Dallas Baptist University - Determination & Good Fortune
The roots of Dallas Baptist University reach back more than a century to the city of Decatur, Texas. Founded in 1898, Decatur Baptist College was formed as a two-year junior college that would prepare students for transition to the larger Baptist institution in the state, Baylor University in Waco, Texas. After almost seventy years in Decatur, the College moved to Dallas in 1965 at the request of the Dallas Baptist Association to establish a local baptist-affiliated school of higher learning.
One year after the move to Dallas, an interesting event transpired in the College library. In 1966, a man walked into the library and approached the front-desk receptionist, Clara Clay. He mentioned that, thirty year earlier, he and a friend had been hiking in the area and come across a patch of land overlooking the College’s present day location adjacent to Mountain Creek Lake. The man said that, at the time, both men remarked how the location would be a wonderful place for a Christian institution. They knelt to pray on what is now University Hill, asking God to one day establish a school there. And thirty years later, he had returned to visit the new college that stood on that very spot!
Beginning in 1968, the school was granted full senior-college status, adding a junior year of study that year and a senior year of study in June of 1969. Following this progression, the first bachelor’s degrees were conferred in May 1970.
After an official name change to Dallas Baptist University in 1985, the school encountered a series of financial setbacks. However, following the election of President Gary Cook in the late 1980s, the institution began to rebound, increasing enrollment and rising out of its financial hardships. This trend was also aided by the advent of the first graduate program, a Master’s of Business Administration degree. Sixteen more master’s level programs have since been added to the University.
As the institution moved into the 21st century, it experienced even more academic and financial success. In 2003, the Gary Cook School of Leadership was opened to promote further education in the realm of leadership studies. In 2005, the college started its first doctoral program, also in the field of Leadership Studies. Later that year, another doctoral program in Educational Leadership became available.
To date, Dallas Baptist University offers 57 undergraduate majors, 18 graduate programs, and 2 doctoral programs. Courses are administered through eight different colleges on the Dallas Baptist campus, including the College of Business, the Mary C. Crowley College of Christian Faith, the Dorothy M. Bush College of Education, the College of Fine Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the College of Adult Education, and the Gary Cook Graduate School of Leadership.
At Dallas Baptist University, students are guaranteed a quality Christian liberal arts education. Please visit us at our campus or on the Web at (www.dbu.edu) to receive more information about Dallas Baptist University. We would be happy to show you our wonderful school.