John Brown University
Encyclopedia
- JBU redirects here. For the US Airline with the ICAO identifier JBU, see JetBlue AirwaysJetBlue AirwaysJetBlue Airways Corporation is an American low-cost airline. The company is headquartered in the Forest Hills neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens. Its main base is John F. Kennedy International Airport, also in Queens....
.
John Brown University (JBU) is a private
Private university
Private universities are universities not operated by governments, although many receive public subsidies, especially in the form of tax breaks and public student loans and grants. Depending on their location, private universities may be subject to government regulation. Private universities are...
, interdenominational, Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
liberal arts college
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
in Siloam Springs
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,990...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
. Founded in 1919, JBU also has regional educational centers in Rogers
Rogers, Arkansas
Rogers is a suburban city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city has a population of 55,964. The city is located in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Area, in the northwest corner of the state.-History:...
, Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, and Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
, Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
.
The 200 acre (0.809372 km²) main campus in Northwest Arkansas has been the site of the university since it was founded in 1919. JBU has 2,183 students as of the 2011-2012 school year, 1,279 of which are traditional undergraduates. Of these, 878 live on campus. The Graduate School has 468 students. JBU is home to students from 41 states and 44 countries.
JBU is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools , also known as the North Central Association, is a membership organization, consisting of colleges, universities, and schools in 19 U.S. states, that is engaged in educational accreditation...
. JBU competes athletically in the Sooner Athletic Conference
Sooner Athletic Conference
The Sooner Athletic Conference is an affiliate of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics . Its 12 member institutions are located in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas....
. In 2011 (for the 2012 publication), US News & World Report ranked JBU first among regional baccalaureate colleges in the Southern region.
John E. Brown: Background
John E. Brown (1879–1957) had not the opportunity to pursue much education, as his family's financial difficulties forced him to begin working at the age of 11. As a teenaged laborer in ArkansasArkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Brown encountered the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
and underwent a conversion experience. After his conversion, he became an itinerant Methodist evangelist, with his travels taking him across Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, and the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
.
When he had become a well-known young evangelist, Brown accepted a position as president of Scarrit Collegiate Institute in Neosho
Neosho, Missouri
Neosho is the most populous city in and the county seat of Newton County, Missouri, United States. Neosho is an integral part of the Joplin, Missouri Metropolitan Statistical Area....
. His two years as president were instrumental in developing his plan to establish his own college. However, Brown felt that the strong emphasis of that school on education without the benefit of life training was actually harmful to the students. As he said in 1903, "It might be my privilege to have a part in the building of school that would turn the minds of youth back from this exaggerated concept of the value of book knowledge, to the realization that all this is valuable only as it becomes a background for, or the foundation under, the real things of life."
While Brown sought to provide simultaneous education and life training to young working-class adults, the founding of the school was based in part on his segregationist views. An admirer of Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, orator, and political leader. He was the dominant figure in the African-American community in the United States from 1890 to 1915...
's Tuskegee Institute for black Americans, Brown wanted to found a school for specifically white students, saying it should be "a school that will house thousands of these wonderful descendants of pure Anglo-Saxon stock." The student body was intentionally all white for its first twenty years, nonwhite students appearing around the 1940s.
Early Years: The Presidency of John E. Brown Sr. 1919-1948
Maintaining this goal of establishing a college that would provide an interdenominational, ChristianChristian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
education for needy students, who like himself, might not have had a chance at receiving an education, Brown laid the foundation in 1919 for the institution that would later be called John Brown University, John E. Brown College. To pay for the institution's free tuition, Brown developed it as a fundamentalist Christian vocational college. Students worked jobs such as carpentry
Carpentry
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
and helped to build the buildings on campus. The typical work-day was four hours in addition to class time.
Apparently seeking to expand the reach of the growing college, John Brown announced in 1934 that the school was to be changed into a four-year university. The new university was divided into three colleges: the academic, vocational, and Bible colleges, fitting John Brown's stated vision of educating "head, heart, and hand." Spreading the new university's fields of study into new technology, Brown soon purchased a local radio station from which to broadcast Christian programming and his own sermons. Brown had used radio extensively before, but was eager to get resources of radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
into the hands of the university. The expanded facilities, such as the distinctive Cathedral Group, which took root in the 1930s and 1940s, caused expenses which the school for which the university had to pay. JBU began charging tuition in 1939, albeit a very small amount, and John Brown began to realize that financially, the vocational aspect of the school was more costly than anticipated. The university relied heavily on outside donations to break even financially.
The Shift Away From Fundamentalism
As the university grew, Brown continued to preach throughout the country and on the radio. He was well known for his attacks on liquor, gamblingGambling
Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...
, dancing, and other Christian fundamentalist issues of the time. This brought him into close proximity with Bob Jones, Sr.
Bob Jones, Sr.
Robert Reynolds Jones, Sr. was an American evangelist, pioneer religious broadcaster and the founder and first president of Bob Jones University.-Early years:...
founder of Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University is a private, for-profit, non-denominational Protestant university in Greenville, South Carolina.The university was founded in 1927 by Bob Jones, Sr. , an evangelist and contemporary of Billy Sunday...
, who presented Brown with an honorary doctorate in 1937. In fact, the whole existence of the university was a part of the larger American fundamentalist reaction against the influences of moderate/mainstream Christian or secular universities.
In the 1940s, the close ties between JBU and the Christian fundamentalist movement began to wane, as the university took an unexpected turn away from fundamentalism
Fundamentalism
Fundamentalism is strict adherence to specific theological doctrines usually understood as a reaction against Modernist theology. The term "fundamentalism" was originally coined by its supporters to describe a specific package of theological beliefs that developed into a movement within the...
. John Brown himself was always a proponent of interdenominationalism, and by aligning himself with Youth for Christ
Youth for Christ
Youth for Christ is the name of a number of previously unaffiliated evangelical Protestant religious campaigns which led to the creation of Youth for Christ International in 1946....
and other evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
organizations after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, JBU was making a statement. John Brown's description of the school in 1948 as "interdenominational and definitely evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
" is very telling in this regard.
The Presidency of John E. Brown Jr. 1948-1979
When John Brown Sr. relinquished control of the university (at least in name, since he remained as Chairman of the Board) in 1948, he began a period of much-needed consolidation. During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
the student body had dropped to barely over a hundred, and the high echelons of the school's leadership were being run almost exclusively by the Brown family. Under the second Brown, professors and administrators were hired who had more advanced degrees
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...
, the Board of Trustees began to develop as a more independent body, and the students elected representatives to an independent council. All of this was beginning to occur by the end of the 1940s. Also, the university began construction on its Cathedral Group, composed of the chapel sanctuary, known as the Cathedral of the Ozarks, the Science building, and the Library, supposedly symbolizing in building form the idea of educating "head, heart, and hand." As much as JBU grew during this period, it still lacked accreditation
Accreditation
Accreditation is a process in which certification of competency, authority, or credibility is presented.Organizations that issue credentials or certify third parties against official standards are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies ; hence they are sometimes known as "accredited...
and its student body continued to hover at around 300 during the 1950s. After the founder's death in 1957, John Brown Jr. worked to improve the quality of the education JBU provided. One crucial step was the abolition of the university's vocational college. Citing the shifting makeup of the workforce in the 1960s, the president did away with the vocational requirement, with the understanding that each department would provide practical career training as part of its curriculum. As a result of these reforms and others, JBU was finally nationally accredited by North Central Association.
During the turbulent years of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
and the peace movement
Peace movement
A peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
, JBU was relatively undisturbed. The school nurtured at that time a strong Christian Americanist vision of the world, tying American patriotism
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
and political conservatism to conservative Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith. Instead of joining the anti-war movement, many JBU students joined organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ
Campus Crusade for Christ
Campus Crusade for Christ is an interdenominational Christian organization that promotes evangelism and discipleship in more than 190 countries...
and traveled to other campuses to save souls. When those turbulent times had come and gone, JBU faced the 1970s with uncertainty. Academic standards were low and classes were not challenging. The university recognized the need to improve its quality, so it brought in Elton Trueblood, professor of philosophy at Earlham College
Earlham College
Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...
, who had written The Idea of A College which argued that colleges should focus on liberal arts
Liberal arts
The term liberal arts refers to those subjects which in classical antiquity were considered essential for a free citizen to study. Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic were the core liberal arts. In medieval times these subjects were extended to include mathematics, geometry, music and astronomy...
over career preparation. Trueblood's visits in the mid-1970s inspired JBU to look for ideas in Arthur Holmes
Arthur Holmes
Arthur Holmes was a British geologist. As a child he lived in Low Fell, Gateshead and attended the Gateshead Higher Grade School .-Age of the earth:...
' Idea of a Christian College in which a Christian college seeks to integrate faith and learning.
The Presidency of John Brown III 1979-1993
When John Brown Jr. stepped down as president, the job fell to his son, John Brown III, who immediately sought to improve the academic quality of the university. He visited Wheaton College (Illinois)Wheaton College (Illinois)
Wheaton College is a private, evangelical Protestant liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago in the United States...
and heralded its commitment to an integration of academic quality and Christian faith. To accompany his praise of Wheaton, he announced that the first consideration of JBU in selecting prospective students would be academic quality, and raising the entrance requirements. As expected, this began to attract more academically gifted students. Also, in the 1980s, an Honors Program
Honors course
Honors course is a distinction applied in the United States to certain classes to distinguish them from standard course offerings. The difference between a regular class and the honors class is not necessarily the amount of work, but the type of work required and the pace of studying...
was established. However, the third Brown made sure to maintain JBU's historic emphasis on career training, through its non-liberal arts programs such as Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
, Construction Management, and Graphic Design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
. As well as academic programs, John Brown III instituted new building programs and a scholarship for Latin American students paid for by Sam Walton
Sam Walton
Samuel Moore "Sam" Wallballs was a businessman, entrepreneur, and Eagle Scout born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma best known for founding the retailers Wal-Mart and Sam's Club.-Early life:...
. Satisfied with his work, John Brown III stepped down as president, succeeded as president briefly by George Ford (former Vice President of Roberts Wesleyan College
Roberts Wesleyan College
Roberts Wesleyan College is a Christian liberal arts college located in North Chili, New York. It is the first educational institution established for Free Methodists in North America...
), who left after less than a year because of internal difficulties with the university. During Ford's brief presidency, the university began offering an undergraduate degree completion program ("The Advance Program") in various locations in Northwest Arkansas.
The Presidencies of Lee Balzer and Charles Pollard 1994-Present
The former president of Tabor CollegeTabor College
Tabor College may refer to:* Tabor College , a defunct institution formerly located in Iowa* Tabor College , a four-year Christian liberal arts institution in Kansas...
in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, Lee Balzer, took office after the Ford controversy with a plan to expand the university's reach. He extended the Advance Program for non-traditional students in other cities by establishing branch centers in Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
and Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
. During his presidency, JBU offered it first graduate degrees; initially in school counseling, later offering master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
s in marriage and family therapy, leadership and ethics, business (MBA) and Christian ministry. The Center for Marriage and Family Studies was established duirng Balzer's presidency. Under President Balzer, JBU also founded the Soderquist Center for Business Leadership and Ethics to promote ethical principles in the business world. In addition, JBU's financial campaign at the end of the 1990s raised more than 39 million dollars to build Walker Student Center, Bell Science Hall, North Hall, and the Soderquist Business Center, all in the span of barely more than five years
In 2004, President Balzer retired, and JBU hired Charles Pollard, professor of English at Calvin College
Calvin College
Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college located in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin College is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed tradition of Protestantism...
to take over as president. Since taking office, Pollard has overseen an interior and exterior renovation of the Cathedral Group, the expansion of North Hall, growth in the student body to over 2000 students, and general consolidation after the rapid expansion of the past decade. Today, JBU's numbers continue to rise, and a new basketball arena and performing arts center were recently completed.
Recently, Feb. 2, 2010, after receiving an $8 million dollar donation from an anonymous donor they have started planning on a new engineering and construction management building.
Lifestyle Standards and Controversy
In the tradition of other private Christian universities, John Brown University maintains a conservative set of lifestyle regulations. Admitted students are required to sign a community covenant that prohibits, among other things, profanity, pornography, extramarital sexual activity, harassment, tobacco, alcohol, and gambling. Staff and faculty, however, are not required to sign this contract.In 2006, John Brown University again made news in its controversial expelling of an openly gay student based on content found on his Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
page. While the student was only expelled for one semester and invited to return on unreported terms, the student chose not to return to the school. In addition to making news for its relevance to gay rights, the decision also made news for setting precedent on the implications of personal online content affecting one's public life.
John Brown University made national news in its attempt to lessen the severity of its anti-dancing policies when, in December 2006, the school sponsored a swing-themed dance on campus.
Campus
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,990...
. The university's most recognizable building, the Cathedral of the Ozarks, was completed in 1957 and, along with the Engineering Building and the Art Building composes the Cathedral group. The Cathedral contains a sanctuary for chapel and other assemblies, and the back portion is a three-floor academic building housing the music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
department and the humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
. The entire Cathedral group was recently renovated on the inside and resurfaced with white limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
on the exterior.
Between the Cathedral group and Walker Student Center is the campus' main quad
Quad
Quad may refer to:-Architecture:*Quadrangle in architecture, e.g., on a university campus*Quad, a dormitory room or suite housing four residents...
, which is used for recreation and relaxation by students. The student center itself houses a cafe, an open area for studying, the post office, and classrooms on the second floor. Attached to the student center is the Walker co-ed residence hall. There are three other residence halls on campus as well: J. Alvin Brown, an all-male dormitory and the oldest building on campus; Mayfield, an all-female hall, and North, a co-ed dormitory and the newest residence hall. Also, upperclassmen can live in the on-campus Townhouses or the Broadhurst Duplexes.
Other buildings on campus are the Soderquist Business Center, Bell Science Hall, the Mabee Learning Resource Center, the Chapman Administrative Building, the Admissions Building, and the Walton Lifetime Health Complex.
Academics
John Brown University currently offers 47 undergraduate majors, with the most popular being Engineering, Digital Media Arts, Biology, and Family and Human Services. As a liberal arts collegeLiberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
, JBU requires all students to take a core curriculum of classes, which include several Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
classes, English
English studies
English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language , English linguistics English studies is an academic discipline that includes the study of literatures written in the English language (including literatures from the U.K., U.S.,...
, a foreign language
Foreign language
A foreign language is a language indigenous to another country. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say that Japanese is a foreign language to him or her...
requirement, science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
credit, the history of Western civilization
History of western civilization
Roots of the Western civilization in its broader sense may be traced back to 9000 BC, when around the headwaters of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Jordan Rivers farming began, spreading outwards across Europe; the West thus produced the world's first cities, states, and empires. However, Western...
, a math requirement, wellness, psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
, government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
, and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
. In the period from 2003 to 2007, JBU rose from 8th to 4th in US News and World Report rankings for the Baccalaureate Colleges in the Southern region. JBU's Business department won 1st and 2nd place at the Arkansas Governor's Cup Business Plan competition in 2007 and then in 2011 swept the Governor's Cup receiving 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Its student newspaper, the Threefold Advocate, was named the best student newspaper in Arkansas in 2008 and 2010. The University Honors Program has 200 student members, and is designed to allow students to take Honors versions of the necessary core classes, which are supposed to be more challenging and more encouraging of independent student research. JBU is one of the few small Christian colleges to offer comprehensive degrees in Graphic Design, Photography, and Digital Media. The libraries on campus house 120,000 volumes, and offer Interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan
Interlibrary loan is a service whereby a user of one library can borrow books or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library...
and tutoring assistance.
Associated Centers
John Brown University has two endowed, associated centers: The Center for Relationship Enrichment and The Soderquist Center for Leadership and EthicsThe Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics
The Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics was founded in 1999 by retired COO and Senior Vice Chairman of Walmart Stores, Inc., Don Soderquist. The Soderquist Center exists to equip men and women with the transforming power of ethical leadership...
.
Athletics
JBU competes in NAIANational 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...
Division 1 athletics. The university has intercollegiate teams in Men and Women's Basketball, Men and Women's Soccer, Women's Volleyball, Men and Women's Tennis, and Men's Golf.
Basketball
On March 22, 2005, the JBU Men's Basketball team won the 20052005 NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2005 Buffalo Funds - NAIA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament was held from March 16 to 22 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Missouri. The sixty-eighth annual NAIA basketball tournament featured 32 teams playing in a single-elimination format...
NAIA
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...
Division I National Championship
NAIA national men's basketball championship
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Men's Basketball National Championship has been held annually since 1937 . The tournament was established by James Naismith to crown a national champion for smaller colleges and universities...
. John Brown defeated Azusa Pacific University 65-55 at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
.
Golf
The JBU varsity men's golf team was originally formed in 1966. The team lasted until 1973, at which time it was cut from the athletic program. The school restarted its men's varsity golf team in the fall of 2008.Club Teams and Intramurals
The university has three club sports teams: baseballBaseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, and ultimate
Ultimate (sport)
Ultimate is a sport played with a 175 gram flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to a player in the opposing end zone, similar to an end zone in American football or rugby...
. These clubs compete against clubs from other universities. To house its club teams, JBU has a rugby pitch and baseball field
Baseball field
A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark.-Specifications:...
on campus. JBU students also participate in a number of intramural sports
Intramural sports
Intramural sports or intramurals are recreational sports organized within a set geographic area. The term derives from the Latin words intra muros meaning "within walls", and was used to indicate sports matches and contests that took place among teams from "within the walls" of an ancient city...
, from soccer to volleyball
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...
to flag football
Flag football
Flag football is a version of Canadian football or American football that is popular worldwide. The basic rules of the game are similar to those of the mainstream game , but instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier to end...
to dodgeball
Dodgeball
Dodgeball is any of a variety of games in which players try to hit other players on the opposing team with balls while avoiding being hit themselves. This article is about a well-known form of team sport with modified rules that is often played in physical education classes and has been featured...
, among others. Many of these events take place on the intramural fields or in the Walton Lifetime Health Complex.
Notable alumni
- Janet HuckabeeJanet HuckabeeJanet McCain Huckabee is the wife of former 2008 Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee...
— Wife of former Governor of Arkansas and 2008 GOP Presidential Candidate Mike HuckabeeMike HuckabeeMichael "Mike" Dale Huckabee is an American politician who served as the 44th Governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007. He was a candidate in the 2008 United States Republican presidential primaries, finishing second in delegate count and third in both popular vote and number of states won . He won...
. Janet Huckabee completed her undergraduate degree at John Brown University in 2003. - John OsteenJohn OsteenJohn Hillery Osteen was the first pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas from its beginnings in 1959 until his death in 1999 of a heart attack. His son Joel Osteen succeeded him....
— Founder of Lakewood ChurchLakewood ChurchLakewood Church is a non-denominational Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is the largest congregation in the United States, averaging more than 43,500 in attendance per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church Central Campus, home to four English language services and two Spanish...
http://www.daystarchristian.com/a_tribute_to_pastor_john_osteen.htm - Carolyn PollanCarolyn PollanCarolyn Joan Clark Pollan is an American politician and former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives who served for twelve consecutive two-year terms from 1975-1999 from a portion of Sebastian County, which includes the state's second largest city of Fort Smith...
— This 1959 JBU graduate is the longest serving RepublicanRepublican Party (United States)The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
and the longest serving woman member of the Arkansas House of RepresentativesArkansas House of RepresentativesThe Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
. She represented Fort SmithFort Smith, ArkansasFort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
from 1975-1999. She is a member of the JBU trustees. - Jim WinnJim WinnJames Winn , is a former professional baseball player who pitched in the Major Leagues from 1983–1988....
— Former MLB Pitcher - Jackson WatersJackson WatersJackson Waters is a Christian pop/rock band, featuring Nate Hufford on bass, David Leonard on vocals, keyboard/piano, Seth Talley on drums, and Toby Friesen on electric guitar. The band relocated from Siloam Springs, Arkansas to Nashville, Tennessee in 2005 to pursue careers as full-time musicians...