1800s and 1900s Cedarville College was chartered in 1887 by the
New Light Reformed Presbyterian Church; at the time, the surrounding township was largely Presbyterian. The first classes were held in 1892, though the college did not officially open until 1894. David McKinney was the college's first president. After McKinney, Wilbert McChesney served as president from 1915 to 1940. McChesney guided the college during World War I and the Depression, and also served as professor of New Testament when the Reformed Presbyterian Seminary was located at Cedarville. In addition to his duties at Cedarville, McChesney served seven terms in the Ohio Legislature. Walter Smith Kilpatrick replaced McChesney in 1940 and served until 1943. He is the only alumnus of the college (1934) to serve as president, having graduated with honors. Kilpatrick's brief tenure faced financial challenges and the impact of World War II. He was forced to step down when he was convicted of sexual assault of a seven-year-old girl from Toledo in his hotel room, and received an indeterminate sentence in an Ohio penitentiary. Ira Vayhinger became the college's fourth president in 1943 and served until 1950. He had served as general secretary of the local
YMCA from 1911 to 1922. He joined Cedarville College in 1941 as finance director and business manager. As president, he guided the college through enrollment challenges and the difficult years of World War II. E. H. Miller was appointed president in 1950. During his tenure, in 1953, the college merged with the Baptist Bible Institute of Cleveland. Following the unanimous vote of both boards of trustees, the transfer of property occurred April 4, 1953. Miller's tenure as president ended in 1953. The Baptists were affiliated with the
General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Webster led the move from Cleveland to Cedarville and hired new faculty to complement the existing Baptist Bible Institute professors. Webster represented Cedarville at national and state conferences of the Regular Baptist Churches to promote the college. Paul H. Dixon became the eighth president of Cedarville College in 1978. During the 25 years that Dixon served as president, Cedarville constructed $100 million in facilities and expanded from 180 to 400 acres.
2000s In 2002, it became a university. In 2003, it became affiliated with the
State Convention of Baptists in Ohio. Enrollment increased from 1,185 students in 1978 to more than 3,000 by the end of Dixon's service in 2003. and Michael Pahl. As a result of ongoing problems, President Brown announced his resignation in October 2012. In January 2013,
Inside Higher Ed characterized the university as being in the midst of an "ongoing, tangled doctrinal controversy." Vice President for Student Life Carl Ruby resigned for undisclosed reasons in January 2013. Brown left his position as president in July 2013, instead becoming the university's chancellor, an office he held until July 2014. Thomas White became the 10th president of Cedarville in July 2013. Under White's leadership, the university completed an extensive renovation of the Jeremiah Chapel, built new science laboratories, established two additional graduate programs, and founded the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity. White claimed that his policies were in line with Cedarville's past values and Scripture, and were "not a new shift." In early 2014, White said that university was preparing to codify their
complementarian stance concerning gender roles and re-wrote the school's doctrinal statement to reflect the change. According to
100: Cedarville College, A Century of Commitment by J. Murray Murdoch, the first doctrinal statement adopted by then-Cedarville College made no mention of gender roles or complementarian theology. From 2010 to 2014, an independent student newspaper titled
The Ventriloquist was written by students and publicly distributed on campus without authorization. The publication often reported alternative perspectives about the institutional changes and had published LGBT-sympathetic content. In April 2014, President White and Vice President of Student Life Jon Wood confiscated copies of the newspaper as students waited outside the chapel to distribute it. According to
The Ventriloquist, White stated that permission was required to distribute the newspaper. After this incident,
The Ventriloquist was moved online, where new articles continued to be published for about a year. They later changed the policy title to the "Biblically Consistent Curriculum (BCC) Policy," after two veteran Bible professors objected to this interpretation and application of Philippians 4:8. The policy is still in place today, serving to regulate the literature, art, films, and other media that faculty are permitted to use in the classroom. The university's seal has remained essentially unchanged from the Presbyterians' original design and still contains the Latin phrase "
Pro Corona et Foedere Christi", which is translated, "For the crown and covenant of Christ". The original seal is surrounded with a slogan adopted by the former Baptist Bible Institute, "For the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ".
Controversies under President White Thomas White took office as president in July 2013, becoming the 10th president of Cedarville University. Under White's leadership, the university has completed an extensive renovation of the Jeremiah Chapel, built new science laboratories, established two additional graduate programs, and founded the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity. the publication had previously reported alternative perspectives about the institutional changes and published LGBT-sympathetic content. In 2018, the chair of the university's board of trustees and White's mentor,
Paige Patterson, was fired from his position at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) for covering up a sexual assault; he subsequently resigned from the board. In July 2020,
The Roys Report alleged that Thomas White and his wife, Joy White, aided in this cover-up during their time at the SWBTS. In recent years, students have also alleged that faculty and staff have failed to provide a safe environment for students, discouraged them from seeking help while experiencing suicidal ideation, and threatened retaliatory lawsuits against students for submitting
Title IX complaints. On May 1, 2020, Cedarville's board of trustees placed President White on administrative leave. The board stated that it had learned additional details regarding White's hiring and subsequent firing of an admitted sexual abuser.
Lieutenant General (Ret.) Loren Reno was appointed acting president. While White claimed he did not know the extent of Anthony Moore's predation, the Village Church of Fort Worth claims to have provided him with a complete testimony at the time of Moore's hiring. In June, the board reinstated White, leading to the resignation of Mark Vroegop and Danny Akin. Citing these controversies and high staff turnover, the Higher Learning Commission is conducting an assurance review into Cedarville University's accreditation status in 2020. ==National recognition==