Made in Tennessee College Tour: University of Memphis at Lambuth

"Lambuth, as you know, has deep roots in jackson-madison county.”

University of Memphis Lambuth is one of the oldest institutions in the Jackson-Madison county area.

It opened its doors in 1843 as a Methodist women’s college but has grown and changed many times since then.

The current iteration of the school has been running since its near closure in 2011. It’s almost a night and day difference.

For years, Lambuth university was known as a major liberal arts institution according to Niles Reddick, Dean of the Lambuth Campus, but now the school’s biggest programs are more suited for the area’s workforce needs, namely nursing.

“We started that program with twelve students in the first cohort. Today we have 150 students in the nursing program.”

While nursing may be the biggest program, the school’s music and entertainment is its loudest!

The program was a holdover from the original lambuth.

“It was built by some visionaries that did a wonderful job getting it started and then memphis came in and saw it and said ‘we kinda like it, lets see what it can do”

The program boasts only about 25 students and focuses on three areas of study, music, business and technology.

With the program being so small, it allows Tubbs and his students to be very immersed in their work.

“the students are active, they’re always active, they’re always involved, they’re always working on something. It’s never a pond here, they never just sit.”

While a lot has happened over the last eight years here at um lambuth. Their future is looking just as active, starting with some major renovations to Sprague Hall.”

“the plan is to renovate that building this year, after july first and what that will do will be to provide an expansion for nursing primarily.”

School officials say the university hopes to build enrollment to between 1700 and 2,00 students in the coming years.