Bethune-Cookman University

Bethune-Cookman University is a private, historically Black university in Daytona Beach, Florida, affiliated with the United Methodist Church. It grew from the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Girls, which Mary McLeod Bethune opened in 1904 with its first students meeting in a private home. In 1923 the school merged with the Cookman Institute of Jacksonville, a school founded in 1872, and became coeducational. It became a junior college by 1931 and a four-year college in 1941, and awarded its first bachelor's degrees in elementary education in 1943. Bethune served as its president until 1942. It was called Bethune-Cookman College until 2007, when its trustees approved the present name. The university offers bachelor's and master's programs, belongs to the United Negro College Fund, competes in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and in 2023 admitted every applicant without requiring test scores.