Southern Adventist University history

By January 1893 Colcord reported that 62 students were in attendance.

In the Fall of 1894, Graysville Academy faced a crisis.

In November 1897, the district conference voted to change the school's name to Southern Industrial School.

The Southern Union Conference was organized in April 1901.

After a dormitory burned in 1915, the decision was made to move the campus to a location with more room for expansion.

The school moved and opened in its new location by October, 1916.

The building of the boys' dormitory began in the summer of 1918.

In 1920, Lynn H. Wood, the president of the college, presented a major report to meetings for both union conferences.

In 1921, the school ran into financial difficulties and President Lynn Wood volunteered to reduce his pay to that of a department head.

In 1924, after the financial situation improved, the school built a new administration and classroom building.

Graysville Academy continued on at the original site as a church and conference-sponsored secondary boarding academy until 1938.

In the spring of 1944, the board announced a $300,000 expansion program, which included science (Hackman Hall) and music (Miller Hall) buildings, and a library (Daniells Memorial Library).

The building was known as College Hall until 1945, when it was renamed Lynn Wood Hall.

In 1956, the school's largest industry for working students, a furniture factory, burned to the ground.

Southern College found itself drawn into a wider church controversies involving Desmond Ford who was dismissed from ministry in the Adventist church in 1980, and Walter Rae, and Ronald Numbers' book, The Prophetess of Health.

In 1982, Southern Missionary College again changed its name, becoming Southern College of Seventh-day Adventists.

The first master's-level classes began in the summer of 1996.

In 1997, Gordon Bietz became the president of Southern Adventist University, which began a period of rapid expansion, both in enrollment and academics.

The first graduate degrees were awarded in 1998.

In 2001, an undergraduate enrollment of 2,098 eclipsed the previous record, and Southern became the largest Seventh-day Adventist undergraduate institution in the North American Division.

A new wing was added onto Talge Hall in 2004, providing 260 additional student beds.

In 2012, the Origins Exhibit opened as a permanent museum-quality exhibit on the second floor of Hickman Science Center.

Southern's uQuest Missions program, which helps students organize their own short-term mission trips, began in 2013.

In 2014, it began offering an associate degree in the field as well.

In the summer of 2015, the School of Nursing began offering a summer cohort for students to help offset some of the enrollment demand in this popular area of study.

In 2016, David Smith became Southern's 26th president as the institution celebrated 100 years of being in its current location.

2017 marked Southern's 125th anniversary, celebrated throughout the year with special events, commemorative pins, and a special logo.

In 2019, Southern accepted the first students into its new Physical Therapist Assistant Department.