Walla Walla University is a private Adventist university in College Place, Washington. The university has five campuses throughout the Pacific Northwest. It was founded in 1892 and is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The university has an annual enrollment of around 1,700 students. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and is also denominationally accredited. Walla Walla University offers more than 100 areas of study including preprofessional degrees and four graduate programs.

History

In 1887, W.W. Prescott became the first education secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. He noticed that Seventh-day Adventist schools were opening all over the place without a plan for long-term success, and decided to encourage these new Adventist schools to consolidate into larger, regional institutions that would stand a better chance of survival. In 1890, Prescott visited the Pacific Northwest and asked the three Adventist schools there to merge; and after overcoming local opposition, the Adventist schools in Coquille, Portland, and Milton, all in Oregon, agreed to merge. A committee chose to place the new school on forty acres of land located just west of Walla Walla, Washington that were donated for the school. The new school opened on December 7, 1892, named Walla Walla College, and Prescott was named the first president. However, Prescott was also president of two other institutions at the time, so Edward A. Sutherland, the principal, took over running the school's day-to-day activities and eventually became the second president of the college.

On the first day, Walla Walla College offered all education from elementary up to the first two years of college; total enrollment was 101, with six teachers. All classes were run out of the four-storey tall administration building, deliberately built tall so that it could be seen from the city of Walla Walla. Sutherland focused on following the counsels of Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White as closely as possible, and under his direction the school became the first to offer an exclusively vegetarian diet. Likewise, he emphasized manual labour for the students. Initially school finances were shaky, but the manual labour of the students eventually provided sufficient income to stabilize the school's finances. The school's first graduation was held in 1896; three students graduated.

In the 1970s, the college ran into financial difficulties; a number of college industries were closed, sold, or privatized. A fire damaged the women's dorm, and in 1978 a fire destroyed the Columbia Auditorium. Enrollment reached 2,000 by the middle of the decade. In the 1980s, WWC established an endowment fund in 1987. Also in 1987, a graduate program in social work began.

Presidents

Past presidents of Walla Walla University:

  • William Prescott (1892–1894)
  • Edward A. Sutherland (1894–1897)
  • Emmett J. Hibbard (1897–1898)
  • Walter R. Sutherland (1898–1900)
  • Edwin L. Stewart (1900–1902)
  • Charles C. Lewis (1902–1904)
  • Joseph L. Kay (1904–1905)
  • Marion E. Cady (1905–1911)
  • Ernest C. Kellogg (1911–1917)
  • Walter I. Smith (1917–1930)
  • John E. Weaver (1930–1933)
  • William M. Landeen (1933–1938)
  • George W. Bowers (1938–1955)
  • Percy W. Christian (1955–1964)
  • William H. Shephard (1964–1968)
  • Robert L. Reynolds (1968–1976)
  • N. Clifford Sorenson (1976–1985)
  • H. J. Bergman (1985–1990)
  • Niels-Erik Andreasen (1990–1994)
  • W. G. Nelson (1994–2001)
  • John C. Brunt (2001)
  • N. Clifford Sorenson (2001–2002)
  • Jon L. Dybdahl (2002–2006)
  • John K. McVay (2006–2012)
  • Steve Rose (2012)
  • John K. McVay (2013–2024)
  • Alex Bryan (2024-present)

Academics

Walla Walla University is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and also by the Adventist Accrediting Association. Some of WWU's schools and departments are also accredited by agencies specific to their field. WWU has authorization from both the state of Washington and the state of Oregon.

WWU offers pre-professional programs, Associate degrees, Bachelor's degrees, and Master's degrees. The largest undergraduate programs are the nursing, engineering, business, biology, and education schools.

Walla Walla University is administratively divided into six schools and several departments: Business, Education and Psychology, Engineering, Nursing, Social Work, and Theology.

Campuses

Walla Walla University has five campuses. They are located in Washington, Oregon, and Montana.

Portland nursing campus

The School of Nursing operates a campus in Portland, Oregon adjacent to Adventist Health Portland, where third and fourth-year nursing students complete their practicum. Opened in 1947, the campus includes a small dormitory for nursing students, named Hansen Hall.

Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory

The department of Biology operates a 40-acre campus on Rosario Beach, next to Anacortes, Washington. The campus operates during the summer, offering courses in biology and marine biology. The campus also supports courses in scuba diving. The campus was purchased in 1954.

Montana campuses

The school of social work and sociology operates two campuses in Montana, at Missoula and Billings, in support of its graduate program in social work. The Missoula campus opened in 1997, and the Billings campus opened in 2001.

Student government

The Associated Students of Walla Walla University (ASWWU) was founded in 1914 as the Collegiate Association. They have published the school yearbook, Mountain Ash, beginning in 1915 as the Western Collegian, and since 1917 under its current title. They have published the school newspaper, The Collegian, published under that title since 1916. ASWWU has also published the school directory, The Mask, since 1954.

Athletics

The Walla Walla athletic teams are called the Wolves. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) since the 2015–16 academic year. The Wolves previously competed as an NAIA Independent within the Association of Independent Institutions (AII) from 2008–09 to 2014–15, and in the Pacific Northwest College Conference (PNCC) from 1994–95 to 1999–2000. They also were a member in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) from 2004–05 to 2012–13; and in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) from 1997–98 to 2007–08.

Walla Walla competes in eight intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, golf and soccer; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf and volleyball.

Club sports

Unofficially, Walla Walla was affiliated with a men's ice hockey team, called the Wolfpack.

Campus Ministries

The Chaplain's Office of the university includes departments of Campus Ministries and Student Missions.

Student Missions

The modern Walla Walla University Student Missions program began in 1960 when they sent out their first student missionaries overseas. Today, Walla Walla University sends out between 50 and 90 student missionaries (SMs) each year, to locations around the world. Some Seventh-day Adventist schools in Micronesia are staffed by Walla Walla University student missionaries.

Notable people

Alumni of WWU include business people such as Jeri Ellsworth, Peter Adkison and Forrest Preston, ornithologist Pamela C. Rasmussen, ophthalmologist and Order of Canada recipient Howard Gimbel, theologian Alden Thompson, and former lieutenant governor of Guam Michael Cruz.

See also

  • KGTS
  • List of Seventh-day Adventist colleges and universities
  • Seventh-day Adventist education

References

  • Official website
  • Official athletics website