Union University is a private Baptist Christian university in Jackson, Tennessee, with additional campuses in Germantown and Hendersonville. The university is affiliated with the Tennessee Baptist Convention (Southern Baptist Convention). It is a union of several different schools: West Tennessee College, formerly known as Jackson Male Academy; Union University of Murfreesboro; Southwestern Baptist University; and Hall-Moody Junior College of Martin, Tennessee. History Early history Jackson Male Academy was founded in 1823 just after West Tennessee was opened for settlement. Only five years earlier in 1818 was the land purchased from the Chickasaw Indians. Union University was established in 1875 in a consolidation of Southwestern Baptist College at Murfreesboro and West Tennessee College at Jackson. In 1907, Dr. T.T. Eaton, a trustee of Southwestern Baptist University, left his 6,000 volume library to the college. Eaton was a former professor of Union University at Murfreesboro, where his father, Dr. Joseph H. Eaton, was a former president. Later that year Southwestern changed its name to Union University to honor the Eatons and others from Union at Murfreesboro who had impacted Southwestern as faculty, administrators, trustees, and contributors. In 1925 the Tennessee Baptist Convention secured a charter that vested the rights, authority, and property of Union University in the Tennessee Convention. This charter included the election of the university's trustees. Two years later, the Convention consolidated Hall-Moody Junior College at Martin (1900–1927) with Union University; the former Hall-Moody campus subsequently became the location of the University of Tennessee Junior College, now the University of Tennessee at Martin. In 1948 the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools granted Union University accreditation. In 1962 Union developed a nursing program with the assistance of Jackson-Madison County General Hospital at the request of local physicians. In 1975 Union moved from downtown Jackson, Tennessee, to a new campus located near the Highway 45-Bypass in north Jackson. The Craig and Barefoot Administrations During President Robert Craig (1967–85) and President Hyran Barefoot's (1987–1996) administrations: enrollment increased from fewer than 1,000 students to more than 2,000; the Penick Academic Complex was enlarged several times; additional housing units were erected; and the Blasingame Academic Complex (1986) and the Hyran E. Barefoot Student Union Building (1994) were constructed. From the early 1950s to the early 1970s, Union operated an Extension Center in the Memphis area. From 1987 to 1995, Union offered the degree-completion program leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to