George Wythe University is a non-profit classical liberal arts school in Salt Lake City, Utah which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the liberal arts, education and political philosophy. GWU's curriculum borrows from the Great Books of the Western World published in 1952 by Britannica, and its methodology is based on the Socratic seminar and Oxford tutorial models. The school is named in honor of George Wythe, mentor to Thomas Jefferson. GWU is unaccredited.HistoryFoundingGeorge Wythe College was organized in 1992 as a subsidiary of the Institute for Constitutional Education with Donald N. Sills as president. The school opened that fall as a Utah branch of Coral Ridge Baptist University . Over the next several years the school awarded bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees across a range of subjects, including Finance, Youth and Family Counseling, History, Near Eastern Studies, Education, and Psychology. In 1997 a steering committee formalized the school’s comprehensive academic program, integrating the methodology, motto and mission into a cohesive liberal arts model which it called the Five Pillars of Statesmanship. In 1999, George Wythe Foundation was created to commence fundraising efforts, and by 2000 the college expanded its faculty and administration to include 13 employees plus support staff.Independence and growthIn January 2002, the college became independent from CRBU through a transfer of ownership to George Wythe Foundation. At this time the school realigned its policies and narrowed its degree programs to the four specific degrees that most closely matched its mission, namely: B.A in Statesmanship; M.A. degrees in Political Economy and Education; and a Ph.D in Constitutional Law. This notably reduced the religious emphasis that existed previously.
