Timeline
1879-1886
- 1879 - Abraham H. Harritt named President
- 1882 - Thomas Clay Poynter named President
- 1884 - Hartford P. Grider named President
1886-1897
- 1886 - George H. Dains named Acting President
- October 25, 1886 - Daniel Stevenson purchases Union College for the Kentucky Methodist Conference
- 1888 - Daniel Stevenson named President
- 1893 - First degrees are awarded
- 1890 - The Main College building is completed
- 1896 – The president’s home, known as Campus Cottage, is completed
1897-1905
- 1897 - James P. Faulkner named President
- 1898 - James P. Faulkner organizes the first college library
- 1900 - Total enrollment reaches 184
- June 7, 1897 - President Faulkner starts the process of building a women’s dormitory
1905-1910
- January 1, 1905 – Speed Hall is completed and ready for occupancy
- 1905 - James W. Easley named President
- 1905-1906 – Two baccalaureate degrees, Ph.B. and B.S., are offered in addition to the classical A.B.
- 1905- 1906 – Athletic teams are established: football, women’s basketball, men’s basketball and baseball
- 1905 - Heating plant is completed
- January 1906 - Plans announced for Stevenson Hall, men’s dormitory
- August 24, 1906 – Great fire results in burning of administrative building
- 1907-1908 – College curriculum is discontinued and Union reverts to a college preparatory school
- June 29, 1907 – Cornerstone is laid for new administration building
- 1910 - James D. Black named President
- Percy L. Potts, 1912-1914
1910-1912
- 1911-1912 – The field of domestic science is introduced, with the understanding that it would continue only if tuition could sufficiently maintain it
- 1911- First athletic team goes “on the road” when the baseball team begins travelling
1912-1915
- 1912 - Percy L. Ports named President
- September 3, 1913 - The Methodist Board tries to close the school, but citizens of Barbourville vow to keep it open for one more year
- 1914-1915 - The Methodist Board resumes responsibility of the school
- 1914 - Emery R. Overley (Nominal Head) and B.C. Lewis (Vice President & Business Manager) Joint Management
1915-1928
- 1915 - Ezra T. Franklin named President
- 1917- First 6 grades are eliminated
- May 28, 1918 – Union secures its first athletic field
- May 28, 1919 – Ground is broken for the first gymnasium, completed in the fall of 1920
- Spring 1919 - Union confers its first degree since 1908 to Samuel P. Franklin
- April 1922 – First board of trustees is appointed
- 1923 – Grades 7 and 8 are dropped
- 1925 – Union becomes fully accredited to issue teaching certificates
- 1926 – Grade 9 is dropped, and Union admits only college students
- 1928 – Union College gained admission to membership in the Association of Colleges and Universities of Kentucky
1929-1938
- 1929 - John Owen Gross named President
- May 25-May 29, 1929 – Union hosts a 50th Anniversary Jubilee Celebration
- 1929-1930 – Physical education courses are first offered
- 1929 – The tennis team defeats University of Kentucky and wins the Sutcliffe Cup for the third straight year
- 1929 – First “Stespean” yearbook is issued
- 1930 – Union’s baseball team goes undefeated
- 1931 – The baseball team is dropped from Union athletics
- September 25, 1931 – Union loses its first game of night football to Lincoln Memorial University, 13-12
- November 7, 1931 – Founders Memorial Gateway is dedicated
- 1931-1932 – A Bachelor of Science in Education degree is offered for the first time
- December 1, 1932 – Union joins the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States
- December 1932 – Union is admitted into the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
- February 1933 – The student newspaper, “The Orange and Black,” is first published
- 1934 – Union defeats University of Louisville in football, 32-6, and goes undefeated the rest of the season
- October 23, 1933 - Founders’ Week is established, to be celebrated every year in October
- 1934 – Biology labs are newly equipped
- 1935 – Five new clubs are formed: History, Journalism, Science, Education and Vocational Guidance
- May 26, 1936 – Honorary scholastic fraternity Iota Sigma Nu is established
- March 6, 1937 – Alpha Psi Omega, a national honorary dramatic society, presents a charter to the new Zeta Chi cast at Union
1938-1959
- 1938 - Conway Boatman named President
- November 9, 1940 – Abigail E. Weeks Memorial Library is dedicated in conjunction with Founders’ Day and homecoming
- January 13, 1941 – Abigail E. Weeks Memorial Library officially opens
- January 30, 1943 – Pfeiffer Hall officially opens as the new women’s dormitory, replacing Speed Hall.
- September 1944 – “Union College News” is published for the first time
- November 1944 – Mrs. Catherine Faulkner Singer edits the first alumni newsletter, which is four pages long
- June 1945 – Nine of the original 113 students enrolled in the class of ’45 earn their degrees because of World War II
- May 1948 – Union participates in its first Daniel Boone Festival
- May 16, 1948 – Union College inaugurates its new $28,000 track by winning a tri-college meet against Berea and Georgetown
- May 31, 1949 – Conway Boatman Chapel is first used in an unfinished state for commencement exercises
- 1952 – “Union College Alumni Newsletter” becomes the “Union College Alumnus”
- Spring of 1952- The Union College a cappella choir makes its debut on television over WKRC-TV, Cincinnati, Ohio
- February 16, 1954 – Board of trustees declares “…that negroes should [be] and are now permitted to enter Union College as day students…”
- 1954 – Union College celebrates its 75th anniversary with the Diamond Jubilee
- October 1954 - College Courts, married housing, opens
- May 1956 - 'B' and 'C' wings of Stevenson Hall were occupied
- September 1956 - Swimming pool is completed
1959-1982
- 1959 - Mahlon A. Miller named President
- March 1960 - Renovations for Baldwin Place, President's residence, completed
- 1960 - Additional wing to Pfeiffer Hall added
- 1960 - College Park, faculty staff housing development, created
- 1960 - Graduate Program began operations
- 1963 - Twelve lane bowling alley built next to what was to become Lakside Hall
- 1964 - Addition to College Courts completed
- 1964 - Lakeside Hall, mens residence hall, is occupied
- 1964 - Student Center opened
- 1969 - Appalachian Semester instituted
- November 1964 - Physical Education Building completed
- 1970 - Environmental Education Center maintained by Union
- 1970 - The "Maze" coffee house opens in the basement of the DAC
- 1973 - Mahlon Miller Science Center is dedicated
1982-2000
- 1983 - Jack Phillips named President
- 1984 - Football returns after 43 year absence
- 1986 - ROTC is instituted
- 1987 - Milton H. Townsend Memorial Annex is completed
- 1990 - Soldiers and Sailors (fomerly the DAC) is reopend as an intramural center
- 1991 - Myrtle Cole Minton Cafeteria and Francis Patridge Student Center is dedicated
- 1991 - Phillips Athletic Fields and Sports Complex are dedicated
- 1996 - David Joyce Named President
- 1997 - Turner Outdoor Center established
- 1998 - Bonner Scholars Program initiated
- 1999 - William and Lou Lyttle Stewat Aparments completed
- 1999 - Ramsey Carriageway and Legacy Walk established
- 2000 - Sharp Academic Center Completed; Speed Hall renovation completed
2000-2012
- October 20, 2001—Ground is broken for the Edward H. Black Technology Center, completed in 2002
- 2003 - Edward de Rosset named President
- 2007 - Geothermal energy conservation project completed
- 2011 - Thomas McFarland named President
- December 2011 - Stivers Wellness Center is dedicated
- Spring 2012 - Renovations of Old Knox County Hospital and Miller Science Center (now Miller Hall) begin
- April 14, 2012—Dr. Marcia Hawkins is named as Union's 19th president
- July 1, 2012—Dr. Hawkins begins presidential duties
