History & Traditions

From 1881 to 1910, the school at Livingston was under the direction of the noted educator and reformer Julia Tutwiler, who succeeded in getting a small appropriation from the State Legislature in 1883 to establish normal school training for girls at Livingston Female Academy. According to statements in the University archives, this is believed to be the first State appropriation in Alabama made exclusively for the education of women. The first normal school diplomas were granted in 1886.

Livingston Female Academy and State Normal College continued as a private institution with some State support until 1907, when the State assumed full control. However, it remained under its own board of trustees until the Legislature created a State Board of Trustees for all the normal schools in 1911. In 1919, this board was abolished and all state normal schools were placed under the supervision of the State Board of Education.

In 1929, the school at Livingston became State Teachers College, Livingston, Alabama, with the authority to confer the degree of Bachelor of Science. The Bachelor of Arts degree was authorized in 1947. Although the institution had begun accepting male students soon after 1900, the student body remained predominantly female through the 1950s.

In 1957, the name was again changed by an act of Legislature — this time to Livingston State College — and the following year, the mission of the institution was broadened when the Graduate Division was established and the College was authorized to confer master's degrees in the field of professional education.

In 1967, an act of the Legislature created Livingston University with its own Board of Trustees.

In 1995, the institution recognized its broader mission as a regional university serving the educational needs of all the citizens of the area by changing its name to the University of West Alabama.