Lenoir-Rhyne Is A Small University With Some Big Ambitions
Published May 27, 2009
Lenoir-Rhyne University offers 60 majors and is home to the Reese Institute for the Conservation of Natural Resources.
It wasn’t as if Lenoir-Rhyne was struggling as a college. It was just time to rise up.
For nearly 120 years, the Hickory school had earned a reputation that in recent times made it a familiar presence in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of the best Southern baccalaureate-degree institutions.
But with 50-plus majors, 17 intercollegiate teams, 1,500 students, a multimillion dollar expansion and a growing number of graduate degrees in areas such as athletic training, the feeling spread that Lenoir-Rhyne was getting bigger than its name.
“We were already acting like what most people would call a university,” says Mike Langford, Lenoir-Rhyne director of marketing and communications.
And so, on Aug. 23 2008, the college was reborn as Lenoir-Rhyne University, a move that coincided with a new motto: “Rise up.”
The change had concrete consequences, including restructuring the school into four colleges: Arts and Sciences; Education and Human Services; Health Sciences; and Professional and Mathematical Studies, which includes the new Schort School of Mathematics and Computing Sciences.
By any name, the school has been adding to the region’s intellectual, cultural and academic heritage since 1891, when four Lutheran pastors created a one-room school.
Coeducational from the start, which was rare for that day, Lenoir-Rhyne has often blazed its own trail, through a variety of endeavors, such as its longtime emphasis on education for the hearing impaired.
Indeed, sign language is so common that many students often pick up the basics just by being around it, Langford says. Hearing-impaired students may receive assistance through Support Services for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Students, but otherwise are immersed in regular campus life.
More recently, Lenoir-Rhyne has added environmental programs to its offerings through the Reese Institute for the Conservation of Natural Resources.
The institute was founded in 2004 through a $3 million donation from Thomas Reese, a 1948 graduate, successful businessman and widely recognized conservationist.
Part of the institute’s mission is to help develop long-term solutions to environmental challenges inside and outside the university, such as helping Catawba County meet federal air-quality standards.
In 2009, the university added another program to its community commitments. The Latino Partnership will help Hispanic students unable to enroll in higher education due to legal or financial issues take distance classes in Mexico.
So it’s no surprise that in 2007-2008, Lenoir-Rhyne students performed nearly 1,500 hours of community service. It’s part of the Lenoir-Rhyne way, Langford says.
“We are here to rise up and make a difference in our vocation and our commitment and our service to the world beyond,” Langford says.
Story by Sam Scott
Photo by Ian Curcio
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