Concordia University Nebraska
Throughout the late 1880s there were efforts to establish a Lutheran teachers college in Nebraska. Efforts by four Seward businessmen, including the gift of of land and $8,000, led the district to settle on Seward as the site for the college. The school, then named the Evangelische Lutherische Schulleherer Seminar (Evangelical Lutheran School Teachers Seminary), was officially dedicated on November 18, 1894. Two days later classes began with its 13 students boarded, fed, and taught in the same building (now Founders Hall) by J. George Weller and his wife. Students were originally taught for three years before transferring to Addison Teachers Seminary to continue their instruction. The academic programs were expanded in 1905 with the addition of two years of college studies so that students no longer were required to transfer to Addison. By 1908 a fourth year of high school was added to the program. Throughout the early years, the local community provided support to "The German College", as it was unofficially termed, including foodstuffs, housing, and funding. While most classes were conducted in German, English was also taught and used. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the school faced significant anti-German sentiment by the local populace despite Director Jesse's support as a Four Minute Man. In a demonstration of their American pride, the school changed the language of all its classes to English and constructed a flagpole, said to be the tallest in the county. After the war, the school was accredited as a junior college and became co-ed in 1919 although women boarded with families off-campus. In December 1918, the Lutheran Seminary, as the university was then named, suffered infection during the 1918 flu pandemic with at least 15% of the student body being infected and one student dying. The school suffered another less-severe outbreak in 1920. The first bachelor's degrees were awarded in 1940, and the school became an accredited four-year institution in the late 1940s. In 1959, Concordia became the first of the LCMS schools to be accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. The school was named Concordia Teacher's College, reflecting the largest program until the addition of new fields of liberal arts majors in the 1970s. The school was again renamed to Concordia College from 1974 to 1998. Additional educational and housing facilities were added as the university grew and expanded its programs, including science labs, a large library, and multiple residence halls. Business, art, science, and health-related programs were added to the teaching and pre-seminary courses. Graduate programs were added in 1968. With the increase in enrollment came new programs and professors, many who were housed along Faculty Lane. The college became part of the newly established Concordia University System in 1995. In 1996, the college hosted the first annual Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival. The festival now brings nearly 10,000 school-aged students and teachers to campus to interact with authors and illustrators. It has included famous authors such as Lois Lowry, John R. Erickson, and Richard Peck. and became a university in 1998 and was renamed Concordia University Nebraska. Concordia opened a location in Lincoln's Fallbrook development to house graduate classes. Throughout the 2000s Concordia's enrollment continued to grow with more students enrolling in programs outside the historical church-work degrees. Despite the growth of secular studies, the church-work programs continued to flourish with Concordia having graduated nearly 30% of LCMS church workers by 2019. In 2009, the Walz Health and Human Performance Complex was completed, significantly improving the athletic facilities and performance spaces. The newest building on the campus is the Dunklau Center for Science, Math and Business, completed in 2019. The Dunklau Center added primarily to the sciences while renovating existing spaces for other programs including the new agricultural program. In 2021 the University canceled the Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival two days before the event was scheduled after multiple authors and illustrators withdrew from the event after learning of the school's opposition to homosexuality for religious reasons. The current president of Concordia University is Dr. Bernard Bull. The main campus is in the town of Seward, Nebraska, with over 11 academic and administration buildings and 11 residence halls. The newest residence hall—Jonathan Hall—is an apartment-style-living facility. All of the campus's residence halls include internet access and cable telecommunications connections. The university grounds are home to a portion of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum as well as a number of university-commissioned and student-made sculptures. The university is organized into three schools—the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the College of Graduate Studies. Concordia University, Nebraska is a fully accredited institution, accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The teacher education programs are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP); music programs are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM); and the institution's business program is accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE). Concordia awards bachelor's degrees in more than 50 undergraduate programs. In addition, the university awards the Lutheran Teacher Diploma, Christian Teacher Diploma, the Director of Christian Education, and Director of Parish Music certificate. Graduates of these programs serve as rostered church workers in the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. Pre-seminary and pre-deaconess programs are also available, including the necessary language courses to attend the seminaries of the LCMS. Concordia University offers several master's degrees. These programs offer a majority of their courses online. Most face-to-face classes meet in Lincoln, Neb. There are currently 11 residence halls (dormitories) on the university's Seward campus. These dorms are separated by gender, with the exclusion of Jonathan Hall. The following is a list of the current Residential Halls:
The dormitories are supervised by resident assistants and resident coordinators who are overseen by the Student Life Office. The university's student senate is composed of one senator elected by their floor peers to represent their respective dorm floor. A proportionate number of senators are elected to represent students who live off campus, and a representative for the Student Activities Committee and Student Worship Committee. The president, vice president, secretary and treasurer are elected at-large from the entire student body. All official student groups also have a vote and their university funding is tied to attendance at the weekly meetings. Over 30 clubs and organizations exist on campus for students to participate in, ranging from service-oriented groups to intramural teams to academic support groups to honorary societies. "The Sower" is the university's bi-weekly newspaper. "The Tower" is the title of the institution's yearbook. The "Curtain Club" provides students with a medium of expression through drama. The Student Activity Committee (SAC) organizes multiple events for the student body throughout the year, including concerts, comedy shows, free movies, bowling nights and the popular Spring Weekend. Concordia also runs a Speech and Debate team coached by Joseph Davis as of October 2018. Concordia hosts a number of traditions (institution organized and otherwise) throughout the year. Concordia has more than a dozen vocal and instrumental faculty-led ensembles open to students: The Theatre Program generally stages 3 major productions each year, in addition to one-act plays, readers' theater and student-directed productions. The university's theater division has been included in "Playbill", the yearly publication of the Alpha Psi Omega dramatic honor society, for more than 20 years. The Theatre faculty and students are active in the Region V Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Students have received recognition for playwriting, directing, lighting design, set design and acting at regional festivals. Concordia's art students publicly exhibit their artwork at the on-campus Marxhausen Gallery of Art (named after the artist Reinhold Marxhausen) for both the Annual Student Art Exhibition and the Bachelor of Fine Art Thesis Exhibition. The Marxhausen Gallery also intermittently hosts visiting artists from around the country who give presentations and display their art. The university's permanent collection of more than 300 works, the Koenig Collection, contains screen prints, etchings, lithographs and other original prints by nationally and internationally recognized artists. The Center for Liturgical Art at Concordia seeks to encourage and assist the Church in its ministry through the visual arts by promoting its use in worship. Students work alongside faculty and visiting artists to create a variety of pieces. Concordia University's handbook prohibits "active involvement in a homosexual lifestyle" and specifies disciplinary action against students breaking this rule. This is one of several matters related to sexuality that the handbook holds to be sinful. Concordia publishes a journal, "Issues in Christian Education", that often contains writing about the sinful nature of homosexuality. In 2021, the Plum Creek Literacy Festival at Concordia was canceled because authors withdrew their participation in the festival in protest of Concordia's LGBT prohibition. The festival had excluded books with LGBT characters by Eliot Schrefer and another author. Concordia–Nebraska athletic teams are the Bulldogs. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) since the 1969–70 academic year. Concordia–Nebraska competes in 23 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, powerlifting, soccer, tennis, track & field and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, golf, powerlifting, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball; and co-ed sports include eSports and shooting sports. The school mascot is the Bulldog. The Bulldogs have won three NAIA National Championships: men's outdoor track and field (2015), women's outdoor track and field (2016), and women's basketball (2019). Concordia's softball team appeared in two Women's College World Series in 1970 and 1971. The university also has many intramural sports. Concordia Nebraska's teams use the newly constructed Walz Human Performance Complex, Bulldog Stadium, and Plum Creek Park baseball and softball fields for competitions. Since 1950, Concordia has competed in an annual men's basketball tournament against other LCMS universities. A women's tournament was added in 1965. Throughout the history of CIT, Concordia Nebraska holds the best aggregate record in both the men's and women's tournaments. Since 2001 the teams are: Concordia University, Nebraska, Concordia University Wisconsin, Concordia University Chicago and Concordia University, Ann Arbor.
Academics
The university is organized into three schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the College of Graduate Studies.