Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, has announced that it will become Mary Baldwin University on August 31, 2016. The college was founded in 1842 as the Augusta Female Seminary. It changed its name in 1895 to Mary Baldwin Seminary and to Mary Baldwin College in 1923. Mary Baldwin was a member of the inaugural class of students at the institution and was named its leader in 1863 during the Civil War. Today, the college enrolls about 1,450 women in undergraduate programs and 270 students in its co-educational graduate programs.
The college already offers master’s degree programs in education, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and Shakespeare and performance as well as a physician’s assistant program. The name change “reflects who we are today,” said Crista Cabe, the college’s vice president for communication, marketing, and public affairs.
The college surveyed faculty and students before deciding to change the name. The move to university status was supported by 70 percent of the faculty and 68 percent of the student body. The new university’s undergraduate residential college for women will be called Mary Baldwin College for Women.