Historical Context and Accreditation
The Greenville University campus has a rich tradition of providing Christian higher education for nearly 15 decades. In 1855, two New Englanders, Stephen Morse and John Brown White, founded Almira University. Almira Blanchard of Greenville became Morse’s wife and gave her inheritance to help found the University, which took her name. After 23 years of financial hardship, the creditors sold Almira University to James Park Slade. In 1889, Slade made the University coeducational, maintaining both the name and the American Baptist affiliation.
Three years later, nine men, representing the Central Illinois Conference of the Free Methodist Church, purchased the University and named it Greenville University. That event made 1892 the official founding time from which Greenville University anniversaries have been dated. In 1893, the University, which included one building (later named Hogue Hall) and several acres of land, was incorporated as a legally independent institution authorized to confer degrees. The University and the Free Methodist Church have maintained a rich legacy of mutual support in a voluntary relationship.1
The University has been in operation since its reincorporation in the Wesleyan theological interpretation of Christianity. Consistent with the principles of this tradition, the University’s Philosophy of Education has affirmed continuously that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God, eternally existing in three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; the virgin birth of Jesus Christ; the creation of humankind in the image of God, the fall and the necessity and possibility for atonement from sin through the death of Jesus Christ, as well as the final judgment—in the love and righteousness of Christ—of all humankind; and the Wesleyan emphases upon entire sanctification and service. While these statements fairly express the theological orientation of the University, they—being human formulations—have not been viewed to be a final or inflexible articulation of the position of the University beyond which the mind is forbidden to question or investigate.
Holding that beliefs and ideas should issue into action, Greenville University has sought throughout its history to maintain reasonable standards of life and action among its faculty and students which implement in daily life its view of Christian liberal arts education. The University has long held that educational opportunities must be provided under intellectually free and socially responsible circumstances which are necessary to the development of spiritual insight, moral conduct, intellectual integrity, and sensitivity to the social needs for the values of justice and mercy. The University has recognized that such an environment will vary with the changing social and cultural milieu, but that it ultimately depends upon those positive forces for good which are resident in the Christian philosophy of life. As a result, the total University environment has been constantly brought under review and change as it has sought to call to the attention of its members the personal richness and social relevance of life in Jesus Christ. In the words of Greenville University’s first president, Wilson T. Hogue, “Our motto will always be education for character.” Today the purposes of Greenville University reflect the twin purposes of character and service which also reflect the historic Wesleyan priorities of personal holiness and social justice.
Greenville University was chartered as an institution by the state of Illinois to prepare people in the liberal arts and for a variety of professions and vocations. In its early years, the curriculum of the University contained two basic courses of study, classical and scientific, both of which were essentially liberal in their educational concept. These curricula were coordinated with professional emphases developed by various departments of the University, then called schools. Such professional programs were arranged in business, art, music, and theology. Later a “normal” (education) department was added. These professional programs continue to flourish, while new ones have been added, though they also are organized around the liberal ideal. Though Greenville University experimented rather freely in its early years through the inauguration of these various schools and such programs as a preparatory department, the Master of Arts and science degrees, and a correspondence school, the University’s primary dedication to a liberal arts course of study has never been altered. But it has also been the case that the University has maintained an open and experimental attitude towards its curriculum, pedagogy, and organization.
The University is widely recognized and has been accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of North Central Association of Universities and Schools (since 1947) as an institution granting the bachelor’s degree. The teacher education program has been approved by the Illinois State Board of Education since 1974-1975. And in 1996, Greenville University was approved to offer its first master’s degrees.2
Institutional membership is held in the Associated Universities of Illinois, the Association of Free Methodist Educational Institutions, the Council for Christian Universities & Universities, the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, the Christian University Consortium, the Federation of Independent Illinois Universities and Universities, the North Central Association of Universities and Schools, and other professional organizations. It is one of the Universities approved officially by the Free Methodist Church of North America, and is, thereby, recommended to any of its young people interested in securing a Christian higher education.
The University excels in the number of graduates who have earned research doctoral degrees. Greenville graduates have served on the faculties of and in positions at major universities and Universities, including the chancellorship of the nation’s largest university system. Alumni also serve with distinction in the major professions, in business, and in the Church and Christian missions representing many denominations.
The descriptions above of the voluntary associations of Greenville University with other organizations attest to the desire of the University to cooperate with and to serve these organizations by maintenance of the agreed-upon standards and educational purposes. However, the University is not bound by these affiliations from rendering services to others whom it may choose. Beyond service to the peculiar educational purposes of the above-named organizations, the University attempts to serve the educational needs of the general and evangelical Christian communities. Further, the University seeks to serve the educational needs of the larger human community and effects arrangements with other educational institutions, professional organizations, and state and federal government agencies to accomplish this end.
Greenville University is open to all qualified students3 of any faith who seek a liberal education taught and interpreted within the context of an evangelical Christian philosophy of education. The academic program, the participation in co-curricular activities, and all of the enriching informal experiences on-campus are designed to emphasize the recognition that our religious dimension lies at the core of a sound liberal education. Greenville University offers a unique setting where students may openly search for moral and intellectual strength within the context of freedom and responsibility.
1More information concerning the history of Greenville University is available in the Ruby E. Dare Library. The volumes most specifically written for that purpose include Mary Alice Tenney, Still Abides the Memory (Greenville, Illinois: Tower Press, 1942), Donald C. Jordahl, University—The Antecedents: A History of Almira University (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, 1974), and Donald C. Jordahl, Man Proposes, But God Disposes: a Biography of John Brown White, Lawyer, Minister, Educator, and Founding President of Almira University. (Greenville, Illinois: Eta Epsilon Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, 1984).
2 While GU was approved to offer master degrees in 1996, it did not begin to offer them until 1998.
3Greenville University is operated in compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. No person in the United States shall on the ground of race, color, creed, sex, or national origin, be excluded from participating in, be denied the benefits of, or be otherwise subjected to discrimination under any program or activity of the University.