Trinity International University

From Vero - Wikipedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use American English Template:Infobox university

Trinity International University (TIU) is an evangelical Christian university headquartered in Bannockburn, Illinois.<ref name="tiu-deerfield" /> It comprises Trinity College, a theological seminary (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), and a law school (Trinity Law School which is located in Santa Ana, California).<ref name="tiu.edu">Template:Cite web</ref> The university also maintains campuses in North Lauderdale, Florida, and Miami, Florida. TIU is the only university affiliated with Evangelical Free Church of America in the United States and enrolls 1,242 students. On February 17, 2023, TIU announced it was moving the undergraduate program to online modalities only and closed the residential campus at the end of the Spring 2023 semester.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The online undergraduate program closed at the end of the Spring 2024 semester.

In April 2025, it was announced that the divinity school would merge with Trinity Western University and cease operations at the Bannockburn campus, while the rest of the university would continue to operate independently.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After this change, the law school and an undergraduate program jointly operated with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections will remain the main operations of TIU.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

Tracing its roots to 1897, TIU formed in the late 1940s as the result of a merger of two schools:

  • A school run by the Swedish Evangelical Free Church, founded in 1897 in Chicago, and incorporated as the Swedish Bible Institute of Chicago, then affiliated with Moody Bible Institute as the Swedish Department until 1925 when it became the Swedish Evangelical Free Church Bible Institute and Seminary.
  • A three-year Bible school, the Norwegian-Danish Bible Institute and Academy, founded in 1910 by the Norwegian-Danish Free Church, established in Rushford, Minnesota, and later moving to Minneapolis and becoming Trinity Seminary and Bible Institute.

By 1949, the Minneapolis-based school moved to Chicago and the unified schools became known as Trinity Seminary and Bible College. In 1961, the school moved to a new campus in Bannockburn, Illinois, and a year later was renamed Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS) and Trinity College. The school grew from an enrollment of 51 in 1961 to 1,400 in 1990. In 1995, TEDS became part of Trinity International University, along with Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois, and Trinity College in Miami, (formerly Miami Christian College which was obtained through a merger of the two institutions). In 1997, Trinity Law School, located in Santa Ana, California, was incorporated into Trinity International University, and the Trinity Graduate School was founded.

In 2014, David S. Dockery was elected unanimously as the 15th president of Trinity. He was inaugurated in October of that year.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nicholas Perrin was elected as the 16th president in June 2019.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Kevin Kompelien succeeded Perrin as president on April 1, 2024.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On July 1, 2025, David W. Pao was named interim president to serve for a year of transition.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Trinity Graduate School closed in 2024, along with the academic programs at TIU-Florida. Trinity College Online closed in May 2025. The undergraduate program for prisoners in Fox Lake, Wisconsin, remains open. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Trinity Law School are operational.

Approvals, accreditations and memberships

Trinity International University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.<ref name="NCH-HLC">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The divinity school is also programmatically accredited by the Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

TIU's law school, located in Santa Ana, California, is accredited by the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) of the State Bar of California (CALBAR).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The normative nationwide USDE- and CHEA-approved accreditor of law schools is the American Bar Association (ABA). Within the state of California, though, law schools are also accredited by CALBAR CBE, which is neither USDE- or CHEA-approved. Graduates of non-ABA accredited programs are not recognized outside of the state of California.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> TIU's Trinity Law School (Santa Ana campus only) is also included as part of TIU's regional accreditation by the USDE- and CHEA-approved NCA-HLC.<ref name="NCH-HLC" />

Trinity International University is exempt<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> from the need to be approved to operate in Illinois by the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), which lists it as a "private NFP (not-for-profit) institution".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Its educational programs for K-12 teachers are approved by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> so that TIU's graduates from said programs may obtain state-issued teaching credentials. TIU is, further, approved by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) (formerly the Illinois State Scholarship Commission (ISSC))<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Monetary Award Program (MAP) so that TIU's students may receive Illinois educational grants and scholarships.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Prior to 2003, TIU's athletic trainer program was accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP); however in 2003 the accreditation of such programs was taken over by the Joint Review Committee on Athletic Training (JRC-AT); and in 2006 JRC-AT became the Committee for Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE). TIU's undergraduate athletic training educational program<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> claims CAATE accreditation on its website.

TIU is also a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> the Christian College Consortium (CCC), and the Christian Adult Higher Education Association (CAHEA).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Athletics

The Trinity International athletic teams were called the Trojans.<ref name="endAth">Template:Cite news</ref> Prior to the move to an all-online undergraduate academic format in 2023, the university was a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) for most of its sports from 1996–97 until its move after 2022–23; while its football program competed in the Mideast League of the Mid-States Football Association (MSFA).<ref name="endAth"/> They were also a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), primarily competing as an independent in the North Central Region of the Division I level.

Trinity International competed in nine intercollegiate varsity sports. Men's sports included baseball, basketball, football, soccer and volleyball. Women's sports included basketball, soccer, softball and volleyball.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Accomplishments

In 2022, women's volleyball claimed the NCCAA D1 National Championship, making the title a program first and last.

Notable faculty

Notable alumni

References

Template:Reflist

Template:Deerfield, Illinois Template:Christian College Consortium Template:Colleges and universities in metropolitan Chicago Template:CCCU

Template:Authority control

Template:Coord

Retrieved from "https://wiki.sarg.dev/index.php?title=Trinity_International_University&oldid=398591"