(Headline of this story in the
newspaper: ‘U’ turn ahead: Linfield set to graduate ‘college’)
By Starla Pointer, McMinnville N-R/News-Register, June 30,
2020
After almost a century as
Linfield College, McMinnville’s private school will be renamed Linfield
University on July 1.
“With the new name, we’re not
just staying the course, nor simply changing the sign on Founders Way,” said
Miles Davis, Linfield’s 41st president. “We’re transforming into an
institution that will serve students in the comping decades with a new
structure.”
Linfield has about 2,000
students enrolled on its McMinnville and Portland campuses, along with online
and adult degree completing programs.
The American Baptist
denomination started what became Linfield in 1858. The Baptist College served
secondary students as well as those pursing higher education in its early
years. It became McMinnville College as it moved from downtown to its current
site, where Pioneer Hall was built in 1882.
In 1922 the school received a
major donation from the Linfield family and assumed its benefactor’s name. It
grew in both enrollment and programs over the decades.
In the mid-1990s it expanded in
size, as well, as the campus incorporated the former Hewlett-Packard site next
door. The library, art department, theater and music departments, along with
additional living quarters, fill the south part of the campus, with more
academic buildings, dorms, the cafeteria and science and sports complexes on
the original section, anchored by the belltower topped Pioneer Hall.
Linfield paired with a nursing
program in Portland in 1982 to create the Linfield-Good Samaritan School of
Nursing. It will move to new quarters next year: the former University of
Western States campus, a 20-acre site with buildings equipped for medical
studies, which it purchased in 2018.
Nursing and business become
schools in the new university format, along with a College of Arts and
Sciences. Linfield plays to add master’s degrees to its undergraduate programs:
it already has developed master’s tracks in the health care leadership and wine
studies.
“We will continue to be a
mission-driven institution that connects learning, life and community,” Davis
said. “We will continue to focus on the student experience and maintain our
emphasis on a high-quality interdisciplinary education.”
The goal is to ensure the Linfield
name – and the values it represents – remains strong for at least another 162
years.
