Our Story
A young university with deep roots
Founded 2024 in Tumble Falls, Oregon
Tumbleberry began with a simple idea from the people of the Ridgeline Mountains: students here deserved a public university close to home that was as bold as the landscape around it.
How Tumbleberry began
For decades, students from the Ridgeline region drove three hours or more to reach a four-year public university. In 2021, a coalition of families, teachers, tribal leaders, farmers and business owners began making the case for a university of their own.
The Oregon Legislature chartered Tumbleberry University in 2023. The name came from the wild berries that grow along the Tumble River, and from the community's hope that the university would grow the same way: hardy, generous and a little bit wild.
We welcomed our first students on August 19, 2024, at the very first Bear Camp. Many came straight from high school; many more transferred in from community colleges across the state, ready to finish what they had started.
Milestones
- 2021: A community campaignMore than 18,000 Ridgeline residents sign a petition calling for a public university.
- 2023: Charter and groundbreakingThe university is chartered and construction begins on Founders Hall and the Alder Science Center.
- August 2024: Doors openDr. Sofia Lindqvist becomes founding president and the first Bears arrive for Bear Camp.
- Spring 2025: First Berry SymposiumStudents share more than 90 research and creative projects in Larkspur Hall.
- Fall 2025: Evergreen Field Station opensA 600-acre research forest becomes home to the first Field Semester.
- May 2026: First CommencementOur first graduates, most of them transfer students, take part in the first Founders Toss.
New traditions, already beloved
Our first students started traditions that every Bear now shares. Bear Camp welcomes new students each August. The Summit Sunrise hike climbs to the ridge before dawn in the first week of classes. The Lantern Walk lights up Evergreen Grove each winter, Berry Harvest fills the campus farm each fall, and graduates toss their caps together at the Founders Toss.
Where we are today
Fall 2026
- 6,840UndergraduatesFrom 46 states and 31 countries.
- 64MajorsPlus 22 graduate programs across four colleges.
- 14:1Student-faculty ratioWith a median class size of 19.
- 2,300Acres of forestWith 41 miles of trail to explore.
The next chapter is yours to write
Visit Tumble Falls, walk the trails and meet the people building this university together.
