How College Works is a book written a couple of years ago by Dan Chambliss and Christopher Takacs. Chambliss is a long-time faculty member at Hamilton College in New York, where he has studied the factors that contribute to the success of college students. A very simple summary of the book is that a great college experience is built on relationships with two or three friends and meaningful encounters with one or two faculty members. Everything else pales by comparison. On the basis of hundreds of conversations with our alums, my guess is that this thesis is correct, at least as far as Samford is concerned. For all the efforts throughout higher education today to provide every possible environmental factor to improve college life, key relationships will always have the greatest influence.
The world is better because relationships are cherished at Samford.