Spring Hill College

History

Spring Hill College was founded by the first bishop of Mobile, Michael Portier, who was from France. After purchasing a site for the college on a hill near Mobile, Bishop Portier went to France to recruit teachers and raise funds for the new college. Portier recruited two priests and four seminarians from France to staff the school. A friend of Portier, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Archbishop of Lyons, was a major benefactor to the fledgling College, donating his philosophical and theological library and various works of art. Pauline Jaricot, founder of the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, donated 38,000 francs, an enormous sum in those days.

The bishop himself taught theology to the ecclesiastical students, who numbered six the first year. Upon his return from France, Portier rented a hotel next to the college grounds and started the first semester on May 1, 1830, with an enrollment of thirty students. Spring Hill is the oldest institution of higher education in Alabama. On July 4 of the same year, the bishop laid the cornerstone of the first permanent building. It stood on the site of the present Administration Building and opened for classes in November 1831. Spring Hill is among the oldest colleges in the South. It is the third-oldest Jesuit college in the United States.

In 1836 the governor of Alabama, Clement C. Clay, signed a legislative act that chartered the College and gave it "full power to grant or confer such degree or degrees in the arts and sciences, or in any art or science as are usually granted or conferred by other seminaries of learning in the United States." This power was used in the following year, 1837, when four graduates received their degrees.

The first two presidents of the College were called away to be bishops, one to Dubuque, Iowa (Bishop Mathias Loras), the other to Vincennes, Indiana (Bishop John Stephen Bazin). The third president, Father Mauvernay, died after a brief term of office. Bishop Portier transferred the College, first to the French Fathers of Mercy, and next to the Society of Jesus and Mary, but both groups lacked teaching and administrative experience.

He persuaded the Fathers of the Lyonnais Province of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) to take possession of the College. The new regime was inaugurated with Father Francis Gautrelet, S.J., as president in September 1847. Since that time the institution has continued under Jesuit direction.

Many boys were sent to Spring Hill during the American Civil War as they neared the draft age. But numerous students wanted to be part of the war effort. The college eventually formed two military companies. Some of Spring Hill's Jesuit fathers became chaplains for the Confederacy. A recruiter tried to conscript all forty of the Jesuit brothers at the college into the Confederate Army. The College President Gautrelet dispatched an urgent message to the assistant secretary of war in Richmond, who granted a temporary reprieve of the brothers' conscription.

During the Reconstruction era, the College recruited students from among the sons of Central American and Cuban leaders. Following student complaints that Spanish was challenging the dominance of English on the campus, the Jesuits organized a Spanish–American league. In 1869 a fire destroyed the main building. Students and faculty had to relocate for a time to St. Charles College in Grand Coteau, Louisiana. Bishop John Quinlan and other benefactors assisted in rebuilding the College, which reopened at Spring Hill before the year's end.

As the enrollment increased, Quinlan Hall, St. Joseph's Chapel, the Thomas Byrne Memorial Library, and Mobile Hall were erected. In 1935, the high school, which had been a unit distinct from the College since 1923, was discontinued. In the space vacated by the high school, the Jesuit House of Studies was opened in 1937, and the Scholasticate of the Sacred Heart opened on a site adjoining the College a few years later.

After World War II, a great influx of veterans taxed the facilities of the College, which erected numerous temporary buildings on the campus to handle the new students. At the request of Archbishop Thomas Joseph Toolen of Mobile, the College became co-educational in 1952. In 1954 the College accepted African-American students into all departments, before the United States Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Mrs. Fannie E. Motley was the first black graduate from the institution in 1956.

Spring Hill College was a leading institution in Alabama to press for racial equality. It was praised by civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who referred to the college in his 1963 "Letter from Birmingham Jail." He noted that the College was one of the first Southern schools to integrate. Spring Hill received threats from those opposed to the civil rights movement and integration.

On the night of January 21, 1957, a dozen or more darkened cars entered the main avenue of the college. KKK members tried to set up a kerosene-soaked cross outside Mobile Hall, a dormitory. They were unaware that they were there during finals week. Most of the white, male residents were still awake, studying for exams, and several heard the hammering. Once alerted, students streamed from both ends of the building carrying whatever items were handy as weapons — golf clubs, tennis rackets, bricks, a softball bat — and put the panicked Klansmen to flight. A KKK contingent returned the next night, burning a cross at the gate of the College before students reacted. The following day, a group of students—male and female—hanged a Klansman in effigy at the College gate, with a sign reading, "KKKers ARE CHICKEN."

Following Hurricane Katrina's widespread destruction along the central Gulf Coast in 2005, Spring Hill accepted 117 students, the majority of them from Loyola University in New Orleans, a brother Jesuit institution, for the remainder of the year.

Student body

More than 1400 students study at Spring Hill College each year, of which more than 70% are from outside Alabama. The student body is 38% male and 62% female. 90% of the freshman class and 75% of the total student body live on campus.

The student-faculty ratio is 13:1, and the average class size is 17. Of faculty members, 87% hold doctorates or the highest degrees in their fields. More than one-third of graduating students continue their education at graduate or professional school.

Curriculum

Spring Hill College academics offer undergraduate students bachelor's degrees through a variety of majors. The available departments include the Division of Business, the Communications/Arts Division, International Studies, Interdivisional Studies, Language and Literature Division, Nursing, Philosophy and Theology, Sciences Division, Social Sciences Division, Teacher Education Division, and lastly, the Pre-Professional Programs. Each of these divisions offers a variety of concentrations from which students can choose majors and minors.

Spring Hill has an academic center in Bologna, Italy; it also accepts study abroad students from other colleges and universities.

Areas of concentration in graduate programs include Master of Business Administration, Teacher Education, Master of Liberal Arts, Master of Science in Nursing, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Pastoral Studies, and Master of Arts in Theology. Certificate programs are offered in theology and ministry. Theological programs are offered at the main campus as well as at off–campus locations in Atlanta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; and Jackson, Mississippi. An online master's degree program for a Master of Science in Nursing is offered that combines online and offline nursing experience. Through the Cooperative Center for Study Abroad consortium, students may arrange for study abroad programs and internships in England, France, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Mexico.

Campus

The Spring Hill College campus is located in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Mobile, Alabama. The college has remained on the same campus that Bishop Portier purchased in 1830. A number of its structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They include the Sodality Chapel (built 1850); the Spring Hill College Quadrangle, comprising the Administration Building (1869), St. Joseph's Chapel (1910), and four other structures; and Stewartfield (1849).

Other notable features of the campus are the Avenue of the Oaks, where graduation traditionally occurs. An 18-hole golf course is used by the team and other students. The historic Administration Building was renovated, which was completed in 2008. It was renamed as "The Gregory F. Lucey, S.J. Administration Center", after Spring Hill College's 38th President.

Clubs and organizations

There are over fifty student-run clubs and organizations at Spring Hill College. They include community service clubs, ministry organizations, athletic and academic clubs.

Greek life

Seven national Greek organizations are represented on campus.

The Greek organizations participate in a "deferred recruitment" process, meaning that the formal recruiting activities occur at the beginning of the spring semester. This is in contrast to many colleges where recruitment takes place at the beginning of the fall semester.

Intramural sports

Spring Hill College has a student-run intramural program. The following sports are offered:

Athletics

The school is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II, and primarily competes in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, bowling (2013), cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field. Women's sports include basketball, bowling (2013), cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, competitive cheer & dance and volleyball. The mascot is the badger.

The Spring Hill football team played its first game in 1900, but was disbanded in 1941.

Spring Hill College has maintained a baseball team since its first intercollegiate play in 1889. Currently, the Spring Hill College baseball team plays its home games at Stan Galle Field ("The Pit"), the oldest continually used college baseball field in the country. Notable baseball alumni include Blake Stein, former pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals, and Jim Hendry, former general manager of the Chicago Cubs.

Spring Hill has moved its college rugby program under the athletic department to provide more resources and to help boost admissions to the school. The rugby program is fully funded, overseen by the athletic department, and provides scholarships for men and women. Spring Hill rugby competes in the small college division.

The school formerly competed in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC). On July 12, 2013, Spring Hill was accepted by the NCAA to begin its process towards joining the NCAA Division II. Spring Hill joined the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference beginning in Fall 2014, becoming the first non-HBCU to join the conference.

On August 11, 2014, the Gulf South Conference announced that Spring Hill would join the conference as an affiliate member competing in men's and women's soccer and women's golf. Spring Hill began to compete in full schedules starting in 2014, but it was not eligible for post-season play until the 2015-16 school year.

Controversy

On July 27, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald spoke at Spring Hill about life in the Soviet Union; his speech was considered controversial because of strong opposition in the United States to communism during the Cold War. His lecture took place months before he assassinated President John F. Kennedy on November 23, 1963.

Alumni

Faculty

Former Alabama State Senator Ann Bedsole of Mobile is a former Spring Hill College trustee.

Founder: Bishop Michael Portier, D.D., first bishop of Mobile, founded Spring Hill College on May 1, 1830; Presidents of the college

1. Bishop Mathias Loras, D.D. 1830-1832
2. Bishop John Stephen Bazin, D.D. 1832-1835
3. Peter Mauvernay 1835-1839
4. Bishop John Stephen Bazin, D.D. 1839-1840
5. Dominic F. Bach, S.P.M. 1840-1842
6. Claude Rampon 1842-1844
7. J. P. Bellier, C.J.M. 1845-1846
8. Albin Desgaultieres 1846
9. Francis de Sales Gautrelet, S.J. 1847-1859
10. Anthony Jourdant, S.J. 1859-1862
11. Francis de Sales Gautrelet, S.J. 1862-1865
12. Aloysius Curioz, S.J. 1865-1868
13. John Montillot, S.J. 1868-1875
14. Dominic Beaudequin, S.J. 1875-1880
15. John A. Downey, S.J. 1880-1883
16. David McKiniry, S.J. 1883-1887
17. James Lonegan, S.J. 1887-1896
18. Michael S. Moynihan, S.J. 1896-1899
19. William Tyrrell, S.J. 1899-1907
20. Francis X. Twellmeyer, S.J. 1907-1913
21. Edward Cummings, S.J. 1913-1919
22. Joseph C. Kearns, S.J. 1919-1922
23. Michael McNally, S.J. 1922-1925
24. Joseph M. Walsh, S.J. 1925-1932
25. John J. Druhan, S.J. 1932-1938
26. W. Doris O'Leary, S.J. 1938-1946
27. W. Patrick Donnelly, S.J. 1946-1952
28. Andrew C. Smith, S.J. 1952-1959
29. A. William Crandell, S.J. 1959-1966
30. William J. Rimes, S.J. 1966-1972
31. Paul Smallwood Tipton, S.J. 1972-1989
32. Donald I. MacLean, S.J. 1989
33. William J. Rewak, S.J. 1989-1997
34. Gregory F. Lucey, S.J. 1997-2009
35. Richard Salmi, S.J. 2009-2013
36. Gregory F. Lucey, S.J. 2013-2015
37. Christopher P. Puto, Ph.D. 2015-Present