate and Industrial Institute, at a new site on Peachtree Street. Dr. R. V. Lancaster of McComb Female Institute became the third president as the two institutions merged.

1921-Present

In 1921 the Reverend Guy T. Gillespie of Lexington, Mississippi, began a presidency that would last 33 years. In Gillespie's tenure Belhaven was first accredited, an endowment fund begun, and scholarship aid made available. In 1954 the Board of Trustees voted to make Belhaven fully co-educational, thus ensuring continued growth. Another significant change came in 1972, when the Synod of Mississippi transferred ownership of the College to the Board of Trustees.

A new era of leadership at Belhaven began in January 1996, as Dr. Roger Parrott became the tenth president of the College. He inherited an institution with an all-time record enrollment of approximately 1,300 students and the best-qualified faculty in the history of the College.

Faculty and staff members are drawn from various denominations, with the primary Presbyterian denominations represented being the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Presbyterian Church in America, and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The College receives both financial support and students from these three denominations.

Name Change

In December 2009, President Parrott announced that the Board of Trustees had voted unanimously to change the name of Belhaven College to Belhaven University, effective on January 1, 2010.

Fine arts

Belhaven is nationally accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design^[2], the National Association of Schools of Music^[3], the National Association of Schools of Dance and the National Association of Schools of Theatre.

Belhaven is also the only Christian university in the U.S. offering a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in creative writing

Athletics

The Belhaven University athletics teams compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. The football program began in 1998 under head coach Norman Joseph. Belhaven offers other athletic programs for both men and women including baseball, basketball, softball, volleyball, cross country, golf, soccer and tennis.

Notable alumni

• John Brady, former head basketball coach, Louisiana State University, and current head coach of Arkansas State University
• Elizabeth Spencer, author of The Light in the Piazza
• Joel Bomgar (business entrepreneur), founder and CEO of the Mississippi-based Bomgar Corp. and inventor of the information technology remote system, the "Bomgar Box".

References

External links

• Belhaven College