Seattle Pacific University


Seattle Pacific University is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seattle Seminary and College in 1913, adopted the name Seattle Pacific College two years later, and received its current name in 1977.

History

Seattle Pacific University was founded in 1891 by Free Methodist pioneers to train missionaries for overseas service. Built on land donated by Mr. and Mrs. Nels B. Peterson, the neighborhood was originally known as Ross Station and was annexed to Seattle the same year the college was founded; the school was colloquially referred to as the Ross Seminary during this era. The first permanent building built on campus, designed by notable architect John B. Parkinson, was completed in early 1893 and the seminary held its first classes that Spring.
In May 2022, the university's board of trustees voted to keep rules in place that ban LGBTQ people from becoming employees, prompting student protests. The vote by the board of trustees occurred in wake of faculty voting with an 80% majority no-confidence in the board regarding this issue. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced on July 29 that his office was investigating the university's hiring practices, describing them as potentially illegal and discriminatory. In turn, the university filed a lawsuit against the attorney general, saying that the investigation violates its religious freedom. In September 2022, multiple faculty, students, and staff brought a lawsuit against the Board of trustees for breach of fiduciary duty, a suit that was later dismissed on all but one count.
On January 26, 2023 it was announced that current Roberts Wesleyan University President Deanna Porterfield would conclude her work in June at the institution in Rochester, NY. She assumed the role of President at Seattle Pacific University later on in 2023.
On June 16, 2023, the university's interim president, Peter Menjares, announced in an email to faculty that it would cut 40 percent of its budget academic programs via steep faculty layoffs; university leadership blamed post-COVID-19 pandemic national trends in higher education for declining enrollment, while faculty blamed the university's anti-LGBTQ+ faculty policy for exacerbating the issue. In November 2024, university president Deana Porterfield announced further academic cuts, eliminating 19 more majors and cutting more faculty through layoffs, effective by June 2025.

Previous names

As the school developed from a seminary of the Free Methodist Church to its current status as a doctoral degree granting institution, its name has changed over time to befit its changes in status:
  • 1891 – Seattle Seminary
  • 1913 – Seattle Seminary and College
  • 1915 – Seattle Pacific College/Seattle Pacific Christian College
  • 1977 – Seattle Pacific University

    2014 shooting

On June 5, 2014, a shooting occurred in the Otto Miller Hall, during which one student was killed and two other students were injured. The suspect, who lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington at the time, was not a student at the school and had no connection to the university. On November 16, 2016, the gunman was convicted in the shooting and sentenced to 112 years in prison.

Academics

The university's academic programs are divided into three colleges and a seminary:
  • College of Applied and Natural Sciences
  • College of Business and Technology
  • College of Humanities, Education, and the Arts
  • Seattle Pacific Seminary

    Honors program

SPU offers a four-year alternate series of general education classes for honors students called University Scholars, in which every student double-majors, earning a major in "Honors: Liberal Arts" as well as another major of their choice. Their Honors coursework involves classes centering the question "What does it mean to be human?", on cultural and social systems, ethics and critical reasoning, and history; by their senior year Honors students write senior research thesis. Along with the preliminary core classes, the curriculum includes two Faith & Science classes and a Christianity & Scholarship class. The work load is generally very rigorous.
A student in the program takes their sequence of University Scholars courses with the same cohort of 40 students for the entire four years. A student may be admitted to the program regardless of major. There are no University Scholars classes scheduled for the fall of junior year so students have the opportunity to study abroad.

Enrollment

As of the 2025 Autumn Quarter, 2,101 students were enrolled. This included 1,657 undergraduate students, 16 post-baccalaureate students, and 428 gradate students. There were also 747 continuing education students enrolled in the previous year. Eighty percent of Autumn Quarter 2025 undergraduate classes had enrollments of 30 or less and the university had a student-faculty Ratio of 15:1 based on the Common Data Set definition.

Campus

The university sits on a 43-acre campus at the northern end of Queen Anne Hill, near the Fremont neighborhood and approximately four miles north of downtown Seattle. Many of the trees on the campus' central Tiffany Loop are among the oldest in the city. SPU also owns and operates a satellite campus: a wilderness field station specializing in biology on Blakely Island in the San Juan Islands. Notable buildings on the Seattle campus include:

Alexander and Adelaide Hall

Named for the first president of Seattle Pacific University, Alexander Beers, this four-story brick building is home to the School of Theology. The founder's first name, Alexander, was used, as the board did not want a building on campus called "Beers Hall." The building also houses the Sociology and History departments within the College of Arts and Sciences. Completed in early 1893, Alexander Hall is the oldest building on campus, and at the time of the university's founding was the campus' only building. It was designed by notable architect John B. Parkinson, who was responsible for the designs of many of Seattle's school buildings built during this era. Upon completion of Peterson Hall in 1905, it was used for a time as a boys dormitory. A $6.2-million A seismic retrofitting and renovation of the interior office space and chapel was completed in 2014. Next door to Alexander is the main performing arts space on campus, the McKinley Theater.

Demaray Hall/Clocktower

Demaray Hall is the central academic building at Seattle Pacific University, housing numerous classrooms as well as the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, Student Academic Services and Student Financial Services. Administrative offices, including the offices of the president and provost, are also located in Demaray. The building is named for Calvin Dorr Demaray, president of SPU from 1959 to 1968 and pastor of First Free Methodist Church from 1948 to 1959.
The clocktower in front of Demaray Hall was given to Seattle Pacific University by the class of 1966. It displays a bas-relief sculpture designed by former Professor of Art Ernst Schwidder, titled "Science, Religion and Humanities," which was brought to fruition by former Professor of Art Larry Metcalf and three of his students. The cast-stone relief panels depict various areas of study: the physical sciences, social sciences and humanities. Its symbols are drawn from American Pima, Arabic, Aztec, Babylonian, Egyptian and Greek cultures.

Gwinn Commons

Gwinn Commons is home to three different points of interest. The Crossroads at Gwinn Commons is the main dining hall on campus. Upstairs is the university's main, multi-use location. A pair of large rooms, the Queen Anne Room and the Cascade Room can each hold up to 500 people. Multiple functions are held in Upper Gwinn, ranging from Group, admissions events, lectures, board meetings and more. The President's Dining room is also located here. In addition, there is the Corner Place Market, or C-Store, which holds Einstein Bros. Bagels and also a market where students can purchase various daily necessities. Wells Gwinn, for whom the dining facility is named, served 32 years on the Seattle Pacific Board of Trustees.

Ames Library

The Ames Library was completed in 1994. Housing over 250,000 volumes and 1,300 print periodicals, it grows by 6,000 new titles a year. Students, faculty, and alumni have access to the collections of Summit and the Orbis Cascade Alliance, comprising over 30 million items held in Washington and Oregon academic libraries, including the University of Washington. In addition to printed reference materials, the library also has access to myriad electronic databases including JSTOR, ProQuest Direct, EBSCOHost, First Search, and others. Access is available to the university community via login both on and off campus.

Peterson Hall

Opened in 1905, Peterson Hall is the second-oldest building on campus and houses the School of Education as well as the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. Originally built to house administration and additional classrooms, it was designed by Seattle architect William Jewett. In the basement is a food lab, as well as a sewing lab. Each month, SPU's food lab plays host to a Community Kitchen - an outreach to the city's homeless population wherein these individuals join with members of the university community in cooking and sharing a common meal.

Student Union Building

The Student Union Building was built in the 1960s and still serves as a central point where many students gather. On the first floor is the Pacific Collegium, a hub for commuter students. Dining options provided by the on campus dining services can also be found in the SUB. UNICOM, a student-run information desk assists with ticket sales, bus passes, pool passes, among other general information items. ASSP, the student government of SPU has its offices in the SUB along with STUB, the student event programming organization.