Affiliation with Hamline University

About Hamline University

Hamline is Minnesota’s first university, and among the first coeducational universities in the nation. It is the top-ranked private Minnesota university in its class according to U.S. News & World Report and ranked in the top 15 in the “Great Schools, Great Prices” category of the publication. Hamline offers 11 graduate degrees, including two doctoral degrees, and more than 40 major areas of study for undergraduate students. Hamline offers a College of Liberal Arts, School of Business, and School of Education. Hamline has a long tradition in legal education—its Legal Studies Department provides law-related education and extracurricular opportunities for undergraduates and post-baccalaureate paralegal students.

Hamline University is an intimate community of more than 4,000 students. Its undergraduate students come from 44 states and 34 countries, and its graduate students hail from nearly 39 different countries. More than 90% of full-time, undergraduate faculty hold a Ph.D. or the highest degree in their field. Hamline students are involved in more than 60 student organizations and 20 athletic teams. All students complete an internship, collaborative research, a service learning project, or field-based research.

Hamline’s campus is award-winningly beautiful and also boasts environmentally-friendly features like rain gardens, native flora, energy-efficient lighting. The university’s Anderson Center was built to LEED silver standards and features a green roof, solar panels, high performance glass and lighting, site-harvested wood, and recycled building materials.

Center for Justice and Law

The only United Methodist university in Minnesota, Hamline fosters a community ethic of social justice and civic responsibility. The university’s Center for Justice and Law works to advance justice by developing creative, concrete, and equitable solutions to legal issues and policy concerns through teaching, research, and active collaboration with community partners and policy makers.  The Center accomplishes its work by drawing on interdisciplinary synergies at Hamline to engage in:

• Active collaboration with community partners in finding solutions to contemporary problems and critical issues.
• Innovative teaching and professional development that draws on a broad array of disciplines to provide high-impact educational experiences and to connect students with community partners and pre-professional opportunities
• Transformative research and support of collaborative projects
• Public symposia that bring together national and local scholars and advocates

Learn more about Hamline’s Center for Justice and Law

Founding and history of Hamline University

Named in honor of Leonidas Lent Hamline, a Methodist bishop who donated the funds, Hamline’s first home was in the town of Red Wing in what was then the Territory of Minnesota. The first classes were held on the second floor of the village general store. Classes were in the second term when students moved into the Red Wing building in January 1856. Hamline graduated its first class in 1859: two sisters, who were not only Hamline’s first graduates, but also the first graduates of any college or university in Minnesota. The university’s Red Wing campus closed in 1869, and its Saint Paul campus, which remains its primary location today, opened in 1880. Hamline has since opened a West Metro location, as well, in St. Louis Park.

Learn more about Hamline University and its programs