Butler University is a private university in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university has over 60 major academic fields of study in six colleges: the Lacy School of Business, College of Communication, College of Education, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Jordan College of the Arts. Its campus is approximately from downtown Indianapolis. History On January 15, 1850, the Indiana General Assembly adopted Ovid Butler's proposed charter for a new Christian university in Indianapolis. After five years in development, the school opened on November 1, 1855, as North-Western Christian University at 13th Street and College Avenue on Indianapolis's near northside at the eastern edge of the present-day Old Northside Historic District. Attorney and university founder Ovid Butler provided the property. The university was founded by members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), although it was never controlled by the church. The university's charter called for "a non-sectarian institution free from the taint of slavery, offering instruction in every branch of liberal and professional education." The university was the first in Indiana and the third in the United States to admit both men and women. The university established the first professorship in English literature and the first Department of English in the state of Indiana. In 1869 Ovid Butler endowed the Demia Butler Chair of English Literature in honor of his daughter who died in 1867. Demia Butler was the first woman to graduate from the Classical course at the university. The chair was the first endowed position at an American university designated for a female professor. Catharine Merrill, was the first to occupy the Demia Butler Chair of English Literature in 1869. Merrill was just the second female university professor in the country. Today the Demia Butler Chair of English Literature is occupied by Susan Neville. The university moved to a new site in the community of Irvington, on the east side of Indianapolis, in 1875, and changed its name to Butler University in 1877. The university's department of religion became a separate Christian Church seminary and "college of applied Christianity" in 1924; it was variously called the School of Religion and the College of Religion. In 1930, Butler merged with the Teachers College of Indianapolis, founded by Eliza Cooper Blaker, creating the university's second college. The third college, the College of Business Administration, was