Come to the celebration that’s been 40 years in the making!

From its beginnings as just the dream of visionary leaders, the University of West Florida has always been a special place. Our story began September 25, 1967 with the enrollment of 1,422 junior, senior, and graduate students. At the time, some 500 students lived on campus and studied in cluster colleges named Alpha, Gamma and Omega on one campus north of Pensacola. A mere forty years later, about 10,000 students study at numerous locations across the Florida Panhandle, 1,500 call the main campus home by living in our residence halls and more than 58,000 students call UWF their alma mater.

Since 1967, UWF has become Northwest Florida’s university, meeting the educational needs of the communities it serves. But one thing remains unchanged—our steadfast commitment to the values of our Founders. We are a place committed to the success of our students. We are a place that values quality, caring, integrity, innovation, teamwork, stewardship, and courage. A place where the buildings have numbers and the students have names. A place that takes pride in the achievement of its graduates.

Whether you are an alumnus, past or present Board member, current student, faculty member, staff member, retiree, volunteer, friend, interested community member or just curious, I and the rest of the UWF family hope you will join us to celebrate our 40^th birthday. Whatever your connection to UWF, we want you to reconnect and reminisce about our past and dream with us about our future. Making educational dreams come true is what UWF has done for 40 years. But, in the words of that classic song, the best is yet to come.

I hope you’ll come and help us celebrate!