The mission of the Abilene Christian University is to educate students for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.  ACU is a national leader in Christian higher education and a place where students, faculty, staff and alumni change the world.

Our Religious Heritage

ACU is affiliated with the Churches of Christ.  The university welcomes all students who value the strong Christian environment and exceptional teaching offered on the campus.  Required daily chapel and required Bible courses contribute to the open acknowledgement of Christian faith as an important aspect of the lives of most ACU students.  All faculty, staff, administrators and members of the Board of Trustees are Christians.

Quick Facts

• Selective, private, master’s-level university founded in 1906 in Abilene, Texas
• Graduates accepted into medical schools at a rate more than twice the national average
• Graduates accepted into law schools at a rate of more than 90 percent.
• One of only 13 private universities in nation with accredited journalism program
• Undergraduates included in significant faculty research projects
• Ranked fourth among 700 colleges and universities nationwide for investment performance for the 12 months ending June 30, 2006
• Majority of students actively volunteer in the community
• All-Christian faculty personally interested in students’ studies and lives
• Students may choose from 61 baccalaureate majors that include more than 100 areas of study, 26 master’s degree programs and one doctoral program
• Career network of 86,000 ACU alumni in every state and 109 countries
• Annual enrollment of 4,800 students from across the U.S. and 60 nations
• 59 national athletics championships
• Beautiful, 208-acre, modern campus 180 miles west of Dallas/Fort Worth area

Our Students and Faculty

More than 4,800 students, including about 630 graduate students, come to ACU from 50 states and 60 countries.  We have a diverse and global environment, which we believe enriches student learning.  Our students are served by about 200 faculty members who focus on high-quality teaching, scholarship and service.  More than 90 percent of tenure-track faculty hold terminal degrees.  The student/faculty ratio is less than 17:1.  The faculty and administrators are actively involved as leaders and presenters in many national professional associations, and ACU is an active member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

The university offers generous merit scholarships to incoming students with exceptional academic records and demonstrated leadership skills, and ACU attracts some of the nation’s brightest students who want to study in a Christian environment.  Students have found that the small classes (average size is 17) taught by talented, caring faculty members provide them an advantage when they search for jobs after graduation or apply to graduate schools.  Because ACU’s teachers know their students so well and often serve as mentors, they are able to provide excellent references to medical schools, law schools, graduate programs and future employers.

Exceptional Academics

At ACU, students experience some rare opportunities to prepare for their future careers.  In the physics program, undergraduate students regularly participate with faculty members at national nuclear physics laboratories and make national and international presentations.  Most universities only allow graduate students to participate in this high-level work.  In the journalism program, students produce a twice-weekly newspaper that has received All-American honors every year since 1975.

Communication majors regularly win national debate competitions against large, prestigious universities.  English students win highly competitive writing competitions.  Business majors travel to Colorado for a unique leadership institute.  Basically, in every field of study, ACU prepares students to become Christian leaders.

The university includes the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Biblical Studies, Business Administration, Education and Human Services, the Graduate School, the Graduate School of Theology, the School of Information Technology and Computing, the School of Social Work, and the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing.  Academic accreditation is by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.  High-tech classrooms, 24-hour computer labs in the residence halls, fast Internet connections, email access as an incoming student and much more guarantee our students are prepared for the fast-paced technological world of today.

Academic Resources

The Margaret and Herman Brown Library at Abilene Christian University holds more than one million items including books, microforms, audio-visual materials, periodicals and government documents.

ACU is a depository library for U.S. Government Documents. The library’s Special Collections department includes rare books and Bibles, manuscripts, and archival materials. The Center for Restoration Studies, headquartered in the library, is a magnet for church history scholars.

As a charter member of the Abilene Library Consortium, the ACU library enjoys a shared automation system including an on-line catalog that shows the holdings of ACU, Hardin-Simmons University, McMurry University and the Abilene Public Library. The system also gives students access to a large number of indexes, abstracts, library catalogs and other databases. Other electronic resources at the library include CD-ROM databases and the Lexis/Nexis on-line service.

Distinctive Academic Environment

Abilene Christian University places great value on the dynamic relationship that should exist between professors and their students. Many institutions rely extensively on graduate assistants. Not ACU. All our courses are taught by qualified faculty members. And when professors work on research projects, you can usually find undergraduates by their side, a rarity elsewhere.

How do we know this philosophy works? Because each year, some of the nation’s top businesses come to our campus to interview because they know ACU students have the education and preparation needed to succeed.

Outstanding faculty. Great facilities. Good jobs and graduate school. They’re all the result of ACU’s uncommon commitment to teaching and learning. ACU prepares its graduates for Christian service and leadership throughout the world.

Student Life

As a residential campus, ACU is alive with activities from concerts and comedians to weeknight devotionals and poetry readings.  Many students participate in intramural sports, men’s and women’s social clubs, Spring Break mission campaigns, and the annual Sing Song performance event.  More than 90 campus organizations give students many venues for involvement and leadership.  ACU also provides opportunities to study abroad in several different countries.  The university is located in Abilene, Texas, an All-America City of 111,000 people with a wide variety of social, religious, athletic and cultural activities.  Abilene is a safe, fun place to live – all the amenities without the hassles of a mega-city.

As a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA Division II) and the Lone Star Conference, ACU competes in football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, men’s golf, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s track and field, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s tennis, women’s soccer and women’s softball.  During the past decade, ACU has consistently been ranked by the Sears’ Director Cup competition as having one of the best NCAA Division II athletics programs in the nation.

Successful Alumni

Graduates of ACU have become best-selling Christian authors, ministers, state judges, big-city mayors, researchers, Hollywood movie producers, teachers and superintendents, top Nashville musicians and music producers, college professors, business owners, nationally-renowned physicians, Pulitzer Prize winners, and winners of Emmy, Dove, Grammy, Inventor of the Year and Teacher of the Year awards.  We believe our 86,000 alumni change the world in positive ways every day.

Contact Us

For more information about attending ACU, call toll-free 800-460-6228, write the Office of Admissions at ACU Box 29000, Abilene, TX 79699-9000, or send email to info@admissions.acu.edu.

ACU’s History

1906

A.B. Barret and Charles Roberson were riding in a buggy near Barret’s home in Denison, Texas, on their way to a gospel meeting when Barret first said to Roberson, “Let’s build a school in West Texas.”

That was in 1903. In 1905, Barret, a teacher at Southwestern Christian College in Denton, was finally able to make a site survey.The Church of Christ in Abilene was growing solidly, and after Barret preached there in December 1905, members agreed to help support the project. Barret soon moved west and traveled by buggy with his wife and friends to raise more support.

Col. J.W. Childers, a leader in the Abilene church, agreed to sell Barret some land he owned west of town and deducted about $2,000 from the price of the land on the condition that the school would be named in his honor. The Childers Classical Institute opened its doors in the fall of 1906 with 25 students enrolled for classes

The five acres occupied by the institute included the old Childers mansion, a two-story frame house used as the president’s home and girl’s dormitory. Boys boarded in private homes approved by the president. An eight-room administration building was constructed on the site for $8,000.

Only the 11 primary and secondary grades were offered that first semester. College courses were not accredited for eight years. By the end of the first school year 85 students were enrolled.

Childers’ first years were difficult for everyone, particularly the students. Cold classrooms, crowded living conditions and a water shortage necessitated hard work and ingenuity on the part of everyone. The school went through four presidents during those early years: Barret, H.C. Darden, R.L. Whiteside, and James F. Cox, who served another term as president from 1931-1940.

To complicate matters, Col. Childers hired an attorney to collect on a note he had retained on the land and mansion. The school had to borrow money at 15 percent interest to pay the debt, making it difficult to meet operating expenses.

A good businessman was needed and found in Jesse P. Sewell, who became the president in 1912. Sewell declined the offer of a salaried position as president, opting instead to run the school as though it were a personal business enterprise. Sewell certainly didn’t get rich in the deal, but the college benefited from approximately $60,000 donated to the school by the Sewells during his 12-year presidency.

With Sewell’s new approach came a new identity for the school. Since its beginning the Institute had been commonly referred to as Abilene Christian or the Christian college in Abilene. When Sewell became president, the school began using the name Abilene Christian College in its catalog and other printed materials.

Lawrence Smith explained that the original deed to the Childers land required that the school be named after the colonel. Childers’ heirs threatened to sue if the name were changed. In 1920, the school paid the family $4,000 and formally changed its name to Abilene Christian College.

Sewell’s leadership brought the college out of debt. The campus was enlarged by four new brick buildings, an enlarged administration building and six frame structures, and an increased enrollment of about 300 students during his final term. Sewell’s reign also resulted in accreditation as a junior college in 1914 and as a senior college in 1919.

Batsell Baxter became the young school’s sixth president when Sewell resigned in 1924. Baxter initiated more relaxed restrictions on the social privileges of students, and student activities and organizations increased in importance.

Continued growth demanded more space, and in 1927 the Board of Trustees appointed a committee to investigate new locations for the school. San Angelo made an attractive offer of two sections of land and $50,000 for building, to which the Abilene Chamber of Commerce responded by raising $75,000 to help keep the college from moving. With this contribution, the college trustees decide to purchase 680 acres on a hill one mile northeast of Abilene known as the Hashknife Ranch. Nearby residents donated 75 additional acres.

Life on the original campus continued as usual while construction began on the Hill. Then on Jan. 28, 1929, the old administration building caught fire. Smith, then an employee in the business office, served as fire marshal and instructed the firemen to soak the southwest part of the building so the records could be saved. A human chain was assembled to move the library books, and some holdings were salvaged, but most of the building was gutted.

Opening of the new campus was scheduled for Sept. 5, 1929. To meet the deadline the contractor put three shifts to work. New facilities included an administration building, two dormitories, an education building that housed the elementary and high schools, a dining hall, a president’s home, a gymnasium and an auditorium. Only six weeks later, the stockmarket crashed on “Black Thursday,” Oct. 29, 1929. The Depression plunged the college deep in financial debt.

Loans kept the school from closing each semester, and salaries were cut in 1930. President Baxter and Dean James F. Cox took 15 percent salary cuts. Faculty salaries were cut 10 percent. The next year, all salaries were cut in half.

Financial struggles worsened in the early 1930s, and by 1933 many bonds were coming due. John G. Hardin, also a major benefactor of Hardin-Simmons University, helped alleviate many of the growing financial pressures with a gift of $160,000 in bonds. Later the school borrowed $40,000 more from Hardin to retire some urgent notes.

Under Baxter’s leadership, and later during the presidency of James Cox, the college survived the Depression.

Don H. Morris, then head of the speech department, took office as president in 1940. A sparse student population through World War II was followed by unprecedented enrollment increases after the war. Housing posed the biggest problem. Barracks from nearby Camp Barkeley, deactivated by the U.S. Army in the spring of 1946, were moved to the Hill to house students and provide additional classroom and office space. The college was officially accredited Dec. 6, 1951, by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The postwar prosperity allowed several new buildings to be constructed to accommodate the increasing student body, which passed the 2,000 mark in 1955. Between 1940 and 1961, five dormitories, a science building, a president’s home, a cafeteria and both wings of the administration building were completed.

In 1957, Morris recommended that a planning committee be appointed. The following February the board of trustees appointed a master planning council “to study academic, financial and plant problems facing the college.”

From among board members, the Advisory Board, administration, faculty, alumni and students, 24 individuals were appointed to the council, which then established 10 subcommittees to study specific areas or problems. Four years later, in April 1962, the “Design for Development, Abilene Christian College, 1962-72,” was adopted by the board of trustees.

Those 10 years produced $10.8 million in gifts and brought many changes to the campus, including Brown Library, McGlothlin Campus Center, Moody Coliseum, Gibson Health and Physical Education Center, Sherrod Residential Park, the Don H. Morris Center, A.B. Morris Hall, Smith-Adams Hall and Sikes Hall. In his final chapel speech Sept. 27, 1973, Chancellor Morris said, “This is no ordinary college.”

Morris became chancellor in 1969 when Dr. John C. Stevens, historian, World War II chaplain and former Abilene City Councilman, was named president. Stevens’ 12-year term was marked by upgrades to campus housing, improvement in the school’s financial aid program for its students, and more enrollment gains. ACC had enrolled 3,000 for the first time in 1965, and it passed the 4,000 mark in 1977.

“ACC” officially became “ACU” Feb. 22, 1976, by vote of the Board of Trustees. A committee chaired by trustee Jack Pope, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, recommended the change. Trustees, under the leadership of Ray McGlothlin, Jr., unanimously approved the new name.

ACU’s endowment grew from $18 million to $56 million in the presidency of Dr. William J. Teague, former assistant to Morris and corporate and university executive who returned to ACU to succeed Stevens as president in 1981. The decade of the 1980s produced $78 million in gifts to the university, and Judge Ely Blvd. was moved east to accomodate construction of new buildings for Bible and business administration.

ACU added its School of Nursing in 1981, and in 1986 the NPR affiliate KACU-FM was launched. Teague had said in his inaugural address, “One individual with conviction can and does make a difference in our world.”

Enrollment rebounded in the 1990s during the presidency of Dr. Royce Money, 48-year-old Bible professor and licensed family therapist who took office June 1, 1991. ACU attracted students from all 50 states and 60 nations and endeavored to take its place as a national leader in Christian higher education. Money acknowledged that ACU is not the church, but he added, “ACU will remain loyal to the Biblical and historical principles that have distinguished our religious history.”

To fund its growth in academic quality and image, serve its record numbers of students, and solidify its financial foundation, ACU received gifts in development campaigns amounting to $30 million during “Advancing the Changless” in 1993-96 and $114 million in “To Lead and To Serve” in 1996-2000.

During the 2000-01 school year, a record 4,761 students enrolled, financial aid annually for ACU students reached $40 million, and ACU ranked among the top 10 percent of institutions in the nation in endowment with $142 million. The university adopted “Change the World” as its theme as it began plans for its 100th school year in 2005-06. A record 943 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees were awarded at May, August and December commencement ceremonies.

Faculty members Dr. Michael Sadler (physics) and Dr. Jason Morris (McNair Scholars) received the sixth and seventh Fulbright scholarships in university history from the U.S. Department of State.  Dr. John C. Stevens, chancellor emeritus and president in 1969-81, attended the opening of the U.S. Army Chaplain’s Museum in Columbia, S.C., Sept. 27.  Dr. Stevens is pictured leading U.S. troops in the center of the World War II victory parade down Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, Aug. 29, 1944, in one of the most famous military photographs in history.

Classes opened Jan. 13 in the new Williams Performing Arts Center, a $17 million facility with 92,000 square feet of space for the Departments of Music and Theatre.

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