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Private university in Parkland, Washington, US

Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) is a private Lutheran university in Parkland, Washington. It was founded by Norwegian Lutheran immigrants in 1890. PLU is sponsored by the 580 congregations of Region I of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. PLU has approximately 2,700 students enrolled. As of 2023, the school employs approximately 238 full time professors on the woodland campus. PLU’s academic programs into four colleges: the College of Health Professions; the College of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Social Sciences; the College of Natural Sciences; and the College of Professional Studies.

The university was chartered by the State of Washington as the Pacific Lutheran Academy on December 11, 1890. In naming the university, the Norwegian immigrants who founded it recognized the role that a Lutheran educational institution on the Western frontier could play in the region. They wanted the institution to help immigrants adjust to their new land and find jobs, but they also wanted it to produce graduates who would serve church and community. Education—and educating for service—was a venerated part of the Scandinavian traditions from which these pioneers came. Classes first began in 1894 with the student body consisting of 30 students. Tuition at the time cost $1 per week. Bjug Harstad was the school's first president. The entire university was housed in one building from 1894 to 1912. This building was formerly known as Old Main but has since been renamed Harstad Hall in honor of the school's founding president. In 1898, the university's name was changed to Pacific Lutheran Academy and Business College. Attempting to eliminate the debt plaguing the school, Bjug Harstad left for Alaska to search for gold. He spent one and one half years there but was unable to discover any gold. Five years later women would be allowed to play basketball. In 1912, a second building, a gymnasium, was constructed on the university campus. It included a track, a stage, and a science laboratory in the basement. Two years later students built a tennis court in what is now Red Square. By 1914, PLA received full accreditation meaning students could transfer to universities and retain their credits. Although founded as a university, the institution functioned primarily as an academy until 1918, when it suspended instruction for two years. It reopened as the two year Pacific Lutheran College, after merging with Columbia Lutheran College, previously located in Everett. Further consolidations occurred when Spokane College merged with PLC in 1929. The school's first football team was launched in 1926. They were originally known as the "Greyhounds", then the "Gladiators" (although they are unofficially referred to as the "Lutes"). That same year Polly Langlow, a member of PLC's women's basketball team, scored 270 points in 12 games setting a national record. A year later in 1927 the college's great musical tradition, the Choir of the West, was founded. The Choir acquired its name on a trip to the Great Lakes region. 1939 saw the first of several visits by Norwegian royalty when Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha came to PLC's campus. During the early 1940s, PLC's student body was almost all female as most men were fighting in World War II. People returning to college post war, specifically veterans using the G. I. Bill, caused a boom in enrollment. The student body at that time was half veteran and no longer mostly female. A number of new buildings were completed in the following years including Ramstad Hall, Memorial Gymnasium, and the Student Union Building (now renamed as Anderson University Center). In 1952 the new Chapel Music Speech Building was constructed and later named Eastvold Chapel (renamed in 2013 as the Karen Hille Phillips Center for the Performing Arts). Chapel became mandatory for the first time with attendance being taken and seats being assigned. Two years later North and South Halls, the first dormitories, were built (later renamed Hong Hall and Hinderlie Hall, respectively.) Until that time students had lived in Old Main or boarded with Parkland families. The 1960s saw decade long construction boom as ten buildings were built by 1970, almost as many as had been built in the previous 70 years. The 1960s and 1970s were a time of great change on PLU's campus when restrictions on student life began to loosen. Chapel was no longer required and two dormitories become coed. Girls' dormitories' restrictive hours were replaced with a card key system, and opposite sex visitation was allowed 3 times a week instead of 2 times a year. Dancing was allowed for the first time on campus in 1963. and The Psychedelic Furs performing hits 'Pretty in Pink' and 'Heartbreak Beat'. Throughout its history PLU has remained close to its Scandinavian roots. In 1975 the school played host to King Olav V of Norway. Three years later in 1978, 14 members of Stortinget, the Norwegian Parliament, visited PLU. In 1982 King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia of Sweden visited PLU and the following year Princess Astrid of Norway also paid a visit to the university. That same year a monument was erected in Valle, Norway, to honor the Rev. 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. To mark its 125th anniversary in 2015, PLU awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon King Harald V of Norway.

The first President of the Pacific Lutheran University was Rev. Bjug Harstad. The entire university was housed in one building from 1894 to 1912. This building was formerly known as Old Main but has since been renamed Harstad Hall in honor of the founding president. The 14th and current President of the Pacific Lutheran University is L. Allan Belton, appointed in 2017. NumberNameYears in office 1 Rev. Bjug Harstad 1894–1895, 1897–1898 2 Rev. Ole Grönsberg 1895–1897 3 Nils Joseph Hong 1898–1918 4 J. U. Xavier 1920–1921 5 Ola Ordal 1921–1928 6 Oscar Tingelstad 1928–1943 7 Seth C. Eastvold 1943–1962 8 Robert A. L. Mortvedt 1962–1969 9 Eugene Wiegman 1969–1974 10 Richard P. Jungkuntz 1974–1975 11 William O. Rieke 1975–1992 12 Loren J. Anderson 1992–2012 13 Thomas W. Krise 2012–2017 14 L. Allan Belton 2017–present

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

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 positions. The university also will discontinue two majors (German, Nordic Studies), four minors (Classical Studies, Norwegian, German), and one master's program (Master of Science in Finance). The cuts also affected various programs in other ways. For example, some departments, including anthropology, lost so many faculty that they had to give up their majors. All cuts will be implemented beginning with the Fall 2022 semester. This budget reduction is expected to save between $2.5 million and $4 million. The cuts announced in April 2021 follow cuts of about 31 FTE faculty announced during the 2017–2018 academic year, with savings of around $2.8 million. Cuts announced in 2018 also affected some majors and minors. PLU had 376 faculty members in September 2017. More than 1 in 6 FTE faculty positions (67 positions) will have been eliminated as a result of the cuts announced in 2017 2018 and April 2021. The faculty cuts announced in 2017 2018 were made largely through attrition or enticing professors close to retirement to retire early, whereas the cuts announced in April 2021 will involve more involuntary cuts, with some tenured and tenure track and most contingent professors involuntarily losing their jobs.

Tuition for the 2019–20 school year is $43,264 with room and meals costing $10,876. More than 97 percent of PLU students receive some sort of financial support. The 2020 U. S. News College and University rankings listed PLU as the seventh most innovative school, ninth best undergraduate teaching, and tenth best value school in the west region. The 2019–2020 student body is as follows: 64 percent female, 36 percent male; 41 percent are students of color; 75 percent are from Washington state; 13 percent are Lutheran; 3 percent are international students representing 23 countries.

The academic calendar at PLU is divided into two semesters, fall and spring, with a one month term during January known as J term. Summer classes are also offered. During J term students take one class for the entire month of January which counts as a normal 4 credit class one would take during a semester. PLU offers 44 majors and 54 minors in a wide array of disciplines.

PLU is a member of The New American Colleges and Universities, a national consortium of 22 selective, medium sized (2,000–7,500 students) independent colleges and universities dedicated to the purposeful integration of liberal education, professional studies, and civic engagement. This type of institution was called a New American College by Ernest Boyer in a series of influential essays and speeches in the 1990s. Since Boyer coined this term, most of the institutions that have aligned with this identity are referred to as universities; so, the term has tended to become New American University.

In 2009, PLU received the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization. In the same year PLU matched a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create an endowment to assist low income students to participate in study away programs. PLU maintains a partnership with Sichuan University, a university on the Entity List of the United States Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security. Nearly 50% of PLU students study away.

PLU has hosted a Confucius Institute since 2020 when it took over the Confucius Institute from the University of Washington.

The Pacific Lutheran University campus is located six miles (10 km) south of Tacoma, Washington, in suburban Parkland, on a 156 acre (63 ha) woodland campus. Joint Base Lewis McChord is less than a half mile (800 m) west of Parkland. The campus is unofficially divided into two sections, upper campus and lower campus. Upper campus is home to many of the academic and administration buildings including the Phillip Hauge Administration Building, Mortvedt Library, Ramstad Hall and Xavier Hall. In 1964, the Board of Regents engaged Richard Haag—'the father of Northwest Landscape Architecture'—to design the landscape architecture plan for upper campus. Haag is famous for his work on Gas Works Park in Seattle, Washington and on the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island as well as the Seattle Center. The Mortvedt Library offers over 260,000 volumes of books as well as over 23,000 full text journals. The oldest book in the PLU collection is a psalter by Johann Bugenhagen published in 1524. Built in 1937, Xavier Hall served as the library until the Mortvedt Library was built in 1967. Since then the Division of Social Sciences has been housed in Xavier. In 2000 Xavier underwent a $5 million renovation project that saw the addition of the Philip Nordquist Lecture Hall. The Anderson University Center is also located on upper campus. This building houses the all campus cafeteria, called The Commons, and the Old Main Market convenience store. In addition it houses the offices of Campus Ministry, Student Involvement and Leadership, Residential Life, the Diversity Center, the Scandinavian Center, Student Media, Residence Hall Association, the Associated Students of PLU (ASPLU), Hospitality and Dining Services, and the Chris Knutzen Lecture Hall. Along with the academic and administration buildings upper campus also houses PLU's art programs. The Mary Baker Russell Music Center was built in 1997 and is the home of PLU's Department of Music. The acoustically impressive and well known Lagerquist Concert Hall houses the Gottfried and Mary Fuchs Organ (the largest University based mechanical action organ on the West Coast) as well as state of the art practice and performance facilities. Ingram Hall is home to a communication computer lab, a digital photography/graphic design lab, and studio art classrooms for painting, ceramics, sculpture, photography and printmaking. Ingram boasts two galleries: the University Gallery (which houses major shows and exhibitions) and the Wekell Gallery (which generally houses student and class work). Eastvold Auditorium, formal called Eastvold Chapel, seats 1100 and is the home of PLU Theatre. Eastvold hosts all main stage productions as well as a range of smaller productions throughout the year. In October 2011, PLU Theatre premiered a new addition to its arts department, the Karen H. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. Named after the former Regent, this space is a symbol of the completion of phase one in Eastvold Auditorium's renovations. Eastvold is set to reopen with a new performing arts center in the fall of 2013. Lower campus is home to many of the university's athletic facilities. These include Olson Auditorium, Memorial Gymnasium, Names Fitness Center, and the university swimming pool. Also located on lower campus are the Rieke Science Center, Morken Center for Learning and Technology, Martin J. Neeb Building, and the Keck Observatory. Additional buildings around the perimeter of campus are also used for University purposes, including offices, the Wang Center for International Studies, East Campus, the Women's Center, the University House and Trinity Lutheran Church.

The Mast is PLU's student run newspaper. It was first printed in 1924 in the basement of the university chapel. It is now a converged media group which includes Mast TV and Lute Air Student Radio. It was originally named "The Mooring Mast", but was changed in Fall 2015 to simply "The Mast." The unusual, original name "The Mooring Mast" came from the USS Shenandoah, a U. S. Navy airship. In nearby Fort Lewis there was a large mooring structure for the airship and the students derived the name from this in honor of the famed ship.

KPLU FM (88.5 MHz) is a news and jazz format National Public Radio member station that was owned by Pacific Lutheran University. While PLU held the license for the radio station and all KPLU staff members were also university employees, the university took a hands off approach to on air content. PLU supported the station with infrastructure amounting to more than $1.5 million annually.

On November 12, 2015, it was announced to KPLU staff that PLU intended to sell the radio station to the University of Washington, which already operated KUOW. On May 26, 2016, Friends of 88.5 FM announced that they had raised $7 million to match the offer made by the University of Washington. On June 28, 2016, PLU announced that it had reached an agreement to transfer the license for 88.5 FM to Friends of 88.5 FM. The sale was consummated on August 30, 2016.

During the academic processional at commencement, Processional of Joy by Dr. Lawrence J. Meyer is traditionally played by the University Symphony Orchestra. Composed as a unique ceremonial score in 1969, Processional of Joy has been played at each commencement since 1970.