Motto | "Pro Christo et Libertate" |
---|---|
Motto in English
|
For Christ and for Liberty |
Type | Private |
Established | 1875 |
Endowment | $46.1 million |
President | Stephen Morgan |
Academic staff
|
253 |
Undergraduates | 2,168 |
Postgraduates | 719 |
Location |
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States 40°43′54″N 111°51′18″W / 40.7318°N 111.8550°WCoordinates: 40°43′54″N 111°51′18″W / 40.7318°N 111.8550°W |
Campus | Urban |
Athletics | NCAA Division II |
Colors | Purple and Gold |
Mascot | Griffin |
Website | westminstercollege.edu |
Westminster College is a private liberal arts college located in the Sugar House neighborhood of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. The college comprises four schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the Bill and Vieve Gore School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Nursing and Health Sciences. It is the only accredited liberal arts college in the state of Utah.
The school was founded in 1875 as the Salt Lake Collegiate Institute, a prep school under the supervision of the First Presbyterian Church of Salt Lake City.
At that time, members of many Protestant Christian denominations flocked to Salt Lake City in order to try to convert people who belonged to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster is the only remaining vestige of a trend in the late 19th century in which the Protestants set up private primary and secondary schools and offered free tuition to children in order to try to convert them from other religions.
College level classes were first offered in 1897 as Sheldon Jackson College. It was given that name after a Presbyterian minister and its primary benefactor, Sheldon Jackson. High school level classes ceased to be offered in 1945, and the school become strictly a college. Westminster was the first accredited two-year junior college in Utah. It became a liberal arts institution in 1949.
The college changed its name to "Westminster College" in 1902 to better reflect a more general Protestant education. The name is derived from the Westminster Confession of Faith, a Presbyterian confession of faith, which, in turn, was named for the district of London where it was devised. The University of Westminster, London is a separate higher education institution in the United Kingdom and is not affiliated with Westminster College.