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In 1846, Taylor University was originally established as Fort Wayne Female College in Fort Wayne, Indiana. In the first full year of the school, about 100 women were enrolled, paying $22.50 per year. During this time, it was common for women to obtain an M.E.L. degree, the Mistress of English Literature. Fort Wayne Female College was founded by the Methodist Church as an all-female school.Taylor University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. The university is also accredited by the Council on Social Work Education, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. Taylor’s music program is accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music and programs in Computer Engineering and Engineering Physics are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET. In 1911, Helena Memorial Hall was built and is the second oldest building on campus. It serves as the university welcome center. The building was drastically remodeled in 1987 and houses Admissions and the Offices of the President and Provost. First a music building and then art and theatre building, this building is named for Mrs. Helena Gehman, an early benefactress to the university. In 2018, several professors who believed their fundamentalist and conservative viewpoints were not well represented in the student newspaper published an anonymous underground newspaper called Excalibur. The student newspaper responded by asserting that they had not refused to publish any submitted articles and that when the associated professors published a piece in the newspaper the prior year they received pushback from the student body. The university president Lowell Haines criticized the publications, citing the targeted distribution of the paper in rooms of minorities and supporters of social justice, along with the unaccountability and inability to create and maintain dialogue with anonymous publications. At this point the authors of the newspaper, Jim Spiegel, Gary Ross, Richard Smith, and Ben Wehling, came forward, apologized for any perceived slights due to distribution, and stated that their goal was to create dialogue about viewpoints they felt were under-represented Several open letters were published, with one addressing the newspapers arguments directly, and another criticizing what it saw as the president’s harsh response.Taylor competes in 16 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men’s sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer and track & field; while women’s sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, track & field and volleyball; and co-ed sports include competitive cheer. Former sports included men’s and women’s tennis. In 1882, a guest-preaching engagement in the Upland Methodist Church afforded Fort Wayne College president Thaddeus Reade the chance to meet the minister of Upland Methodist Church, Rev. John C. White. Because the school was having financial difficulties at its location in Fort Wayne, White and Upland citizen J.W. Pittinger worked to bring the school to Upland. Haakonsen Hall, 1975, was constructed as the student health center. The building is named after medical care provider Lily Haakonsen who was employed by the university. In 2006 it was renovated and re-purposed as housing. Since then, it has served a variety of purposes and is currently home to Taylor University Media Services.Early in the 1920s, the university added another 80 acres (320,000 m) to its present location when the Lewis Jones farm was purchased. After 1922, Taylor University was no longer formally affiliated with Methodism.On October 13, 2008, the university announced plans to discontinue traditional undergraduate programs on the Fort Wayne Campus. Programs that remained after the closure or were transitioned to the Upland campus included the MBA program, the online program, and the radio station, WBCL. Both teams are currently coached by Taylor alumni and Taylor professor of education Quinn White. Coach White won the USTFCCCA NAIA Men’s National Coach of the year award in 2021 and proceeded to win the women’s award in 2022. Coach White has also been named Crossroads League coach of the year ten times as well as being named the USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region coach of the year multiple times. In 2003, Taylor began offering graduate-level programs again after having dropped such degrees nearly 60 years earlier. Since then, the university has expanded its offerings to include a Master of Environmental Science, a Master of Business Administration, a Master of Arts in Higher Education and Student Development (MAHE), and a Master of Arts in Ministry.In the spring of 1893, White negotiated an agreement between the trustees of the now-named Taylor University and the Upland Land Company. The university agreed to move to Upland, Indiana, and the company agreed to provide Taylor with $10,000 in cash and 10 acres (40,000 m) of land. That summer, Taylor University relocated to Upland. White was able to find the resources to support Taylor University because of the recent discovery of large deposits of natural gas in the area.Besides offering a number of off-campus programs, Taylor hosts two of its own study abroad programs – in Ecuador and Ireland. The Ecuador program is run through the university’s Spencer Centre for Global Engagement and is based in Cuenca. The semester-long, immersion program involves a three-prong partnership with Taylor University, the Universidad del Azuay, and the Arco Church of Cuenca.Chapel services are held three times a week, from 10:00 to 10:50 a.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Services generally follow a modern nontraditional Christian theme. Chapel attendance is encouraged but attendance is on the honor system. Chapel is always well attended.

On April 26, 2006, Taylor received national attention when a university van was involved in a fatal accident outside Marion, Indiana, while traveling between the Fort Wayne and Upland campuses. The accident happened when a northbound semi-trailer truck driver fell asleep at the wheel, crossed the median and struck the southbound passenger van on I-69. Four students and one staff member were killed, and three staff members and one student were injured. The accident occurred two days before former university president Eugene Habecker’s inauguration ceremony. The truck driver was convicted of reckless, involuntary manslaughter and received a four-year prison sentence.The Taylor athletic teams are called the Trojans. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Crossroads League (formerly known as the Mid-Central College Conference (MCCC) until after the 2011–12 school year) since the 1994–95 academic year. The Trojans previously competed in the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference (ICAC; now currently known as the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) since the 1998–99 school year) of the NCAA Division III ranks from 1987–88 to 1990–91.

Breuninger Hall was opened to students in 2013 and is the newest residence hall. Located on the south side of campus, it houses 150 students across one floor of men and two floors of women.The Grant County coroner and Taylor officials failed to positively identify all the victims. The incident made international headlines when there was a case of mistaken identity between two of the victims. Senior Laura Van Ryn, who died on the scene, was mistaken for surviving freshman Whitney Cerak. A funeral was conducted with a closed casket for Whitney Cerak, and the mistake was not discovered until Cerak identified herself after waking up from a coma over a month later. With the urban setting of the campus in Fort Wayne, the academic programs tended to be more vocational and its student body more non-traditional. Reflecting this, of TUFW’s 1,040 member student body, approximately 224 students lived on campus with the rest commuting or taking courses online. Popular majors included Professional Writing, Biblical Studies, Christian Ministries, Education, English, and Business. Bergwall Hall, 1989, was occupied and named for Evan Bergwall Sr., president of Taylor University (1951–1959) during the fall semester of 1989 and currently houses 195 students—women on the third and fourth floors and men on the first and second floors. Each floor has a lounge and study facilities and communal bathrooms.

The Taylor women’s cross country team has qualified for NAIA nationals 15 times. They ran to a third-place finish in both 2018 and 2020. In 2022 the Trojans ran to an undefeated season and won NAIA nationals scoring only 50 points after being led by fourth-place finisher Abbey Brennan and having all five scoring runners finish in the top 20. The program also has 12 conference championships including ten in a row from 2013 to 2022.Sitting beside the library complex is the Rice Bell Tower. It is one of the distinctive architectural elements to the campus and stands at 71 feet, 10 inches in height. (The “bell” tower contains no bells, merely loudspeakers contained inside painted metal boxes.) It was dedicated in memory of Garnet I. Rice’s husband, Raymond. The twin spires of the tower that meet at the apex of the structure symbolize the integration of faith and learning.As of 2022, Taylor University has 1,798 undergraduate students, 33 graduate students, and 395 distance learning students. The student body hails from 38 states and 26 foreign countries, with 44 percent from Indiana. Taylor is a member of NAIA with 16 men’s and women’s sports teams. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and the Christian College Consortium.

The concept of integration of faith and learning, the idea that knowledge and faith meet their highest potential when coupled together, is a central educational theme at Taylor. The two distinct columns of the Rice Bell Tower on campus and the spotlights that shine up from each of them symbolize this theme to the campus community.

The Life Together Covenant covers activities and behaviors not only on the Taylor campus, but off-campus as well. The purpose is to strengthen the Christian community and to maintain a sense of maturity and accountability.The Taylor men’s cross country team has qualified for NAIA nationals 32 times. They ran to a runner-up finish in 2019 and went on to win nationals in 2020 giving Taylor its first NAIA national championship in any sport. The program has also won 22 Conference Championships.

In 2003, the Modelle Metcalf Visual Arts Center opened and includes 38,000 square feet of art studios, computer design labs, teaching auditoriums, and art galleries. The university is named after Bishop William Taylor (1821–1902). The university sits on an approximately 950 acres (3.8 km) campus on the south side of Upland. It also preserves a 680 acres (2.8 km) arboretum and an additional 668 acres (2.70 km) of undeveloped land northeast of campus which has 80 acres (320,000 m) more of arboretum space. Multicultural students are supported by the Office of Intercultural Programs, and other faculty and staff through various student leadership groups, social clubs, and programs on campus. Programs include International Student Society, Multicultural Student Association, Mu Kappa International (founded at Taylor in 1985), Asian Society for Intercultural Awareness, Black Student Union, Middle Eastern Cultural Association, Voices of Praise Gospel Choir, and Latino Student Union. These groups and their subsequent events and programs play a role the university’s goal of “…promoting diversity awareness, social justice, and globally minded Christianity throughout the campus”.

The Taylor University Fort Wayne Falcons participated in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. The school offered basketball for men and women, soccer for men and women (2008–2009 was the first year for the women’s program), and women’s volleyball.

On March 24, 2019, university president Paul Lowell Haines announced that Vice President Mike Pence would be delivering the commencement speech at the 2019 graduation ceremonies. Controversy was immediate, the faculty voting on a motion of dissent, with 61 against the Pence invitation, 41 in favor and 3 abstaining. Competing petitions were organized, calling for the invitation to be rescinded or supporting the invitation. Student and faculty organized protests to walk out before the commencement speech, or to sit silently during the speech. Students and faculty expressed several reasons for protesting: the lack of faculty and student input into the decision, concerns that Pence’s invitation was an endorsement of specific political and religious views, Pence’s affiliation with President Donald Trump, and the belief that Pence did not represent the same Christian values the university endorsed. On May 18, 2019, dozens of students and several faculty members walked out of commencement ceremonies shortly before Pence delivered the commencement address. The majority of students and faculty remained seated. At the end of his speech, Pence received a standing ovation, during which the majority of students and faculty that remained stayed silent and seated. Afterwards, students linked hands and sang the doxology in an attempt to show that even if they have different viewpoints, they can still respect and love each other. On June 24, university president Haines resigned, effective August 15, 2019.In 2010, the university began a massive $41.1 million, 137,000-square-foot (12,700 m) addition to its Nussbuam science education complex on the south-east side of campus. The building was completed in time for the 2012 fall semester and dedicated during Homecoming weekend. Named the Euler Science Complex, the center featured two wind turbines; and still features a heliostat, green roofing, geothermal heating and cooling, and solar paneling. With an emphasis on sustainable energy, the university hopes not only to save energy and costs, but also to use these features as a teaching tool. The university has received a Gold LEED certification for the new complex. Swallow Robin Hall, 1917, is the oldest residence hall and third oldest building on campus by Samuel Plato. and then remodeled and restored in the fall of 1990. Silas C. Swallow and his wife (maiden name Robin) financed a major portion of the original construction cost for the building and asked that it be named in honor of their mothers. The hall was designed by Samuel Plato, a notable architect of the early 20th century. Students, faculty and staff are required to sign the “Life Together Covenant” (LTC) upon joining the university. Community members pledge to adhere to certain standards of conduct and refrain from certain behaviors, including social dancing (excepting marriages taking place off of school property and choreographed or folk dance), premarital sex, homosexuality, smoking, and the consumption of alcohol, with the intention of strengthening the community as a whole. Students cannot register for classes or housing unless they have signed the LTC pledge each year. The LTC is viewed as not only a covenant, but as a binding contract as well. Penalties for not adhering to the LTC range from “citizenship probation” to expulsion from the university. In 2013 the dancing rule was modified to allow officially sanctioned school dances.Olson Hall was constructed in the 1960s and named in honor of long-time and distinguished history professor Grace D. Olson. It is the largest residence hall (in terms of housing) on the campus with 300 beds. The hall underwent major renovations between 2006 and 2008. The hall is arranged along a typical corridor with a shared common bath.English Hall, 1975, opened on the far south end of campus, is a women’s residence hall housing 224 students. It is named for Mary Tower English, the spouse of one of Taylor’s most distinguished graduates. English Hall provides private living room areas as rooms are arranged around a suite that is shared by 8–12 women. It is of a unique compartmental brutalism architecture.

In 2004, the Kesler Student Activity Center (KSAC, named after president emeritus Jay Kesler), was completed and features 88,000 square feet of athletic activities space, including an indoor track, multi-purpose courts used for intramural sports, an exercise room, an aerobics room, and multiple locker rooms.Taylor university operates a radio station, WTUR, with student-led talk shows, student-selected music, and chapel services. Taylor University currently has entered into a partnership with and simulcasts WBCL on 87.9, the frequency WTUR used to broadcast on. Currently WTUR is solely broadcast online. Taylor also hosts a student newspaper, The Echo, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012–13. The paper is both print and online. The Ilium, Taylor’s annual yearbook, is a 200+ page print publication put together by students.

Upon inauguration President Eugene Habecker unveiled his Taylor University Vision 2016 plan for the university. The initiative involved the creation of several centers of excellence on campus. The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence was established and endowed. The center for Scripture engagement was partially endowed. And centers for Missions Computing, Ethics, C.S. Lewis and Faith, Film, and Media are in the process of being created. Programs were created in Ireland and Ecuador. The initiative involved the construction of several buildings around campus:On April 26, 2008, the second anniversary of the accident, the university dedicated the $2.4 million Memorial Prayer Chapel as a memorial to the victims: students Laurel Erb, Brad Larson, Betsy Smith and Laura Van Ryn, along with Taylor employee Monica Felver. As a result of this incident, Indiana changed its procedure for identifying victims involved in accidents.

Taylor University is a private, interdenominational, evangelical Christian university in Upland, Indiana. Founded in 1846, it is one of the oldest evangelical Christian universities in the United States.In 1958, the Taylor University Dome was designed by Orus Eash and built. It originally was the campus cafeteria, and later served as the student union. In June 2022, the building was demolished to make way for a new film and entrepreneurship building.

In 1902, Sickler Hall, the oldest of three remaining original buildings on the campus, was built with a gift from the estate of Christopher Sickler, an early Taylor trustee. Originally, the building was a residence hall that provided free housing for the children of ministers and missionaries. Later, it served as a science hall and educational department center; more recently, it was the location of the communication arts department. Remodeled in 1995, Sickler Hall currently houses the William Taylor Foundation, professional writing department, and alumni and parent relations. A campus prayer chapel is located on the main floor and is open 24 hours a day for personal worship, meditation, and prayer.

Every year the Friday before final exams, Taylor University has the Silent Night Men’s Basketball game. In it, students remain quiet until the tenth point is scored and then erupt in cheering. In the late moments of the game, “Silent Night” is sung. A former assistant coach came up with the idea in the late 80s and it was a packed event by the mid-to-late 1990s. Afterward, students can go to the President’s campus-wide party involving live Christmas music, making and eating Christmas cookies, and making gingerbread houses. The 2010 game was more formally named the 27th Annual Ivanhoe Classic and resulted in a 112–67 win over Ohio State-Marion. This was the most scored by the Taylor men’s basketball team since the 1993–94 squad scored 139 points in a victory over Robert Morris University (Illinois). This allowed Taylor students to quiet down and erupt in celebration again after the 100th point. Casey Coons scored the tenth point in the 2009 Silent Night, the 2010 Silent Night, and 2011 silent night on free throws. Casey Coons received the NAIA Mid-Central College Conference Division II Player of the Week award for the week of the 2010 game. Coach Paul Patterson coached without shoes for the 2009, 2010, and 2011 games to raise money for Samaritan’s Feet (400 pairs of shoes were raised at the 2009 event for the Dominican Republic and 170 pairs of shoes were raised for Guatemala at the 2010 event). Sports Illustrated paid tribute to the Silent Night Event in its December 27, 2010, issue. The 2011 game received significant media attention as well. The 2014 Silent Night game was a 91–59 victory over Kentucky Christian and was covered by ESPN.On the west side of campus is the Jim Wheeler Memorial Stadium with a seating capacity of 4,000. It has been the home of Trojan football since its completion in 1980. It was built with funds donated by 1954 alumnus John Wheeler in memory of his son, Jim Wheeler, an aspiring Christian recording artist who died of cancer shortly after his graduation from the university in 1979.

The Liberty University Rawlings School of Divinity (formerly Liberty Divinity School) was founded in 1973. The Rawlings School of Divinity currently offers 44 bachelor’s degrees, 44 master’s degrees, and 14 doctorate degrees; the Divinity School’s graduate programs are accredited by the ATS. Many programs are on campus only, while others are available online. The school includes The Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement to defending the Christian faith in light of “trending issues like racism, sexuality, and morality in today’s society…and “engage the culture around us, learning to speak and act out of a gospel” The Rawlings School of Divinity is housed in the Freedom Tower. The Rawlings school is the largest divinity school in the world based on the number of students enrolled in degree programs.Liberty University is ranked #331–440 in the U.S. News & World Report ranking of “National Universities”. It was also tied for 340th place out of 388 schools for social mobility. LU is ranked 391 out of 391 schools in the Washington Monthly.

In April 2021, Liberty University sued Falwell Jr. for $40 million in damages for breach of contract and violation of fiduciary duty. In the same month, the Liberty University board of trustees replaced acting chairman Allen McFarland, the first African American board chair, with Tim Lee, “a pro-Trump pastor.”

In 2018, ProPublica and the New York Times reported that Liberty University students were sixth in terms of receiving federal aid for the year 2017. Most of Liberty University’s revenue came from taxpayer-funded sources. ProPublica/New York Times reported that each of the university’s 300 salespeople were pressured to enroll up to eight students per day. A division of 60 salespeople targeted members of the military specifically because they had greater access to federal tuition assistance. The university’s salespeople were instructed to make the university appear more affordable by describing the tuition costs per credits rather than per course. The salespeople were also instructed to not inform potential students of the Christian orientation of the education; the first classes include three required Bible-studies classes. The credits for the Bible-studies classes are usually not transferable to other universities, which disincentivizes students from leaving Liberty University for other universities. According to a former employee, the university accepts any student with a grade point average above 0.5 (equivalent to a D-minus).

The Liberty Bell News is an online publication whose mission is “to maintain the vision of the founder, Dr. Jerry Falwell Sr., to develop and train Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge, and skills essential to impact the world.”Liberty University has been described as a “stage of choice in Republican presidential politics”, and a “pilgrimage site for GOP candidates.” According to The Washington Post, Republican candidates are drawn to the university because it is viewed as a “bastion of the Christian right”. Ronald Reagan’s close relationship with the university gave it significant publicity in its early years. In 1990, 41st U.S president George H. W. Bush was the first sitting U.S. president to speak at Liberty’s commencement. In 1996, U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas gave the commencement address at Liberty University.At the end of Falwell Jr.’s presidency in 2020, the university listed over $2.5 billion in assets. Following Falwell’s resignation, Times Higher Education reported that Liberty University was “facing growing criticism over perceived resistance to diversity” following the departures of Edwards, board chair Allen McFarland, and pastor David Nasser. Jonathan Falwell, a son of Jerry Falwell Sr., replaced Nasser.Described as a “bastion of the Christian right”, the university played a prominent role in Republican politics under Falwell and his son and successor Jerry Falwell Jr.; in 2021, Liberty President Jerry Prevo said getting conservative candidates elected to office was “one of our main goals”.

The college received initial accreditation from the American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (AOA-COCA) in 2018. In that same year the medical school launched its first residency program, focused on neuromusculoskeletal treatment.The university is governed by a 30-member board of trustees that includes Jonathan Falwell, the son and brother (respectively) of the two former university presidents. Additionally, two ministers serve as Trustee Emeriti.

Also in July 2021, Liberty University diversity retention officer LeeQuan McLaurin, a black gay man, filed a discrimination lawsuit against the school, claiming that his supervisor’s view that Christianity condemns homosexuality forced him to quit.

The name changed again in 1984, to Liberty University. In 1985, the university launched a distance-learning program by mailing VHS tapes to students; this was the forerunner to Liberty University’s current online program. Two years later, Liberty University’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was formally recognized by the IRS.A few months later, then-president Falwell Jr. posted a picture of Virginia’s then-governor Ralph Northam’s black face in a tweet that many found racist. Some staff resigned in protest; some black students pursued transfers, many contending that the tweet was a symptom of a larger problem at the university. In response to internal and external criticism, Liberty University officials hired Kelvin Edwards, an alumnus and former NFL player, to lead diversity initiatives on campus, then fired him three months later. Edwards sued the university, alleging a breach of contract.

In 2019, The Wall Street Journal and Inside Higher Education reported that Liberty CIO John Gauger allegedly accepted cash, through his IT consulting firm unaffiliated with the school, to rig two online polls for Trump before he became a candidate.Liberty University’s basketball Vines Center can house up to 9,547 spectators for its games. Several members of the Liberty men’s basketball (Liberty Flames basketball) team have been recruited to the NBA. The women’s basketball team (Liberty Lady Flames basketball) was honored by the Big South “with the Top 25 ‘Best of the Best’ moments in League history from 1983–2008, with Liberty University’s 10-year women’s basketball championship run from 1996–2007 being crowned the No. 1 moment in the Big South’s first 25 years.”

The Liberty Arena is the home of the men’s and women’s basketball teams and women’s volleyball. The $65 million, 125,000-square-foot space, which opened in 2020, seats 4,000 spectators.

The museum commemorates Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish chaplains (including African-American chaplains), and houses publications and artifacts from both the Union and Confederate militaries. There are several areas in the museum that are given special attention including:

The School of Communication & the Arts includes five departments: Cinematic Arts, Digital Media and Journalism, Strategic and Personal Communication, Studio & Digital Arts, and Theatre Arts. There are over 12,000 residential and online students enrolled in this school.In connection with being named to a Trump administration task force on deregulating higher education, university president Falwell alluded, as an example of regulatory overreach and “micromanagement”, to Obama-era regulations that govern student loan forgiveness for students who have been cheated by fraudulent colleges.

Liberty University has men’s and women’s club ice hockey teams. Men’s hockey started in 1985 when students at Liberty organized a team to compete against surrounding colleges and clubs but has since become a competitive club team competing against much larger schools such as University of Oklahoma, University of Delaware, and Penn State University. In 2006, Liberty University opened the 3,000-seat LaHaye Ice Center, a gift from Dr. Timothy and Beverly LaHaye. Also in 2006, Liberty became the only school in the state of Virginia to host a men’s Division I American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) club hockey team. Currently, Liberty University has Division I, II, and III men’s teams and Division I and II women’s teams. The men’s Division I team is coached by Kirk Handy, while the women’s Division I team is coached by Chris Lowes.In 2021, a former Liberty University student was part of a class action lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the institution should not be eligible to receive federal funding because of its discriminatory practices against LGBT students. In 2015, Liberty University denied the discounted tuition to same-sex and trans spouses of military personnel that it offered to heterosexual military couples. In 2016, the university ordered a version of a psychology textbook that omitted sections with LGBTQ+-focused content.

The four-story, 170,000-square-foot Jerry Falwell Library opened in January 2014 with more than 250,000 items and room for another 170,000. They are accessible via a robot-assisted storage and retrieval system, which locates requested items within a large storage room and delivers them to the front desk. There are 150 public computers throughout the building for electronic archive research. The library has group study rooms, writable walls, balconies, terraces, and a vegetative roof. At its entrance stands a 24-foot media wall, powered by three Microsoft Kinect units and integrated using a custom program that allows visitors to scroll through university news, browse pictures contributed from students, and learn about upcoming university events.

In 2018, some Liberty students went to Washington, D.C., to support President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh. That same year, students at the university gave a standing ovation to First Lady of the United States Melania Trump, along with several Trump cabinet officials who spoke at the university during a town hall about the drug epidemic.Ben Howe, whose parents worked for Falwell’s Liberty University, published The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power over Christian Values. The book included a critique of Jerry Falwell Jr. who posed “for a picture in front of a Playboy magazine with [Donald] Trump on the cover.”

Online students constitute the overwhelming majority of the university’s students and revenue, “subsidizing the university” and making them “a killing”, according to faculty members, despite the “steep drop-off in quality from the traditional college to the online courses.” Critics have argued that the online division subsidizes campus resources, such as the ski resort and gun range, and that online enrollment is run in a boiler room fashion. Online instructors are mainly engaged in answering emails and grading rather than creating and delivering content.Established in 2007, the Liberty University Online Academy (LUOA) is a K-12 school serving about 1,900 students. It is accredited by SACS (Southern Association of Schools and Colleges).

The university’s former president Jerry Falwell Jr. was accused of nepotism, racism, and alcohol use contravening Baptist teaching on teetotalism. Falwell and his wife Rebecca were involved in a number of sex scandals. These eventually led to his resignation on August 24, 2020.The departments of worship and music studies and of music and humanities merged in 2012 into a school of music, composed of two distinct centers. The School of Music offers 32 bachelor’s degrees, 15 master’s degrees, and one doctoral degree. After Falwell Sr. died in 2007, his son Jerry Falwell Jr. became the university’s second president. At the time, the university listed $259 million in assets. In 2009, LU stopped recognizing LU’s Democratic Party student group; school officials said this was because the Democratic Party platform goes against the school’s conservative Christian principles. Democrats such as Ted Kennedy, Bernie Sanders, and Jesse Jackson have spoken there. In 2018, former 39th U.S. president Jimmy Carter gave the commencement speech. However, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton have rejected invitations to speak at LU.The Journal of Statesmanship and Public Policy explores topics in the realms of national security, international relations, domestic policy, and political philosophy from a deeply thoughtful, ethical, and Christian perspective.” Recent articles have been published on strict constructionism and critical race theory.

Including online students, Liberty’s undergraduate population in 2017 was 51% White, 26.5% race/ethnicity unknown, 15.4% Black or African American, 2.3% two or more races, 1.7% Hispanic/Latino, 1.4% non-resident alien, 0.9% Asian, 0.6% American Indian or Alaskan native, 0.2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. All 50 states and Washington, D.C., are represented along with 86 countries. The online male-to-female ratio is 40% to 60%. More than 30,000 military students and over 850 international students attend Liberty.Liberty ranks 174th out of 2,475 schools in overall diversity, 94th out of 3,012 schools in age diversity, and 82nd out of 2,525 schools in location diversity.

The Liberty University honor code forbids students to be alone with a member of the opposite sex “at an off-campus residence” or to have premarital sex anywhere. Students may not consume alcohol or tobacco. In 2015, Liberty revised the code to give students the freedom to watch rated “R” movies and to play video games rated “M”. In 2017, the curfew policy was changed to permit students age 20 and over to sign out and stay out past curfew. In 2018, the administration rejected a resolution from the student government that would have allowed off-campus drinking, “profane language” and the use of tobacco.Liberty University’s Center for Music & Worship hosts the Miss Virginia beauty competition which sends the winner of the state to represent it in the Miss America Pageant.

Liberty University’s College of Applied Studies and Academic Success houses the Academic Success Center, the Eagle Scholar’s Program, Technical Studies, Continuing Education, and Success Courses.

In 2019, Will E. Young, a former editor-in-chief of Liberty’s Champion student newspaper, described the “culture of fear” at Liberty University, noting that the school “founded on principles of fundamental Christianity, is now a place that has zero tolerance for new questions and ideas. Those who harbor them must remain silent, or leave.” Young later argued that Liberty must address its racist past, beginning with Jerry Falwell, Sr. and that it must include people of color and LGBTQ people as it makes decisions.In 2017, Will Young, the former editor of the Champion, recalled his experiences in a lengthy Washington Post article. In his first week in that role, he had been rebuked for attempting to get the campus’s police blotter, he wrote, and the administration regularly overrode the student editors’ decisions. There was, he claimed, “an infrastructure of thought-control that Falwell and his lieutenants [had] introduced into every aspect of Liberty University life” since 2016. Some sources Young spoke to believed the university installed spyware on the laptops they were issued. Student journalists became so frustrated that they launched an independent newspaper, the Lynchburg Torch, to cover stories the administration tried to suppress.

In its early years, the university was held afloat financially by major donors. In 1987, Liberty University’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status was formally recognized by the IRS.In November 2019, Liberty and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA launched a think tank subsidiary called the Falkirk Center for Faith and Liberty. The think tank hired Trump attorney Jenna Ellis and Trump surrogate Sebastian Gorka as fellows and paid for political Facebook ads promoting Trump and other Republican candidates during the 2020 election campaign. In March 2021, the university renamed the organization the “Standing for Freedom Center”, having chosen not to renew Kirk’s contract several months earlier. In November 2021, the Standing for Freedom Center hosted former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, author Eric Metaxas, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.

In 2005, Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges ranked undergraduate admission to LU as “competitive”, its fourth-highest of six ranks. When high-speed Internet connections became more widespread around 2005, Liberty began to offer online courses to a larger adult population.In the 1990s, the debt-saddled university was placed on probation several times by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools because of heavy debt. In 1990, the university owed $110 million; in 1996, it owed $40 million. The Unification Church was an early donor. In 1994, the university received $3.5 million through Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Women’s Federation for World Peace. In 1996 News World Communications loaned $400,000 to Liberty.

Liberty University consists of 17 colleges, including a school of osteopathic medicine, a school of law, and a seminary. Liberty’s athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Liberty Flames. Their college football team is an NCAA Division I FBS Independent, while most of their other sports teams compete in the ASUN Conference. Their athletics program will join Conference USA as a full member in 2023.

According to the College Scorecard, Liberty University has a graduation rate of 34%. Median salary after attending ranges from $11,455 (AA in Teacher Education) to $72,022 (Electrical Engineering). 54% earn more than a high school graduate. Of those repaying student loans two years after entering repayment, 26% were in forbearance, 25% were not making progress, 14% were making progress, 14% were in deferment, 9% defaulted, 5% were paid in full, 5% were delinquent, and 2% had their loans discharged. The Carter Glass Mansion, also called Montview, is a house built in 1923 for Carter Glass, a newspaper publisher, U.S. senator, U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Woodrow Wilson, and Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore of the Senate during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The 1+1⁄2-story house, which is flanked by slightly smaller ells, has 18-inch (46 cm) walls of quartz fieldstone quarried from the property and a grey gambrel roof. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and Virginia Landmarks Register. Liberty is among the ten colleges that enrolled the most undergraduates in fall 2018 according to US News. When including online students, Liberty enrolled more students than any university in the United States as of 2018.Various school officials and students criticized this support and the university’s ties with Trump. Among them was Mark DeMoss, Falwell’s chief of staff, who was forced to resign from Liberty’s board of trustees. Another was Liberty alumnus Jonathan Merritt, whose invitation to speak on campus was rescinded. Still another was Christian author Jonathan Martin, who was expelled from campus. In its early decades, the university was held afloat financially by major donors. The university was placed on probation multiple times in the 1990s by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools due to heavy debt loads. In 1990, the university’s debt totaled $110 million; in 1996, it totaled $40 million. In 1994, Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Women’s Federation for World Peace funneled $3.5 million to Liberty University. The school changed its name to Liberty Baptist College in 1976. Officials said the change aimed to distance the school from the name Lynchburg, which is often mistakenly associated with lynching; co-founder Towns also said that Falwell Sr., wanted to use the name “Liberty” to ride the enthusiasm for the Bicentennial of the United States.The Observatory Center opened in spring 2013 next to the Equestrian Center. The dome has a classroom that can fit up to 20 people. It houses a 20-inch (510 mm) RC Optical Systems Truss Ritchey-Chrétien and several Celestron CPC 800 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes on pedestals, able to roll out under a roof. The observatory serves three purposes: instruction, public nights and research. Student Activities controls the use of the observatory and is open to all students. Liberty University has an Internet education component called Liberty University Online, also known as LU Online or LUO, which provides degrees from associate’s level to doctorate. In fall 2021, an outbreak of COVID-19 forced all classes on the Lynchburg campus to go online-only for two weeks. More than 400 students and 50 staff members tested positive for the virus. The campus did not require COVID-19 vaccinations, masks, or social distancing. Outdoor events, including a convocation and football game, were scheduled to continue.

In 2010, Liberty students received about $445 million in federal financial aid money, the highest total of any school in Virginia and one of the highest in the country. A 56 percent increase over the previous year, the money was mostly in the form of student loans, but also included some grants and other forms of aid.Liberty offers 11 bachelor’s degrees in aeronautics from professional pilot to UAS. In 2018, Liberty’s School of Aeronautics had more than 1,200 students in-person and online. Liberty has worked with American Eagle, Piedmont Airlines and Wayman Aviation to alleviate their pilot shortages.In fall 2017, the acceptance rate for new first-time, full-time students entering Liberty’s resident program was 30%. In 2011, the overall acceptance rate, which includes online students, was 51 percent. Liberty University Online is an open enrollment institution. Liberty’s athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Liberty Flames. Liberty is a member of the ASUN Conference for 17 of its 20 varsity sports. Women’s swimming competes in the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association, and women’s field hockey competes in the Big East Conference. The field hockey team had belonged to the Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference before that league’s demise after the 2014 season. It competed as an independent in the 2015 season, then join the Big East Conference for the 2016 season. Starting in 2018, the football team began competing in the FBS as an independent. In 2020, Liberty entered the rankings in the AP Poll at 25 for the first time in program history. They finished the season being ranked 17 in the AP Poll and 18 in the Coaches Poll of top football teams in the country. Jerry Prevo is the university’s president. He formerly served as the chair of the board of trustees and was appointed president after the son of the university’s founder, Jerry Falwell, Jr., resigned from his position as president in 2020.

The School of Behavioral Sciences includes four departments: Community Care & Counseling, Counselor Education & Family Studies, Psychology, and Social Work. It has an acceptance rate of 38%. The Community Care & Counseling department offers 28 master’s degrees and four doctoral degrees. The Counselor Education & Family Studies department offers five master’s degrees and one doctoral degree. The Psychology department offers two associate degrees, 14 bachelor’s degrees, six master’s degrees, and six doctoral degrees. The Social Work department offers one bachelor’s degree. As of 2020, the dean was Kenyon C. Knapp.

Liberty Natatorium is 75,000 square feet and contains a 9-lane Olympic-size swimming pool as well as a diving well 17 feet deep and fitted with 1-meter and 3-meter springboards and 10-meter, 7.5-meter, 5-meter, 3-meter, and 1-meter diving platforms. The inaugural competitive swimming event held in the swimming pool was the 2018 TYR Junior National Cup in March 2018. In 2020, one of the diving platforms collapsed for an unknown reason. Since its opening, there have also been facility issues associated with the timing system used in competitive swimming events.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams have long been a conference powerhouse, and Josh McDougal (2007) and Samuel Chelanga (2009–2010) won the NCAA Division I individual laurels. Chelanga took two additional gold medals and three silvers in outdoor and indoor competition in three years and still holds the collegiate 10,000-meter record set in 2010, and won All-American honors 14 times.Liberty University is a conservative Evangelical college which is reflected in its honor code and other policies. The university teaches creationism alongside the science of evolutionary biology. In November 2020, Liberty University graduate and athletics booster Bob Good won a seat in the US House of Representatives, making him the first Liberty graduate to be in the House. Liberty’s Helms School of Government offers degrees in areas including criminal justice, government and public administration, international relations, pre-law, public policy, strategic intelligence, fire administration in both at both bachelor’s and master’s degree levels. The Helms School of Government is named after Senator Jesse Helms.

Liberty was founded in 1971 and received regional accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation in 1980, which was reaffirmed in 2016. In addition, it was accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) in September 1984, but resigned its TRACS accreditation on November 6, 2008. Liberty has more than 60 accredited degree granting programs. The law school, which opened in August 2004, gained provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association (ABA) in 2006 and was granted full accreditation in 2010. The medical school, which opened in 2014, is accredited by the American Osteopathic Association Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (AOA-COCA). On December 9, 2009, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. announced that “Liberty University has received Level VI accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). This is the highest classification from SACS and is reserved for colleges and universities that offer four or more doctoral degrees. Liberty is also accredited by: Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), Aviation Accreditation Board International (AABI), National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE), Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP), Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP), and the Commission on Sport Management Education (COSMA).

The university regularly competes for the Sasser Cup, the Big South’s trophy for the university that has the best sports program among the member institutions. Liberty has won the Sasser Cup ten times, the most in the Big South. In 2012, Liberty became the first Big South school to win five consecutive Sasser Cups.The Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) opened in August 2014, funded in part by a $12 million matching grant from the Virginia Tobacco Commission.

Residential students at Liberty, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, are required to attend Convocation at the Vines Center twice per week on Wednesdays and Fridays. Any student commuting to campus who is under twenty-one years old is also required to attend. Commuting students over the age of twenty-one are encouraged to attend, but their attendance is not mandatory. For students with mandatory attendance requirements, upon arrival, they must report to the Resident Assistant assigned to them and sit in their assigned section to be counted as present. A fine of $25 is assessed for the first two absences with the fine rising to $50 for further offenses. Attending students are not permitted to leave before the official dismissal or they will be fined as if they had been absent. Students under mandatory attendance requirements may receive a “skip” once per semester if they make their intent to use the skip know to their Resident Assistant at least 24 hours before Convocation begins.

The school was founded as Lynchburg Baptist College in 1971 by televangelist Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns. Falwell, already a pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church, served as the first president of the school. From 1979 to the late 1980s, Falwell Sr. also headed the Moral Majority, a right-wing political organization.

Williams Stadium is the home field for the Liberty Flames football team. Opened in 1989, the stadium seats 25,000 spectators. An indoor practice facility was opened in 2017 at a cost of $29 million.