[3] This resulted in an Educational Convention that met on April 10, 187,4 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee at the former campus of Union University.

[3] The Tennessee General Assembly issued a charter for a new school, Southwestern Baptist University, in June 1875.

From 1987 to 1995, Union offered the degree-completion program leading to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN track) in Memphis.

Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, FEMA Director R. David Paulison and Governor of Tennessee Phil Bredesen all visited the campus after the disaster.

The university also expected that around 200 students would be housed in the private homes of Union faculty, staff, and friends.

[16] The campus is 290 acres (1.2 km2) and includes a 2,200-seat gymnasium, dormitories for men and women including a married housing complex, separate lodges for the fraternities and sororities, academic halls, an administration center, baseball and softball parks, two soccer fields, and wellness center.

[17] Union also has a 35-acre (140,000 m2) campus in Germantown, Tennessee, (suburban Memphis) offering graduate degrees in business, education, Christian studies & nursing.

The university is a member of the NCAA Division II level, primarily competing in the Gulf South Conference (GSC) since the 2012–13 academic year.

They were also a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA), primarily competing as an independent in the Mid-East Region of the Division I level.

Union began the three-year transition to full NCAA Division II membership in 2011.

Union also has won national titles in the NCCAA in volleyball (2003), men's soccer (2004), softball (2001, 2002, 2004, 2013) and women's basketball (2014).

The fraternities and sororities are an active presence on campus through philanthropy, intramural sports, and Greek Olympics.

[22] The school has a code of conduct that prohibits among other things, homosexual behavior and advocacy, as well as premarital sex and alcohol.

[22] In 2008, Union denied access to the Soulforce Equality Ride, an effort to fight discrimination against gay people.

[27] In 2020, the school rescinded an admissions offer to a gay graduate-level nursing student, Alex Duron, after investigating his sexual orientation.

[22] Duron subsequently joined an unsuccessful lawsuit, Elizabeth Hunter, et al. v. U.S. Department of Education, seeking to end discrimination against LGBTQ+ students at publicly funded religious colleges and universities.

[25] Union University president Dub Oliver defended the school's actions by pointing to the college's religious exemption from the prohibitions on discrimination in Title IX, which it had applied for and received from the U.S. Department of Education, and to the college's statement of principles, which all students agree to follow.

[28] Union's Scholarship Banquet has brought prominent national and international figures to Union including former presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Russian president and Nobel Prize winner Mikhail Gorbachev, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Senator Bob Dole, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, former British Prime Minister John Major, Tony Blair, and Winston S. Churchill, Grandson of the former British Prime Minister.

[29] Union's Forum is an annual speaker series that has brought several national figures to Union, including Peggy Wehmeyer, William Kristol, Michael Medved, Robert Novak, Stephen Carter, Morton Kondracke, Clarence Page, Juan Williams, and Margaret Carlson.