History

The University of La Verne was founded in 1891 as Lordsburg College by members of the Church of the Brethren who moved west. Both the College and the agricultural community were renamed La Verne in 1917, and the 1920's and 1930's found three-quarters of the student body in teacher education. The next three decades saw campus facilities multiply fourfold, the Board of Trustees become independent of church control, and the student body increase and become more cosmopolitan without the College losing its commitment to service and to sound, valuesoriented education. In 1955 the Western College Association accredited La Verne. A decade later the College awarded its first master's degree, and in 1979 it conferred its first doctorate.

In 1969 La Verne began offering degree programs off campus, and the following year it opened its College of Law. Reflecting these profound changes, the College reorganized in 1977 as the University of La Verne. In 1981 ULV founded its Orange County Campus and in 1983 a campus in the San Fernando Valley. A decade later it created campuses in Ventura County and San Bernardino/Riverside Counties and in 2000 it created a law campus in Ontario, California. Continuing the trend of improving services to students, it developed campuses in Kern County, San Luis Obispo, and Victorville. The University is an Hispanic and minority serving institution.