In summer 1920, Harold K. Needham, D. W. Kerr, and W. C. Pierce opened Southern California Bible School, an institution intended to prepare Christian workers for the various ministries of the church. The school moved from Los Angeles to Pasadena in 1927, and was chartered by the state of California in 1939 to grant degrees. Given this new distinction, the former Southern California Bible School became Southern California Bible College, the first four-year institution of the Assemblies of God. In 1943 the college received recognition by the government for the training of military chaplains. It moved to the present campus in 1950, becoming the first four-year college in Orange County. Its name was changed to Southern California College nine years later when majors in the liberal arts were added to the curriculum. Regional accreditation and membership in the Western Association of Schools and Colleges were granted in 1964. In 1967 the college received recognition and approval of its teaching credential program from the California State Board of Education. In June 1983 the Graduate Studies Program received approval from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. A Degree Completion Program was started in 1994 for adult learners. On July 1, 1999, university status was achieved when Southern California College registered with the Secretary of State's Office as Vanguard University of Southern California. The university comprises the Undergraduate College and the School for Graduate and Professional Studies.
Campus
Vanguard is in Costa Mesa, California, centrally located in Orange County and about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Two graduate programs are housed nearby at a satellite campus in Santa Ana.
Organization and administration
In addition to its founding president, Harold K. Needham, Vanguard University of Southern California has had nine subsequent presidents: Daniel W. Kerr, Irvine J. Harrison, John B. Scott, O. Cope Budge, Emil A. Balliet, Wayne E. Kraiss, Murray W. Dempster, Carol Taylor, and Dr. Michael J. Beals, who took office on February 7, 2014.
Student life
Athletics
Vanguard University teams, nicknamed athletically as the Lions, are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, primarily competing in the Golden State Athletic Conference. Men's athletics has eight teams and women's athletics has nine. In 2014, Vanguard won the NAIA Division I men's basketball championship in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2008, the women's basketball team won the NAIA Division I National Championship in Jackson, Tennessee.
Athletic facilities
"The Pit" - men's and women's Basketball, Stunt, men's and women's Volleyball
In 2019, the school was ranked #43 in US News and World Reports' Western Regional Colleges ranking, and was named by The Princeton Review as one of its 124 “Best Western” Colleges. Vanguard was named in the 2012-13 list of Christian Colleges of Distinction and was 99th on the Forbeslist of best universities in the West.
