Founded on November 19, 1871, it was established by members of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, a Catholic religious order founded by St. John Baptist de la Salle, the patron saint of teachers. At foundation the educational institution was named Christian Brothers College which was changed to Christian Brothers University when the school became a university in June 1990.[3]
Christian Brothers awarded the first post-secondary degree in the city in 1875.[4] LeMoyne College (one of the two constituent parts of present-day LeMoyne-Owen College) has a founding year of 1871, but it was an elementary and secondary school at the time. The city's largest university, the University of Memphis, was not founded until 1912. Although Rhodes College was founded in 1848, it did not move from Clarksville, Tennessee to Memphis until 1925.
Maurelian was appointed the first president. His three terms as president totalled 31 years.
In 2021, the university began to experience severe issues with accreditation caused by emerging financial challenges. The university's physician's assistant program was placed on probation by its accreditor, the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA); its accreditation was denied entirely in 2023 and the program is being closed.[5] In 2022, the university's education programs were placed on probation by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP).[6] The university as a whole was also placed on probation by its institutional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.[7]
In 2023, the university publicly acknowledged severe financial challenges. By the end of 2024, the university projected a deficit of between $5 and $7 million. It has declared financial exigency and begun plans to make significant budget cuts, including the potential firing of tenured faculty and closure of academic programs.[8] In December of 2023 the university announced that it was eliminating 28 faculty positions at the end of the academic year and dropping programs including Chemistry, Cultural Studies, Ecology, Engineering Physics, English, History, History Education, Liberal Studies, Physics, Politics and Law, and Political Science; the university also planned to close the Master of Education program. Art Therapy and Philosophy concentrations was also planned to be cut.[9]
In November of 2024, the university once again made faculty and staff cuts; this time eliminating 20 full time and part time positions. [10]
Academics
Schools
The university has four schools:
Rosa Deal School of Arts
Gadomski School of Engineering
School of Business
School of Sciences
The Rosa Deal School of Arts supports undergraduate programs in Psychology, Creative Writing, English for Corporate Communications, Neuroscience, BFA programs in Studio Arts and in Graphic Design, as well as, Religion and Philosophy. It also offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Education, leading to licensure and add-on endorsements. The School houses a Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling.
Accreditation
The university is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The university is currently on probation due to a number of major shortfalls including financial struggles and student recruitment and retention issues.[7]
The university's Gadomski School of Engineering has four engineering programs, including Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, that are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
In 2023, the physician's assistant program was accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA) but lost its accreditation in 2023 after being placed on probation in 2021.[5]
As a member of the Lasallian Consortium,[11] i.e. the seven Lasallian universities in the United States, CBU offers study abroad semesters in Australia, Brazil, China, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, and Spain.[12]
Facilities
Buckman Hall
Campus
Christian Brothers University is located on a 75-acre (300,000 m2) wooded campus in the heart of Midtown, Memphis, four miles (6 km) east of Downtown. It is across from the Memphis Fairgrounds, home of the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, and diagonally positioned from the Cooper-Young Neighborhood.
The first building on campus, Kenrick Hall, constructed in 1939 as the original Christian Brothers High School, was demolished in 2015 to make room for the Rosa Deal School of Arts, set to open in January 2017. In 2021, CBU installed a manufactured building, which houses the nursing program. The campus includes the Rosa Deal School of Arts, Cooper Wilson Sciences Building, and the Benilde Hall Engineering Lab, which is currently[when?] being expanded, as well as sports facilities for basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, and softball.
The university's architecture follows the Georgian style popular at the time of the campus' relocation to East Parkway. Arch-covered walkways traverse the main campus, allowing students and faculty to get to most buildings shielded from the weather. The campus is enclosed by an iron fence with brick accents with entrances on East Parkway South, Central Avenue, and Avery Avenue. Security gates have been added to facilities on the northside of the campus in 2023.
CBU is an NCAA Division II program and a member of the Gulf South Conference. Buccaneer teams include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, indoor track & field and outdoor track & field. Lady Buccaneer teams include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, STUNT, tennis, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field and volleyball.
The Lady Buccaneers and Buccaneers have won multiple conference and national championships, including the 2002 Division II women's soccer championship[13] and the 2008 GSC men's basketball championship.[14]
The Men's Soccer Team won back-to-back conference titles under coach Clint Browne during the 2011 and 2012 seasons, earning a spot in the NCAA Tournament in 2011, and most recently won the Gulf South Conference Tournament title in 2022 under coach Enda Crehan and advanced to the NCAA National Tournament.
