The story
Lakeland traces its beginnings to German immigrants who, seeking a new life, traveled to America and settled in the Sheboygan area. In 1862, the founders built Missionshaus (Mission House), a combined academy-college-seminary. The school was called Mission House College and Seminary until 1956 when it adopted the name Lakeland College and began focusing on a liberal arts education. The seminary combined with the Yankton Theological School to become United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and relocated to Minneapolis/St. Paul in 1962.
In 1978, Lakeland launched the state's first degree-completion program for working adults by offering evening classes. Today, Lakeland's Evening, Weekend & Online program enrolls more than 2,000 graduate and undergraduate students.
In 1991, Lakeland founded a campus in Tokyo, Japan and in 2005 it was recognized as an overseas campus, allowing it to sponsor visas for students.
On July 1, 2016, Lakeland College became Lakeland University. This change resulted in the creation of three schools, a School of Business & Entrepreneurship; a School of Science, Technology & Education; and a School of Humanities and Fine Arts as well as new academic offerings. The change was fueled by many factors, including desire to increase international recruitment and clear up confusion with Lakeshore Technical College, a neighboring institution.
In the fall of 2017, Lakeland launched a cooperative education model which allows Lakeland students to gain 12–18 months of professional work experience with local companies, along with the ability to earn more than $100,000 to minimize post-graduate student debt.
From Wikipedia’s article on Lakeland University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5