Stetson University facts for kids
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Former names
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DeLand Academy (1883–1885) DeLand College (1885–1886) DeLand University (1886–1889) |
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| Motto | Pro Deo et Veritate (Latin) |
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Motto in English
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For God and Truth |
| Type | Private university |
| Established | 1883 |
| Founder | Henry Addison DeLand |
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Religious affiliation
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Protestant (Southern Baptist) (1885–1907) (1919–1995) No affiliation (1995–present) |
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Academic affiliations
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SACS |
| Endowment | $387 million |
| President | Chris Roellke |
| Provost | Elizabeth A. Skomp |
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Academic staff
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265 |
| Students | 4,330 |
| Undergraduates | 3,084 |
| Postgraduates | 1,246 |
| Location |
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U.S.
29°02′06″N 81°18′09″W / 29.0350°N 81.3026°W |
| Campus | |
| Colors | Green & white |
| Nickname | Stetson Hatters |
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Sporting affiliations
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NCAA Division I; ASUN Conference and Pioneer Football League |
| Mascot | "John B." |
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Stetson University is a private university located in Central Florida. It started in 1883 as DeLand Academy. Later, it was renamed John B. Stetson University to honor a generous person who donated a lot of money. The main campus in DeLand is 175 acres big. It has Florida's oldest buildings used for higher education, like DeLand Hall. This building is the longest-standing one in Florida used for college classes.
Stetson University offers more than 55 main subjects and smaller subjects for students to study. These lead to different types of bachelor's degrees. It also has 18 programs for students who want to study more after their first degree. These include subjects like Business, Law, Education, and Fine Arts. The university is officially approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. There is one teacher for every 12 students, which means you get a lot of personal attention.
The university has four main parts: the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Music, the School of Business Administration, and the Stetson University College of Law. The law school was the first one in Florida.
Stetson University also has several libraries, like the duPont-Ball Library. The DeLand campus has even been used as a place to film movies and TV shows! Recently, new buildings have been added, including a science building and modern student centers.
Contents
History of Stetson University
Stetson University was founded in 1883. It was first called DeLand Academy, named after Henry Addison DeLand. He was the main founder of the town. In 1887, the school became DeLand University. But in 1889, its name changed to John B. Stetson University. This was to honor John B. Stetson, a famous hat maker. He gave a lot of money to the university and helped start it.
The first leader of the academy was Dr. John H Griffith. When the college began, Dr. John Franklin Forbes became its first President.
For a long time, until 1995, Stetson was connected to the Florida Baptist Convention. It was known as a "Baptist school."
Stetson University Campus
Stetson University is in DeLand, Florida. This town is about halfway between Orlando and Daytona Beach. The main campus is just north of the downtown area. This campus is where you'll find the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business Administration, and the School of Music. Most of the advanced study programs are here too.
The 175-acre campus in DeLand is special. It's recognized as a historic district because it has Florida's oldest group of buildings used for education.
DeLand Hall
DeLand Hall opened in 1884. It cost about $4,000 to build. This was the first academic building on campus. Today, it is the oldest building in Florida that has been used continuously for higher education. The President's office and other important university offices are located in DeLand Hall.
Lynn Business Center
The Lynn Business Center is where the university's School of Business is located. Students often call it the LBC. It was built in 2003. This building was the first "green building" on Stetson's campus. It was also the first green building in the entire state of Florida. Green buildings are designed to be good for the environment.
Elizabeth Hall
Elizabeth Hall holds many departments from the College of Arts and Sciences. The Lee Chapel is at the south end of this building. Elizabeth Hall is a well-known symbol of the undergraduate campus. It was named after Elizabeth, the wife of founder John B. Stetson. The building looks like Independence Hall in Philadelphia. It has three stories of patterned brick and a tall central tower with a white dome.
This building used to be for natural sciences and the library. Now, it has offices for teachers and departments like philosophy, political science, and economics.
Lee Chapel
Lee Chapel is inside the historic Elizabeth Hall. It is a performance hall that is over 100 years old. It can seat about 700 people. The chapel is great for classical music because of its sound. It was built in 1897 to remember John B. Stetson's son, Ben, who passed away at age 6. Today, it is named after H. Douglas Lee, who was Stetson's president for many years.
The chapel can hold up to 787 people. An art professor named William Sharp designed all the beautiful stained glass windows. The organ in the chapel is very special. It was built in 1961 in Germany and has 2,548 pipes! Many famous people have spoken in Lee Chapel, including presidents and Nobel Prize winners.
Recent Campus Updates
In 2018, Stetson University received a large donation of $18 million. This money was used to build a new science building on the DeLand campus. It also helped improve the science programs. Before that, over $17 million was spent on new buildings. These included the Rinker Welcome Center and the Carlton Union Building.
Stetson University College of Law
The Stetson University College of Law was started in 1900 in DeLand. It closed for a few years during World War II, from 1942 to 1946. In 1954, the law school moved to Gulfport, Florida, where it is still located today. It was the first law school in Florida.
Student Housing
The student living areas in DeLand and Gulfport became smoke-free and tobacco-free in 2014.
There are many places for students to live at Stetson University's DeLand campus. These include:
- Carson-Hollis Hall
- Chaudoin Hall
- Conrad Hall
- Emily Hall
- Gordis Hall
- Hatter Hall
- Houses 1-7 (which include sororities)
- Houses A-F (which include fraternities)
- Nemec Hall
- Plymouth Apartments
- Smith Hall
- Stetson Cove Apartments
- Stetson Oaks Apartments
- Stetson Palms Apartments
- University Hall (U-Hall)
- University Village Apartments (UVA)
Academics at Stetson
Stetson University offers over 55 main subjects and smaller subjects. Students can earn different types of bachelor's degrees. There are also 18 programs for graduate students in subjects like Business, Law, Education, and Fine Arts. The law school offers special degrees for lawyers. Stetson graduates who meet certain grades can get into the law school easily.
The university is officially approved by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. There is a great student-to-teacher ratio of 12 to 1. This means teachers can give more attention to each student. Stetson has 265 full-time teachers across all its schools.
College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is the main part of the university for general studies. It has 19 academic departments and many different programs. This college is the largest on campus, with the most students and teachers. It includes subjects like history, science, social studies, education, and arts.
School of Music
Stetson's School of Music is known as one of the best music schools in the country for undergraduate students. It was the first college music school in Florida. It has a long history of excellent teaching. The school is small, which helps students and teachers connect easily. There are just over 300 music students and 52 artist-teachers.
Students can perform in the symphony orchestra, band, choirs, opera, and jazz groups. They can also do solo performances. The school offers degrees in music performance, education, and creating music. Music students can also combine their music studies with business or pre-law.
School of Business Administration
The School of Business Administration opened in 1897. Today, it is one of only 178 business schools worldwide that is approved for both accounting and business. The school offers many different business majors. Each major helps students focus on a specific business area.
Undergraduate students can study accounting, management, finance, international business, marketing, and more. There are also master's programs for business. The accounting program is very special, being one of only 182 worldwide to have a top accreditation.
College of Law
Florida's first law school, the College of Law, has been teaching lawyers, judges, and community leaders for over 100 years. It is known for its strong programs in trial advocacy (speaking in court) and legal writing.
University Libraries
duPont-Ball Library This library offers cool technology like 3D scanning and printing. It also has many online resources, including 50,000 full-text journals, magazines, and newspapers. As of 2022, the library has over 934,000 physical items.
The Stetson University Archives keep old photos, yearbooks, and documents about the university's history. It also has special collections, like rare books and children's books.
The duPont-Ball Library is also a federal and state document depository. This means it receives government publications. These documents are open to the public for free.
The library also has an Innovation Lab. This is a special place for students and teachers to create projects. It has 3D printers, virtual reality, and tools for soldering, woodworking, and sewing.
Dolly & Homer Hand Law Library The law libraries at the Gulfport and Tampa campuses help law students and teachers with their research. The Gulfport library is open to the public. Their collection of law books and journals is very large.
Early Library History Before the first official library in 1887, DeLand University had a small collection of books. These books were kept in DeLand Hall. In 1887, the collection grew quickly when the college became Florida's first place to store federal government documents.
In 1889, when the university was renamed John B. Stetson University, it hired Florida's first full-time librarian. This person helped organize the books using a system called the Dewey Decimal Classification System. They also added magazines and journals to the collection.
Sampson Hall: A Carnegie Library In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a rich man named Andrew Carnegie helped build many public libraries. Libraries built with his donations are called Carnegie libraries. Stetson University received $40,000 from Carnegie in 1906. This was the largest grant given to a Florida college library. John B. Stetson's wife, Elizabeth, also gave money.
The Sampson Library opened in 1908. It was named after C.T. Sampson, who also donated a lot. The building was designed to look like many other Carnegie libraries. In 1964, the duPont-Ball Library became the new main library. Students and staff helped move over 100,000 books from Sampson Hall to the new building.
Special Programs
Stetson offers many special academic programs:
- The Roland George Investments Program lets business students manage real money (over $2.8 million!).
- The Honors Program brings students and teachers together for special projects.
- The Nina B. Hollis Institute for Education Reform works to make education better for all ages.
- The Family Enterprise Center offers a major in family business.
- The Centurion Sales Program teaches advanced sales skills.
- Stetson also has a program that offers college education to people in prison.
Stetson University also has programs for younger students, up to ninth grade. The HATS (High Achieving Talented Students) Program offers Saturday and summer classes for gifted students.
International Education
Stetson University offers programs where students can study abroad. They can go to universities in countries like Spain, France, Germany, Mexico, England, and China. There's also an option to study in Washington, D.C.
Student Research
Students at Stetson can do their own research projects. They can also work with teachers on research. Two programs help with this:
- The SURE (Stetson Undergraduate Research Experience) Grant gives money and mentors to students for summer research.
- Stetson Showcase is a day where all students can share their research with the university community.
Continuing Education
The university offers programs for adults and organizations outside the university.
- The Road Scholar program lets older adults take classes on campus for a week.
- The Florida Winter Pastors’ School is held each February for religious leaders.
- Destination Science camps are offered each summer for kids aged 6–11. They learn about robots and rockets.
- Stetson Lifelong provides a place for community members to learn and socialize.
- Stetson HATS (High Achieving Talented Students) is a year-round program for talented Florida students.
Student Life
Stetson has about 20 honor societies and over 100 other student groups. These include:
- Phi Beta Kappa (Stetson was the first private university in Florida to have a chapter).
- The Reporter, Florida's oldest college newspaper.
- Model United Nations (a club where students pretend to be diplomats).
- Clubs for different interests like poetry, gardening, and student magazines.
There are also many religious groups on campus, such as Catholic Campus Ministry, Jewish student organizations, and Muslim American Student Organization.
Stetson also has groups that focus on different cultures and social justice. These include the Black Student Association and the Hispanic Organization for Latin American Awareness (HOLA).
Students can also join the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) unit. This program helps students become officers in the United States Army after they graduate.
About 29% of students at Stetson are part of a fraternity or sorority. There are six sororities and eight fraternities. There are also music fraternities for men and women.
Movies Filmed at Stetson
Several movies have been filmed on the Stetson campus and in the city of DeLand. Some of these include:
- Ghost Story (1981), with Fred Astaire.
- The Waterboy, starring Adam Sandler.
- Walt Before Mickey.
Student Government
The Stetson University Student Government Association started in 1908. It represents all undergraduate students. The student government has two parts: an executive branch and a legislative branch. The president and vice president are elected each year.
Model United States Senate
Stetson University hosts the nation's first and oldest college-level Model United States Senate program. It started in 1970 and happens every March. Students from colleges across the country come to Stetson for this three-day event. They act like U.S. Senators, learning how the Senate works. They research bills and create changes to them. Famous speakers, including former U.S. senators, often attend.
Stetson Athletics
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| Men's Teams Basketball Baseball Rowing|Crew Cross country Golf Soccer Tennis Football |
Women's Teams Basketball Softball Rowing|Crew Cross country Golf Soccer Tennis Volleyball Sand Volleyball Lacrosse |
Stetson is part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The university has 18 men's and women's sports teams. They compete at the Division I level. They are part of the ASUN Conference and the Pioneer Football League. The school's mascot is "John B.", named after the university's benefactor.
Many Stetson teams have won championships or received national recognition. These include basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, soccer, sand volleyball, and softball.
Baseball is one of the popular sports at Stetson. Since 1970, the baseball team has won seven conference championships. They have also made 16 trips to the NCAA Regionals. In 2013, the women's basketball team went to the NCAA tournament for the third time. They won their conference championship in 2005, 2011, and 2013.
Stetson had a football team from 1901 to 1956. In 2011, the university announced that football would return. They also added women's lacrosse. Stetson's sand volleyball team started in 2012. The lacrosse and football teams played their first games in 2013.
Stetson's main sports rivals are Jacksonville University and Florida Gulf Coast University.
Athletic Facilities
- The J. Ollie Edmunds Center is a 4,000-seat arena for basketball and volleyball. It also has athletic offices and a weight room.
- The Athletic Training Center is a large complex that opened in 2012. It has fields for football practice, and fields for soccer and lacrosse games.
- Patricia Wilson Softball Field was named the Softball Field of the Year in 2009.
- The Wilson Athletic Center has the sport and exercise science department.
- Mandy Stoll Tennis Center is next to the soccer field.
- Melching Field at Conrad Park is the baseball stadium, located off campus.
- Victoria Hills Golf Club is also off campus.
- Hollis Center
- Sandra Stetson Aquatic Center is a $7 million center that opened in 2019. It is home to the men's and women's crew teams.
- Spec Martin Stadium is a 6,000-seat football stadium off campus.
Awards and Recognitions
Stetson is often recognized for its community service. The Corporation for National and Community Service has named it to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. In 2014, Stetson was one of only two universities to earn this award in every category.
Other awards and recognitions include:
- Received a $1.1 million grant in 2014 to improve education in Volusia County.
- Won Florida Campus Compact's Most Engaged Campus Award in 2012.
- Ranked as one of the top universities in the South by U.S. News & World Report in 2015.
- Named a "Military-Friendly School." The School of Business Administration was also recognized as one of the best for veterans.
- Stetson University College of Law was ranked first in the U.S. for trial advocacy by U.S. News & World Report in 2015.
Famous People Who Went to Stetson
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