Company Profile
Pacific Lutheran University
Company Overview
PLU is a small, private university where caring means more than kindness and consideration — it means a bold commitment to expanding well-being, opportunity, and justice. Because PLU is a community committed to the creation and advancement of knowledge through diversity and inclusion, the university actively recruits a diverse faculty, staff, and student body. PLU is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes applications from members of historically underrepresented and minoritized groups, women, veterans, persons with disabilities, and others who would bring broadly diverse perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds in educational, research or other work activities.
Company History
Pacific Lutheran University was founded in 1890 by a group of Scandinavian Lutherans from the Puget Sound area. They were led by the Reverend Bjug Harstad, who became PLU’s first president. In naming the university, these pioneers recognized the important role that a Lutheran educational institution on the western frontier of America could play in the emerging future of the region. They wanted the institution to help immigrants adjust to their new land and find jobs, but they also wanted it to produce graduates who would serve church and community. Education—and educating for service—was a venerated part of the Scandinavian and Lutheran traditions from which these pioneers came.
Although founded as a university, the institution functioned primarily as an academy until 1918, when it closed for two years because of complications produced by the creation of the Norwegian Lutheran Church of America in 1917, regional collegiate rivalries, and World War I. It reopened as the two-year Pacific Lutheran College, after merging with Columbia College, previously located in Everett. Further consolidation occurred when Spokane College merged with PLC in 1929. Four-year baccalaureate degrees were first offered in education in 1939 and in the liberal arts in 1942. The institution was reorganized as a university in 1960, reclaiming its original name. It presently includes a College of Health Professions, College of Humanities, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Social Sciences, College of Natural Sciences, College of Professional Studies, and both graduate and continuing education programs.
PLU has been closely and productively affiliated with the Lutheran church throughout its history. It is now a university of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, owned by the more than six hundred congregations of Region 1 of the ELCA.
Many influences and individuals have combined to shape PLU and its regional, national, and increasingly international reputation for teaching, service and scholarship. A dedicated faculty and staff has been an extremely important factor. The school has enjoyed a strong musical tradition from the beginning, as well as noteworthy alumni achievements in public school teaching and administration, university teaching and scholarship, the pastoral ministry, the health sciences and healing arts, and business. At PLU, the liberal arts and professional education are closely integrated and collaborative in their educational philosophies, activities, and aspirations.
Benefits
Information on PLU benefits can be found at www.plu.edu/human-resources/benefits