The University of Redlands is a Baptist-founded nondenominational university in California, United States.
Founding the university
The University of Redlands had its roots in the founding of two other Baptist institutions, California College in Oakland (not to be confused with the founding institution of the University of California, but a Baptist college founded with a $28,000 endowment on a site donated by Mrs. E. H. Grey) and Los Angeles University, first proposed in 1883 by Charles Button, a preacher who convinced an association of Southern California Baptist churches to raise funds for what became Los Angeles University. Both institutions were opened in 1886, but LAU never became financially solvent, soon ceased functioning as a university, and incurred massive debts. The Baptists appointed an education commission in 1905 to raise funds to cancel the debt and reopen the university as a high school. After the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 damaged the finances of California College, the commission began exploring the liquidation of both institutions to develop a new institution in Southern California.
After the Baptist education commission tentatively accepted a proposal to join with Congregationalists to make Pomona a strong interdenominational college, Jasper Newton Field, a new Baptist pastor at Redlands, persuaded the Redlands Board of Trade to pursue the college at Redlands, California, and the Southern California Baptist convention to reject Pomona's offer.
The selection of Redlands The convention appointed a second commission to coordinate efforts with Baptists in Northern California to establish a college in Southern California. Newton Field became first a member, then chair of the 14 member commission.
Due to miscommunication, California College retained its autonomy for the time being, leaving the commission with only the physical assets of Los Angeles University to convert into capital for a new university. Meanwhile, Redlands proposed at least 100,000 dollars and for a campus (on land donated by Baptist layman Mr. K.C. Wells) if the Baptist Church could bring in from 240,000 to 500,000 dollars towards building the university. On June 27, 1907, the commission met in Pasadena and, out of a field including Azusa, Pasadena and Riverside, voted all in favor of the Redlands proposal.
Redlands won because there was no other college in that part of the state, insuring a large local patronage. Also, there was much interdenominational interest among the local citizenry in a non-sectarian college in Redlands. Of the seven signers of the Redlands petition, only one was Baptist, but all were college men from the East and North who valued education. Of the original board of trustees of the new institution three were to be non-Baptists and laymen were to be in the majority, which marked a change from the days when higher education administration in the US was primarily conducted by ministers.
From the beginning, there was debate over what to call the new institution, a "university" or a "college." Field envisioned Redlands becoming a full university with a medical school and professional programs, although others more realistically saw it as a liberal arts college. Field's vision carried the day, however, and the Baptists charged him with raising their portion of the start-up funds. After he had successfully raised over $300,000, the board of trustees moved to elect him the first president of the University of Redlands on January 13, 1909, with the full support of the Redlands community.Nelson, Lawrence Emmerson, "Redlands: Biography of a College, the first fifty years of the University of Redlands" University of Redlands, California 1958.
Prior to the founding of the University of Redlands, The land on which the University is now located was known as the Stillman Ranch page 29, pdf. pg.78. The Stillman Ranch was "distributed to Jane L. Stanford by decree of Distribution dated Dec. 28, 1898. and same deeded to Trustees of L.S.Jr University by Jane Stanford May 30, 1899. The Stillman Ranch was 282-1/2 Acres laying between Church St/ and Judson St. Under East Lugonia Ave. and East Colton Ave pdf. pg 79. The Ranch was later sold by the trustees of L.S.Jr University on Sep. 14, 1906 for $35,000 .
Groundbreaking Ground was broken on April 9, 1909, on the hill where the administration building now stands. On that site once stood the home of Dr. J. D. B. Stillman, personal physician to Senator Leland Stanford, part of a vineyard. After breaking ground with a shovel, Field spoke: A short time ago we were not here; a few more years we shall have gone hence. May it be our supreme purpose while we are here to turn the best account for good the powers that God has given us. In the name of the Lord of Hosts do we set up our banners. May the educational institution located on these grounds be forever worthy of the name Christian in the best sense of the term. May its policy be neither too narrow nor too broad, but such as will redound to the glory of God and the good of mankind, having always on it the seal of divine approval. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
The doors open
The nine founding faculty members held their first day of classes in the Redlands Baptist Church on September 30, 1909, with 39 students attending. Materials were borrowed from the Smiley Library, and Redlands High School offered use of their science labs. (When California College in Oakland was eventually liquidated in 1909 to produce the Berkeley Baptist Divinity School, science equipment and books not needed for divinity education were lent to Redlands in 1914.)
Almost immediately, tensions developed between students and the faculty. On December 18, 1909, the faculty tabled a resolution forbidding student attendance at dances or card parties without written permission of parents. The trustees supported the faculty, absolutely forbidding student dancing or card playing, and later further prohibited students from marrying, prohibitions which lasted over three decades.
On January 27, 1910, the University of Redlands opened its physical doors by occupying the newly completed Administration building. Bekins Hall and the President's mansion were the only two other buildings completed. President Field was charged with further securing $200,000 for endowment, but the Great Freeze of 1911, which wiped out half the California citrus crop and severely damaged the local economy, made this impossible. Field went east for help, but came back almost empty handed. Faculty salaries became 7 months in arrears, but the faculty stayed on with credit extended by the local community to keep the school open.
After the trustees decided "that it would be in the best interest of the University to temporarily use the president's home for the music department," President Field resigned in 1914. The trustees were responding to criticism of UR's cost outlays as reported to the Northern Baptist Convention. As accounts stood, the Northern Baptist's education board would not endorse the university to prospective donors. Victor LeRoy Duke, Dean and Professor of Mathematics, took over as acting president. He was formally appointed by the trustees on June 24, 1915.
Redlands during and after the Great War years
With the change in administration from Field to Duke, the dream of building a large university faded to a determined focus on building and retaining a strong liberal arts college. However, for the first several years operating deficits continued to average $17,617 annually. The Southern California Baptist community called a mass-meeting in Los Angeles, endorsed the school as "the Baptist College of the Southwest," and initiated a campaign to raise $50,000 to clear outstanding debt. The following spring the Northern Baptist Education Board, after meeting with the Trustees, reversed their decision of two years earlier and also endorsed the school, promising to help raise an endowment.
After the U.S. entered World War I in 1917, the national Baptist campaign for UR's endowment was called off. The trustees and faculty had decided that no beginning classes in German would be offered, and required a pledge of loyalty to the United States from graduating seniors before degrees were conferred. Continued fundraising for UR depended mainly on the local efforts of George Cortner, UR's business manager, while President Duke adjusted the college to a war-time economy. The university recruited 131 men to qualify the campus for the Students’ Army Training Corps program, whose tuition expenses were to be paid by the federal government in exchange for military training. However, due to the armistice, the Corps was ordered demobilized before the end of its first term, though the new recruits made 1918-19 a banner year for Redlands athletics.
Tensions between faculty and students continued. Determining in May 1918 that "the existence of fraternities and sororities in this democratic institution is not for the best interests of the University of Redlands" the faculty invited the students’ "cooperation with the object of their ultimate elimination." The students requested, deftly, that the faculty provide substitutes for their organizations before they gave them up. Hazing and other rowdiness were becoming issues, however, so the trustees and faculty ultimately decided in 1923 that residential fraternity houses would not be allowed. Criticism of the faculty in the student newspaper that year brought a faculty motion that any article concerning the administration must be submitted to the president's approval before publication.
By 1925, Redlands employed 25, and student enrollment had increased to 465. Finances had improved to the extent that, with significant volunteer help, UR was able to erect 12 new buildings by the end of the decade. New dormitories, classrooms, a library, memorial chapel and gymnasium were built. A school of education was added. The developing alumni base also started to support the university. The first alumni gift to the school, in planning since 1916, was the Greek theater completed in 1927. By 1928, the University's endowment was $2,592,000, the fourth largest in the state and among the top ten percent of American universities.
Statements of faith
In the post-war readjustment period following the armistice, concerns for orthodoxy in religious leadership lead the Northern Baptist Convention to send inquiries to various denominational institutions investigating the loyalty of students, faculty and administration to Baptist doctrine. In response, the UR Trustees passed a "loyal Baptist doctrinal declaration" in 1923, which read: The trustees of the University of Redlands … hereby reaffirm and declare their continued faith in the historic Baptist position in regard to the Great Doctrines of the Bible, especially in the inspiration and authority of the Holy Scriptures, the Deity of Jesus Christ, His supernatural Birth, and Resurrection and His sacrificial Atonement.
We further declare that it is the purpose of the University of Redlands to remain faithful to these historic Baptist principles. (Minutes of the Board of Trustees, June 19, 1923) Furthermore, in 1926 they resolved: …that we recognize and appreciate the distinct field of service of the Christian college, namely, in addition to a high standard of scholarship, its main objective is the molding of Christian character and that this is best made possible through the fostering of faith by the emphasis placed on spiritual things both in the class room and in the social contact of faculty with the students.
Resolved, further, that prior to the employment of a teacher for a position on the faculty of the University of Redlands, such person shall be made acquainted with the above and shall not be employed unless he is in sympathy with and desirous cooperating with the program of the University of Redlands.