■ University Profile: LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Editor’s Note: This is a continuing series profi ling Virginia’s colleges and universities.
A vision comes to pass
Liberty University has transformed itself into Virginia’s biggest school
by Heather B. Hayes L
iberty University may have started out as a small Baptist college, but its founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr.,
always had faith that it would one day be a major institution of higher education. “His thought was: Why can’t we create
for evangelical Christian students what Notre Dame is for Catholics, what Brigham Young is for Mormons and what Yeshiva is for Jewish students?” explains Jerry Falwell Jr., who took over as chancellor of Liberty after his father’s death in 2007. “Even when the school
Falwell Jr.
was just getting started and operating out of church buildings, he would say that Liberty was going to train doctors, lawyers, engineers, really people in every profession to go out and be
champions for Christ, not necessarily by preaching but by their example in their jobs and everyday life and by their service to oth- ers,” Falwell says. In almost miraculous fashion, the
TOP: The 275-foot Freedom Tower will house Liberty University’s School of Divinity.
MIDDLE: The new Center for Music and Worship Arts features a 1,600-seat concert hall.
BOTTOM: The Center for Music and Worship Arts helps train students for a variety of occupations in the music industry.
senior Falwell’s vision has come to fruition during the past decade. In terms of enroll- ment, Liberty is now the largest university in Virginia and the fifth-largest in the country, with about 15,000 residential and 90,000 online students. Fifty-five percent of its undergraduates last year were full-time students. The university has more than 450
On the Web See online photo gallery at
VirginiaBusiness.com 60 NOVEMBER 2016
academic programs, including medical, law, engineering and business schools. It has NCAA Division I athletic teams. It has a newly built 400-acre equestrian center for its two riding teams, and its Liberty Mountain
Snowflex Centre hosts year-round skiing, snowboarding and tubing for students. Thanks to the revenue generated by its online education program, currently the largest nonprofit program of its kind in the U.S., Liberty has cash reserves of more than $1.4 billion. All of this activity has resulted in more
applications and higher-quality students. This year’s freshman class had an aver- age grade point average of 3.36 and SAT score of 1067. Both of those averages have increased every year since 2005. Tuition and mandatory fees for full-
time undergraduates enrolled in Liberty’s on-campus program in 2016-17 total $23,070, which is 30 percent below the U.S. average of $33,365 for private school tuition and fees, according to data reported to U.S. News and World Report. Students who live on the Liberty cam-
pus pay between $6,500 and $10,200, for room and board, depending on the dormi- tory and meal plan they choose. What’s more, students’ second-choice
schools weren’t other private, Christian col- leges but Virginia public universities, led by James Madison, George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth University. Approximately 36 percent of this year’s residential students and 20 percent of its online students are from Virginia. The rest are from 48 other U.S. states and 84 foreign countries. “Last year, for the first time, we had to
turn away a couple of thousand students that applied to our residential program because we are now at capacity,” notes Ron Hawkins, Liberty’s provost, explaining that the school expects to maintain a maximum
Photos by Jill Nance Waugh
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
