For over two hundred years, VU was the only two-year university in Indiana, although baccalaureate degrees in seven select areas are now available and were available prior to 1889.

Father Jean Francois Rivet, former professor of Latin at the Royal College of Limoges, France, was the first headmaster of Jefferson Academy, with classes taking place in the main room of the church rectory.

That act established the Indiana-Illinois border not with reference to a landmark along Lake Michigan near Chicago, but rather via direct reference to Vincennes: "all that part of the Indiana Territory which lies west of the Wabash river, and a direct line drawn from the said Wabash river and Post Vincennes, due north to the territorial line between the United States and Canada".

The states of Indiana and Illinois partially abandoned their financial responsibility for the Territorial University after they had established their own separate public universities that did not present the legal complications of an institution whose legal control perhaps spanned the borders of at least two states and had been established by a defunct governmental entity.

Conversely, these complications also set the stage for VU's two-century long history with some of the most architecturally-significant early 19th-century buildings to be found at any two-year institution in the U.S.

The resulting lawsuit (Trustees for Vincennes University v Indiana, 1853) was eventually heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, who decided in VU's favor, based on its earlier decision in a similar case regarding Dartmouth College.

Writing for a national publication, reporter William Trombley characterized the "shotgun marriage" as something that was spoken of cautiously by officials at both institutions: "It was not our initiative," Vincennes President Phillip M. Summers said in an interview.

[2] Thomas Cooke, dean of instruction at the Ivy Tech Indianapolis campus, said "We have everything except the liberal arts degree ... And that could be easily accommodated within our present structure" (4).

The VU Trailblazers compete in baseball, bowling, golf, basketball, cross country, volleyball, and track and field.