Concerned by the failure of the Episcopal Church to establish a successful institution of higher learning within the southern states, ten Episcopal dioceses agreed in 1856 to cooperate in creating a single university. Responding to their bishops' invitation, clergy and lay delegates from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas met at Lookout Mountain near Chattanooga, Tennessee, on July 4, 1857, to name the first board of trustees.
On October 10, 1860, the ceremonial laying of a university cornerstone was completed, but plans were drastically altered by the Civil War, which erupted a few months later. After the war, the bishop of Tennessee and the university's commissioner of buildings and lands returned to the campus in 1866 to formally re-establish the institution. But the money raised before the war was gone, the South was impoverished, and there was much to do before the university would open.
The first convocation of the University of the South was held on September 18, 1868, with nine students and four faculty present. The campus consisted of three simple frame buildings. Although years of struggle and adversity lay ahead, the university grew because many people, eager to participate in this challenging enterprise and willing to sacrifice for it, came to Sewanee.
The university's history can be divided into several periods. The "second founding" in 1866 was followed by years of uncertainty during Reconstruction. But from the end of that period until 1909, the university experienced steady growth.
Rising expenses forced the university to close the departments of dentistry, engineering, law, medicine, and nursing in 1909 allowing it to maintain its basic departments—a preparatory school, college, and seminary. Although the academic strength and reputation of the university grew, it lived with constant financial hardships.
The university shored up its ailing finances, undertook much-needed renovations, and emerged from the eras of the Great Depression and World War II well-equipped and prepared to enter its greatest period of growth. From 1950 to 1970, the endowment increased from just over $1 million to more than $20 million. Old buildings underwent major renovations, new buildings were constructed, and the school became coeducational in 1969.
During the seventies and eighties a new student union and hospital were built and municipal services were modernized. These years were also characterized by a dramatic improvement in the financial condition of the university as well as a revival of religious life on campus. Moreover, the university's three-year national capital campaign met and surpassed its $50 million goal.
From its opening in 1868 until 1981, the university included a preparatory school known successively as the Junior Department, the Sewanee Grammar School, the Sewanee Military Academy, and the Sewanee Academy. In April, 1981, the board of trustees voted to merge the academy with St. Andrew's School on the St. Andrew's campus, just outside the gates of the university domain. St. Andrew's-Sewanee School continues today to provide quality education in an Episcopal setting.
During the 1990s, under the direction of Vice Chancellor Samuel R. Williamson, the university completed its most successful fund raising effort to date, the Campaign for Sewanee, which topped its $91.5 million goal by $16 million. The decade also saw numerous facility improvements, including a new athletic center and dining hall, the completion of a new strategic plan, increased enrollment, and a revision of the curriculum.
Sewanee's current vice chancellor, Joel Cunningham, was elected by a unanimous vote of the university's board of trustees and assumed office in July, 2000. A proponent of partnerships between universities and elementary and secondary schools and a strong advocate of community service, Cunningham believes in the importance of a broad-based liberal-arts education. He received a bachelor's degree, with majors in mathematics and psychology, from the University of Chattanooga (now the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) in 1965. He earned a master's (1967) and a doctorate (1969) in mathematics from the University of Oregon.
