10 Things You May Not Know About Emory

There are so many interesting facts to learn about Emory, both about its past and about the school today. Check out these 10 lesser-known facts about Emory and see how much you know!

1. His Holiness the Dalai Lama is part of our faculty, and visits campus every few years.

Via news.emory.edu

While Emory is known for its plethora of great faculty and professors, one of our most notable Presidential Distinguished Professors is His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Emory offers several opportunities for students to meet him, including at the Tibet Mind-Body Sciences Summer Abroad program, that he plans to visit in 2018.

2. We have two campuses, one founded in 1836 in Oxford, GA and another founded in 1915 in Atlanta, GA.

Via emory.edu

Emory University was initially founded in 1836 in Oxford, Georgia, which is around 35 miles away from Atlanta. As the university grew, it expanded into Atlanta in 1915. While the Atlanta campus is larger and holds eight out of the nine colleges under the university, Oxford College still exists today and houses first-years and sophomores. After spending two years at Oxford College, the students earn an Associate of the Arts degree, and continue to either Emory College of Arts and Sciences, Goizueta Business School, or the Nell Hudgson Woodruff School of Nursing to complete their undergraduate degree in the Atlanta campus.

3. There's something special about the shape of the quad -- it's shaped like a bottle of Coca-Cola!

Via pinterest.com

In the past, Emory has received funding from many leaders at the Coca-Cola Company, including from Robert W. Woodruff and Roberto Goizueta (who the business school is named after). Due to these generous endowments, our academic quad resembles the familiar shape of a bottle of Coke.

4. Emory has a few secret societies that work to improve campus life.

Via upload.wikimedia.org

Emory is home to four secret societies; The Order of Ammon, D.V.S. Senior Honor Society, Palladin, and Ducemus. While Emory's secret societies have many different practices (only D.V.S. and Palladin reveal their members at graduation), their members consist of leaders and activists who work towards making the campus a better place!

5. The library houses some really interesting works of literature and prose, including plays by Shakespeare and letters by Obama.

Via static01.nyt.com

The six campus libraries hold thousands of books, and are full of useful and interesting resources. In the past, the Woodruff Library has had an exhibit of Shakespeare’s First Folio, and the Rose Library currently houses letters written by former president Barack Obama to his college girlfriend.

6. The Miller Ward Alumni House is a unique part of Emory's history and serves as the location of many student events.

Via proofpudding.com

One mile from campus, the Miller-Ward Alumni House holds Homecoming events, weddings, parties, and more. The house acts as a space to connect alumni with the university, and even has yearbooks that date back to the 19th century!

7. Emory sophomores are considered alumni of the University based on an age-old tradition.

Via photos.smugmug.com

Robert W. Woodruff attended Emory for one year before he left to work at the Coca-Cola Company. Because of all of Woodruff's generous contributions to Emory, he was granted alumni status of the University. In his honor, current students are also considered alumni after completing two semesters, and have a “sophomore pinning ceremony” in their second year, officially granting them their alumni status.

8. One of Emory's best dining spots has an interesting history.

Via pinterest.com

Kaldi’s at The Depot, formerly known as Dooley’s Den, used to be a station for the Seaboard Air Line Railway in the 1900’s. The Emory University Station was a stop where you could take a train directly to New York City! While the train service was discontinued in 1969, it was converted into a student art gallery in 1972 and into The Depot, a popular student dining spot, in 1982.

9. A lot of Emory's buildings are LEED certified, which means they are really environmentally conscious.

Via news.emory.edu

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Certification is an evaluation of the sustainability and environmentally-friendly practices followed by architects. Emory has one of the highest concentration of LEED-certified buildings on campuses in the US. It also has the first LEED-certified building created in the Southeast (Whitehead Biomedical Research Building).

10. The gate outside Emory's campus is a symbol of Emory's values.

Via static.panoramio.com

The Haygood Gate welcomes visitors to Emory's campu and is named after former president Atticus Greene Haygood. Haygood influenced Emory in many ways, including by developing the Slater Fund, a philanthropy to support colleges for African Americans. Haygood was also the first Emory faculty member to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. There is a sign attached to the gate that reads, “Let us stand by what is good and make it better if we can”, a motto that accurately embodies the spirit and values of Emory students.