About Montevallo
UM Quick Facts
• Founded October 12, 1896
• Average enrollment of 3,100, with a student/faculty ratio of 17 to 1
•Each year, UM enrolls about 550 freshmen from throughout the Southeast. The average ACT composite score for entering freshmen is 23.
• Almost 70 percent of freshmen said UM was their first collegiate choice.
• About half of UM’s entering freshmen say the size of the college and its academic reputation are factors that led to their enrollment.
• Virtually every county in Alabama is represented by UM students. International students represent 23 countries.
• More than 30 degree programs with approximately 75 majors
• Montevallo offers academic programs in four colleges: College of Arts & Sciences, Michael E. Stephens College of Business, College of Education and the College of Fine Arts
• Accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools since 1925
• Individual academic programs are nationally accredited by 11 different professional evaluating organizations.
• UM is a member of the prestigious Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) and is one of 26 public liberal arts colleges in the U.S. and Canada.
• Montevallo is believed to be the first legislatively designated public liberal arts college.
• The University was the first Alabama institution of higher learning to guarantee its teacher-education graduates.
• UM claimed the first State of Alabama Eminent Scholars Chair, which brings outstanding visiting scholars to the campus.
• Picturesque, arboretum-like campus of 160 acres, famous for its red-brick streets and pathways
• 73 buildings; three antebellum structures
• Nine residence halls, including one which is open year-’round
• The central part of campus is a National Historic District.
• The main portion of the campus was designed by the Olmsted Brothers, who also designed Central Park in New York City and the Biltmore House grounds in North Carolina.
• UM’s 90,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art Student Activity Center opened in August 2004.
• UM’s most-recent building construction is a new residence hall, as yet unnamed, which opened in August 2009.
• UM has about 135 full-time faculty members and 75 part-time faculty members.
• More than 95 percent of the faculty hold either the doctorate or another terminal degree.
• Montevallo is a teaching institution. Faculty and students have a high degree of interaction, which serves as one of the more prominent areas of satisfaction for students.
• UM has about 21,000 active alumni.
• The University’s alumni are represented by the National Alumni Association, established almost a century ago.
• Hundreds of alumni return to the campus each February for Homecoming — and for College Night, known as the only Homecoming tradition of its kind in the nation. College Night, selected as a “Local Legacy” for the Library of Congress’s bicentennial celebration in 2000, is a festival of comedy, drama, music and athletics that actually lasts four nights. The Purples and Golds showcase their talents by presenting original musical productions. College Night debuted in 1919.
• Alumni have made their marks in numerous professional fields from business to the arts to education. Broadway star and recording artist Rebecca Luker, an ’84 graduate, television/stage/movie actress Polly Holliday ’59, and professional baseball player Rusty Greer ’95 are among UM’s notable graduates.
• UM fields 11 NCAA Division II athletic teams that compete in the Peach Belt Conference: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s golf, tennis, men’s and women’s cross-country and volleyball.
• The University is the home of the Falcons and Lady Falcons.
• Montevallo’s school colors are purple and gold.