University of Redlands
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Email this pageThe Founding
The University of Redlands was chartered on Nov. 25, 1907, by individuals associated with the American Baptist Church. The land, donated by banker and Baptist layman Karl C. Wells, was the site of an old vineyard. The first 59 students were admitted in September 1909.
The university is now independent, maintaining an informal relationship with the church. Mandatory chapel attendance was eliminated in 1972.
The academic programs that constituted the beginnings of the university are now considered the College of Arts and Sciences.
The Johnston Center for Integrative Studies was founded as an independent institution, Johnston College for Individualized Learning, in 1969. It became a center within the College of Arts and Sciences in 1979. The naming gift for the center was provided by Graham “Jimmie†Johnston, an executive of the International Business Machines Co. in its earliest years and a friend of Redlands alumnus and fellow IBM executive Dwayne Orton.
The Alfred North Whitehead College for Lifelong Learning (or Whitehead College) was founded as the Alfred North Whitehead College of Liberal and Career Studies in 1976, became a center in 1979 and was restored to college status in 1995.
Whitehead was a mathematician and philosopher who advocated education for working adults in England in the early 1900s. The School of Education was separated from Whitehead College in 2000 and the School of Business followed in 2001. The Whitehead name is only used in historical and ceremonial contexts.
