He noticed that Seventh-day Adventist schools were opening all over the place without a plan for long-term success, and decided to encourage these new Adventist schools to consolidate into larger, regional institutions that would stand a better chance of survival.

In 1890, Prescott visited the Pacific Northwest and asked the three Adventist schools there to merge; and after overcoming local opposition, the Adventist schools in Coquille, Portland, and Milton, all in Oregon, agreed to merge.

Sutherland focused on following the counsels of Adventist prophetess Ellen G. White as closely as possible, and under his direction the school became the first to offer an exclusively vegetarian diet.

In 1895, the school became the first Adventist institution to allow a brass ensemble to play during church services.

Cady also stabilized the school's finances, which resulted in the college paying off its debt in 1909.

The first school gym opened when Kellogg retired in 1917; the current cafeteria building is named after him.

However, the college met opposition from the church over its pursuit of accreditation, and suspended its application.

In 1947, the university opened up the first school of engineering in the Seventh-day Adventist church, and the first physical education program started around the same time.

A second satellite campus was opened in 1954 at Rosario Beach in Anacortes, Washington, for the marine biology program.

The college also began to liberalize its rules, allowing its female students more freedom in how they dressed, and also hired its first full-time black professor.

Today enrollment fluctuates just under 2,000 students who are served by over 200 faculty and staff, across the university's five campuses.

The largest undergraduate programs are the nursing, engineering, business, biology, and education schools.

The city of College Place, Washington sprung up shortly after the founding of the campus in 1892 to support the students and workers of the university.

Opened in 1947, the campus includes a small dormitory for nursing students, named Hansen Hall.

[2][17][20] The department of Biology operates a 40-acre campus on Rosario Beach, next to Anacortes, Washington.

They have published the school yearbook, Mountain Ash, beginning in 1915 as the Western Collegian, and since 1917 under its current title.

The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) since the 2015–16 academic year.

[27] The Chaplain's Office of the university includes departments of Campus Ministries and Student Missions.

[4][28][29] Alumni of WWU include business people such as Jeri Ellsworth, Peter Adkison and Forrest Preston, ornithologist Pamela C. Rasmussen, ophthalmologist and Order of Canada recipient Howard Gimbel, theologian Alden Thompson, and former lieutenant governor of Guam Michael Cruz.