Union University
About Union

About Union University

U.S. News Ranking for Regional Universities - Up-and-Coming
Union Stories
Faculty/Staff Directory

Quick Links

Union Details
Executive Leadership
Administrative Departments
Institutes & Centers

Locations

Hendersonville Campus Jackson Campus Germantown Campus

Location: Jackson, Tennessee (area population: 100,000), 80 miles east of Memphis and 120 miles west of Nashville. Forbes magazine recently ranked Jackson as one of America’s top 150 cities for business and careers.

Student Body: More than 4,200 undergraduate and graduate students from 44 states and 33 countries.

Student to Faculty Ratio: 11:1

Percentage of Faculty with Highest Possible Degree in Field: 84%

Emphasis: A private, four-year, coeducational liberal arts-based university offering bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.

History: Founded in 1823, Union is the oldest institution affiliated with Southern Baptist life.

Technology: Each residence apartment is equipped with filtered Internet and cable connections. In addition, wireless network access is available in residence commons areas, as well as in each academic building and the Student Union Building. Students receive a Union e-mail account and private file storage space.

Activities: More than 50 major student-produced music and theatre events each academic year; 60 campus clubs, societies, fraternities, sororities  and other organizations; Cardinal & Cream student newspaper, The Torch literary journal, and "Jackson 24/7" daily television news program.

Campus: Union University’s main campus in Jackson and its extension campuses in Germantown and Hendersonville cover 360 acres. The wooded Jackson campus features pine groves, sycamores, a variety of oaks including Shumardi oaks lining the great lawn, elm, dogwoods, sweet gums and cherry trees.

There are more than 40 major buildings and excellent athletic facilities. More than $120 million in new campus construction has been completed during the past decade, including several new Georgian-Colonial classroom buildings that support state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities. Most of Union’s on-campus housing was constructed in 2008. Student-suggested design features were incorporated in each new building; all residence buildings include a private bedroom for each student.

The campus is situated along the U.S. 45 bypass in north Jackson and is adjacent to one of Jackson's largest concentration of retail establishments and restaurants.

Campus Visits: Visit our campus anytime to meet with faculty or visit a class. You are also invited to join us for a Union Preview Day. This year’s Preview Days schedule is found at http://www.uu.edu/campusvisits or call 1.800.33.UNION. Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., first and third Saturdays of the month from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Major Recognitions

Current Programs of Study

Art *#
Biology *
Business Administration *
Chemistry
Communication Arts
Computer Science
Education*
Engineering
English *#
History *#
Honors
International and Intercultural Studies
Language
Mathematics
Music
Nursing
Physical Education, Wellness and Sport
Physics *
Political Science *#
Pre-professional Programs
Psychology
Social Work
Sociology
Theology & Missions #
*Teacher Licensure Available
# This major is available also with Discipline-Specific Honors
Graduate Programs of Study

History

Union University is an heir of three antebellum Tennessee schools-West Tennessee College and its predecessor, Jackson Male Academy, both located at Jackson, and of Union University, located at Murfreesboro-and it is the inheritor of another college in 1927, Hall-Moody Junior College of Martin, Tennessee.

Jackson Male Academy, founded in 1823 shortly after the opening of West Tennessee for settlement, was chartered by the legislature in 1825.

West Tennessee College

West Tennessee College originated in the mid-1840s when supporters of the Academy secured a charter for a college and received an endowment from the state to come from the sale of public lands. Under its charter, the property rights and governance of the Jackson Male Academy were vested in the trustees of the College. The College offered three degrees- bachelor of arts, bachelor of philosophy, and master of arts- and had four departments: Moral Philosophy, Languages, Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy and Chemistry.

Southwestern Baptist University and Tennessee Baptists

West Tennessee College continued until 1874, when at a time of depressed economic conditions, the trustees offered the College's buildings, grounds, and endowment to Tennessee Baptists in the hopes of attracting the southwestern regional university planned by the state's Baptist leaders.

Meanwhile, after years of discussion and the raising of an endowment, the Baptists of Middle Tennessee (there were three separate conventions in Tennessee at that time) in 1848 established Union University in Murfreesboro, near the geographical center of the state. Union University came upon hard times when in 1859 its highly respected president, Joseph H. Eaton, died and when during the Civil War its campus was badly damaged. It reopened in 1868 only to close again in 1873, largely because of its financial condition and an epidemic of cholera.

Southwestern Baptist University, the immediate predecessor of the present Union University, originated because of a desire by Tennessee Baptists, who still had a separate convention for each of the state's three Grand Divisions, for greater unification. Education became the core issue around which such unification was promoted. Committees of the three conventions met jointly in Humboldt in 1873 and issued a resolution supporting the establishment of a first-class regional university. An Educational Convention met in Murfreesboro in 1874, at which time a committee was appointed to select a location for the proposed university. The committee recommended the acceptance of the offer made by the citizens of Jackson to assume ownership of West Tennessee College.

Southwestern becomes Union University

In September 1874, the new Tennessee Baptist-related institution opened in Jackson, and in 1875 it was chartered as Southwestern Baptist University. In 1907, Dr. T. T. Eaton, a trustee at Southwestern from its beginning, bequeathed his 6,000 volume library to the institution. He was a former professor at the Murfreesboro campus, where his father, Dr. Joseph H. Eaton, had been president. In 1907 the name of Southwestern Baptist University was changed to Union University to honor the Eatons and others from the Murfreesboro campus who had made a major impact on Southwestern as faculty, administrators, trustees, and contributors. In a further move to unify its educational efforts, the Tennessee Baptist Convention in 1925 secured a new charter for the University in conjunction with the adoption of the Cooperative Program and clarity regarding the election of the University's trustees. Two years later, the Convention was able to consolidate Hall-Moody Junior College at Martin (1900-1927) with Union University. During the 1920s, Union discontinued its graduate program, its Law Department, and its high school and added a bachelor of music degree program.

After a major campus fire in 1912, several new buildings were constructed, including Barton Hall, the centerpiece of the Jackson campus for the next 60 years. In 1948, during the administration of President Warren F. Jones (1945-62), the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools granted Union University its original accreditation. In 1962, at the request of area healthcare leaders, Union developed a nursing program with the assistance of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital.

The Move to North Jackson Campus in 1975

Because of an aging and landlocked campus, Union, in 1975, moved from near downtown to a new campus located along Highway 45-Bypass in north Jackson. During the administrations of President Robert Craig (1967-85) and President Hyran Barefoot (1986-1996), enrollment increased from less than 1,000 students to nearly 2,000; the multipurpose Penick Academic Complex was enlarged several times; many additional housing units were erected; and the Blasingame Academic Complex (1986) and the Hyran E. Barefoot Student Union Building (1994) were constructed.

Union Since 1995

When David S. Dockery was elected as the fifteenth president of Union University in December 1995, he brought with him a compelling vision to build on a great tradition while taking Union to the next level of regional and national prominence in Christian higher education. Considerable progress has been made during this time:

Accreditation

Union University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, master's, education specialist, and doctoral degrees. Contact the Commission on Colleges at 1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia, 30033-4097 or call 404-679-4500 for questions about the accreditation of Union University.

Normal inquiries about the institution, such as admission requirements, financial aid, educational programs, etc., should be addressed directly to the institution and not to the Commission's office.

Discipline Specific Accreditations:

Affiliations:

Athletics:

Varsity Sports

Recently offered intramural sports