Motto | "From the darkness into the light" |
---|---|
Type | Private |
Established | 1871 |
Religious affiliation
|
American Baptist Churches USA |
President | James "Tim" Barry |
Provost | Joan Propst |
Academic staff
|
70 |
Students | 1100 |
Location |
Alderson, West Virginia, USA 39°09′30″N 80°02′57″W / 39.15833°N 80.04917°WCoordinates: 39°09′30″N 80°02′57″W / 39.15833°N 80.04917°W |
Campus | Rural |
Athletics | 22 NCAA Division II |
Colors | Navy and Gold |
Nickname | Battlers |
Mascot | Skirmish |
Website | www.ab.edu |
Alderson Broaddus University — informally known as "AB" — is a private, four-year liberal arts university, located in Philippi, West Virginia, USA.
Alderson Broaddus was formed in 1932 as Alderson–Broaddus College by the union of two Baptist institutions: Alderson Academy (founded 1901) and Broaddus Institute (founded 1871; moved to Philippi, 1909). The school adopted its current name in 2013.
Noted for its health science, natural science, education and music programs, the college offers a variety of majors in five academic divisions: Education and Special Programs, Health Sciences, Humanities, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences. It was the first college in West Virginia to offer a four-year degree in nursing and the first in the country to offer a four-year physician assistant degree.
Alderson Broaddus University derives its double-barreled name from the merging of two Baptist institutions in 1932. The older of the two, Broaddus Institute, was founded in Winchester, Virginia, in 1871 by Edward Jefferson Willis, a Baptist minister who named the new school after Rev. William Francis Ferguson Broaddus, a prominent Baptist minister at the time of the American Civil War. In response to economic hard times, Broaddus Institute was moved across the Allegheny Mountains to Clarksburg, West Virginia, in 1876. The college was moved again to the small town of Philippi in 1909. In 1917 it became Broaddus College and Academy.
The other institution, Alderson Academy, was founded in Alderson, West Virginia, in 1901 by Emma C. Alderson, a committed Baptist laywoman. Designed as a home school, it provided academic work in classics, sciences and normal studies. Originally supported by the Greenbrier Baptist Church, control was assumed by the West Virginia Baptist Association in 1910.