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Motto | Pro Christo et Ecclesia [1] |
---|---|
Type | Private university |
Established | 1887 |
Affiliation | |
Religious affiliation | United Methodist |
Endowment | $56.35 million [3] |
President | Darrin Good [4] |
Academic staff | 107 Full-time and 73 Part-time [5] |
Students | 1,688 [5] |
Undergraduates | 1,545 [5] |
Postgraduates | 143 [5] |
Location | , , United States |
Campus | 50 acres (20 ha) |
Colors | Black & Gold |
Nickname | Prairie Wolves |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA – ARC |
Mascot | Prairie Wolf |
Website | www |
Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) is a private Methodist-affiliated university in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2017, it had approximately 2,100 students including 1,500 full-time students [6] and 300 faculty and staff. The university has 119 undergraduate majors, minors, and pre-professional programs in addition to three graduate programs.
Chartered on January 20, 1887, Nebraska Wesleyan University had an initial enrollment of 96. The initial teaching and administrative staff at this time totaled eight, including the chancellor.
In September 1887, the cornerstone was laid for Old Main, which became the central building of the campus. Still with no stairways, windows, or flooring on some floors, classes began in September 1888. The first graduating class was four women in 1890. The second graduating class, in 1891, was made up of four men. Nebraska Wesleyan received accreditation by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1914.
The school is located in the former town of University Place, Nebraska. Today, it is part of northeast Lincoln, Nebraska; [7] the surrounding neighborhood is a historic residential and shopping area of Lincoln.
Early on, Nebraska Wesleyan was a college of liberal arts; schools of art, business and education; a music conservatory; an academy (high school) also comprising an elementary school and kindergarten. The high school was discontinued in 1931, and the primary schools in 1941 (grade school) and 1942 (kindergarten).
Construction of the Duane W. Acklie Hall of Science began in 2017 with completion in 2019. It was the first new academic building in University Place in three decades. [8]
The Nebraska Wesleyan athletic teams are called the Prairie Wolves. [9] The university is a member of the NCAA Division III ranks, primarily competing in the American Rivers Conference (ARC; formerly known as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) since the 2016–17 academic year. [10] The Prairie Wolves previously competed in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1969–70 to 2015–16; as well as an NCAA D-III Independent while holding dual affiliation membership with the NAIA and the NCAA from 1982 to 2016. It was during their time in the GPAC Wesleyan played their traditional rival Doane University in nearby Crete, Nebraska. [11]
Nebraska Wesleyan competes in 21 intercollegiate varsity sports. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, swimming, tennis, track & field and wrestling. Women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, golf, soccer, swimming, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball. Former sports included women's bowling.
Nebraska Wesleyan has been associated with four mascots in its history, the Sunflower (1894–1907), the Coyote (1907–1933), the Plainsman (1933–2000), and the Prairie Wolf (2000–present). [12] The school colors are black and gold. [9]
Nebraska Wesleyan's athletic facilities include Abel Stadium [13] , which seats approximately 2,500 people and is used for college football, soccer and other events, and Snyder Arena, which seats 2,350 and is used for basketball and volleyball. [14]
The men's golf team won the 2006 NCAA Division III National Championship, [15] its first in men's golf. The Prairie Wolves won by 10 strokes over the University of Redlands. The men's golf team has also won 35 conference championships; with back to back championships in 2018 and 2019. [16]
The men's basketball team won the 2018 NCAA Division III National Championship, its first in men's basketball. [17]
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Its fourteen member institutions, of which all but one are public schools, are located in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, with an Arkansas school joining in July 2024. The MIAA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization incorporated in Missouri.
The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The conference was founded in 1969 as the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC), later becoming the Nebraska–Iowa Athletic Conference (1992) before being renamed the Great Plains Athletic Conference (2000).
Illinois Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Bloomington, Illinois. Founded in 1850, the central portion of the present campus was acquired in 1854 with the first building erected in 1856.
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Iowa Wesleyan University was a private university in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, United States. It was Iowa's first co-educational institution of higher learning and the oldest of its type west of the Mississippi River. The institution was affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It closed at the end of the 2022–23 academic year due to financial challenges.
Dakota Wesleyan University (DWU) is a private Methodist university in Mitchell, South Dakota. It was founded in 1885 and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The student body averages slightly fewer than 800 students. The campus of the university is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Concordia University, Nebraska is a private Lutheran university in Seward, Nebraska. It was established in 1894 and is affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod as one of seven schools in the Concordia University System. The university is organized into three schools: the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education, and the College of Graduate Studies.
The St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) is an NCAA Division III collegiate athletic conference in the Midwestern and Southern United States. There are 10 full member institutions as of the 2023–24 academic year.
Southern Wesleyan University is a private Christian university in Central, South Carolina. It was founded in 1906 by what is now the Wesleyan Church. The institution is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges to award associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees.
Doane University is a private university in Crete, Nebraska. It has additional campuses in Lincoln and Omaha, as well as online programs.
The Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC) was an intercollegiate athletic conference that competed in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Members of the conference were located in the Midwest United States and were located in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
The Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Originally developed as a five-team conference of Oklahoma-based schools, the SAC now boasts 12 schools in a league that spans four states – Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, with a Missouri based school to join in 2024.
Conference Carolinas, formerly known as the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference (CVAC) or the Carolinas Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) primarily at the Division II level. It is also considered as one of the seven Division I conferences for men's volleyball. Originally formed in 1930, the league reached its modern incarnation in 1994. Member institutions are located in the southeastern United States in the states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The Conference Carolinas membership currently consists of 14 small colleges or universities, 12 private and two public.
Warren Keith Urbom was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.
The Fort Hays State Tigers are the athletic teams that represent Fort Hays State University, located in Hays, Kansas, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division II ranks, primarily competing in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) for most of its sports since the 2006–07 academic year; while its men's soccer team competes in the Great American Conference (GAC). The Tigers previously competed in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) from 1989–90 to 2005–06 ; in the Central States Intercollegiate Conference (CSIC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1976–77 to 1988–89; in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) from 1972–73 to 1975–76; in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIC) from 1923–24 to 1967–68; and in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) from 1902–03 to 1922–23.
The Nebraska Wesleyan Prairie Wolves football team represents Nebraska Wesleyan University in college football at the NCAA Division III level. The Prairie Wolves are members of the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C), fielding its team in the A-R-C since 2016 when it was named the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC). Nebraska Wesleyan plays home games at Abel Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. The team's head coach is Brian Keller, who took over the position for the 1996 season.
Briar Cliff University is a private Franciscan university in Sioux City, Iowa.
The Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters are the athletic teams that represent Lincoln Memorial University, located in Harrogate, Tennessee, in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Railsplitters compete as members of the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) for most varsity sports, although the bowling team competes in the Conference Carolinas and the men's volleyball program plays as an independent. Field hockey and men's wrestling, two of three sports to be added in 2021–22, will compete in South Atlantic Conference Carolinas, an alliance between the SAC and Conference Carolinas (CC) that operates in those two sports, with the SAC operating the field hockey championship and CC operating the men's wrestling championship. LMU will thus become a de facto CC men's wrestling affiliate at that time. The third sport to be added in 2021–22 is women's wrestling, newly added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program for 2020–21.
The Northeastern State RiverHawks are the athletic teams that represent Northeastern State University, located in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) for most of its sports since the 2012–13 academic year; while its men's soccer team competes in the Great American Conference (GAC). The RiverHawks previously competed as an NCAA D-II Independent during the 2011–12 school year; in the D-II Lone Star Conference (LSC) from 1997–98 to 2010–11; and in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference (OIC) of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) from 1974–75 to 1996–97.
Jim Svoboda is an American football coach and former player. He most recently served as the quarterbacks coach at Tulane University for the 2022 season, where the team went 12-2 and won the 2023 Cotton Bowl Classic (January). Svoboda served as the head football coach at Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) from 1987 to 1993 and the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg, Missouri from 2010 to 2021. While at Nebraska Wesleyan, Svoboda won three Great Plains Athletic Conference championships (1988–1990), and advanced to the NAIA playoffs three times between 1988 and 1991. After coaching at NWU, Svoboda was the offensive coordinator at Northwest Missouri State University for 10 seasons, three of which the team won the NCAA Division II Football Championship. While serving as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UCLA, Svoboda was a 2005 finalist for the Broyles Award, given annually to the nation's top college football assistant coach.
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