Carson–Newman University

Site of first classes on C-N East Campus

Location of first structure at C-N

Following a ten-year effort of five early East Tennessee Baptists, the school was established and chartered with the state of Tennessee as Mossy Creek Missionary Baptist Seminary in 1851, and construction began that summer on the first building on the west bank of the creek. While this was ongoing, the school held classes in a local Baptist church located near the old zinc mine on the current Allen and Phyllis Morgan East Campus. Within a year the school occupied its own building between the current Silver Diamond Baseball Complex and the East Campus. The campus gradually grew to the west, and is now a mile wide stretching across the northern end of Jefferson City.

In 1880, the institution was named Carson College for James Harvey Carson (1801–1880), who left $15,000 of his estate to the school.[6][7] For several years it existed alongside Newman College, a separate facility for the education of women named for William Cate Newman, who had donated money to the women's college. In 1889, the two colleges united as one of the first coeducational institutions in the South. The institution operated as Carson–Newman College until 2012 when the board of trustees voted to acknowledge recent organizational changes by changing the name to Carson–Newman University.[8]

In 1919, Carson–Newman became officially affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The college was admitted to membership in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1927 and the Association of American Colleges in 1928.

During World War II, Carson–Newman was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.[9]

During most of its history, Carson–Newman University has served as a residential four-year, liberal arts college with courses of study leading to the baccalaureate degree.

In 2015 the school applied for and received a Title IX exemption so that it could maintain its status as a private Christian institution and also granting it the right to turn away "gay students, unwed mothers, women who've had an abortion and even students who may be pregnant" should it so choose to do so.[10] Then-President Dr. Randall O'Brien states that the decision was made based on the advice of legal counsel and that the school does not discriminate and does not plan to.[11]

Through an alumni donation in 2010, the university acquired a neglected 18-acre wooded area of land along Mossy Creek. More recently, the property has been transformed from an overgrown woods with a "dead creek" into a beautiful park named the Carson-Newman Allen and Phyllis Morgan East Campus. Over the years, the East Campus has become increasingly important to the biology program and others at Carson-Newman. In Fall 2017, the creek started showing fresh signs of life once again.[12] In 2019, the university completed construction on a 250-seat open air amphitheater named for President Randall O'Brien on the East Campus.

On June 7, 2019, the trustees appointed Charles A. Fowler as the 23rd president of the university. Fowler began his tenure July 1, 2019.

The campus is located in Jefferson City, Tennessee, between Overlook Ave (West) and Meadow Spring Ave (East), and between Ellis St (South) and Deborah St (North).

Carson–Newman is a member of the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) and fields 18 varsity teams in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II competition. Men's varsity sports at Carson-Newman are: Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, and Track & Field. Women's sports are: Basketball, Cross Country, Golf, Soccer, Softball, Swimming, Tennis, Track & Field, and Volleyball. In the spring of 2015 the volleyball program expanded to include a beach volleyball program, being one of around 40 schools in the United States to offer the sport.

• Official website
• Carson–Newman Athletics website