Pacific Lutheran University history

In 1898, the year of the first graduation, the institution changed its name to Pacific Lutheran Academy and Business College to best reflect the schools focus.

In 1902 the PLA athletic club celebrated its first victory in men's basketball with a 15–12 win over the University of Washington.

Although founded as a university, the institution functioned primarily as an academy until 1918, when it suspended instruction for two years.

In 1920 the school merged with Columbia College in Everett, Washington, and reopened as Pacific Lutheran College.

The school's first football team was launched in 1926.

A year later in 1927 the college's great musical tradition, the Choir of the West, was founded.

Another merger occurred in 1929 when Spokane College, another Northwest Norwegian Lutheran school, closed.

The chapel was also the home of Trinity Lutheran Church until the congregation built its own church in 1937.

1939 saw the first of several visits by Norwegian royalty when Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha came to PLC's campus.

An AAUP report found that a long-serving PLU faculty member had been dismissed in violation of the AAUP's 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure.

The institution was reorganized as a university in 1960, reclaiming its original name.

Dancing was allowed for the first time on campus in 1963.

The School of Business at PLU received accreditation by the AACSB in 1971, joining the ranks of business programs at Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Boston University, and 140 of the finest programs of business education in the world.

Bjug Harstad, founder of PLU. By 1989 a Scandinavian Cultural Center would be completed on the lower floor of the University Center.

King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway came to PLU in 1995 with Queen Sonja receiving an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.

Crown Prince Haakon of Norway visited PLU in 1999.

The Business and Economic History Program at PLU is supported by a generous endowment provided by Dale and Jolita Benson in 2004.

To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, PLU awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon King Harald V of Norway.

PLU had 376 faculty members in September 2017.

Cuts announced in 2018 also affected some majors and minors.

In June 2020, PLU was added to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) list of censured administrations.

In April 2021, the board of regents at PLU announced its approval for cuts to 36 full-time faculty equivalent (FTE) positions, which will include some tenured faculty members losing their jobs.