The university is organized into six constituent schools in arts and science, business, education, health professions, nursing, and pharmacy.

In the spring of 1881, the Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota districts of the LCMS decided to open a gymnasium in Milwaukee.

The resulting school was opened that September at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee.

Originally, graduates matriculated to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, for an additional four years of divinity studies, leading to ordination within the Lutheran Church.

Prior to the fall of 1964, the combination high school and junior college operated as a male-only institution.

In 1982, the former campus of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Mequon, Wisconsin, was purchased and now has become the permanent home of CUW.

[citation needed] CUW's enrollment makes it the largest Lutheran university in the United States.

[12] One of Concordia's tenured professors, Gregory Schulz, published an article criticizing the school for its use of terms such as "diversity", "equity", and "inclusion" in its search for a new president, among multiple other issues on campus which he collectively named "Woke dysphoria".

[14][15][16] Letters defending Schulz were sent to the university by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Academic Freedom Alliance.

[17] The university welcomed Harrison's visitation team, who gathered information from administration, faculty, staff, and students.

On May 9, 2022, a letter from Harrison to the Board of Regents called out issues such as breaches of bylaws, encroachment of secularism and Critical Race Theory, and general disregard for ecclesiastical authority.

[18] On June 12, 2022, the convention of the South Wisconsin District of the LCMS resolved to limit the power of members of the Board of Regents and to ensure their upholding of synod bylaws.

[20] On January 1, 2024, Schulz published the book Anatomy of an Implosion, which addressed the issue of "Woke Marxism in Lutheran Higher Education", in addition to dealing more specifically with the related matters at Concordia.

These "tunnels" connect all academic and residence halls on campus except for the Concordia Center for Environmental Stewardship.

The university and its 10 Concordia Centers are home to more than 7,900 undergraduate and graduate, traditional, as well as non-traditional students from 46 states and 34 countries.

Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, shooting, soccer, tennis, track & field and wrestling; women's sports include acrobatics and tumbling, basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, shooting, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field, volleyball, field hockey and wrestling.

[26][27] A pre-seminary student who came out as gay during his junior year was told by the university that he had no future in the Lutheran church (the LCMS does not ordain homosexual people as ministers).