[6] Since becoming independent in 1990, La Sierra University has won multiple national and world titles in the Enactus (formerly Students in Free Enterprise) competition.

[8] La Sierra was founded in 1922 when the Southeastern California Conference, one of the regional governing bodies of the Adventist church, obtained 300 acres (120 ha) of land[9] in an unincorporated area of Riverside County from Willits J.

[19] In 1999, over 20 percent of the student body signed a petition criticizing the university's core curriculum due to its alleged lack of focus on the Bible, politically liberal leanings, and "subversive attacks on Christianity and monotheism".

[24] Concerned about the allegation, a campaign collected over 6,300 signatures to an online petition which called for Adventist universities to teach the Genesis creation narrative.

[26] La Sierra was accused of apostasy by the executive committee of the Michigan Conference, one of the church's regional governing bodies.

[24] In June 2011, three La Sierra University staff members resigned after a recording surfaced in which they were heard consuming alcohol and speaking critically of church officials.

[28][29][30][31] Later that year, the board of trustees voted in favor of a proposal stating "that creation be taught in university classrooms as faith, rather than science, and that students be told that it could not be proven with scientific methods."

The Frances E. Barnard Memorial Observatory is located behind the main La Sierra campus at the base of Mount Two-Bit.

[42] La Sierra University is composed of the College of Arts and Sciences,[43] Tom & Vi Zapara School of Business,[44] H.M.S.

[47] Lee Grismer, a biology professor at La Sierra, has been noted for discovering multiple species of geckos in Southeast Asia.

[60] Founded in the 1990s, Honors at La Sierra involves a general education package with courses that are discussion and project-based and designed to lead into one another.

The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) since the 2013–14 academic year.