Subsidized Athletes
The school's small size necessitated the adoption of a program of subsidation of athletes two years ago. Increasingly poor football seasons led an alumni group to band together in the Wildcat Club for the express purpose of soliciting donations and attracting athletes. All funds, however, have been administered through the College Treasurer, and athletes are required to get the same grades and take the same programs as other students.
In spite of a string of poor football teams, Davidson men have still continued to support the Wildcats with the same fervor that marked the hey-day of football at the little Southern school back in the '30s. Everyone goes to the home games, and many men follow the team on the conference road trips.
Whenever the team comes home after a road trip that has been marked by an especially bitter defeat, the student body is down at the railroad station to great it.
Although it is not a land-grant college, Davidson requires all students to participate in at least two years of the Army R.O.T.C. program. Exceptions are made only in cases where a student is physically unfit or is specifically excused by reason of approved parental request made in writing before registration. Graduates of the college's Infantry program achieved an especially fine record in World War II.
Davidson's physical plant is one of the best in the South. Most of the buildings are reasonably modern, but there are still some striking reminders of the past. The most unique are the Literary Society houses.
After the Reconstruction, the Eumenean and the Philanthropic Literary Societies were the center of almost all extra-curricular activities. In the early years, students from North Carolina traditionally belonged to the Phi Society, while those from other states joined the Eu. Rivalry between these two organizations was as fierce as any inter-collegiate rivalries of today. Woodrow Wilson, who studied at Davidson during the year 1873-74, made his first public address from the porch of the Eu Club.
Today, the buildings still stand, but are used by only a small segment of the student body, mute testimony to the unique spirit of aesthetic gallantry that flourished in the South 20 years after the close of the Civil War.
Davidson is constantly looking towards the future. Under the guidance of Rev. John R. Cunningham, President of the college since 1941, the school has continued in its role as a servant institution of the church and the community, and has prospered as never before.
Besides witnessing a tremendous expansion in physical plant, the last decade has seen the endowment of the college double, rising to more than $6,000,000. Salaries have been raised. A greatly enlarged faculty has been gathered to cope with the need created by an unprecedented influx of students during the post-war era.
But in spite of great progress on material levels, Davidson has clung to a brand of education that is almost classical in nature, a brand of education that shuns all trade school ideas and is primarily concerned with the development of a thinking, self-sufficient individual.
Classics Required for A.B.
Davidson is one of the few schools where a knowledge of Greek or Latin is still a pre-requisite for the Bachelor of Arts degree (Harvard abolished this requirement with the class of 1950). Davidson men are required to take two years of Bible study, two years of English, a year of mathematics, a year of a laboratory science, a year of history, and two years of a foreign language. By requiring these courses, the college hopes to provide each student with a common core of knowledge regardless of his field of concentration.
Over half of Davidson's graduates enter some type of graduate school. Approximately 25 per cent of the student body are pre-medical students. Nine Rhodes scholars have been chosen from the ranks of Davidson men.
These figures furnish sufficient proof that the Davidson formula--a liberal arts curriculum coupled with a highly restricted campus life--succeeds in producing the type of man that the founders of the college desired, a man who will bring a disciplined mind and body to bear on the many problems facing an expanding South.