Drury University

Welcome to Drury University! Our students expect -- and are expected -- to explore great ideas and confront questions that will successfully prepare them for dynamic careers and enhanced lives as active global citizens. A wealth of information and resources is available for new students to discover more about Drury.

Drury is a university that honors and effectively links liberal arts and sciences to the study of professional areas.

The Student Activities Office empowers Drury students to practice "Meaningful Involvement Every Day" with excellent, personalized co-curricular experiences that are based on a variety of topics, interests, and fields of study. With over 85% of Drury students involved, spanning nine different categories and over 80 organizations, there are ample opportunities to gain friends within similar interests, improve leadership skills, network with faculty and staff, and make your mark on Drury's campus.

Drury University offers master's degrees for today's working professionals. Each program features applied learning experiences, small classes sizes, outstanding faculty, and innovative curriculum to advance your career and knowledge. Program directors are happy to discuss how a Drury degree can support your goals.

Drury University welcomes students from around the world. Young men and women from 44 countries are studying at Drury and are here because of our financial value, strong academic reputation, and excellent location.Drury has been ranked by the U.S. News & World Report in the top 15 Midwestern universities and in the top four Midwestern "Great Schools at Great Prices" since 1999. Few universities match the outstanding instruction, fine facilities, personal services and successful placement of graduates for such reasonable tuition and fees.

Campus Recreation oversees the intramural program, D.Cycle/Gear Closet and the Barber Fitness Center at Drury University. Included in the management of the BFC is an organized fitness class schedule that is available free to Drury day students and eligible Drury employees.Roughly 50% of Drury students participate in collective Campus Recreation. The Office of Campus Recreation follows the mission statement of the Student Activities Office and strives to create a fun, safe experience for all students interested in active extra-curricular involvement.By providing students with high-quality, safe, and fun extracurricular activities, Campus Recreation encourages students to achieve the Drury Mission. Through positive student, campus and community involvement activities, students at Drury ultimately achieve an enhanced collegiate experience, and in doing so contribute as active participants in improving the global community.

Drury was founded in 1873 to offer an environment of strong academic discourse and intellectual achievement. Its founders, Congregationalist home missionaries, felt the need for an academically strong liberal arts college in Southwest Missouri. Drury was patterned after the Congregationalist liberal arts colleges of the North, institutions like Oberlin, Carleton, Dartmouth, Yale and Harvard. After much debate, Springfield was chosen over Neosho, Missouri as the college’s location. James and Charles Harwood of Springfield, the Reverend Nathan Morrison of Olivet, Michigan, and Samuel Drury of Otsego, Michigan joined to organize and endow what they initially named Springfield College.Samuel Drury’s financial gift of $25,000 was the largest, and the college was renamed for his recently deceased son. Reverend Morrison was chosen as president and rang the bell to begin classes on September 25, 1873.The early curriculum emphasized education, religion, and music. Students came to the college from a wide area, including western Oklahoma. In 1875, Drury celebrated its first graduating class of five students, all of whom were women.

Drury started small, in a single building. When classes begin in 1873, the campus occupied fewer than 1 ½ acres.Twenty-five years later, the campus had expanded to 40 acres, which included Stone Chapel, the President’s house, and three academic buildings. Today, there is a 90-acre campus that encompasses the original site.

Drury College became Drury University on January 1, 2000, reflecting its growing role in higher education. In addition to the established academic programs of early years, Drury students today study in the Breech School of Business Administration, the Hammons School of Architecture, and the Shewmaker Communication Center. They delve into diverse topics encompassing the humanities, the sciences, and the arts. Drury’s offered majors and minors have evolved throughout the years, growing to reflect society’s changing needs.

Drury was one of the first universities in Missouri to offer continuing education and evening classes to meet the needs of non-traditional students. Today, the College of Continuing Professional Studies serves nearly three thousand students in Springfield and throughout the region.At the university’s core remains unchanging commitment to preparing students to live and work in today’s world. Diversity, service to communities, and quality academics are benchmarks of a Drury education.

The two cannons that sit proudly in front of Pearsons and Burnham Halls are field pieces from the Civil War. The legend says that in 1885 or 1886, the governor of Missouri distributed several similar cannons to various counties for patriotic display. The two cannons sent to Greene County moved around from place to place for several years before Drury was chosen as a neutral location.

Soon after the cannons were moved to the college campus, one disappeared. For the years afterward, the remaining cannon stayed in its place in front of Pearsons Hall, occasionally used in parades and fired at patriotic celebrations. (It also occasionally had a way of going off right on the campus.) When boys from Springfield High School borrowed the cannon for a celebration in 1905, Drury's business manager gave them permission to keep it.However, Drury students took it upon themselves to reclaim the cannon and return it to its normal place. From then on, the cannon was mounted on a solid stone pedestal.