McKendree University

McKendree University (McK), formerly known as McKendree College, is a private liberal arts university in Lebanon, Illinois. Founded in 1828 as the Lebanon Seminary, it is the oldest college in Illinois. McKendree enrols approximately 2,300 undergraduates and nearly 700 graduate students representing 25 countries and 29 states. In the undergraduate program, on average there are 51% females and 49% males. The institution remains affiliated with the United Methodist Church. The school renamed McKendree University beginning with the 2007–08 academic year. McKendree University comprises a College of Arts and Science, a School of Business, a School of Health Professions, and a School of Education.

McKendree University confers degrees from four colleges and schools and offers over 50 undergraduate majors, 45 minors, and master's degrees in four areas: business administration, criminal justice, education, nursing, and clinical mental health counselling. McKendree also offers a doctoral program in education, with the opportunity for teachers and administrators to earn a specialist degree. The university is classified as Master's Colleges and Universities (Master's/L) by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

McKendree University athletic teams are called the Bearcats. The university is a member of NCAA Division II, after completing the transitioning process from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in July 2013. The university competed as an independent during the 2011–12 academic year before becoming a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) for the 2012–13 academic year as a provisional NCAA member.

 In addition to GLVC sponsored sports, McKendree also fields NCAA-sanctioned teams in women's bowling as an independent program and men's volleyball at the National Collegiate (Division I/II) level in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA). The women's bowling team won the 2017 NCAA National Collegiate Bowling Championship.

 They were runner-up in the 2018 event. The school also fields teams outside of the NCAA structure in two NCAA-sponsored sports and four non-NCAA sports. In the NCAA sports of men's ice hockey and women's lacrosse, McKendree is respectively a member of the ACHA Division II in the Mid-American Collegiate Hockey Association (MACHA) and the Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (WILA). The non-NCAA sports sponsored by McKendree are men's bowling, men's and women's powerlifting, and bass fishing (coeducational).