Former names | Pearl River Boarding School (1892–1905) South Mississippi College (1906–1911) Mississippi Woman's College (1911–1954) William Carey College (1954–2006) |
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Motto | "Expect Great Things From God, Attempt Great Things For God"[1] |
Type | Private university |
Established | 1892 |
Accreditation | SACS |
Religious affiliation | Baptist (Mississippi Baptist Convention) |
President | Ben Burnett |
Provost | Daniel Caldwell |
Academic staff | 190 full-time[2] 230 part-time |
Students | 5,641[3] |
Undergraduates | 3,264 [4] |
Location | , , United States 31°18′22″N 89°17′28″W / 31.3062°N 89.29116°W |
Campus | Small City, 120 acres (0.49 km2) |
Other campuses | |
Colors | Red, Black & White |
Nickname | Crusaders |
Sporting affiliations | NAIA – SSAC |
Website | www |
William Carey University (Carey, William Carey, or WCU) is a private Christian university in Mississippi, affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention and the Mississippi Baptist Convention. The main campus is in Hattiesburg and a second campus is in the Tradition community north of Biloxi.
William Carey University was founded by W. I. Thames in 1892 as Pearl River Boarding School in Poplarville, Mississippi. A disastrous fire destroyed the school in 1905, and in 1906, with the backing of a group of New Orleans businessmen, Thames reopened the school in Hattiesburg as South Mississippi College. Another fire destroyed the young institution, forcing it to close. In 1911, W. S. F. Tatum acquired the property and offered it as a gift to the Baptists, and the school reopened as Mississippi Woman's College. In 1953, the Mississippi Baptist Convention voted to make the college coeducational, which necessitated a new name. In 1954, the board of trustees selected the name William Carey College in honor of William Carey, the 18th-century English cordwainer-linguist whose decades of missionary activity in India earned him international recognition as the "Father of Modern Missions." The gained official university status in 2006.
The university offers baccalaureate degrees, Master's degrees, and doctoral degrees. William Carey opened the college of Osteopathic Medicine in 2009 and welcomed its first class of 110 students in 2010. The academic year comprises three trimesters of eleven weeks each. Two summer sessions, a January Term, and a May Term are also offered.