Morningside University is a

private university Private universities and private colleges are higher education institutions not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. However, they often receive tax breaks, public student loans, and government grants. Depending on the count ...

affiliated with the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...

and located in

Sioux City, Iowa Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury County, Iowa, Woodbury and Plymouth County, Iowa, Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Iowa, fo ...

, United States. Founded in 1894 by the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself nationally. In 1939, th ...

, Morningside University has 21 buildings on a campus in Sioux City (area population 143,157 in 2008). The Morningside College Historic District, which includes most of the campus, is on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Morningside College officially became Morningside University on June 1, 2021.

History

A group of Sioux City business leaders and Methodist ministers established the University of the Northwest in 1889 to provide educational, cultural and economic growth in the community. with The location of the campus was the northern section of the farm of Edwin C. Peters, the founder of the suburb of Morningside. The university was plagued with financial problems, and it became a victim of the financial

Panic of 1893 The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later. The Panic of 1896 followed. It was the most serious economic depression in history until the Great Depression of ...

. It closed in 1894, the same year that the Methodist Episcopal Church incorporated Morningside College and took over the campus. Charles City College in

Charles City, Iowa Charles City is a city in and the county seat of Floyd County, Iowa, United States. Charles City is a significant commercial and transportation center for the area. U.S. Route 18 in Iowa, U.S. Routes 18 and U.S. Route 218, 218, Iowa Highway 14, ...

, was a German Methodist college that was absorbed into Morningside College in 1914.

Historic district

Part of the campus has been set aside in 1997 as a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

listed on the National Register of Historic Places. At the time of its nomination it contained 26 resources, which included nine

contributing buildings In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic dist ...

, one

contributing site In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

, five

contributing objects In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

, nine non-contributing buildings, and one non-contributing object. The focus of the district is a broad hilltop that overlooks the

Missouri River The Missouri River is a river in the Central United States, Central and Mountain states, Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Moun ...

valley. Charles City College Hall (1890), Lewis Hall (1900), the Vice President's House (pre-1914), Hickman-Johnson-Furrow Library (1914), Lillian Dimmitt House (1921), Dimmitt Residence Hall (1926), Jones Hall of Science (1948), Alice Gymnasium (1949), Roadman Hall (1953), and O'Donoghue Observatory (1953) are the contributing buildings. The contributing objects are The Spoonholder (1908), a curved cement bench with footpad and backrest; Class of 1922 Sundial; and the three Harmony Lane Lampposts. This is the largest concentration of educational buildings in Sioux City, and it also contains some of the best examples of

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

, and

Moderne architecture Moderne architecture, also sometimes referred to as Style Moderne, Art Moderne, or simply Moderne, Jazz Age Moderne, jazz modern or Jazz Style, describes certain styles of architecture popular from 1925 through the 1940s. It is closely related ...

in the city. The district is also linked to the Morningside neighborhood, which was developed as a

streetcar suburb A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...

. When the University of the Northwest was being developed, there was a conscious effort to pattern it and the neighborhood after

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

and

Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...

Athletics

The Morningside athletic teams are called the Mustangs (formerly known as the "Maroon Chiefs"). The university is a member of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for higher education, colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic schola ...

(NAIA), primarily competing in the

Great Plains Athletic Conference The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The conference was f ...

(GPAC) since the 2003–04 academic year. The Mustangs previously competed as an NAIA Independent during the 2002–03 school year; and in the defunct

North Central Conference The North Central Conference (NCC), also known as North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, was a college athletic conference which operated in the north central United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division II. History The NCC ...

(NCC) from 1922–2002, which was affiliated in the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environment ...

ranks. Morningside competes in 27 intercollegiate varsity sports: men's sports include baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming, tennis, track and field, volleyball and wrestling; women's sports include basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis, track and field and volleyball; and co-ed sports include cheerleading, dance and eSports.

Accomplishments

The Mustangs women's basketball team won back-to-back NAIA Division II National Championships in 2004 and 2005. They also won the National Championship in 2009 with an undefeated 38–0 record. Most recently, the Mustangs won the NAIA Division II Women's Basketball National Championship in 2015 with a 37–1 record. Morningside's Jake Stevenson won the NAIA Wrestling Championship in 2007, and John Sievert won the Championship in 2013. The football team was coached from 1948–1950 by

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...

coach George Allen. The

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, and 2021 Morningside Mustangs football teams had undefeated seasons and won NAIA national championships. The Morningside Mustangs dance team won their first national title in 2022. The dance team also set a national record for highest score at a dance nationals with a 92.31.

Student life

Morningside University is on a campus in the residential neighborhood of Morningside in Sioux City, Iowa. Student organizations include: student government, honor societies, service groups, religious organizations, musical ensembles, student publications, and three national fraternities (

Alpha Omicron Pi Alpha Omicron Pi (, AOII, Alpha O) is an international sorority founded on January 2, 1897, at Barnard College on the campus of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. The main archive URL iThe Baird's Manual Online Archive homepage "AO ...

women's sorority,

Delta Sigma Phi Delta Sigma Phi (), commonly known as Delta Sig, is a fraternities and sororities, fraternity established in 1899 at City College of New York, The City College of New York (CCNY). It was the first fraternity to be founded based on religious and e ...

fraternity, and

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

). The campus is also home to two nationally renowned music fraternities,

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (legally Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, colloquially known as Phi Mu Alpha, PMA, or simply Sinfonia) () is an American collegiate social Fraternities and sororities, fraternity for men with a special interest ...

(men's) and

Mu Phi Epsilon Mu Phi Epsilon () is a co-ed international professional music fraternity. It was established as a music sorority in 1903 at the Metropolitan College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio. has over 75,000 members in 227 collegiate chapters and 113 alumni ...

(co-ed nationally, but strictly women for this campus). Morningside's Department of Mass Communications has a weekly newspaper, the ''Collegian Reporter'', it shares a

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television broadcast programming, programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This ...

as MCTV, and operates a radio station 24 hours a day at 92.9 on the FM dial, KMSC, Fusion 93.

Residence halls

Dimmitt Hall is the third oldest building on campus. It was named for Lillian Dimmitt, the 26-year Dean of Women. Roadman Hall was built in the mid twentieth century. It houses about 150 students. The dormitory is named after Earl Roadman, president of the college from 1936 to 1956. In 2005, two apartment-style dormitories opened for upperclassmen, the Waitt and Poppen Halls. Lags Hall, a third apartment-style facility, was added in 2007.

Additions since 2005

In 2005, the Hickman Johnson Furrow Library was renovated and a central campus green space and new maintenance facilities were built for $26 million. The first addition came in the form of the central campus Hilker Green Space, which opened in 2007. The space is designed as a split-level area featuring the grand two-level Lieder Family Fountain. Walkways and a access path cut through the upper-lawn making their way by Lewis Hall connecting the Hickman Johnson Furrow Learning and Olsen Student Centers. Near Eppley Auditorium, the Buhler Outdoor Performance Center was built. A softball complex was added in Fall 2005.

Notable alumni

* Shirley Booz, dancer and model * George Everett "Bud" Day, a retired colonel in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

and recipient of the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

. *

Kory DeHaan Korwin Jay "Kory" DeHaan (born July 16, 1976) is a former Major League Baseball outfielder. He is an alumnus of Morningside University, Morningside College. Drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 7th round of the 1997 MLB amateur draft, DeHa ...

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

outfielder * Anthony Fieldings, football player * Ira N. Gabrielson, first director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service * Stanley L. Greigg, member of the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

from northwestern

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

* Matthew C. Harrison, 13th and current president of the

Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

* Daryl Hecht, Justice of the

Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a chief justice and six associate justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 ...

* Jerry Johnson, football player *

William G. Kirchner William George "Bill" Kirchner (December 12, 1916 – March 2, 1999) was an American businessman and politician. Kirchner was born in Plymouth County, Iowa and went to the public schools in Marcus, Iowa. He received his bachelor's degree from ...

, Minnesota state legislator * Gayle Knief, football player * Utu Abe Malae, Gubernatorial Candidate for

American Samoa American Samoa is an Territories of the United States, unincorporated and unorganized territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific Ocean. Centered on , it is southeast of the island count ...

. * Herb McMath, former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

defensive tackle *

Al McIntosh Alan Cunningham McIntosh (October 7, 1905 – July 23, 1979) was editor of the ''Rock County Star-Herald'' of Luverne, Minnesota. He was president of the Minnesota Newspaper Association in 1949. The association now recognizes individuals who hav ...

, editor who was featured in Ken Burns' ''The War'' *

Emory Parnell Emory Parnell (December 29, 1892 – June 22, 1979) was an American vaudeville performer and actor who appeared in over 250 films in his 36-year career. Early years Parnell was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. He spent eight months in the Arct ...

, actor *

Pauline Phillips Pauline Esther Phillips (born Friedman; July 4, 1918 – January 16, 2013), also known as Abigail Van Buren, was an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the well-known Dear Abby, ''Dear Abby'' newspaper column in 1956. It beca ...

and Eppie Lederer, identical twin sisters of the notable newspaper columns "

Dear Abby ''Dear Abby'' is an American advice column founded in 1956 by Pauline Phillips under the pen name "Abigail Van Buren" and carried on today by her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, who now owns the legal rights to the pen name. History According to Pau ...

" and "

Ask Ann Landers Ann Landers was a pen name created by ''Chicago Sun-Times'' advice columnist Ruth Crowley in 1943 and taken over by Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer in 1955. For 56 years, the ''Ask Ann Landers'' syndicated advice column was a regular featur ...

", are Morningside College alumni. Known as the "Friedman twins" during their time at Morningside, they wrote for the school's long-running newspaper, the ''Collegian Reporter'' * Cory Roberts, President, CEO, and Chairman of the board of Propath *

Harry E. Siman Harry E. Siman (September 20, 1869 in Winnebago City, Minnesota – November 6, 1958) was a member of the Nebraska State Senate. He graduated from New Lisbon High School in New Lisbon, Wisconsin in 1888. Later, Siman graduated from Morningside ...

, member of the Nebraska State Senate *

Trent Solsma Trent Solsma (born 1990s) is a former college football quarterback who played for the Morningside Mustangs. Early life and college career Trent Solsma was born in the 1990s in Dakota Dunes, South Dakota. He went to high school at Bishop Heela ...

, football player * Paul Splittorff, baseball player * Samuel A. Stouffer, sociologist * Harry Webber, football player * Brandon Wegher, football player * Carl O. Wegner, Minnesota state legislator

References

External links

*
Official athletics website
{{authority control Universities and colleges affiliated with the United Methodist Church Universities and colleges established in 1894 Education in Sioux City, Iowa 1894 establishments in Iowa Tourist attractions in Sioux City, Iowa Great Plains Athletic Conference schools Historic districts in Sioux City, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Woodbury County, Iowa University and college buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Private universities and colleges in Iowa