Wittenberg University

Wittenberg University is a private liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio. It has 1,326 full-time students representing 33 states and 9 foreign countries. Wittenberg University is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

History

Wittenberg College (it became Wittenberg University in 1957) was founded in 1845 by a group of ministers in the English Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Ohio, which had previously separated from the recently established German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Joint Synod of Ohio and Other States.

A German American pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Rev. Ezra Keller was the principal founder and first president of the college. Its initial focus was to train clergy with the Hamma School of Divinity as its theological department. One of its main missions was to "Americanize" Lutherans by teaching courses in the English language instead of German, unlike the nearby Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.

The first class originally consisted of eight students at the beginning of the academic year, but grew to seventy-one by the end. With a faculty of one professor and two tutors, classes were held in Springfield, Ohio, in a church on land that was donated. That city was selected for its location on the National Road, running from the eastern cities of Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland, to the west in the Illinois Country, eventually to the territorial capital of Vandalia, near the Mississippi River.

In 1874, women were admitted to the college, and, the following year, blacks were admitted. The college was named for the historic University of Wittenberg in Wittenberg, Germany, the town in which Martin Luther famously posted his '' Ninety-five Theses'' on the church door on October 31, 1517. In 1993 the university and the German city entered into an official partnership.

In 1995, the American Philosophical Association censured Wittenberg University when the Wittenberg administration overruled the faculty personnel board and denied a faculty member tenure. The university was censured again in 2021, this time by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), for discontinuing eight academic programs and firing two tenured faculty members without, in the AAUP's opinion, respecting faculty rights.

Hamma Divinity School

Luther Alexander Gotwald, Professor of Theology in the Hamma Divinity School that served as the theological department of the college, was famously tried for and unanimously acquitted of heresy by the board of directors at Wittenberg on April 4–5, 1893. The trial concerned many key issues that Evangelical Lutherans still debate today.

For decades, Hamma and Wittenberg in Springfield were associated with the local English-speaking regional Lutheran synods in the Midwest.

In 1978, Hamma Divinity School merged with the nearby Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary (associated with Capital University) in the Bexley suburb of Columbus, Ohio, to form Trinity Lutheran Seminary.

Presidents

* Ezra Keller (1844–1848)
* Samuel Sprecher (1849–1874)
* John B. Helwig (1874–1882)
* Samuel Alfred Ort (1882–1900)
* John M. Ruthrauff (1900–1902)
* Charles G. Heckert (1903–1920)
* Rees Edgar Tulloss (1920–1949)
* Clarence Charles Stoughton (1949–1963)
* John Nissley Stauffer (1963–1968)
* G. Kenneth Andeen (1969–1974)
* William A. Kinnison (1974–1995)
* Baird Tipson (1995–2004)
* William H. Steinbrink (Interim President)
* Mark H. Erickson (2005–2012)
* Laurie M. Joyner (2012–2015)
* Richard "Dick" Helton (2016–2017) (Interim President)
* Michael Frandsen (2017–present)

Academics

Wittenberg offers more than 70 majors and special programs. Eight pre-professional programs are offered to students, 70 percent of whom eventually pursue graduate studies. The institution's science facilities are housed in the Barbara Deer Kuss Science Center. Krieg Hall is the home of the music department. Wittenberg's art department is housed in Koch Hall. Thomas Library contains 400,000 volumes and provides access to OhioLINK, a consortium of Ohio college and university libraries and the State Library of Ohio. The library houses the Kemper Special Collection Area which contains the Luther-Reformation Collection with more than 400 items written by Martin Luther and his contemporaries between 1517 and 1580. The library was built in 1956 to the designs of Thomas Norman Mansell of Mansell, Lewis & Fugate of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

Rankings and honors

Campus

Blair Hall

Blair Hall houses the university's education department. The Springfield-Wittenberg Teacher Institute and Upward Bound are housed in Blair. Upward Bound is a high school program for students in low-income areas of the city to receive a high level education from college professors while in high school.

The education department occupies a second building at 49 East College Avenue that formerly contained the administration offices of the Springfield Public City Schools, but is now owned by Wittenberg University.

Carnegie Hall

The athletic department in curre