Jacksonville University

Jacksonville University is a private, not-for-profit university at 2800 University Blvd N in the Arlington area of Jacksonville, on the St. Johns River.

Its About page describes a campus in Jacksonville's historic Arlington neighborhood with a half-mile stretch along the St. Johns River and 17 Division I athletic teams. The page gives the campus size two ways: its Fast Facts list 260 acres, while another passage says 235 acres. Federal data from the National Center for Education Statistics College Navigator classify the campus setting as City: Large and report the enrollment figures below.

The two sources do not agree on every number: JU's own Fast Facts show the same 4,247 total but a 13:1 student-faculty ratio, against the federal 11 to 1.

It opened as a two-year college that held its first convocation on October 1, 1934 in a church education building in downtown Jacksonville.

The university's history timeline records Charter Day on April 16, 1934 and the first convocation in the third-floor auditorium of the First Baptist Educational Building. The JU catalog quotes the early aim: an opportunity for citizens of Jacksonville and vicinity to obtain a standard collegiate education without leaving the city.

The name changed within a year. In 1935 Porter University officially changes to Jacksonville Junior College (JJC), as the timeline puts it, and classes moved to Haddock Business University classrooms at 517 Laura Street. In 1936 the school occupied the entire second floor of the Florida Theater Building.

Riverside came next. In April 1944 the college moved to the Kay Mansion at 704 Riverside Avenue, the same year Dr. Garth H. Akridge was elected its first full-time, salaried president and the school colors changed from scarlet and white to green and white. On December 12, 1947, a student contest picked the name Green Dolphins over choices such as the Green Raiders, Green Marlins, Buccaneers and Juggernauts.

Returning World War II veterans swelled enrollment, and in 1947 the trustees commissioned a master plan for a new campus in suburban Arlington.

According to the university catalog, plans for another move were soon underway once veterans filled the Riverside classrooms, and in 1950 the college relocated to its present site in its first permanent structure, the Founders Building. Classes began on the Arlington campus on October 2, 1950, the JU timeline records, and on December 7, 1950 the junior college earned full accreditation from the Southern Association.

The early buildings came fast: Swisher Gymnasium in 1953, then the Nelms Science building and Swisher Auditorium, dedicated within a week of each other in April 1956. Carl S. Swisher had been elected chairman of the board of trustees on June 24, 1947. The timeline also records the first Homecoming banquet on November 23 and 24, 1951 at the George Washington Hotel, with Congressman Charles E. Bennett as the speaker.

Jacksonville University's own sources tie the change to the 1956 decision to become a four-year school, followed by accreditation as a four-year institution on December 7, 1961.

The JU catalog says that with the decision to expand into a four-year program in 1956, Jacksonville Junior College became Jacksonville University. The timeline adds that on February 27, 1958 the board approved a merger with the Jacksonville College of Music, that the College of Fine Arts was established in 1961, and that the first 4-year class of 100 graduates finished on June 6, 1959.

The early 1960s brought two moments the timeline keeps. On March 11, 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived on campus by helicopter and addressed students in Swisher Gym, and on May 9, 1963, JU became integrated by trustee vote. The College of Arts and Sciences followed in May 1967 and the College of Business in 1979.

Basketball put the Arlington school on the national stage. On March 21, 1970, led by Artis Gilmore, the men's team advanced to the 1970 NCAA Championship game, and Gilmore later received an honorary doctorate on Artis Gilmore Day, September 9, 1983. On April 9, 1980, Dr. Frances B. Kinne was inaugurated as the seventh president; the timeline says she was also the first woman president in the state of Florida and the second in the nation. A Naval ROTC unit was established on September 21, 1971, and the Division of Aeronautics was created in 1983.

The St. Johns River frontage anchors the Arlington campus, and JU built a Marine Science Research Institute on the riverbank starting in 2009.

On February 27, 2009, JU broke ground on a $10 million, 30,000-square-foot Marine Science Research Institute on the river bank, the timeline says. The institute houses the St. Johns Riverkeeper, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Northeastern Fisheries Laboratory and the Millar Wilson Laboratory for Environmental Chemistry, and its research centers on the St. Johns River, the adjacent wetlands and nearby Atlantic coastal waters.

The Arlington campus kept building through the late 20th century. A Davis gift of $3.5 million came in December 1983; the University Center was dedicated to Frances Kinne on September 5, 1990; groundbreakings for the Reid Science Building and Terry Concert Hall followed on April 19, 1991; and in 1997 a $1.5 million cafe opened in the Kinne Center along with a visual arts annex and new JU apartments. JU football's first game, on September 12, 1998, was a 19 to 14 win against Davidson before more than 5,000 fans.

Rowing and sailing use the same water in Arlington: the Negaard Rowing Center opened on October 13, 2007 and a varsity sailing team was established in 2012.

JU returned to Downtown Jacksonville, first with a Laura Street center in 2017 and then with a College of Law, and changed presidents in July 2026.

The catalog says JU established Jacksonville University Downtown at 76 S. Laura Street in fall 2017. The timeline records that on February 28, 2022 the university announced its fifth college, the College of Law. The College of Law page lists provisional accreditation by the American Bar Association on February 23, 2024, a ribbon cutting on August 26, 2024 for a 50,000-square-foot home in the historic former Atlantic Bank building, an inaugural graduation at the Duval County Courthouse on May 2, 2025, and a fifth and largest class of 110 students starting in August 2026.

In October 2025 Jacksonville University announced that President Tim Cost will become Chancellor in summer 2026 after 14 years as president, focusing on partnerships, fundraising, alumni, community and government relations. The board named Dr. Lisa Sutherland Interim President, effective July 1, 2026, and said it planned a national search in spring 2026 for a permanent president. The Office of the President page was under construction during the leadership transitions on October 18, 2026 and links an interim president's biography, Chancellor Cost's biography and a presidential search page; the About page still named Tim Cost as president that day.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, by re-reading Jacksonville University's history timeline, catalog history, About, College of Law, Marine Science Research Institute and Office of the President pages, its two October 2025 leadership releases, and the NCES College Navigator profile.