the college president. There are five gender-segregated dorms, with about 900 spaces. Two historic markers honoring the Council of Federated Organizations and those involved in the 1964 Freedom Summer Project in Holly Springs were unveiled on campus in 2014. Students About 70% of students are in a traditional age range of 18 to 21, and 10% are age 25 or older. About 35% of students are from Mississippi, 30% from Tennessee, and 15% from Illinois. Athletics The Rust athletic teams are called the Bearcats. The college is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) since the 2018–19 academic year, after spending as an NAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) during the 2017–18 school year when they joined the NAIA. The Bearcats previously competed in the NCAA Division III ranks as an NCAA D-III Independent until after the 2016–17 school year; and in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) from 1978–79 to 1987–88, which is currently an NCAA Division II athletic conference. For certain single sports, the Rust Bearcats softball team competed in the defunct D-III Great South Athletic Conference (GSAC) as an affiliate member from 2013–14 to 2014–15. Rust competes in 11 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, tennis and track & field (outdoor); while women's sports include basketball, cross country, softball, tennis, track & field (outdoor) and volleyball. Accomplishments In 1984, the women's basketball team won their first national championship with a 51-49 win over Elizabethtown College. Notable alumni Larry Anderson, basketball coach for MIT Lucie Campbell (1885–1963), composer, hymnwriter Alvin Childress (1907–1986), actor Ruby Elzy (1908–1943), operatic soprano Perry Wilbon Howard (1877–1961), attorney, assistant U.S. attorney general, Mississippi Republican chairman Leslie B. McLemore (born 1940), civil rights activist, political scientist, interim mayor of Jackson, Mississippi Clinton LeSueur (born 1969), journalist, congressional candidate Godwin Maduka MD and founder of Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Center Alexander Preston Shaw (1879–1966), Methodist bishop Anita Ward (born 1957), disco singer Ida B. Wells (1862–1931), newspaper editor, activist, cofounder of the NAACP Willie Mitchell (1928–2010), record executive, musician, producer Susie Revels Cayton (1870-1943), activist, journalist, editor, writer See also WURC Rust College's public radio station References Further reading Robinson, Marco Tyrone, "'By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them': Civil Rights Activism at Rust College and in Marshall Country, 1957–1964" (PhD dissertation, University of