Nominees recently were announced for the 40th Ostrander Awards, honoring the best in local theater in the 2023-2024 season. The student-run Rhodes Theatre Guild received 14 nominations.

On July 27, Rhodes College will serve as the host for a community exhibition featuring science research conducted by college students and area high school students participating in summer programs at Rhodes, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Rhodes College continues to be included in the annual Fiske Guide to Colleges, a best-selling guide to the best colleges in the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom.

L. Angela Webb, associate vice president for campus safety at Rhodes College, was sworn in as the president of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators at its annual conference held in New Orleans in June. She will serve a one-year term.

Dr. Carole Blankenship, soprano and professor and chair of music at Rhodes College, has been a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing for 30 years and has served the organization in many roles, including as president. The organization has now launched a fundraising initiative to commemorate its rich history and to name one of three prizes in the classical category of its National Student Auditions in honor of Blankenship.

Rhodes College has been awarded a one-year Capacity-Building Grant of $50,000 by Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative, thanks to Lilly Endowment Inc. “We truly believe in character education at Rhodes,” said Provost Timothy S. Huebner. “A century ago, President Charles Diehl described the college as an institution ‘vitally concerned with scholarship, but . . . even more concerned with character.’ The work that our faculty will do in the next year has the potential to transform the first-year experience at Rhodes.”

Dr. Earl Wright II, the Neville Frierson Bryan Chair of Sociology at Rhodes College, has authored a new book, along with Dr. Kalasia S. Ojeh of Kean University, titled An Introduction to W. E. B. Du Bois (Routledge, 2024). Also, Wright will be featured in Fifty Key Scholars in Black Social Thought, to be published in October by Routledge.

Rhodes College has undergone several name changes since its founding in 1848, reflecting the growth and expanding mission of the college. On July 1, 1984, it took on its current name to honor Dr. Peyton Nalle Rhodes, who served as president from 1949 to 1965.

Rhodes College has been designated as one of the “Best Value Colleges for 2024” by The Princeton Review. This is the sixth consecutive year it has made the list.

Rhodes College is being awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant in the amount of $502,946 for research conducted by Dr. Qian Shen, assistant professor of biology. The award for the project titled “The Molecular Basis For Carbon Dioxide Sensing And Response In Dimorphic Fungi” will be distributed over three years and will involve students from Rhodes College and LeMoyne-Owen College.