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Concordia University (Portland, Oregon)
Encyclopedia
Concordia University is a private
, Christian university located in Portland
in the U.S. state of Oregon
. Opened in 1905 as a University-preparatory school
, the institution added college classes in 1950 and the high school was split-off in 1977. The school of nearly 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students is affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Concordia University System
. Located in Northeast Portland, the school also has branch campuses across Oregon and is in the process of opening a law school
in Idaho
. The university has four colleges and eighteen majors. Athletic teams, known as the Cavaliers, are members of the Cascade Collegiate Conference
and compete at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
(NAIA) level.
to meet the need for pastors and parochial school
teachers. The school added a junior college by 1950 and in 1968 women were first admitted to then Concordia High School. In 1962, Concordia became accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.
In 1977, an association of local Lutheran churches, the Portland Lutheran Association for Christian Education, assumed ownership and management of the high school. At this time, Concordia separated from the high school and became a four-year institution, graduating its first baccalaureate
students in 1980. Concordia College became Concordia University in 1995 and converted to the semester calendar
. The next year the school added masters degrees in teaching and education, followed by a Master of Business Administration
program in 2001. In 2002, the masters degree in education became Concordia's first program to also be fully online.
The university added a bachelor's degree in nursing in 2005 and then started the College of Health and Human Services in 2007. The nursing program was the first new program in the state in 40 years. As of 2009, enrollment at the private school was about 1,700, almost double the enrollment of 1999. That year Concordia started a program for conferring a bachelor's degree in music.
Concordia plans to open the Concordia University School of Law
in Boise, Idaho
, in 2011, to as many as 95 students and plans to grow to 250. The dean will be Cathy Silak, a former Idaho Supreme Court
justice. The facility is 17000 ft2 and it will cost approximately $2 million to complete the building.
, the university sits on a 13 acres (5.3 ha) campus near U.S. Route 30 Bypass (Lombard Street). The school also operates branch campuses around Oregon in Aloha
, Ashland
, Bend
, Gresham
, and Medford
. A new $15 million library, the George R. White Library & Learning Center, with 75000 ft2 opened across from the campus green
in 2009. Other amenities on the campus include a 60 feet (18.3 m) tall bell tower
and the 50000 ft2 Concordia Place Apartments, a residence hall
.
, in Boise, Idaho
. The university was rated as a Tier 4 school by U.S. News & World Report
in its 2010 Best Colleges edition.
(NAIA) level. In men's athletics, the teams compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, golf, and track and field. Women's teams compete in basketball, softball, cross country, golf, volleyball, and track and field. Teams are known as the Cavaliers and compete in the Cascade Collegiate Conference
. The official school colors are navy and white.
Concordia has been noted for the consistent success of its men's and women's soccer programs over the last decades. The men's program is headed by Dan Birkey
, and the women by Grant Landy. The Cavaliers have dominated their conference with the men winning 10 of 13 conference titles since its inception in 1997, and are frequently ranked among the nation's top 25 for NAIA small colleges. Additionally, the track and field program includes throwing (discus
, hammer throw
, javelin
, and shot put
) coach Mac Wilkins
, an Olympic gold medalist in 1976
at the Montreal games, who runs their Throw Center.
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
, Christian university located in Portland
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
in the U.S. state of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Opened in 1905 as a University-preparatory school
University-preparatory school
A university-preparatory school or college-preparatory school is a secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education...
, the institution added college classes in 1950 and the high school was split-off in 1977. The school of nearly 1,700 undergraduate and graduate students is affiliated with the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod and the Concordia University System
Concordia University System
The Concordia University System is an organization of ten colleges and universities throughout the United States operated by the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod . All ten institutions are named "Concordia" and all include professional church work programs as part of their curricula. The CUS was...
. Located in Northeast Portland, the school also has branch campuses across Oregon and is in the process of opening a law school
Law school
A law school is an institution specializing in legal education.- Law degrees :- Canada :...
in Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
. The university has four colleges and eighteen majors. Athletic teams, known as the Cavaliers, are members of the Cascade Collegiate Conference
Cascade Collegiate Conference
The Cascade Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Member schools are located in the Northwestern United States. Its basketball teams compete in Division II, the lower of the two levels of NAIA basketball competition. ...
and compete at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
(NAIA) level.
History
Concordia Academy was founded in 1905 by a growing Lutheran community in the Pacific NorthwestPacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
to meet the need for pastors and parochial school
Parochial school
A parochial school is a school that provides religious education in addition to conventional education. In a narrower sense, a parochial school is a Christian grammar school or high school which is part of, and run by, a parish.-United Kingdom:...
teachers. The school added a junior college by 1950 and in 1968 women were first admitted to then Concordia High School. In 1962, Concordia became accredited by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges.
In 1977, an association of local Lutheran churches, the Portland Lutheran Association for Christian Education, assumed ownership and management of the high school. At this time, Concordia separated from the high school and became a four-year institution, graduating its first baccalaureate
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
students in 1980. Concordia College became Concordia University in 1995 and converted to the semester calendar
Academic term
An academic term is a division of an academic year, the time during which a school, college or university holds classes. These divisions may be called terms...
. The next year the school added masters degrees in teaching and education, followed by a Master of Business Administration
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
program in 2001. In 2002, the masters degree in education became Concordia's first program to also be fully online.
The university added a bachelor's degree in nursing in 2005 and then started the College of Health and Human Services in 2007. The nursing program was the first new program in the state in 40 years. As of 2009, enrollment at the private school was about 1,700, almost double the enrollment of 1999. That year Concordia started a program for conferring a bachelor's degree in music.
Concordia plans to open the Concordia University School of Law
Concordia University School of Law
Concordia University School of Law is a private, non-profit law school scheduled to open in Boise in the U.S. state of Idaho. Announced in 2007, the school originally planned to open in fall 2011, but will open in fall 2012 with 75-95 students and expects to grow to 250 students when fully...
in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
, in 2011, to as many as 95 students and plans to grow to 250. The dean will be Cathy Silak, a former Idaho Supreme Court
Idaho Supreme Court
The Idaho Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the state of Idaho, composed of the chief justice and four associate justices.The decisions of the Idaho Supreme Court are binding on all other Idaho state courts.The only court that may reverse or modify its decisions is the Supreme Court of...
justice. The facility is 17000 ft2 and it will cost approximately $2 million to complete the building.
Campus
Located in Northeast Portland in the Concordia neighborhoodConcordia, Portland, Oregon
Concordia is a neighborhood in the Northeast section of Portland, Oregon, United States, named after Concordia University, which is located within it. The neighborhood borders are NE 22nd Ave. on the west, NE Columbia Blvd. on the north, and NE 42nd Ave. on the east. On the south, the border is...
, the university sits on a 13 acres (5.3 ha) campus near U.S. Route 30 Bypass (Lombard Street). The school also operates branch campuses around Oregon in Aloha
Aloha, Oregon
Aloha is a census-designated place and an unincorporated community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 49,425.-History:...
, Ashland
Ashland, Oregon
Ashland is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States, near Interstate 5 and the California border, and located in the south end of the Rogue Valley. It was named after Ashland County, Ohio, point of origin of Abel Helman and other founders, and secondarily for Ashland, Kentucky, where other...
, Bend
Bend, Oregon
Bend is a city in and the county seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States, and the principal city of the Bend, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area. Bend is Central Oregon's largest city, and, despite its modest size, is the de facto metropolis of the region, owing to the low population...
, Gresham
Gresham, Oregon
- Demographics :As of the census of 2000, there were 90,205 people, 33,327 households, and 22,695 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,071.6 people per square mile . There were 35,309 housing units at an average density of 1,593.8 per square mile...
, and Medford
Medford, Oregon
Medford is a city in Jackson County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2010 US Census, the city had a total population of 74,907 and a metropolitan area population of 207,010, making the Medford MSA the 4th largest metro area in Oregon...
. A new $15 million library, the George R. White Library & Learning Center, with 75000 ft2 opened across from the campus green
Quadrangle (architecture)
In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building. The word is probably most closely associated with college or university campus architecture, but quadrangles may be found in other...
in 2009. Other amenities on the campus include a 60 feet (18.3 m) tall bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
and the 50000 ft2 Concordia Place Apartments, a residence hall
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
.
Academics
Concordia University contains four colleges of study: the College of Education, the School of Management, the College of Health and Human Services, and the College of Theology, Arts and Sciences. Through these colleges the university offers undergraduate degrees in biology, history, education, English, theology, social work, a nursing program and many other subjects for a total of 18 majors and 20 concentrations. Additionally, the university offers graduate degrees in education and business administration and is developing a law school, the Concordia University School of LawConcordia University School of Law
Concordia University School of Law is a private, non-profit law school scheduled to open in Boise in the U.S. state of Idaho. Announced in 2007, the school originally planned to open in fall 2011, but will open in fall 2012 with 75-95 students and expects to grow to 250 students when fully...
, in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
. The university was rated as a Tier 4 school by U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report
U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...
in its 2010 Best Colleges edition.
Athletics
The university fields 13 varsity athletic teams, competing at the National Association of Intercollegiate AthleticsNational Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...
(NAIA) level. In men's athletics, the teams compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, soccer, golf, and track and field. Women's teams compete in basketball, softball, cross country, golf, volleyball, and track and field. Teams are known as the Cavaliers and compete in the Cascade Collegiate Conference
Cascade Collegiate Conference
The Cascade Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Member schools are located in the Northwestern United States. Its basketball teams compete in Division II, the lower of the two levels of NAIA basketball competition. ...
. The official school colors are navy and white.
Concordia has been noted for the consistent success of its men's and women's soccer programs over the last decades. The men's program is headed by Dan Birkey
Dan Birkey
Daniel Birkey is an American soccer coach, and played collegiately and professionally. He is the head men's soccer coach at Concordia University, Portland.-Biography and Playing Career:...
, and the women by Grant Landy. The Cavaliers have dominated their conference with the men winning 10 of 13 conference titles since its inception in 1997, and are frequently ranked among the nation's top 25 for NAIA small colleges. Additionally, the track and field program includes throwing (discus
Discus throw
The discus throw is an event in track and field athletics competition, in which an athlete throws a heavy disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than his or her competitors. It is an ancient sport, as evidenced by the 5th century BC Myron statue, Discobolus...
, hammer throw
Hammer throw
The modern or Olympic hammer throw is an athletic throwing event where the object is to throw a heavy metal ball attached to a wire and handle. The name "hammer throw" is derived from older competitions where an actual sledge hammer was thrown...
, javelin
Javelin throw
The javelin throw is a track and field athletics throwing event where the object to be thrown is the javelin, a spear approximately 2.5 metres in length. Javelin is an event of both the men's decathlon and the women's heptathlon...
, and shot put
Shot put
The shot put is a track and field event involving "putting" a heavy metal ball—the shot—as far as possible. It is common to use the term "shot put" to refer to both the shot itself and to the putting action....
) coach Mac Wilkins
Mac Wilkins
Maurice "Mac" Wilkins is an American athlete, who competed mainly in the discus throw. He was born in Eugene, Oregon....
, an Olympic gold medalist in 1976
Athletics at the 1976 Summer Olympics
At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, 37 events were contested in athletics. There were a total number of 1006 participating athletes from 80 countries.-Men's events:-Women's events:-Medal table:-References:**...
at the Montreal games, who runs their Throw Center.
Notable alumni
- Dave ReichertDave ReichertDavid George Reichert is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2005. He is a member of the Republican Party. He previously served as Sheriff of King County, Washington.-Early life, education and career:...
- representative from Washington's 8th congressional districtWashington's 8th congressional districtWashington's 8th congressional district includes most of the region known as the Eastside and the mostly rural eastern parts of King and Pierce counties. It is currently represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by Republican Dave Reichert....
; former King CountyKing County, WashingtonKing County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population in the 2010 census was 1,931,249. King is the most populous county in Washington, and the 14th most populous in the United States....
sheriff - Paul SimonPaul Simon (politician)Paul Martin Simon was an American politician from Illinois. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985 and United States Senate from 1985 to 1997. He was a member of the Democratic Party...
- late U.S. SenatorUnited States SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from IllinoisIllinoisIllinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...