Multnomah University (MU) is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

university in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. Composed of a college, seminary, graduate school, and online distance-learning program, the university offers bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees, as well as professional certifications and endorsements.

History

On February 14, 1936, Rev. John G. Mitchell called a meeting of Portland-area ministers and Christian businessmen to discuss the idea of creating a

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

school in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. Mitchell, working with Dr. B.B. Sutcliffe, Dr. Willard Aldrich and others, founded Multnomah School of the Bible that year. The following October, classes began with 49 students and a half-dozen faculty in a former

mortuary A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...

. In 1943, Willard Aldrich became president of the school. At 34, he was the youngest president of a college in the United States. Willard served as president up until his retirement in 1978. During his time as president, Multnomah came to reside on its current campus and became a degree-granting college. Willard's son, Dr. Joseph C. Aldrich, followed in his father's footsteps and became the next president of Multnomah. He was affectionately referred to as Dr. Joe. The Multnomah Graduate School of Ministry was founded as a related institution in 1986 and was renamed later to Multnomah Biblical Seminary. In 1993, the college was renamed Multnomah Bible College. On July 1, 2008, the name of the institution was changed to Multnomah University. Multnomah University was granted an exception to

Title IX Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...

in 2016 that allows it to legally discriminate against LGBT students. University policy states that humans should have sex only within heterosexual marriage.

Campus locations

Multnomah University sign - Portland, Oregon

The original campus was located adjacent to the site of the present

Lloyd Center Lloyd Center is a shopping mall in the Lloyd District of Portland, Oregon, United States, just northeast of downtown. It is owned by Arrow Retail of Dallas. The mall features three floors of shopping, with the third level serving mostly as prof ...

shopping mall in

Northeast Portland Northeast Portland is one of the six major divisions of Portland, Oregon. Northeast Portland contains a diverse collection of neighborhoods. For example, while Irvington and the Alameda Ridge feature some of the oldest and most expensive homes i ...

. In 1952, the school purchased the 17-acre (69,000 m²) former campus of the Oregon Blind Trades School, a branch of the Oregon State School for the Blind, located at NE 82nd Avenue and NE Glisan Street, and the university's main campus still remains there today. In 2008, Multnomah announced a satellite campus in

Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...

. Reno students could choose from a bachelor's degree in Bible and theology or graduate degrees in Bible, theology, or church leadership. Multnomah's Reno campus was also home to Reno Technology Academy, which exists to resolve the information technology labor shortage in Northern Nevada by providing industry certifications. The Reno campus was permanently closed at the end of 2020.

Rankings

In 2009, Multnomah University was named among the top 25 non-profits to work at in Oregon. The Seattle Met, in their 2008 rankings of Northwest colleges, put Multnomah as #6 in the region.

Ministries

Over its history, Multnomah has been the starting point of several independent ministries and businesses, including: Mission Portland, International Renewal Ministries, and Multnomah Press (now Waterbrook-Multnomah Publishing Group, which no longer has any connection to Multnomah University).

Academics

Multnomah offers bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees, as well as professional certifications and endorsements.

Undergraduate program

Historically, Multnomah University required all undergraduate students to major in Bible and Theology and choose a second major after that. The required major in Bible and Theology has since been dropped for a much less robust "Biblical Core." MU's Summit program allows students to earn a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

(BA) in Bible and Theology and a

Master of Divinity For graduate-level theological institutions, the Master of Divinity (MDiv, ''magister divinitatis'' in Latin) is the first professional degree of the pastoral profession in North America. It is the most common academic degree in seminaries and divi ...

(M.Div.) in just five years instead of seven. The university also offers two TESOL certificate options for people wanting to teach English to speakers of other languages.

Graduate school

Multnomah Graduate School offers four

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

(MA) programs. There is also an online version of the Master of Arts in Global Development and Justice degree that kicks off with two weeks of classes in Rwanda or Thailand before transitioning to fully online classes. There is also an online version of the MA in TESOL degree.

Seminary

Students at Multnomah Biblical Seminary are offered a standard track (for those without formal Bible and theology education) and an advanced track (for those with formal Bible and theology training) that eliminates one year of graduate studies. Students in the seminary program are allowed the opportunity for learning in the classroom and practical application through Multnomah's internship program. Pastoral mentors work with students to help in their ministry training by providing guidance, experience, and constructive feedback. The seminary also offers a doctoral program, the

Doctor of Ministry The Doctor of Ministry (abbreviated DMin or D.Min.) is a professional doctorate, often including a research component, that may be earned by a minister of religion while concurrently engaged in some form of ministry. It is categorized as an advanced ...

(D.Min.), which offers several specialized tracks, including: Cross-Cultural Engagement, Contextual Leadership, Global Evangelism, and Youth Ministry.

Online degrees

Multnomah University offers online bachelor's degrees, online graduate degrees, and online seminary degrees.

Athletics

The Multnomah athletic teams are called the Lions. The university is a member of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA), primarily competing in the

Cascade Collegiate Conference The Cascade Collegiate Conference (or Cascade Conference) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member schools are located in the Northwestern United States. The conferen ...

(CCC) since the 2015–16 academic year. Multnomah competes in 12 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer and track & field; while women's sports include and basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, track & field and volleyball. Former sports included women's golf.

Men's basketball

The men's basketball team holds the NAIA record for three-pointers taken in a game (79) and three-pointers made in a game (29).

Notable people

Alumni

Ferdinand Waldo Demara Ferdinand Waldo Demara Jr. (1921 – June 7, 1982) was an American impostor. He was the subject of a movie: ''The Great Impostor'', in which he was played by Tony Curtis. Demara's impersonations included a naval surgeon, a civil engin ...

, subject of the movie ''

The Great Impostor ''The Great Impostor'' is a 1961 American comedy-drama film movie based on the true story of an impostor named Ferdinand Waldo Demara. The film is loosely based on Robert Crichton's 1959 biography of the same name, it stars Tony Curtis in the ...

'' *

Bettie Page Bettie Mae Page (April 22, 1923 – December 11, 2008) was an American model who gained notoriety in the 1950s for her pin-up photos.

, American model *

Dan Kimball Dan Kimball is an author and was a leading voice in the beginning years of the Emerging Church movement in the United States. Kimball's writings focus on encouraging churches and Christians to creatively make any changes needed in order to break ...

, author *

Luis Palau Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

, evangelist, author *

Linda Chaikin Linda Chaikin (born 1943) is a Christian fiction author with a focus on historical fiction. She sometimes publishes using the name L. L. Chaikin. Chaikin was the youngest of 10 children and her father died shortly after she was born. She wrote ...

, author of Christian fiction

Faculty

Bruce Wilkinson Bruce Wilkinson is the founder and chairman of Teach Every Nation (TEN), an Evangelical parachurch organization. He is best known for founding Walk Thru the Bible, an evangelical Christian educational organization, with Howard Hendricks, and for ...

, author of ''

The Prayer of Jabez ''The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life'' is a book by Bruce Wilkinson published in 2000 by Multnomah Books as the first book in the "BreakThrough" book series. It is based on the Old Testament passage 1 Chronicles 4:9–10: ...

'', founder of

Walk Thru the Bible Walk Thru the Bible Ministries (WTB) is a non-denominational evangelical Christian educational organization headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Overview Walk Thru the Bible was founded in the United States in 1976 by Bruce Wilkinson and Howard Hen ...

References

External links

*
Official athletics website
{{authority control 1936 establishments in Oregon Association for Biblical Higher Education Bible colleges Educational institutions established in 1936 Seminaries and theological colleges in Oregon Universities and colleges accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities Universities and colleges in Portland, Oregon