Concordia University (Nebraska)

Concordia University
Type Private University
Established 1894
Affiliation Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod
President Rev. Dr. Brian L. Friedrich
Provost Dr. Jenny Mueller-Roebke
Students >2,300[1]
Undergraduates 1,951[1]
Postgraduates 768[1]
Location

Seward, Nebraska, U.S.

Coordinates: 40°54′51″N 97°05′27.35″W / 40.91417°N 97.0909306°W / 40.91417; -97.0909306
Campus Seward campus
-Rural 85 acres (34 ha)
Lincoln campus
-Suburban
Colors Navy and White         
Mascot Bulldogs
Affiliations GPAC, NAIA
Website www.cune.edu

Concordia University, Nebraska is a private, coeducational university in Seward, Nebraska, established in 1894. It is affiliated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod as one of its ten 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. Degree completion and graduate programs are available online.

History

Founded in 1894 as the Evangelische Lutherische Schulleherer Seminar, the university began as a preparatory teacher's school with its twelve students boarded, fed and taught in the same building by J. George Weller and his wife (now Founders Hall).[2] The surrounding community was supportive of a school in their midst, and did much to help the students with extra foodstuffs, funding and housing. The school granted its first teaching degrees in 1907. During World War I, the school faced anti-German sentiment, which caused the institution to change the language of all its classes to English. The college worked alongside the community to show their patriotism by constructing a 100 ft (30 m) flagpole. After the war, the school was accredited as a junior college and became co-ed in 1919.

The first bachelor's degrees were awarded in 1940, and the school became an accredited four-year institution in the late 1940s. In 1959, Concordia became the first of the LCMS schools to be accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), which continues to accredit the university.

Additional educational and housing facilities were added as the university grew and expanded its programs, including science labs, a large library and multiple residence halls. Business, art, science and health-related programs were added to the teaching and pre-seminary courses. Graduate programs were added in 1968.

The college became part of the newly established Concordia University System in 1995, and became a university in 1998.

In 1995, the college hosted the first annual Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival. The festival now brings nearly 10,000 school-aged students to campus. It has included famous authors such as Lois Lowry, John R. Erickson and John Archambault.[3]

New facilities, including the Thom Leadership Education Center and a track-and-field and stadium complex, have been added in recent years.

Jonathan Hall, the newest of its 11 residence halls, opened in 2006. The newest building at its is the Walz Human Performance Complex, which was dedicated in 2010.

The current President of Concordia University, Nebraska is Rev. Dr. Brian L. Friedrich.[2]

Campus

The main campus is 85 acres (34 ha) in the town of Seward, Nebraska with over 11 academic and administration buildings and 11 residence halls. The newest residence hall—Jonathan Hall—is an apartment-style-living facility. All of the campus's residence halls include internet access and cable telecommunications connections. The university grounds are home to a portion of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum as well as a number of university-commissioned and student-made sculptures.

The Link Library contains about 232,000 titles and offers a Web-based cataloging system. The library also provides access to the databases of other independent colleges and universities in Nebraska. Bartels Museum, in the basement of Link Library, houses 75 displays of geological interest, including fossils and minerals from around the world.
Bulldog Stadium was constructed in 1997 and hosts the athletic events of Concordia's track, football, and soccer teams in addition to intramurals and Seward High School football and soccer games.

Academics

Concordia offers both graduate and undergraduate programs designed to prepare students not only to succeed in their chosen careers, but also to encourage responsible participation and leadership in a complex and diverse society. The university is organized into three school—the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Education and the College of Graduate Studies. Concordia University, Nebraska is a fully accredited institution, accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The teacher education programs are accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE); music programs are accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM); and the institution's business program is accredited by the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE).

Undergraduate

Concordia awards bachelor's degrees in more than 50 undergraduate programs. In addition, the university awards the Lutheran Teacher Diploma, Christian Teacher Diploma, the Director of Christian Education, and Director of Parish Music certificate. Graduates of these programs serve as rostered church workers in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Pre-seminary and pre-deaconess programs are also available, including the necessary language courses to attend the seminaries of the LCMS. Undergraduate majors and programs include:

  • Accountancy
  • Art Education
  • Arts Administration
  • Art Therapy
  • Behavioral Science
  • Biology (Cellular & Molecular, Conservation,

Environment, Forensic Science, Organismal)

  • Business Administration (Accounting, Agribusiness,

Communication, Finance, Information Systems, Marketing)

  • Business Communication
  • Chemistry
  • Christian Educational Leadership
  • Christian Teacher Diploma
  • Church Music (Organ, Voice)
  • Community Health
  • Communication Studies
  • Computer Science
  • Criminal Justice
  • Ecclesiastical Arts
  • Education (Early Childhood, Elementary,

Middle, Secondary, Special Education)

  • Ecclesiastical Art
  • English (and ELL)
  • Environmental Science (Biology, Chemistry,

Geography, Business & Marketing, Natural Resources)

  • Exercise Science
  • Fitness Studies
  • Geography
  • Gerontology and Aging Studies
  • Graphic Design
  • History
  • Interpersonal Communications
  • Journalism and Public Relations
  • Language and Rhetoric
  • Management Information Systems
  • Mathematics
  • Marketing
  • Music, Music Education
  • Natural Science
  • Physical Science
  • Physics
  • Psychology
  • Recreation & Sport Studies
  • Spanish
  • Studio Art
  • TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers
  • of Other Languages)
  • Theatre
  • Theology
  • World and Intercultural Studies
  • Worship Arts
  • Pre-Professional Studies:

Athletic Training, Chiropractic,

Clinical Laboratory Science, Clinical

Perfusion Science, Cytotechnology,

Dental, Dental Hygiene, Engineering,

Law, Medical, Nursing, Occupational

Therapy, Optometry, Osteopathic

Medicine, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy,

Physician Assistant, Radiation Science Tech,

Social Work, Veterinary.

Graduate

Concordia University offers several master's degrees. These programs offer a majority of their courses online. Most face-to-face classes meet in Lincoln, Neb.

Concordia Graduate Catalog

Student Life

Residential Halls

There are currently 11 Residential Halls (dormitories) on the university's Seward campus. These dorms are separated by gender, with the exclusion of Jonathan Hall. The following is a list of the current Residential Halls:

  • Philip Hall
  • Timothy Hall
  • Dorcas Hall
  • Esther Hall
  • Ruth A, B & C Hall
  • Schuelke Hall
  • Jonathan Apartments (genders separated)
  • David Hall
  • Strieter Hall

The dormitories are supervised by resident assistants and resident coordinators who are overseen by the Student Life Office.

Student government

The university's student senate is composed of one senator elected by their floor peers to represent their respective dorm floor. A proportionate number of senators are elected to represent students who live off campus, and a representative for the Student Activities Committee and Student Worship Committee. The president, vice president, secretary and treasurer are elected at-large from the entire student body. All official student groups also have a vote and their university funding is tied to attendance at the weekly meetings.

Extracurricular activities

Over 30 clubs and organizations exist on campus for students to participate in, ranging from service-oriented groups to intramural teams to academic support groups to honorary societies. The Sower is the university's bi-weekly newspaper. The Tower is the title of the institution's yearbook. The "Curtain Club" provides students with a medium of expression through drama. The Student Activity Committee (SAC) organizes multiple events for the student body throughout the year, including concerts, comedy shows, free movies, bowling nights and the popular Spring Weekend.

Traditions

Concordia hosts a number of traditions (institution organized and otherwise) throughout the year.

The Arts

Music

Concordia has more than a dozen vocal and instrumental faculty-led ensembles open to students:

Theatre

The Theatre Program generally stages 3 major productions each year, in addition to one-act plays, readers' theater and student-directed productions. The University's theater division has been included in Playbill, the yearly publication of the Alpha Psi Omega dramatic honor society, for more than 20 years. The Theatre faculty and students are active in the Region V Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Students have received recognition for playwriting, directing, lighting design, set design and acting at regional festivals.

Visual Arts

Concordia's art students publicly exhibit their artwork at the on-campus Marxhausen Gallery of Art (named after the artist Reinhold Marxhausen) for both the Annual Student Art Exhibition and the Bachelor of Fine Art Thesis Exhibition. The Marxhausen Gallery also intermittently hosts visiting artists from around the country who give presentations and display their art. The university's permanent collection of more than 300 works, the Koenig Collection, contains screen prints, etchings, lithographs and other original prints by nationally and internationally recognized artists. The Center for Liturgical Art at Concordia seeks to encourage and assist the Church in its ministry through the visual arts by promoting its use in worship. Students work alongside faculty and visiting artists to create a variety of pieces.

Athletics

Concordia Nebraska athletics are known as the Bulldogs, and are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, track & field and wrestling; while women's sports include basketball, dance/cheer, cross country, dance, golf, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball. The university also has many intramural sports.

Concordia Nebraska's teams use the newly constructed Walz Human Performance Complex, Bulldog Stadium and Plum Creek Park baseball and softball fields for competitions.

Concordia Invitational Tournament (CIT)

Since 1950, Concordia has competed in an annual men's basketball tournament against other LCMS universities. A women's tournament was added in 1965. Throughout the history of CIT, Concordia Nebraska holds the best aggregate record in both the men's and women's tournaments.[4] Since 2001 the teams are: Concordia University, Nebraska, Concordia University Wisconsin, Concordia University Chicago and Concordia University, Ann Arbor.

The school mascot is the Bulldog.

Softball

Concordia's softball team appeared in two Women's College World Series in 1970 and 1971.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Total Enrollment Breaks Record at Concordia University, Nebraska". Retrieved 10 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 http://www.cune.edu/about/history-concordia/
  3. http://www.cune.edu/about/conferences-and-camps/plumcreek/
  4. "History of the CIT". Concordia University. Retrieved 22 August 2013.
  5. Plummer, William; Floyd, Larry C. (2013). A Series Of Their Own: History Of The Women's College World Series. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States: Turnkey Communications Inc. ISBN 978-0-9893007-0-4.

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