Carson–Newman University is a historically Baptist liberal arts college located in Jefferson City, Tennessee, United States. A new enrollment record of 2528 was set in August 2015. Studies are offered in approximately 90 different academic programs. The school holds overall institutional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Following a ten-year effort of five early East Tennessee Baptists, the school was established as Mossy Creek Missionary Baptist Seminary in 1851, the school began by holding classes in a local Baptist church. Within a few years the institution became Mossy Creek Baptist College and occupied its own buildings on the site of the present campus.