Type Private Endowment $4,900,000 Students 800 Acceptance rate 50.6% (2014) Phone +1 863-638-1431 | Established 1927 President Keith Wade Undergraduate tuition and fees 24,034 USD (2015) Total enrollment 758 (2010) | |
Motto "A Tradition in Business Education" Address 1201 N Scenic Hwy, Babson Park, FL 33827, USA Similar Warner University, Edward Waters College, Southeastern University, Ave Maria University, Florida Southern College Profiles | ||
Webber international university
Webber International University (commonly referred to as Webber or WIU) is a private institution of higher learning located in Babson Park, Florida, with a setting overlooking Crooked Lake.
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History
WIU was founded as Webber College by Roger Babson, an entrepreneur and business theorist in the first half of the 20th century.
Established in 1927 as the first private college chartered under Florida’s then new charitable and educational laws and one of the nation’s first business schools for women, Webber International University now hosts men and women from some 48 different nations.
Webber is recognized as one of only eleven Schools With a Specialty – Business, by the U.S. News & World Report America’s Best Colleges, a Best Southeastern College by The Princeton Review, and an America's Most Military Friendly College by GI Jobs. The SACS and IACBE accredited not-for-profit independent University offers degrees exclusively in the areas of business.
Degrees include accounting, computer information systems management, corporate communications, finance, hospitality and tourism management, management, marketing, pre-law, security management, and sport management (associate's and bachelor's levels) and MBA, MBA with an emphasis in Accounting, MBA with an emphasis in International Business, MBA with an emphasis in Security Management, and MBA with an emphasis in Sport Management (master's level) Courses are offered in traditional, night and weekend, and on-line formats.
Webber is home to a $750,000 sewage plant. In 2008 President Keith Wade sold the naming rights to the plant on eBay, raising $6,800 in the process. More recently, in 2010, Wade purchased a Skype booth to benefit the array of international students, with the naming rights also being sold on eBay. This raised $257 for the school.
In February 2011 WIU announced a merger with St. Andrews College in Laurinburg, North Carolina. In January 2014, WIU announced the acquisition of Virginia Intermont College in Bristol, Virginia. The attempted acquisition of Virginia Intermont was abandoned on April 15, 2014.
Academics
The university is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award degrees at the associates, bachelor's and master's levels.
Athletics
The university's athletic teams, known as the Warriors. Webber International is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and competes at the NAIA Division I level in The Sun Conference, formerly known as the Florida Sun Conference (FSC). The football team competes as an Independent under head coach Kelly Scott. The university fields 12 men's and 12 women's sports:
Bowling
With the backing of the world-famous Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Florida, Webber's bowling program has become one of the most successful in the United States. The men's program began in the 2008-2009 season, with a women's program added in the 2009-2010 season. The team has advanced to the national championship tournament in every season in program history.
The women's team won the 2010 intercollegiate team championship of the United States Bowling Congress (USBC), held in El Paso, Texas, in its first year as a program. The final was aired on ESPN2 on May 5, 2010. The women's team followed this feat by winning two more USBC national titles in 2012 and 2016.
In the 2010-2011 season, the men's team was ranked # 1 for the entire season by the Bowling Writers Association of America and the National Collegiate Bowling Coaches Association (NCBCA). However, at that year's intercollegiate championship tournament in Columbus, Georgia, the team lost to Fresno State in the finals, which later were aired on ESPN2. In 2012 the men's team bounced back to win the USBC national championship.
In 2009 in its first year as a program, the men's team finished as national semi-finalists, losing to the eventual national champion, Wichita State. Head Coach Slowinski was named the NCBCA National Coach of the Year in 2010, in addition to being a finalist in both 2009 and 2011.
Men's soccer
On October 27, 2010, the Warriors defeated local rivals Warner to win the Crooked Lake Cup and qualify for the 2010 Sun Conference regional tournament. Although the series was tied 2-2 on aggregate, Webber won the conference portion and therefore were awarded the trophy.