University of the Ozarks
private university in Clarksville, Arkansas
University of the Ozarks (U of O) is a private university in Clarksville, Arkansas, United States. Enrollment averages around 900 students, representing 25 countries. U of O is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
History
University of the Ozarks traces its roots back to 1834, making it the oldest university in Arkansas and one of the oldest institutions of higher education west of the Mississippi River. It was founded by Cumberland Presbyterians in 1834 as Cane Hill School in Cane Hill, Arkansas in Washington County, later becoming Cane Hill College. Its successor, Arkansas Cumberland College, opened in Clarksville in September 1891. The name was changed to College of the Ozarks in 1920. The university alma mater was written in 1928 by Rev. John W. Laird, pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Rochester, New York.
In 1875, the university became the first institution of higher education in Arkansas to admit women.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “University of the Ozarks” is private university in Clarksville, Arkansas. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through University, Ozarks and private, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7896711. VIAF identifies the subject as 141016973. The Library of Congress control number is no95024512. Authority coordinates are 35.477, -93.467. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1834, 1891, 1920 and 1928.
Official terminology may obscure informal participation, dissent or communities documented only indirectly. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Three-step research path
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This entry incorporates text from “University of the Ozarks” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.