The university was initially established on April 30, 1901, through a partnership with the then-Lincoln University, an existing college in Lincoln, Illinois also affiliated with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. At this time, the charter for Lincoln University, which had been in existence since February 1865, was modified to create a new overarching university, the James Millikin University. This new university had two subsidiary units: Lincoln College, the newly renamed, Lincoln-based campus formerly known as Lincoln University, and the Decatur College and Industrial School, a new campus to be established in Decatur. This arrangement leveraged the existing resources of Lincoln University to establish a wholly new college in Decatur. The combined, two-campus university took the name of its primary advocate, James Millikin.
The university's campus in Decatur, however, would not officially open until September 15, 1903. All the while, the school's dedication was presided over by President Theodore Roosevelt.
James Millikin University maintained its two-campus model until 1952, when the two units separated to become two wholly independent institutions; the Decatur campus renamed as just Millikin University while the Lincoln campus remained known as Lincoln College. The charter of independent Millikin was approved by the state on July 23, 1953.[4]
Academics
Millikin confers graduate and post-graduate certificates and degrees. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on number out of 403 graduates in 2022, were:[5]
Registered Nursing/Registered Nurse (55)
Musical Theatre (31)
Business Administration and Management (28)
Drama and Dramatics/Theatre Arts (27)
Biology/Biological Sciences (25)
Media
Decaturian
The Decaturian is the bi-weekly student newspaper. Its first issue appeared in 1903; issues up to 1951 are archived online.[6]
In 1922, a license was issued for a new AM broadcasting station, operating on a wavelength of 360 meters (833 kHz).[8][9] This station was randomly assigned the call letters WBAO, which came from a sequential roster of available call signs. It maintained a limited schedule of broadcasts.[10][9] On May 25, 1928, the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) issued General Order 32, which notified 164 stations, including WBAO, that "From an examination of your application for future license it does not find that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by granting it."[11] On September 1, 1928, the FRC listed "Stations WJBL and WBAO" as one of the "consolidations which have been approved by the commission, or imposed on the stations by the commission".[12] WBAO was formally deleted on October 1, 1928,[9][13] and it was announced that programs previously broadcast by that station would now be heard over WJBL.[14]
Rankings
In 2021, U.S. News & World Report ranked Millikin University #12 in "Regional Colleges Midwest", #11 in Best Undergraduate Teaching, and #29 in Best Value Schools, noting that the institution had selective admissions and a student-faculty ratio of 10:1.[15]
Since their first year of athletics in the 1903–04 academic year and prior to joining the NCAA Division III and the CCIW in the 1946–47 season, Millikin primarily competed as an Independent of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Millikin University teams have since participated in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. The Big Blue are a member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW).[16] Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, wrestling, soccer, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, triathlon, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and volleyball.
Marcia Morey – swimmer at Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 in women's 100m breaststroke and 200m breaststroke; former American record holder in 200M Breaststroke[21]
James Benton Parsons – Federal judge; in 1961 he was the first African American to serve as a US Federal District Judge, appointed to the Northern District of Illinois, in Chicago, IL
Elbert S. Smith - Illinois State Senator, Illinois Auditor of Public Accounts, Vice-President of the 6th Illinois Constitutional Convention
Kevin Vann - Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange (CA) and former Bishop of Fort Worth
^"New Stations", Radio Service Bulletin, May 1, 1922, page 2. Limited Commercial license, Serial #677, issued on April 25, 1922 for operation on 360 meters for a three month period.
^ abcJames Millikin University entry, Educations Own Stations by S. E. Frost, Jr., 1937, pages 138-139.
^Federal Radio Commission announcement (September 1, 1928), Second Annual Report of the Federal Radio Commission for the Year Ended June 30, 1928, Together With Supplemental Report for the Period From July 1, 1928 to September 30, 1928, pages 161-163.
