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Former names | Hesperian College (1861–1896) Pierce Christian College (1874–1896) Berkeley Bible Seminary (1896–1912) California Bible College (1912–1920) California School of Christianity (1920–1923) California Christian College (1918–1920, 1923–1934) Chapman College (1934–1991) |
|---|---|
| Motto | ὀ Χριστòς καì ἡ Ἐκκλησíα (Greek) |
Motto in English | "Christ and Church" |
| Type | Privateresearch university |
| Established | March 4, 1861; 164 years ago (March 4, 1861) |
| Accreditation | WSCUC |
Religious affiliation | |
Academic affiliations | |
| Endowment | $860 million (2025)[4] |
| President | Matthew J. Parlow |
Academic staff | 1,117 total |
Administrative staff | 752 total |
| Students | 10,001[5] |
| Undergraduates | 7,656[5] |
| Postgraduates | 2,345[5] |
| Location | ,, United States |
| Campus | Midsize city, 90 acres (36 ha) |
| Other campuses | Irvine |
| Newspaper | The Panther |
| Colors | Red and black[6] |
| Nickname | Panthers |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division III -SCIAC |
| Mascot | Pete the Panther |
| Website | www |
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Chapman University is aprivateresearch university inOrange, California, United States. Encompassing eleven colleges, the university isclassified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".[7] The school maintains its founding affiliations with theChristian Church (Disciples of Christ) and theUnited Church of Christ, but is a secular university.[8]
Founded inWoodland, California, asHesperian College,[9] the school began classes on March 4, 1861. Its opening was timed to coincide with the hour ofAbraham Lincoln's first inauguration.[10] Hesperian admitted students regardless of sex or race.[11] Throughout its first decades, the school was renamed and relocated several times. In 1896, Hesperian merged with Pierce Christian College to form theBerkeley Bible Seminary inBerkeley, California. The college was subsequently moved toSan Francisco as theCalifornia Bible College. In 1920, the school was acquired by California Christian College,[a] and moved to southern California, becoming theCalifornia School of Christianity, inLos Angeles.[12] In 1923, the school was once again retitled theCalifornia Christian College.[13]
In 1934, the school becameChapman College[14] after the chairman of its board of trustees (and primary benefactor),C. C. Chapman. In 1954, Chapman University permanently relocated to its present campus in the city of Orange, the former site ofOrange High School.[14] Chapman established a Residence Education Center Program to serve military personnel in 1958, which evolved into Brandman University and laterUniversity of Massachusetts Global.[15] The college became Chapman University in 1991.[14] In the same year, James L. Doti became president of the school, the Department of Education became the School of Education (now known as the Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies), and what is now known as the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences was established.[16] The School of Film and Television, now theDodge College of Film and Media Arts at Marion Knott Studios, opened in 1996.[16]
Between 2000 and 2010, Chapman University expanded to include the Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education, Leatherby Libraries, Fish Interfaith Center, the Erin J. Anderson Athletics Complex, the Schmid College of Science and Technology, and the Argyros School's Economic Science Institute led byVernon L. Smith.[16] The Rinker Health Science Campus opened in Irvine, CA in 2013, becoming the home for the School of Pharmacy.[16] MathematicianDaniele C. Struppa became President in 2016. In the same year, the Musco Center for the Arts opened. The 1,110-seat concert hall hosts performances.[16]
The Keck Center for Science and Engineering opened in 2018, with the Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering opening shortly after. Between 2018 and 2022, Chapman University earned aCarnegie Classification of R2: Doctoral University – High Research Activity, had its first Rhodes Scholar, Vidal Arroyo '19, and became nationally ranked byU.S. News & World Report.[16]
In 2019, PresidentDaniele C. Struppa refused to take down twoThe Birth of a Nation posters[17] at theDodge College of Film and Media Arts. Struppa outlined his reasons in an opinion piece called, "Why I won't take down the original 'The Birth of a Nation' poster."[18] Black students at Chapman voiced opposition to Struppa's decision;[19] peaceful protests took place on campus.[20] Faculty members took a survey on their stance to remove the posters, and the posters were eventually taken down.[21]
Matt Parlow became Chapman’s 14th president in 2025.[22]
The George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics is located in the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Business and Technology Hall.[23] The school was founded in 1977, and renamed in honor of former U.S. Ambassador to Spain,George L. Argyros, in 1999. A Chapman alumnus, Argyros chaired the university's board of trustees from 1976 to 2001, and has made significant donations toward increasing the business school's ranking and resources.[24] In 2019, Argyros College commemorated the 20th anniversary of the school's renaming with a fundraiser dinner featuringPresident George W. Bush.[25] The event raised approximately $15 million for the school's endowment, $10 million of which was a surprise announcement by the Argyros family.[26] Argyros School became Argyros College in 2023, following another $10m gift from the family.[27]
Argyros College offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in business, including theMaster of Business Administration andMaster of Science.[28] The Argyros College of Business and Economics became nationally ranked as the 60th Best Undergraduate Bloomberg BusinessWeek Business School in 2014.[29] In 2016, the Argyros College of Business and Economics rose to 34th.[citation needed] In 2023, Argyros was ranked the #60 business school in the country byU.S. News & World Report.[30]
The Argyros College is home to several research centers and institutes, including the A. Gary Anderson Center for Economic Research, the C. Larry Hoag Center for Real Estate and Finance, the Ralph W. Leatherby Center for Entrepreneurship and Ethics, the Walter Schmid Center for International Business, the Economic Science Institute (founded byNobel Prize winnerVernon L. Smith and others in 2008),[31] the Institute for the Study of Religion, Economics and Society (founded byDr. Laurence Iannaccone in September 2009),[32] and the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy.[33] The Leatherby Center forEntrepreneurship andBusiness Ethics is a program whose scope includes original research, scholarship, and the publication of several scholarly journals.
The Donna Ford Attallah College of Educational Studies[34] offers undergraduate Liberal Studies and Community Educational Studies degrees; teaching, school counseling, and school psychology credentials; and graduate degrees in teaching, special education, school counseling, school psychology, and leadership development, including a Ph.D. in education.[35] The college is also home to various centers and programs for community engagement and research, including the Paulo Freire Democratic Project (PFDP)[36] and Thompson Policy Institute on Disability.[37] The Attallah College or its programs are accredited by the Council Accreditation of Educator Preparation, California Commission on Teacher Credentialing,National Association of School Psychologists, and International School Psychology Association.[38]
The School of Education at Chapman University became the College of Educational Studies in August 2008. In 2017, the college was named in honor of alumna and benefactor Donna Ford Attallah. Attallah College is located in Chapman's Reeves Hall, one of the first buildings constructed on the site in 1913. It was added to the National Register for Historic Places in 1975, and it was renovated and reopened to the public in February 2018.[39]
The college has been recognized as one of the top ten film schools in the world and ranked #4 byThe Hollywood Reporter among American film schools.[40]
The Chapman University School of Law is located in Kennedy Hall. Law degrees offered include theJuris Doctor (J.D.) andMaster of Laws (LL.M.) degrees in various specialties.
The Fowler School of Engineering is the newest school within Chapman University. The school opened in 2019, and offers several undergraduate programs and minors, as well as one graduate program.[41] The school is located in Chapman's Swenson Hall of Engineering, which comprises classrooms, study spaces, research labs, and makerspaces. The Design/Create/Innovate Lab (DCI) is a makerspace divided into two labs: the Prototyping Lab houses various types of 3D printers, a poster and sticker printer, and embroidery machines while the Manufacturing Lab houses manufacturing equipment including laser cutters, CNC mills, a PCB printer, and a water jet.[42]
Chapman University's College of Performing Arts, founded in 2007, operates in departments, namely the Hall-Musco Conservatory of Music, the Department of Dance, and the Department of Theatre.[43]
The Schmid College of Science and Technology was founded in 2008. In 2014, Schmid College was reorganized to splitting off the Crean College of Health and Behavioral Sciences. In 2019, the undergraduate programs in computer science, data analytics, software engineering, and game development programming transferred out of Schmid College to start the new Fowler School of Engineering.
In addition to its undergraduate and graduate programs, Schmid College is home to various centers for research. Among them are the Center of Excellence in Computation, Algebra and Topology (CECAT), the Center of Excellence in Complex and Hyper-complex Analysis (CECHA), and the Center of Excellence in Earth Systems Modeling and Observations (CEESMO). Schmid College is also affiliated with the Institute for Quantum Studies, whose list of physicists includes a 2013 Nobel Prize recipient and a 2010 Presidential Medal of Honor winner.[44]
Schmid College of Science and Technology expanded and moved into the new 140,000 sq. ft. Keck Center for Science and Engineering in 2018, on Chapman's main campus in Orange, California. The research facility contains 45 research and teaching labs, 50 faculty offices, seven student-collaboration spaces, and an outdoor amphitheater. The aesthetic of the building was inspired by the work of architectFrank Lloyd Wright.[45]
The Chapman University School of Pharmacy (CUSP) is located at the Rinker Campus in Irvine. Pharmacy degrees include a Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.), a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Science (MSPS), and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Pharmaceutical Sciences.
The School of Communication is located on the university's main campus and housed within Doti Hall. The school offers three undergraduate majors.[46] The school also offers graduate programs, including an MS in Health and Strategic Communication as well as a PhD program.[47][48][49]
Chapman University has an active Greek life community, consisting of national sororities and fraternities.
| Academic rankings | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Forbes[50] | 200 |
| U.S. News & World Report[51] | 121 |
| Washington Monthly[52] | 356 |
| WSJ/College Pulse[53] | 171 |
| Global | |
| U.S. News & World Report[54] | 1298 |
InU.S. News & World Report's 2020 rankings of the best colleges in America, the university was moved from the master's-level universities in the Western region to the National Universities group, with a debut ranking of tied at 125th. The reclassification was due to Chapman's elevation to R2 status byCarnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in recognition of its high research activity. U.S. News uses the Carnegie Classifications for its categorization of universities.
ForU.S. News & World Report's 2021 rankings, Chapman University was ranked tied for 124th overall among national universities, tied for 39th among 73 national universities evaluated for "Best Undergraduate Teaching", tied for 68th out of 83 for "Most Innovative Schools", tied for 86th of 142 for "Best Colleges for Veterans", and tied at 224th of 389 schools for "Top Performers on Social Mobility".[55] The business school was ranked tied for 74th, and the law school tied for 111th, in the U.S. for 2021[56]
For the Class of 2022 (enrolling fall 2018), Chapman received 14,198 applications, accepted 7,605 (53.6%), and enrolled 1,660.[57] For the freshmen who enrolled, the averageSAT score was 640 for reading and writing and 638 for math, while the averageACT composite score was 27.9.[57] The average high schoolGPA was 3.75 (unweighted) on a 4.0 scale.[57]
The Barry and Phyllis Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education was founded in February 2000. It sponsors an annual Holocaust remembrance writing competition and hosts a regular Distinguished Lecture series.[58]
The Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library, funded byHenry Samueli, is in the Leatherby Libraries.[59] On April 11, 2005, sixty years after he was liberated from theBuchenwald concentration camp,Elie Wiesel dedicated the Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library,[60] and a large bust of Wiesel stands at the entrance to the facility.
Chapman's athletic teams are the Panthers. The university is a member of theDivision III (non-scholarship) level of theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA),[5] primarily competing in theSouthern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) since the 2011–12 academic year.
The Chapman softball team appeared in oneWomen's College World Series in 1979.[61]
In the 2014, 2017, and 2019 seasons, the Chapman University Panther football team ended their season undefeated in their conference and won the SCIAC championship.[62]
The 2019 men's baseball team defeated Birmingham-Southern College to become the DIII NCAA National Champions.[63]
The football and basketball teams are broadcast by the Chapman Sports Broadcast Network (CSBN) to local Channel 6 in Orange and on Chapman's athletic website. CSBN is a student-run, student-produced independent sports network created by students at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts.[64]
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33°47′34″N117°51′05″W / 33.79278°N 117.85139°W /33.79278; -117.85139