Longwood University Mission
Longwood University is an institution of higher learning dedicated to the development of citizen leaders who are prepared to make positive contributions to the common good of society. Building upon its strong foundation in the liberal arts and sciences, the University provides an environment in which exceptional teaching fosters student learning, scholarship, and achievement. As the only four-year public institution in south central Virginia, Longwood University serves as a catalyst for regional prosperity and advancement.
Approved by the Longwood Board of Visitors, July, 1997
Vision
Longwood University will transform capable men and women into citizen leaders, fully engaged in the world around them. The University will be a first choice institution renowned for developing the power of citizen leadership in its students for the benefit of the greater community.
What is a Citizen Leader?
Citizen leaders are the bedrock of the democracy. They are the reasons communities thrive. They are the people who make the United States of America what it wants to be. They make our nation work. They care and they equip themselves with the tools to bring their caring to life in the world. A citizen leader effectively combines three components of a joy-filled life.
Education: The citizen leader is a lifelong learner and stays connected to what is new in the world. Faculty are encouraged and rewarded for contributing to scholarship as well as for their service as teachers.
Values: Citizen leaders know their values and live by them. Honesty, equality, civility, duty and an appreciation of the differences among peoples are fundamental values. To these, the citizen leader adds the personal values that define him or her.
Service: The capstone of every great civilization has always been a commitment to serve others. It is a common precept of the world’s great religions; it is one of the finest expressions of our humanity. To the citizen leader, service is not just an extracurricular activity.
Approved by the Longwood Board of Visitors, December 8, 2007
Location
Longwood University is located in historic Farmville, Virginia – 65 miles west of Richmond and Petersburg, 48 miles east of Lynchburg, and 60 miles south of Charlottesville. U.S. Highways 15 and 460 intersect in town. Commercial bus systems provide service to the town.
Farmville is a growing college town with a population of 8,200 plus; it is the business and education center of the area. Located in and near town are churches, hotels, motels, a country club, a municipal airport, and a community hospital. Hampden-Sydney College, a liberal arts college for men, is five miles south of the campus. Many points of historic interest are within a short distance of Farmville, including Appomattox Courthouse and National Historical Park, Sailors Creek Battlefield State Park, Bear Creek Lake State Park, Twin Lakes State Park, Holliday Lake State Park, and the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford. The nationally known Lee’s Retreat Civil War Trail and the new Civil Rights in Education Heritage Trail pass through Farmville.
History
Longwood University, a pioneer first in private and later in public education, is one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in the United States. It was founded on March 5, 1839 when the Farmville Female Seminary Association was incorporated by the General Assembly of Virginia.
In the succeeding years the increasing prosperity of the Farmville Female Seminary led the stock holders to expand the seminary into a college, and the Farmville Female College was incorporated in 1860. On April 7, 1884, the State of Virginia acquired the property of the Farmville Female College, and in October of the same year the Normal School opened with 110 students enrolled. This was the first state institution of higher learning for women in Virginia.
With the passage of the years, the Normal School expanded its curriculum and progressed through a succession of names. It became the State Normal School for Women in 1914, the State Teachers College at Farmville in 1924, Longwood College in 1949, and Longwood University in 2002. Longwood became fully coeducational in June 1976. The University became NCAA Division I on September 1, 2007.
Longwood was first authorized to offer a four-year curriculum leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education in 1916. It was authorized to offer the Bachelor of Arts in 1935, the Bachelor of Science in 1938, a curriculum in business education the same year, courses leading to a degree in music education in 1949, and the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1976. In 1978, Longwood was authorized to offer the Bachelor of Fine Arts, and in 1981, the Bachelor of Music. In 1954, graduate programs were authorized.
Campus
The campus of Longwood University has seen dramatic improvements over the past few years with the completion of major construction and campus beautification projects. Brock Commons, a beautiful pedestrian promenade named after benefactors Macon and Joan Brock (Class of 1964), was officially opened on April 24, 2004. Brock Commons has become the central focal point for Longwood, uniting the campus community around a safe, pedestrian-friendly environment, while creating an outdoor, collegial ambiance for students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
Near the center of Brock Commons is the two-story, 60,000 square foot Dorrill Dining Hall, located across from the Lankford Student Union and named in honor of Longwood’s 23rd president, Dr. William F. Dorrill, who served from 1988 to 1996. This multi-purpose facility, with its curved, colonnaded portico overlooking Iler Field, is the first on campus to utilize geothermal heating and cooling. The flexible interior design provides space for banquets, meetings, and special events along with a Grand Dining Room seating 500 and an arcade seating an additional 700.
Adjacent to Brock Commons are broad lawns, five NCAA tennis courts, four athletic fields, and numerous late-20th century buildings, the Lankford Student Union, residence halls, and various academic facilities. The campus has six auditoriums ranging in size from 150 seats to 1,227.
The Greenwood Library supports Longwood’s mission of developing citizen leaders through an array of services and resources. It is a learning-centered environment that fosters intellectual exchange, scholarly communication, cultural enrichment, lifelong information literacy, and creative expression. The library also provides integrated technology for information retrieval from libraries throughout the world. This facility is named in honor of Longwood’s 22nd president, Dr. Janet Daly Greenwood who served from 1981 to 1987.
Lancer Hall was renamed Willett Hall on September 9, 2004 in honor of Dr. Henry I. Willett Jr., president from 1967 to1981. Willett Hall is a health, physical education, and recreation complex located on Brock Commons. It has a newly-renovated gymnasium (Lancer Gym) with 1,720 seats; a complete weight-training laboratory; a 25-meter pool with a one-meter board, underwater lighting, and observation window; a 350-seat natatorium; a modern dance studio with a floating floor and staging capacity; and one of the state’s best-equipped laboratories for the study of human performance as it relates to exercise, sports, health, and the arts. A 3,000-square foot addition to Willett Hall houses a new Sports Medicine/Rehabilitation facility for the Health Recreation and Kinesiology programs.
Lancaster Hall was the original college library, which opened on November 9, 1939 and was named in 1962 for Dr. Dabney S. Lancaster, president of the college from 1946 until 1955. The classic design with its distinctive columns was constructed by the Works Project Administration (WPA) under the Roosevelt Administration and a bronze plaque near the front reads “Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States (and) Harold L. Ickes, Administrator of Public Works, Library 1939.” Today, Lancaster Hall houses the President’s Office and the offices of Administration and Finance, University Advancement, and Student Affairs, which includes financial aid, housing, the Career Center, and the ID center.
Longwood’s signature building, Ruffner Hall with its beautiful Rotunda, was rededicated on April 23, 2005 and replicates the university’s most beloved building, dating to the 1880s, which burned on April 24, 2001 while undergoing a $12 million renovation. The original eight paintings on the interior of the Rotunda dome, created in 1905 by the Italian-born artist Eugene D. Monfalcone of Richmond, have been returned to the dome following an extensive restoration that was underway prior to the fire. The historic Joan of Arc statue, known affectionately as “Joanie on the Stony,” was also restored recently and returned to its place of honor on the main floor beneath the Rotunda. The bigger-than-life sculpture is a reproduction of the famous 1870 original created by French sculptor Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu. The statue was a gift of the Class of 1914 and symbolizes Joan of Arc as the patron saint of Longwood.
Ruffner Hall was reconstructed in the classic style based on the original blueprints and drawings from the state archives in Richmond. The 83,143 square foot building houses 22 classrooms, four academic departments, the offices of the Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs and the Deans of the College of Graduate and Professional Studies and the Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences.
The Chichester Science Center opened on December 6, 2005. The 70,822 square foot facility includes 23 classrooms and laboratories, 47 faculty offices and additional research space for both undergraduate and graduate research projects. The building, which was named in 2007 in honor of John H. and Karen Williams Chichester, class of 1974, features a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled environment, with safety ventilation systems and hazardous materials safeguards along with a high-tech infrastructure for classrooms, laboratories, and distance learning facilities. A greenhouse and herbarium, housing the world’s largest collection of Virginia plant specimens, are located on the roof.
The multi-faceted Health and Fitness Center opened in August 2007 and is located on Main Street, adjacent to Frazer Residence Hall. The 74,683 square foot, two-and-a-half story facility, features a wide range of amenities including an indoor track, basketball and racquetball courts, a climbing wall, work-out rooms, and the latest weight, exercise and training equipment. The building received a Gold Certification Rating in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) from the U.S. Green Building Council.
In Fall 2009, a new Center for Communications Studies and Theatre opened a new era for one of Longwood’s fastest growing programs. The three-story, 41,983-square foot building, which is home to the Department of Communication Studies and Theatre, is situated between the south end of Bedford Hall and Franklin Street across from the Hull Education Center. The new building features a highly flexible 174-seat “black box” theater, in which the seats and stage can be moved around, which is home to Longwood Theatre productions. A studio theater, of about 80 seats and also flexible, is used for student production and there is a scene shop, a costume shop and a drafting lab. The Center also houses the Jack Blanton Gallery, which features more than 160 of the 230 pieces of artwork donated by Jack Blanton to the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts.
Nearly 1,000 students reside among three campus-managed apartment communities - Longwood Landings at Mid-Town Square, Longwood Village, and Lancer Park, where Longwood’s two newest residence halls, home to 454 students, and an adjacent commons building opened in August 2013. Some of the amenities and features of the apartments are private bedrooms (some with private baths), full kitchens (most with dishwashers), washer/dryer units, large living areas, high-speed Internet, and cable television. Two of the three communities have fitness rooms and one has a swimming pool and a game room. On campus, Wheeler and Cox Halls recently reopened following complete renovations. These residence halls now include elevators, air conditioning, bathrooms with ceramic tile and new fixtures, contemporary study rooms with modern amenities, and common areas with outside terraces.
Longwood Landings at Mid-Town Square, which opened in August 2006, is a residential village that includes four four-story buildings with the top three floors dedicated to student housing and the ground floor devoted to leased retail space. Longwood students occupy 96 four-bedroom and 24 single-room apartments. Retailers include Barnes & Noble, which operates Longwood’s bookstore and includes a Starbucks Café, and a Chick-fil-A and Moe’s Southwest Grill operated by Longwood Dining Services (ARAMARK).
Not far from campus, students can enjoy the facilities at Longwood Estate, which feature a new complex of athletic fields for field hockey, lacrosse, and soccer, along with a nine-hole golf course. The President’s home, Longwood House, is situated on the Estate.
Library Resources and Services
The Greenwood Library, conveniently located near the center of the campus, is open for use 93 hours each week during regular sessions. The Library supports Longwood’s mission of developing citizen leaders through a comprehensive array of services and resources. It is a learning-centered environment that fosters intellectual exchange, scholarly communication, cultural enrichment, lifelong information literacy, and creative expression. The Library’s collection includes over 335,000 books, 32,000 audiovisual items including DVDs, CDs, and streaming videos; 110,000 electronic books; about 800 current periodical subscriptions in print or online; and more than 58,000 electronic journals. The Library also has approximately 670,000 microform units, and over 1,000 linear feet of manuscript and archival material. Students, faculty and staff have remote access to over 300 databases (more than half of which are provided by VIVA, the state supported consortium of higher education institutions in Virginia. In addition, the library can obtain resources not available in its collections from other libraries through Interlibrary Loan.
The Library’s Learning Commons provides 82 workstations to access the Internet and the Library’s electronic resources. An additional 20 PC workstations are located in the Library’s computing center lab. The Multimedia Lab includes 17 iMacs. A variety of equipment (e.g., cameras, projectors, PC and Mac laptops, and iPads) are available for check out at the Library’s single-service point, “the Desk.”.
The Library provides a variety of personalized services, including: individual reference and research assistance; virtual chat and e-mail reference; distance and online education support; and support for the university’s institutional repository (Digital Commons @ Longwood University).
The Unversity Year
The university year consists of a regular session, including two semesters of 15 weeks each, a winter intersession, and a summer semester. The summer semester consists of three sessions. Both undergraduate and graduate classes during the summer are scheduled in traditional time frames for four- or five-day weeks depending on the session and in a variety of non-traditional formats.
Accreditation and Membership
Longwood University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award baccalaureate and master’s degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Longwood University.
Contact information for the Commission on Colleges is provided above so that interested parties can learn more about the accreditation status of Longwood University; file a third-party comment at the time of Longwood University’s decennial review; or file a complaint against Longwood University for alleged significant non-compliance with a standard or requirement. Normal inquiries about Longwood University, such as admission requirements, financial aid, and educational programs should be addressed directly to Longwood University and not to the Commission.
Longwood University was first accredited by SACSCOC in 1927 and last reaffirmed in 2014. Longwood’s next ten-year reaffirmation visit will occur in the spring of 2024.
Longwood University programs and units are also accredited by the following, with the latest accreditation year in parentheses:
- American Alliance of Museums (2010)
- Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (2012)
- Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (2013)
- Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (2012)
- Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (2012)
- Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (2012) {Effective July 1, 2013, NCATE and TEAC consolidated to form this new accrediting body.}
- Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2015)
- Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Related Professions (2012)
- Council on Social Work Education (2014)
- International Association of Counseling Services (2012)
- National Association of Schools of Music (2006)
- National Association of Schools of Theatre (2012)
- Virginia Law Enforcement Professional Standards Commission (2016)
- Virginia State Board of Education (2012)
Accreditation documents may be viewed during normal business hours in the Office of Academic Affairs.
The University is a member of the Association of American Colleges; the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; the American Library Association; the Association of Virginia Colleges; the Virginia Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; the Council of Graduate Schools; and the Virginia Council of Graduate Schools.
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