The story
Founded in Woodland, California, as Hesperian College, the school began classes on March 4, 1861. Its opening was timed to coincide with the hour of Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration. Hesperian admitted students regardless of sex or race. Throughout its first decades, the school was renamed and relocated several times. In 1896, Hesperian merged with Pierce Christian College to form the Berkeley Bible Seminary in Berkeley, California. The college was subsequently moved to San Francisco as the California Bible College. In 1920, the school was acquired by California Christian College, and moved to southern California, becoming the California School of Christianity, in Los Angeles. In 1923, the school was once again retitled the California Christian College.
In 1934, the school became Chapman College 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 of Orange High School. Chapman established a Residence Education Center Program to serve military personnel in 1958, which evolved into Brandman University and later University of Massachusetts Global. The college became Chapman University in 1991. 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. The School of Film and Television, now the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Marion Knott Studios, opened in 1996.
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 by Vernon L. Smith. The Rinker Health Science Campus opened in Irvine, CA in 2013, becoming the home for the School of Pharmacy. Mathematician Daniele 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.
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 a Carnegie Classification of R2: Doctoral University – High Research Activity, had its first Rhodes Scholar, Vidal Arroyo '19, and became nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report.
In 2019, President Daniele C. Struppa refused to take down two The Birth of a Nation posters at the Dodge 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." Black students at Chapman voiced opposition to Struppa's decision; peaceful protests took place on campus. Faculty members took a survey on their stance to remove the posters, and the posters were eventually taken down.
Matt Parlow became Chapman’s 14th president in 2025.
From Wikipedia’s article on Chapman University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5