Reimagining the PLU Story

From its founding in 1890, Pacific Lutheran University has provided generations of students with education founded in thoughtful inquiry, service, leadership, and care. While this mission is grounded in a Christian context, the goals and makeup of PLU have evolved with the passing of time. Just as academic offerings have changed to ensure relevance and currency, so too has the composition of our community. Still, the traditional narrative of PLU has, up to now, continuously been filtered through the context of its establishment, not taking into account the diversity of the faculty, students, and staff who have shaped the University.

This timeline is not meant to serve as a complete history of PLU, nor is it able to capture the full extent of the complex story of our community. Instead, this timeline aims to highlight events, trends, and conversations that have occurred at PLU that speak beyond the traditional labels of PLU as “just Lutheran” or “just Scandinavian.” While both are an important part of PLU’s heritage, this timeline focuses on equally important aspects of who makes up our community, including the triumphs, struggles, and establishments of students, faculty, and staff regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation.

We hope that this timeline serves both as an educational tool and that it sparks further interest and research into PLU’s history, not just in context of traditional narratives of who we were at our founding, but in how we become who we are.

Please note: Items in this timeline, including newspaper articles and course descriptions, retain the language used at the time of creation. The PLU Archives & Special Collections does not condone any harmful, racist, or offensive content found in our collections. Pull quotes including this language are cited for transparency and education, not to remediate offensive or racist language. Please contact archives@plu.edu with any questions or concerns.

This timeline is made possible through funding provided by the Council of Independent College’s Reframing the Institutional Saga grant.

Thanks to Tia Christensen, who helped perform digitization and research in the completion of this project.