Benjamin Wiker (born 1960) is a Roman Catholic ethicist and professor of political science and Human Life studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville .
60-580: Benjamin Wiker obtained his PhD in theological ethics from Vanderbilt University then went on to teach at a variety of institutions including Marquette University , Saint Mary's University of Minnesota , Thomas Aquinas College , and the Franciscan University of Steubenville . He came to attention in 2002 with the publication of Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists . In this book, Wiker aims to show how Darwinism by its very nature completely undermines
120-562: A Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University , has written Wiker's biographical interpretations of Darwin "verge on fantasy". Sander Gliboff in a review in the National Center for Science Education, has criticized Wiker's claims as "fanciful" and further adds that for the most part these claims "have been refuted many times since". Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU )
180-587: A decrease in blood volume and fluid loss outside the vascular bed as a key factor in traumatic shock and pioneered the use of replacement fluids for its treatment. This treatment saved countless lives in World War II, during which Vanderbilt was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. German biophysicist Max Delbrück joined
240-671: A large impact on American thought and letters: the Fugitives and the Agrarians . Meanwhile, Frank C. Rand , who served as the President and later Chairman of the International Shoe Company , donated US$ 150,000 to the university in 1925; Rand Hall was subsequently named for him. In 1928, the construction of three more buildings was completed: Garland Hall, named for Chancellor Landon Garland; Buttrick Hall, named for Wallace Buttrick of
300-639: A railroad executive. He is the namesake of the annual Cole Lecture; his marble bust and his wife's portrait can be seen in Kirkland Hall. His son, Whitefoord Russell Cole , who was the chairman of the Board of Trust from 1915 to 1934, defended Chancellor Kirkland's decision to split with the Methodist Church. He is the namesake of Cole Hall, completed in 1949. In the 1920s and 1930s, Vanderbilt University hosted two partly overlapping groups of scholars who had
360-573: A student-led drive to retire Wallace's jersey finally succeeded. In 1964, Vanderbilt held its first IMPACT Symposium, which has since become a university tradition of hosting speakers in a multi-day annual symposium to discuss current events and topics of a controversial nature. Participants have included Martin Luther King Jr. , Allen Ginsberg , Stokely Carmichael , Strom Thurmond , Robert F. Kennedy , Margaret Thatcher , Madeleine Albright , Vicente Fox , Ehud Barak , and multiple Presidents of
420-523: Is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee , United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt , who provided the school its initial $ 1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the American Civil War . Vanderbilt is a founding member of
480-506: Is a biography of Charles Darwin which portrays Darwin as a good husband and a kind, charitable person and claims Darwin was involved in an ideological conspiracy by members of the late Enlightenment which aimed to remove God from science. John M. Lynch in a review for The Darwin Myth in the Journal of the History of Biology has dismissed Wiker's claims as irrational. In a review, Sander Gliboff ,
540-495: Is one of the most selective universities in the United States. In 2015, Vanderbilt was ranked fifth overall and fourth among private universities in enrollment of National Merit Scholars. In its most recent annual comparison of admissions selectivity, The Princeton Review gave Vanderbilt a rating of 99 out of 99. The class of 2023 included 231 National Merit Scholars and 116 valedictorians or salutatorians . Additionally,
600-555: Is speculation that the school initially intended to rebuild both towers of the original Kirkland Hall but lacked the funds to do so. Many of the university's early leaders had prominent ties to slavery and the Confederacy before the Civil War. Frank Vanderbilt was "a Confederate sympathizer" during the Civil War. McTyeire was born into a slave-owning family and authored an essay in favor of slavery. Garland owned "up to 60 slaves" before
660-553: The Times Higher Education 2016 World University Rankings, Vanderbilt is 87th. The 2023 QS World University Rankings ranked Vanderbilt 199th in the world. Human Resources & Labor Review , a national human competitiveness index & analysis, ranked the university as one of 50 Best World Universities in 2011. Poets & Writers ranked Vanderbilt's English Department's MFA Program in Creative Writing 18th among
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#1733085399044720-743: The College of Arts and Science , the School of Engineering , Peabody College of Education and Human Development , and Blair School of Music . The university also has six graduate and professional schools, including the Divinity School , Graduate School , Law School , School of Medicine , School of Nursing , and Owen Graduate School of Management . As of 2021, Vanderbilt has a student-to-faculty ratio of 8:1. The university's undergraduate programs are highly selective: in 2022, Vanderbilt's acceptance rate and yield rate were 6.1% and 52.3%, respectively. Vanderbilt
780-544: The General Education Board ; and Calhoun Hall, named for William Henry Calhoun , a silversmith and Odd Fellows Grand Master. In 1933, the United Daughters of the Confederacy donated $ 50,000 (roughly $ 925,166 in 2015 dollars ) for the construction of Confederate Memorial Hall , designed by architect Henry C. Hibbs . It was completed in 1935. In the 1930s, Ernest William Goodpasture and his colleagues in
840-416: The School of Medicine invented methods for cultivating viruses and rickettsiae in fertilized chicken eggs. This work made possible the production of vaccines against chicken pox , smallpox , yellow fever , typhus , Rocky mountain spotted fever and other diseases caused by agents that only propagate in living cells. Alfred Blalock , Professor of Surgery, and his assistant Vivian Thomas identified
900-597: The Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966. The university comprises ten schools and enrolls nearly 13,800 students from the US and 70 foreign countries. Vanderbilt is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Several research centers and institutes are affiliated with the university, including the Robert Penn Warren Center for
960-669: The Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition , a statue of Cornelius Vanderbilt, designed by Italian sculptor Giuseppe Moretti , was moved from the grounds of the Parthenon to the Vanderbilt campus. In 1905, Main Building (Kirkland Hall), which originally had two Victorian towers, burnt down and was rebuilt in an Italianate design with a single 170-foot tower after the university received donations totaling over $ 50,000. There
1020-533: The United States Congress , 18 U.S. Ambassadors , 13 governors, 9 Nobel Prize laureates, 2 Vice Presidents of the United States , and 2 U.S. Supreme Court Justices . Other notable alumni include 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, 27 Rhodes Scholars , 2 Academy Award winners, 1 Grammy Award winner, 6 MacArthur Fellows , 4 foreign heads of state, and 5 Olympic medalists . Vanderbilt has more than 145,000 alumni, with 40 alumni clubs established worldwide. In
1080-664: The periodic table of elements with the symbol Ts, collaborating with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Moscow Oblast , Russia and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory . It was officially named after the state of Tennessee by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics in 2016. The university's research record is blemished, however, by a study university researchers, in conjunction with
1140-672: The 14th best college in America, and the 16th hardest college to get into in America. In the 2024 graduate program rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranked the Peabody College of Education the 5th best national school of education, the Vanderbilt University Law School the 19th best national law school, the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine the 5th best national research-oriented medical school,
1200-528: The Board of Trust voted to limit Methodist representation on the board to just five bishops. Former faculty member and bishop Elijah Hoss led a group attempting to assert Methodist control. In 1910, the board refused to seat three Methodist bishops. The Methodist Church took the issue to court and won at the local level. On March 21, 1914, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled that the Commodore, and not
1260-584: The Board of Trustees approved a recommendation from Chancellor Branscomb to admit African Americans in all of the university's educational schools. The first black undergraduates entered the school in the fall of 1964. The university drew national attention in 1966 when it recruited Perry Wallace , the first African American to play varsity basketball in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Wallace, from Nashville, played varsity basketball for Vanderbilt from 1967 to 1970, and faced considerable opposition from segregationists when playing at other SEC venues. In 2004,
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#17330853990441320-762: The Burlington Plantation. In 2015, Vanderbilt opened a new innovation center, the Wond'ry, as part of its Academic Strategic Plan. The three-story, 13,000-square foot building is meant to serve as an interdisciplinary hub of knowledge for the Vanderbilt community, serving as the location of hackathons , partnerships with the Nashville Entrepreneurship Center, and several social venture programs. In April 2024, Vanderbilt University students joined other campuses in support of Palestine by setting up an encampment on campus. The protestors demanded that
1380-530: The Center for Intelligent Mechatronics at Vanderbilt began testing a powered exoskeleton intended to assist paraplegics , stroke victims and other paralyzed or semi-paralyzed people to walk independently. The Vanderbilt exoskeleton received funding from Parker Hannifin Corporation in 2012 and has since gone to market internationally. Vanderbilt is a discovering institution of tennessine , atomic number 117 on
1440-484: The Civil War. One of the founding trustees, Hezekiah William Foote , was a Confederate veteran and the owner of four plantations in Mississippi , including Mount Holly . The Treasurer of the Board of Trust from 1872 to 1875, Alexander Little Page Green , whose portrait hangs in Kirkland Hall, was a Methodist preacher and a former slave owner. His son-in-law, Robert A. Young , was a Methodist minister who served as
1500-642: The Department of Physics in 1940, and in the following year, he met Italian microbiologist Salvador Luria . In 1942, they published on bacterial resistance to virus infection mediated by random mutation . The culminating Luria–Delbrück experiment , also called the Fluctuation Test, demonstrated that Darwin's theory of natural selection acting on random mutations applies to bacteria as well as to more complex organisms. The 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1560-638: The Financial Secretary on the Board of Trust from 1874 to 1882, retiring from the board in 1902. The Elliston family, who owned slaves, donated some of their Burlington Plantation , in one of the first expansions of the campus. During the first 40 years, the Board of Trust, and therefore the university, was under the control of the General Conference (the governing body) of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South . Tension grew between
1620-622: The Humanities , the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center , and Dyer Observatory . Vanderbilt University Medical Center , formerly part of the university, became a separate institution in 2016. With the exception of the off-campus observatory , all of the university's facilities are situated on its 330-acre (1.3 km ) campus in the heart of Nashville, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from downtown. Vanderbilt alumni, faculty, and staff have included 54 current and former members of
1680-416: The Methodist Church, was the university's founder and that the board could therefore seat whomever it wished. The General Conference in 1914 voted 151 to 140 to sever its ties with Vanderbilt; it also voted to establish a new university, Southern Methodist University , and to greatly expand Emory University . Colonel Edmund William Cole , the treasurer of the Board of Trust, was a Confederate veteran and
1740-637: The Owen Graduate School of Management was ranked 25th by Bloomberg Businessweek among full-time MBA programs. The Academic Ranking of World Universities ranks Vanderbilt as the 64th-best university in the world. Additionally the ARWU Field rankings in 2022 placed Vanderbilt as fourth best in the world for Education and Library & Information Science, 14th in Law, and 20th in Political Science. In
1800-673: The Peabody campus to Memorial Hall. Nationwide attention resulted, in part due to a lawsuit by the Tennessee chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. The Davidson County Chancery Court dismissed the lawsuit in 2003, but the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled in May 2005 that the university must pay damages based on the present value of the United Daughters of the Confederacy's contribution if
1860-590: The South and 10% from outside of the United States. As of 2022, the incoming undergraduate class was 49% male and 51% female. Moreover, 12.7% of the class was classified as Hispanic, 11.9% Black or African American, 16.9% Asian, 6% other/two or more races, and 10.4% international. 88% of Vanderbilt's students graduate in four years and 93% within six years. 97% of first-years return for their second year. Vanderbilt lets undergraduates choose among 70 majors , or create their own, in its four undergraduate schools and colleges:
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1920-480: The Tennessee Department of Health, conducted on iron metabolism during pregnancy in the 1940s. Between 1945 and 1949, over 800 pregnant women were given radioactive iron. Standards of informed consent for research subjects were not rigorously enforced at that time, and many of the women were not informed of the potential risks. The injections were later suspected to have caused cancer in at least three of
1980-599: The United States. In March 1978, Vanderbilt hosted the South African tennis team in Memorial Gymnasium for the Davis Cup . The match was disrupted by anti-apartheid protesters who chanted "Don't play with apartheid", and a copy editor for The Tennessean was removed by police. In 1979, Vanderbilt acquired Peabody College , then called the "George Peabody College for Teachers", residing on 53 acres adjacent to
2040-571: The Vanderbilt Board of Trust, especially James Geddes Stahlman , a Trustee and the influential editor of the local newspaper, Branscomb expelled Divinity student James Lawson . Lawson was a Congress of Racial Equality leader who organized sit-ins in defiance of Nashville's segregation laws. A dozen faculty members resigned in protest. Branscomb later re-examined his decision, regretting he did not consider referring it to committee to delay action for three months until Lawson's graduation. The school
2100-457: The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing the 4th best national nursing school, the School of Engineering the 41st best national engineering school, and the Owen Graduate School of Management the 20th best national business school. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report ranked Vanderbilt 1st in the nation in the fields of special education, educational administration, and audiology . In 2024,
2160-431: The children who were born to these mothers. In 1998, the university settled a class action lawsuit with the mothers and surviving children for $ 10.3 million. Vanderbilt consistently ranks among the top universities in the United States. In the 2023 edition of 'Best National Universities' by U.S. News & World Report , Vanderbilt ranked 13th in a tie with Brown University. In 2024, Niche ranked Vanderbilt
2220-606: The class had standardized test scores that were well above average: the interquartile range (25th percentile – 75th percentile) of SAT scores was 1460–1560, while the interquartile range of ACT scores was 33–35. For students of the class of 2016 whose schools reported exact class rankings, 93% ranked in the top 10% of their class. According to the National Science Foundation , Vanderbilt spent $ 1 billion on research and development in 2021, ranking it 24th among American universities. In 2013, Vanderbilt University
2280-591: The eighth-best value university in the nation. Vanderbilt is ranked the 98th best university in the world in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings . Reuters ranked it the 19th most innovative university in the world. List of Vanderbilt University people This is a list of notable current and former faculty members, alumni (graduating and non-graduating) of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee . Unless otherwise noted, attendees listed graduated with
2340-561: The ethical foundations of Christianity , Judaism , and Islam because what he sees as its materialist cosmology is incompatible with any concept of natural law . Wiker became a member of the Discovery Institute , a think tank supporting this idea and intelligent design , soon after the publication of the book. His next book, Architects of the Culture of Death , co-written with veteran Catholic ethicist Donald DeMarco, looks at how
2400-542: The fall of 1875, about 200 students enrolled at Vanderbilt, and in October the university was dedicated. Bishop McTyeire was named chairman of the Board of Trust for life by Vanderbilt as a stipulation of his endowment. McTyeire named Landon Garland (1810–1895), his mentor from Randolph-Macon College , as chancellor . Garland shaped the school's structure and hired the school's faculty. Most of this faculty left after disputes with Bishop McTyeire, including over pay rates. When
2460-449: The first fraternity chapter, Phi Delta Theta , was established on campus in 1876, it was shut down by the faculty, only to be reestablished as a secret society in 1877. In 1880, Old Gym , a Victorian building designed by Peter J. Williamson , was completed and became the university's first gymnasium. By 1883, the Board of Trust passed a resolution allowing fraternities on campus, and more chapters were established in 1884. Following
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2520-401: The first women graduated as engineers. Women's rights advocate Maryly Van Leer Peck graduated as the first chemical engineer in 1951 after not being able to study this field at Georgia Tech where her father was president. In 1953, Chancellor Branscomb orchestrated admission of the first African American student to Vanderbilt, in the School of Divinity . In 1960, under intense pressure from
2580-492: The inscription and pay damages. In August 2016, the university agreed to remove the word "Confederate" from the building after "anonymous donors" donated $ 1.2 million to repay the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 2009, Vanderbilt instituted a no-loan policy. The policy states that any student granted admission and a need-based aid package will have an award that includes no student loans. Following this, in 2015, Vanderbilt implemented Opportunity Vanderbilt, which committed
2640-426: The inscription bearing the name "Confederate Memorial Hall" was removed from the building or altered. The Court of Appeals' decision has been critiqued by legal scholars. In late July 2005, the university announced that although it had officially renamed the building, and all university publications and offices will refer to it solely as Memorial Hall , the university would neither appeal the matter further, nor remove
2700-422: The modern form of the latter was developed by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt , a former president of the university's Board of Trust and a great-grandson of the Commodore. In addition, in mid-2004 it was announced that Vanderbilt's chemical biology research may have serendipitously opened the door to the breeding of a blue rose , something that has long been coveted by horticulturalists and rose lovers. In 2010,
2760-599: The most influential thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from Schopenhauer to Peter Singer have undermined the Christian value of "sanctity of life". 2008's 10 Books That Screwed Up the World looks at fifteen important books from The Prince to The Feminine Mystique and aims, following Paul Johnson and E. Michael Jones, to show how the actual lives of these thinkers led to fundamentally distorted views about human nature, morality, and sexuality. The Darwin Myth
2820-523: The ravaged state of the Reconstruction Era South delayed the opening of the college. The following year, McTyeire stayed at the New York City residence of Cornelius Vanderbilt . Vanderbilt's second wife, Frank Armstrong Crawford Vanderbilt (1839–1885), was a cousin of McTyeire's wife, Amelia Townsend McTyeire (1827–1891), and both women were from Mobile, Alabama . Cornelius Vanderbilt,
2880-432: The start of the 2024-25 academic year, Vanderbilt imposed mandatory training for students in an attempt to suppress disruptions. As of 2021, Vanderbilt had an enrollment of 7,111 undergraduate and 6,685 graduate and professional students, for a total of 13,796 students. Students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries attend Vanderbilt, with approximately 68% of the undergraduate student body coming from outside
2940-504: The top 50 writing programs in the United States in 2010 and 14th in the United States in 2011. Fortune magazine ranked Vanderbilt among the top 100 places to work in the United States, the only university on their list. In 2018, Kiplinger's Best College Values rankings listed Vanderbilt as one of the top ten "best value" universities and one of the top five private universities for value. In 2020, Money 's "Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value" rankings listed Vanderbilt as being
3000-403: The undergraduate student body was African-American. In 2001, the university determined to remodel the undergraduate experience by creating an academic residential college system. Since then Vanderbilt has been constructing new buildings and renovating existing structures to support the college system. In 2002, the university decided to rename Confederate Memorial Hall, a residence hall on
3060-447: The university boycott companies that support Israel and demanded an end to what they call a Palestinian genocide . The protests escalated when the administration blocked a student vote on a BDS resolution. Students were forcibly removed by police from a building with three arrests. In an extreme reaction compared to other universities, the three students were expelled. More than 170 faculty members opposed this expulsion. With
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#17330853990443120-559: The university administration and the Conference over the future of the school, particularly over the methods by which members of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust would be chosen, and the extent that non-Methodists could teach at the school. Conflicts escalated after James H. Kirkland was appointed chancellor in 1893. Then the Southern Methodist Church congregations raised just $ 50,000 in a campaign to raise $ 300,000. Meanwhile,
3180-461: The university be named after him, McTyeire and his fellow trustees rechristened the school in the Spring of 1873 in his honor. They acquired land from Confederate Congressman Henry S. Foote , who had built Old Central, a house still standing on campus. The first building, Main Building, later known as Kirkland Hall , was designed by William Crawford Smith , and its construction began in 1874. In
3240-785: The university to need-blind admissions, meeting 100% of demonstrated financial need of admitted students, and including only grants in awards. In 2011, the Oakland Institute exposed a university investment in EMVest Asset Management , a private equity firm "accused of ' land grabbing ,' or taking over agricultural land used by local communities through exploitative practices for large-scale commercial export farming in five sub-Saharan African countries. The revelation led to student protests in 2012. By 2013, Vanderbilt administrators had divested from EMVest. In 2012, Vanderbilt built Elliston Hall in honor of Elizabeth Boddie Elliston of
3300-601: The university. Peabody College traces its history to the 1785 Davidson Academy. In the early 1980s, Vanderbilt University was an investor the Corrections Corporation of America prior to its IPO. The company was co-founded by Thomas W. Beasley , a Vanderbilt Law School alumnus who was honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 1989, the university began offering Posse Foundation scholarships to groups of promising young leaders from urban backgrounds to increase their share of diverse students. By 1995, 4.23% of
3360-461: The wealthiest man in the United States at the time, had been planning to establish a university on Staten Island , New York. However, McTyeire convinced him to donate $ 500,000 to endow Central University in order to "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all sections of our common country". Vanderbilt eventually increased the endowment to $ 1 million (roughly $ 25 million in 2023), and though he never expressed any desire that
3420-639: The years before the American Civil War of 1861–1865, the Methodist Episcopal Church South had been considering the creation of a regional university for the training of ministers in a location central to its congregations. Following lobbying by Nashville bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire , church leaders voted to found "The Central University of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South" in Nashville in 1872. However, lack of funds and
3480-544: Was awarded to both scientists. Shortly after the war, from 1945 to 1947, researchers at Vanderbilt University conducted an experiment funded by the Rockefeller Foundation where they gave 800 pregnant women radioactive iron without their consent. In a lawsuit the women received $ 9.1 million from Vanderbilt University and $ 900,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1998. In the early 1950s, some of
3540-475: Was placed on probation for a year by the American Association of Theological Schools , and the power of trustees was curtailed. The university took Stahlman's $ 5 million donation in 1972–1973, and named a professorship in his honor. In 2005, Lawson was re-hired as a Distinguished University Professor for the 2006–2007 academic year. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus for his achievements. In May 1962
3600-485: Was ranked 12th in the country in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Its Institute for Space and Defense Electronics , housed in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, includes the largest academic facility in the world involved in radiation-effects research. Among its more unusual activities, the university has institutes devoted to the study of coffee and of bridge . Indeed,
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