Brevard College

Brevard College is a small, private, United Methodist, liberal arts college in Brevard, North Carolina. The college currently grants the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, or Bachelor of Music degree. Current enrollment is about 700 students.

History

Founded in 1934 from the merger of Rutherford College and Weaver College, Brevard flourished as a junior college for many years.

During the infamous "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast in 1938, five students fainted and panic gripped the campus for a half hour. Many students fought for telephones to inform their parents to come and get them. [http://www.engl.duq.edu/servus/FirstClass/Stewart102.html]

Increasing competition led the college to become a four-year institution in 1996. Brevard awarded its last Associate's degrees in 2006.

Campus

The Brevard College campus is located within the city of Brevard, in close proximity to the city center. The city is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains, whose beauty attracts many to the school. The college is located in close vicinity to the Pisgah National Forest and the Blue Ridge Parkway, which both serve as important resources for many of the school's programs relating to art, ecology, environmental issues, and wilderness leadership.

The campus is comprised of mainly brick buildings with large greens and abundant trees. White squirrels are the most famous campus residents. Although commonly mistaken for albinos, the white squirrels found on campus are simply color variants of the typical Eastern Gray Squirrel. The city of Brevard is famous for its white squirrels, and the college campus contains them in large numbers.

The "crown jewel" of campus is the Paul Porter Center for the Performing Arts, which is host not only to the college's theatre program, but a concert season that often includes world-renowned artists. The centerpiece of the concert hall is one of the region's largest pipe organs.

The last ten years have seen much construction and renovation on campus. Construction of an annex to the Moore Science building concluded in May 2006. A project to ecologically restore Kings Creek, a small creek which runs through campus, is ongoing.

Academics

Brevard College offers over 40 Majors and Minors. The college continues to increase the number of academic opportunities available with the recent addition of a criminal justice program and Teacher Licensure. Brevard offers several majors not commonly found at most colleges. Examples include ecology, as well as wilderness leadership/experiential education, often referred to on-campus as "WLEE" (pronounced "willy"). [http://www.brevard.edu/Academics/MajorsMinors/tabid/106/Default.aspx List of academic programs]

Brevard's unique "Voice of the Rivers" program combines academics with outdoor exploration as students and faculty explore rivers in sea kayaks. The groups investigate all aspects of rivers and their importance to society while camping along the riverbank and talking about their experiences with the people they meet. The inaugural trip occurred in 1998 when a group left from Brevard and paddled to the Gulf of Mexico via the French Broad, Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers. In 1998, another group traveled down the Green River, near Brevard, and entered the ocean at Charleston, SC. On the 2001 expedition, 8 students and two instructors paddled through two river systems from the Andes to the South Atlantic Ocean in Patagonia, Argentina. The 2008 trip traversed the Savannah River system starting just west of Brevard and ending at Savannah, GA. Future trips will tackle some of the other great rivers of the world.

Athletics

Athletics play a large role in the Brevard College campus life scene and are an important part of the institution's history. The college currently fields athletic teams in the following sports:

*Baseball (Men only)
*Basketball
*Cheerleading (Women only)
*Cross country
*Cycling
*Football(Men Only)
*Golf
*Soccer
*Softball (Women only)
*Tennis
*Track and Field
*Volleyball (Women Only)

The Brevard College Tornados formerly competed in the Appalachian Athletic Conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. In 2008, Brevard became a full member of Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The fall of 2006 saw the college field a football team for the first time since the 1950's. Disc golf is also a popular leisure activity on campus; Brevard competes in several annual tournaments with other local colleges.

External links

* [http://www.brevard.edu/ Brevard College Home Page]
* [http://www.theportercenter.org Porter Center for Performing Arts]
* [http://www.brevard.edu/athletics BC Athletics]