Oakwood University is a private, historically black Seventh-day Adventist university in Huntsville, Alabama. It is the only HBCU owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Oakwood University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Department of Education of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (through the Adventist Accrediting Association) to award associate, baccalaureate, and master's degrees. Oakwood University owns and operates the Christian radio station WJOU 90.1 FM, formerly WOCG. Oakwood University is the only ISO 9001 certified HBCU in the United States. In 2014, it became the first HBCU to offer a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). In 2018, the U.S. Senate recognized Oakwood University for being the fifth leading producer of African-American applicants to U.S. medical schools. That same year, the university became the first academic institution to receive the 2018 Crystal Apple Award from the Partnership for a Healthier America for its campus wellness initiatives. History Early years Oakwood University has its origins in the post-Civil and post-slavery effort to fund higher education for African-Americans who had been freed in the South. In response to the counsel of SDA Church co-founder Ellen G. White, a committee was appointed by the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to buy property and create a school that offers vocational education and spiritual direction to African-American students. In January 1896, the committee bought a former plantation for $6,700. That same year, Oakwood University was founded as Oakwood Industrial School in Huntsville, Alabama, under the authority of the General Conference. Named for the oak trees surrounding it and the white SDA Church leaders' belief that industrial work is fitting for southern African-Americans, students were initially required to work in industrial positions on-campus to pay for their tuition. Their jobs included machine shop and farm work for male students and print shop, laundry and tailor shop work for female students. Classes commenced in November 1896 with 16 students enrolled. Solon Marquis Jacobs served as the school's first principal beginning in 1896, and in 1917, James Irving Beardsley was appointed the first president. By that same year, the school offered a theology program as well as a programs for various trades, such as farming, teaching, masonry and pre-nursing. Prior to 1917, the school was renamed Huntsville Training School and Oakwood Manual Training School before it became Oakwood Junior College. Social activism In 1931, after years of