Wayland Baptist University
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| Motto | Go Ye into All the World / Let There Be Light |
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| Type |
Private Coeducational |
| Established | 1908 |
| Endowment | $83.5 million |
| President | Bobby Hall |
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Administrative staff
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500 |
| Students | 5,068 (all campuses 2016) 1,478 (main campus 2016) |
| Undergraduates | 3,821 (2016) |
| Postgraduates | 1,247 (2016) |
| Location | Plainview, Texas, U.S. |
| Campus | Suburban , 155 acres (0.63 km2) |
| Colors | Blue, Gold |
| Athletics | NAIA – SAC |
| Nickname | Pioneers Flying Queens |
| Mascot | Pioneer Pete |
| Affiliations | Southern Baptist Convention |
| Website | www |
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Wayland Baptist University is private, coeducational Baptist university based in Plainview, Texas. Wayland Baptist has a total of 14 campuses in five Texas cities, six states, and in Kenya. On August 31, 1908, the university was chartered by the state of Texas, under the name Wayland Literary and Technical Institute. The university had another name change in 1910 to Wayland Baptist College. In 1981, it attained university status and settled with the current name, Wayland Baptist University. It currently has a total enrollment of approximately 5,000 .
In 1906, the Staked Plains Baptist Association purposed the creation of a school. Dr. and Mrs. James Henry Wayland offered $10,000 and 25 acres (100,000 m2) of land in Plainview if the Staked Plains Baptist Association and the citizens of the city would raise an additional $40,000. In 1910, the school offered its first classes despite the administration building not yet being fully built. A total of 225 students were taking classes in primary education through junior college levels during the school's first term. After a public school system was well established in Plainview, the elementary grades were discontinued. Wayland Baptist gained membership to the American Association of Junior Colleges in 1926 and would later be approved as a senior college by the Texas Department of Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Texas Education Agency for teacher education training.
The school is the oldest institution of higher education in continuous existence on the High Plains of Texas due to the leadership of Dr. George W. McDonald, the fifth president of the school. When a run on the banks during the Great Depression threatened to close the school, the administration and faculty agreed to forgo pay to continue the task of educating students, trusting God to supply their needs.
In 1951, a black teacher approached the college asking if she could fulfill continuing education requirements at the college. Dr. James W. "Bill" Marshall, the school's sixth president, led the college to take the historic step to admit black students to the college, making Wayland the first four-year liberal arts college in the former Confederate states to integrate voluntarily. This action came three years before the Supreme Court's decision to ban school segregation, Brown v. Board of Education.
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