Lindenwood University

Lindenwood University, often referred to as Lindenwood or LU, is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university located in Saint Charles, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1827 by George Champlin Sibley and Mary Easton Sibley as The Linden Wood School for Girls, it is the second oldest higher-education institution west of the Mississippi River and since 1990 the fastest growing university in the Midwest.

Lindenwood offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees through nine colleges and schools and has current enrollment of 17,351 traditional and non-traditional students, including around 10,000 students at the main campus with over 4,500 living on-campus; a sister college in Belleville, Illinois known as LU–Belleville with around 2,600 students; and an additional 5,000 attending various distance learning facilities throughout Greater St. Louis. The 500-acre (202.3 ha) main academic and residential campus is located 24 miles (39 km) northwest of St. Louis, Missouri in St. Charles, the Daniel Boone historic site in Defiance, Missouri 26 miles (42 km) southwest of the St. Charles campus. As of 2012, Lindenwood was not ranked by the U.S. News & World Report as a regional university and ranked 527 out of 553 in the Masters category of The Washington Monthly's University Rankings.

Fielding athletic teams known as Lindenwood Lions, the university is in the process of transitioning athletics from the NAIA and member of the Heart of America Conference to NCAA Division II. The university is currently a provisional member of the NCAA and member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) as its primary conference. In addition, various other sports teams participate in other NCAA Division II sport conferences for sports that the MIAA does not sponsor. Although the university primarily plays in NCAA Division II, three sports play as Division I members at the National Collegiate level in certain sports: the women's ice hockey team plays in Division I and is a member of College Hockey America (CHA); Men's volleyball competes as a Division I team as member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA); and the women's gymnastics team will be competition in the 2012–13 academic year as Division I program with the Midwest Independent Conference (MIC). Lindenwood also sponsors a wide variety of sports not sponsored by the NCAA that compete in various other sport governing bodies and conferences. The Lindenwood athletic program is known for its success in roller hockey, men's and women's ice hockey, wrestling, and shooting sports. The football and basketball teams have also had recent successes in NAIA postseason play. The LU official school and athletic colors are black and gold.

The majority of Lindenwood's students are from Missouri, with out-of-state and foreign students accounting for 30% of undergraduate enrollment. The university offers a number of extracurricular activities to its students, including athletics, honor societies, clubs and student organizations, as well as fraternities and sororities. Alumni and former students have gone on to prominent careers in government, business, science, medicine, education, sports, and entertainment.

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