Valparaiso University is an independent Lutheran university in Valparaiso, Indiana, operated since 1925 by the Lutheran University Association, a group of Lutheran clergy and laity who sought an academic institution not controlled by any single denomination. The university has never been owned or operated by a specific synod and maintains close relationships with both the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It traces its earlier roots to a Methodist-founded college established on the same site in 1859.