L. A. Hoopes and a committee of church leaders, including influential Adventist scholar and administrator W. W. Prescott, came to Lincoln, Nebraska in search of land to establish a college in the Midwest. In September 1891, Union College opened its doors to students with Prescott serving as its first president. The present-day community of College View grew around the college campus. During the 1920s, the college experienced a difficult period due to the shrinking enrollment and budget deficits. In 1939, former mayor of Lincoln Don Lathrop Love donated money for the college to build an industrial building and established a life annuity with the college a year later.
The 1970s saw major expansion of the college, including the construction of the iconic 100-foot clock tower, Everett Dick Administration Building, the college's lab school George Stone School and College View Church. The radio station KUCV was also operated by the college from its 1974 sign-on until it was sold in 1989.
In 1981 Union held its first annual service day, cancelling classes to allow students and staff to volunteer at local service projects. This collegiate service day, initially named Project Brush and later Project Impact, is the longest-running event of its kind in the United states.
In 2004 Union began offering the unique International Rescue and Relief program, a bachelor degree training students in disaster response, emergency management, and international development. Teams from this program respond to regional and even international disasters.
In 2024 due to the increasing number of graduate programs offered and confusion with other institutions named "Union College" the name of the institution was changed to Union Adventist University.
Campus
The 50 acre campus is located in southeastern Lincoln, surrounded by residential areas and small businesses. Major campus buildings include the Clocktower, Everett Dick Administration Building; the Don Love Building housing library and auditorium, Ortner Center with cafeteria and conference facilities; Krueger Center for science and mathematics, AdventHealth Center with exercise facilities and nursing, Engel Hall with music and fine arts, the Thunderdome gymnasium, Prescott Hall men's residence, and Rees Hall women's residence. The campus is also the location of the Joshua C. Turner Arboretum, a site of the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, hosting over 100 species of plants.
Academics
The college is organized into eight divisions:
Business and Computer Science
Emergency Management and Exercise Science
Fine Arts
Human Development
Humanities
Nursing
Religion
Science & Math
In addition to undergraduate degrees, the college offers Masters programs in Leadership, Occupational Therapy, Public Health, and Physician Assistant Studies.
Athletics
In athletics, Union plays as the Warriors and fields a limited number of sports, but is not a member of a major college sports association but rather the Association of Christian College Athletics (ACCA). As such, their teams tend to play against bible colleges, community colleges, and JV teams. The university also hosts three tournaments each year (one for basketball, soccer, and volleyball) for Seventh-day Adventist high school teams.
^Gustafson, Bill (1987). Nebraska's Future Forest: Conference Papers of the 10th Annual Trees for Nebraska Conference, March 12-14, 1987, Lincoln, Nebraska. pp. 49–51.
