Hendrix College
Sarah Caldwell graduated from a small Methodist college in Conway, Arkansas, and went on to become the first female conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, winning the National Medal of Arts in 1996. Wilbur D. Mills left the same campus to serve in Congress for 38 years and play a central role in creating Medicare. These are not the stories you expect from a school of roughly 1,000 students in a town whose name suggests nothing more dramatic than pleasant conversation. Hendrix College has been quietly producing outsized lives since 1876, when it was founded as a primary school called Central Institute in the Arkansas wine country town of Altus.
Three Names, Three Towns, One College
The school has been renamed twice and relocated once. Founded in 1876 at Altus, Arkansas, by Reverend Isham Burrow, it started as Central Institute -- a primary school. In 1881, it became Central Collegiate Institute when secondary and college departments were added. In 1884, three conferences of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South purchased the school, beginning a denominational relationship that continues today through the United Methodist Church. The school was renamed Hendrix College in 1889, honoring Bishop Eugene Russell Hendrix. In 1890, after fielding bids from eight Arkansas towns, the board of trustees chose Conway as the new home. The college merged with Henderson-Brown College of Arkadelphia in 1929, briefly becoming 'Hendrix-Henderson College' before reverting to its current name. In 1933, during the Great Depression, Hendrix absorbed the financially troubled Galloway Woman's College from Searcy.
The Brick Pit and the Shirttails
Hendrix has no fraternities or sororities. Instead, campus social life revolves around 65 student organizations, the largest being the Social Committee -- known as SoCo -- which plans major events. The center of campus activity is a gathering space called The Brick Pit, an outdoor area where the college's signature traditions unfold. The most famous is Shirttails, a freshman dance-off that includes a serenade by the men's residence halls. The college radio station KHDX provides a soundtrack. The student body of about 1,400 comes from most U.S. states and over a dozen countries. Notably, Hendrix leads a consortium of 19 institutions that together host over 220 students from Rwanda through the Rwandan Presidential Scholars program, a partnership dating to 2007.
Punching Above Its Weight
For a school with approximately 1,000 undergraduates, Hendrix has earned recognition that belies its size. CBS MoneyWatch named it one of the top 50 schools that produce science PhDs. U.S. News and World Report has repeatedly recognized it among the country's top 'Up and Coming' liberal arts colleges. The Institute of International Education awarded Hendrix a 2012 Andrew Heiskell Award for its Rwanda partnership. The college offers 34 majors and 38 minors, including a master's of accounting degree. Three of its campus buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including Galloway Hall and Martin Hall. Since the mid-1990s, campus development has followed a master plan by the New Urbanist firm Duany Plater-Zyberk, creating a Village at Hendrix with mixed-use buildings that blend commercial space with student housing.
Warriors and Wanderers
The college's athletic teams, the Warriors, compete in NCAA Division III as charter members of the Southern Athletic Association. Football returned to campus in 2013 after a 53-year absence, having been discontinued in 1960. Alumni have ranged far from Conway. Douglas Blackmon won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Hayes Carll won Americana Music Awards. Jay Dickey served in Congress and authored the Dickey Amendment on gun violence research. Craig Leipold owns the NHL's Minnesota Wild. Jeremy Wise, a Navy SEAL and CIA contractor, was killed in the Camp Chapman attack in Afghanistan. An interactive art installation by Christopher Janney, titled Harmonic Fugue, lives in a campus underpass -- making music as students walk through it, a fitting detail for a place that has always made more noise than its size would suggest.
From the Air
Located at 35.100N, 92.440W in Conway, Arkansas, approximately 30 nm northwest of Little Rock. Conway sits in the Arkansas River valley at about 320 feet MSL. Conway Municipal Airport (KCWS) is approximately 3 nm to the south. The Hendrix campus is compact and located in the northern part of Conway, identifiable by its cluster of buildings and athletic fields near the intersection of Harkrider Street and Front Street. Best viewed at 2,000-3,000 feet AGL.