Trinity International University (TIU) is an evangelical Christian liberal arts institution of higher education headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, United States. It comprises an undergraduate college, a graduate school, a theological seminary (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), a law school, and a camp called Timber-lee â€"together with about 2,700 students. Trinity Law School is located in Santa Ana, California; the university also maintains campuses in Florida and Dolton, Illinois ; the camp is located in East Troy, Wisconsin. TIU is operated by the Evangelical Free Church of America.
History
Tracing its roots to 1897, TIU formed in the late 1940s as the result of a merger of two schools:
- A school run by the Swedish Evangelical Free Church, founded in 1897 in Chicago, and incorporated as the Swedish Bible Institute of Chicago, then affiliated with Moody Bible Institute as the Swedish Department until 1925 when it became the Swedish Evangelical Free Church Bible Institute and Seminary.
- A three-year Bible school, the Norwegian-Danish Bible Institute and Academy, founded in 1910 by the Norwegian-Danish Free Church, established in Rushford, Minnesota and later moving to Minneapolis and becoming Trinity Seminary and Bible Institute.
These two schools merged in 1949 to become Trinity Seminary and Bible College in Chicago.
By 1949, the Minneapolis-based school moved to Chicago and the unified schools became known as Trinity Seminary and Bible College. In 1961 the school moved to a new campus in Bannockburn, Illinois and a year later was renamed Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) and Trinity College. The school grew from an enrollment of 51 in 1961 to 1,400 in 1990. In 1995, TEDS became part of Trinity International University, along with Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois, and Trinity College in Miami, (formerly Miami Christian College which was obtained through a merger of the two institutions). In 1997 Trinity Law School, located in Santa Ana, California, was incorporated into Trinity International University and the Trinity Graduate School was founded. Also runs distance education in Africa with New World Mission Dunamis International University.
In 2014, David S. Dockery was elected unanimously as the 15th president of Trinity. He was inaugurated in October of that year. Dockery has led the drive to establish a new strategic plan called Heritage & Hope: Trinity 2023, which outlines growth initiatives.
Approvals, accreditations and memberships
Trinity International University is exempt from the need to be approved to operate in Illinois by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), which lists it as a "private NFP (not-for-profit) institution". Its educational programs for K-12 teachers are approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) so that TIU's graduates from said programs may obtain state-issued teaching credentials. TIU is, further, approved by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) (formerly the Illinois State Scholarship Commission (ISSC)) Monetary Award Program (MAP) so that TIU's students may receive Illinois educational grants and scholarships.
Trinity University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, The divinity school is also programmatically accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS).
Prior to 2003, TIU's athletic trainer program was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP); however in 2003 the accreditation of such programs was taken over by the Joint Review Committee on Athletic Training (JRC-AT); and in 2006 JRC-AT became the Committee for Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). TIU's undergraduate athletic training educational program claims CAATE accreditation on its website.
TIU's law school, located in Santa Ana, California, is accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) of the State Bar of California (CALBAR). The normative nationwide USDE- and CHEA-approved accreditor of law schools is the American Bar Association (ABA). Within the state of California, though, law schools are also accredited by CALBAR CBE, which is neither USDE- or CHEA-approved. Graduates of non-ABA accredited program are not recognized outside of the state of California. TIU's Trinity Law School (Santa Ana campus only) is also included as part of TIU's regional accreditation by the USDE- and CHEA-approved NCA-HLC.
TIU is also a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), the Christian College Consortium (CCC), and the Christian Adult Higher Education Association (CAHEA).
Athletics
Trinity International University teams are known as the Trojans. The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC), although its football program competes in the Mideast League of the Mid-States Football Association (MSFA). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football and soccer; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, soccer, softball and volleyball.
Notable alumni
- Lazarus Chakwera, President, Malawi Congress Party
- Herb Coleman, American player of gridiron football
- Paul Copan, Christian theologian, analytic philosopher, apologist, and author. Currently professor at the Palm Beach Atlantic University and holds the endowed Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics.
- Norman Ericson, biblical scholar; Emeritus Professor at the Wheaton College
- W. Kent Fuchs, President, University of Florida
- Leonard G. Goss, publisher, author, book editor
- Alan Heatherington, orchestra conductor and music director of several Chicago-area choirs and orchestras
- Lincoln Hurst, biblical scholar, film historian; Emeritus Professor, University of California
- Bill Hybels, Pastor, Willow Creek Community Church
- Jeffrey Neil Steenson, coordinator for Episcopalian priests and lay people seeking to become Roman Catholics within a personal ordinariate.
- Ravi Zacharias, President, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries; Radio host, "Let My People Think" and "Just Thinking."
References
External links
- Official website
- Official athletics website
