Abilene Christian University

Abilene Christian University (ACU) is a private Christian university in Abilene, Texas. It was founded in 1906 as Childers Classical Institute. ACU is one of the largest private universities in the Southwestern United States and has one of the 200 largest university endowments in the United States. It is affiliated with Churches of Christ. History The Churches of Christ in Abilene founded it as a Christian university for West Texas. Childers Classical Institute opened in the fall of 1906, with 25 students. It initially included a lower school starting in the seventh grade. When Jesse P. Sewell became president of the institute in 1912, the school began using Abilene Christian College on all its printed material. In 1920, the school formally changed the name. The Optimist, the university's student-produced newspaper, was founded in 1912. The Prickly Pear, the school yearbook, was founded in 1916. The campus literary-arts magazine (now The Shinnery Review, formerly The Pickwicker) has been in production since 1933.