MEDIA ADVISORY: Lindsey Wilson College to Commemorate Becoming Lindsey Wilson University with July 1 Celebration at Speed Art Museum

After 122 years of service to Kentucky, school to become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1.

by Duane Bonifer

COLUMBIA, Ky. (06/25/2025) — The Lindsey Wilson College community will commemorate the first day of Lindsey Wilson University on Tuesday, July 1, with a celebration at Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. Third St., Louisville, Kentucky. The event begins at 6 p.m. EDT.

Remarks will be given by Kentucky and Lindsey Wilson leadership, including by President William T. Luckey Jr. A Louisville native, Luckey has been Lindsey Wilson's eighth president since 1998, and he is the longest-serving college or university president in Kentucky higher education.

Under Luckey's leadership, Lindsey Wilson has:

achieved record enrollment;
awarded a record number of degrees;
added more than a dozen undergraduate and graduate academic programs;
developed partnerships with community colleges in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia;
completed a campaign that raised more than $53 million;
and expanded the Lindsey Wilson A.P. White Campus in Adair County to more than 200 acres, which includes the addition or major renovation of more than two dozen buildings.

In a recent economic impact study by Quinnipiac (Connecticut) University economics professor Mark Paul Gius, Lindsey Wilson's direct impact on the Adair County economy in 2021-22 was $91 million.

The invitation-only July 1 celebration is being held at the Speed Art Museum to recall Lindsey Wilson's founding in 1903 by the Louisville Conference of the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Lindsey Wilson is now affiliated with the Kentucky Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.

Founded as a training school for Vanderbilt University, Lindsey Wilson became a junior college in 1923. The school was transformed into a baccalaureate degree-granting college in 1985, and it offered its first graduate program in 1993.

Lindsey Wilson now offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. Lindsey Wilson's 2024 fall enrollment was a record 4,147 students. In 2024-25, Lindsey Wilson awarded a record 1,780 degrees.

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Media contact: Duane Bonifer (boniferd@lindsey.edu; office: 270-384-8042, office; mobile: 270-634-1101)

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Lindsey Wilson College is a vibrant liberal arts college in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson -- which will become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1 -- has an enrollment of more than 4,000 students, and the college offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The college's 28 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.

Lindsey Wilson University

MEDIA ADVISORY: Lindsey Wilson College to Commemorate Becoming Lindsey Wilson University with July 1 Celebration at Speed Art Museum

After 122 years of service to Kentucky, school to become Lindsey Wilson University on July 1.

Lindsey Wilson College

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