Type | Private |
---|---|
Established | February 14, 1936 |
President | Dr. Craig Williford |
Undergraduates | 600 |
Postgraduates | 260 |
Location |
Portland, Oregon, USA 45°31′35″N 122°34′36″W / 45.5265°N 122.5766°WCoordinates: 45°31′35″N 122°34′36″W / 45.5265°N 122.5766°W |
Website | www.multnomah.edu |
Multnomah University (MU) is a non-denominational Christian university in Portland, Oregon, United States. Multnomah consists of a college, graduate school, seminary and Degree Completion Program, and the university offers bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in a wide range of fields.
On February 14, 1936, Rev. John G. Mitchell called a meeting of Portland-area ministers and Christian businessmen to discuss the idea of creating a Bible school in the Pacific Northwest. Mitchell, working with Dr. B.B. Sutcliffe, Dr. Willard Aldrich and others, founded Multnomah School of the Bible that year.
The following October, classes began with 49 students and a half-dozen faculty in a former mortuary.
In 1943, Willard Aldrich became president of the school. At 34, he was the youngest president of a college in the United States. Willard served as president up until his retirement in 1978. During his time as president, Multnomah came to reside on its current campus and became a degree-granting college.
His son, Dr. Joseph C. Aldrich, followed in his father's footsteps and became the next president of Multnomah. He was affectionately referred to as Dr. Joe.
The Multnomah Graduate School of Ministry was founded as a related institution in 1986 and was renamed later to Multnomah Biblical Seminary. In 1993, the college was renamed Multnomah Bible College. On July 1, 2008, the overarching name of the institution was changed to Multnomah University.
The original campus was located adjacent to the site of the present Lloyd Center shopping mall in Northeast Portland. In 1952, the school purchased the 17-acre (69,000 m²) former campus of the Oregon Blind Trades School, a branch of the Oregon State School for the Blind, located at NE 82nd Avenue and NE Glisan Street, which is the location of one of the university's current campus.
In 2008, Multnomah announced a satellite campus in Reno, Nevada. Today, Reno students can earn Multnomah's famous Bible and theology degree or choose from several seminary degrees.
In 2009, Multnomah University was named among the top 25 non-profits to work at in Oregon. The Seattle Met, in their 2008 rankings of Northwest colleges, put Multnomah as #6 in the region.