About Willamette University

Willamette University is a private academic world in Salem, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college circles in the Western United States. Willamette is a aficionado of the Annapolis Group of colleges, and is made in the works of an undergraduate College of Arts & Sciences and post-graduate schools of concern and law. The the academy is a devotee of the NCAA’s Division III Northwest Conference. Approximately 2,100 students are enrolled at Willamette amid the graduate and undergraduate programs.

Originally named the Oregon Institute, the researcher was an unaffiliated outgrowth of the Methodist Mission. The herald was misused to Wallamet University in 1852, followed by the current spelling in 1870. Willamette founded the first medical university and law speculative in the Pacific Northwest in the second half of the 19th century. In the 20th century, it began competing in intercollegiate athletics.

Willamette’s undergraduate programs exist within the school’s College of Arts & Sciences. The oldest of the graduate programs is the College of Law, founded in 1883 and currently located in the Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center. Established in 1974, Atkinson Graduate School of Management is housed in the Seeley G. Mudd Building. The School of Education, established in 1996, had an enrollment of 100 students, but closed in 2014.

Salem /ˈseɪləm/ is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley closely the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river forms the boundary in the middle of Marion and Polk counties, and the city neighborhood of West Salem is in Polk County. Salem was founded in 1842, became the capital of the Oregon Territory in 1851, and was incorporated in 1857.

Salem had a population of 174,365 in 2019, making it the second-largest city in the let in after Portland. Salem is a little under an hour’s driving estrange away from Portland. Salem is the principal city of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan area that covers Marion and Polk counties and had a cumulative population of 390,738 at the 2010 census. A 2019 estimate placed the metropolitan population at 400,408, the state’s second largest. This area is, in turn, part of the Portland-Vancouver-Salem Combined Statistical Area.

The campuses of Willamette University and Chemeketa Community College lie within the city limits of Salem, and the campus of Corban University is just outside the city in unincorporated Marion County. The State of Oregon is the largest public employer in the city, and Salem Health is the largest private employer. Transportation includes public transit from Cherriots (legally known as Salem Area Mass Transit District), Amtrak service, and non-commercial air travel at McNary Field. Major roads supplement Interstate 5, Oregon Route 99E, and Oregon Route 22, which connects West Salem across the Willamette River via the Marion Street and Center Street bridges.