By Nancy Robertson
The founding of Georgetown University as an academy in 1789 by John Carroll, later Archbishop Carroll of Baltimore, coincides with the birth of our nation. Carroll and the early Jesuits strove to nurture the Roman Catholic faith in a new land while engaging Jesuit pedagogy and formation to produce good and able citizens for the new country.
Carroll said he wanted to create a residential college for “students of every religious profession” on the hilltop property he had secured. When classes began in 1792, soon more than 40 students from as far away as the West Indies and from several different faith traditions were in attendance. Before his death in October 1815, Carroll and his Jesuit compatriots’ dream reached new heights when President James Madison signed Georgetown’s charter into law on March 1, 1815, allowing the institution to confer degrees.
The university continued its growth from an academy to a university in the following years, even in the face of Civil War. In 1876, astudent committee picked colors for the crew team, and over time the crew colors became the official school colors – blue and gray – in response to a newly reunited nation. Yet even before the Civil War, Georgetown was well on its way to becoming a full university. In 1820, Georgetown created its graduate school, now the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. It established a School of Medicine in 1851, and a law school in 1870. President Patrick F. Healy, S.J., (1873-1882) played a significant role in this process, dramatically reforming the university’s curriculum. He also began construction in 1877 of the towering Flemish Romanesque-style flagship building that now includes the Office of Campus Ministry, the largest of its kind in the nation. The building, Healy Hall, now serves as space for university leaders and classes and is home to historic Gaston Hall, where prominent speakers have appeared for more than a century.
From the late 1880s to the late 1890s, graduate courses in the arts and sciences were expanded and new facilities built for the law and medical schools. The university opened its School of Nursing in 1903 and its School of Foreign Service in 1919. Georgetown began constructing additional buildings, including student residences, in the 1920s; most of them were completed in the 1930s. By 1930, Georgetown had an enrollment of 2,600.
During World War II, the U.S. War Department designated Georgetown as one of a select number of universities to house the Army Specialized Training Program, and women were allowed to enroll in the School of Foreign Service. In the 1950s, Georgetown created its School of Business Administration and its summer school. Women were accepted to the College for the first time in 1969.
Students demonstrated against the Vietnam War in the 1970s, but by the end of that decade anger and discontent had been redirected into positive social action. Students began a tradition of spending their spring break helping underprivileged communities in D.C. and elsewhere. which Georgetown students continue this today.
The 1980s included the completion of Yates Field House, the opening of the Bunn Intercultural Center, new residence halls, and the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for students. The university celebrated its bicentennial year in 1988-1989 with President Ronald Reagan providing the opening address to kick off a yearlong celebration and a speech by Frank H.T. Rhodes, the president of Cornell University.
Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., gave a seminal speech that year at a conference at Georgetown called “Assembly ’89: Jesuit Ministry in Higher Education,” which brought together representatives of 28 American Jesuit colleges and universities and more than 800 Jesuits and colleagues from those institu tions. The conference led to a national seminar to continue the conversations that began at Georgetown, which in turn resulted in the first issue of this magazine in the spring of 1992.
President Ronald Reagan and Georgetown President Timothy Healy, S.J. Courtesy of Georgetown University
A “Salute to Georgetown” event that drew thousands of attendants included Reagan and entertainment by Bob Hope, Pearl Bailey (C’85), and Patrick Ewing (C’85), who had just helped clinch the NCAA Division I basketball championship.
Under the leadership of Rev. Timothy Healy, S.J., (1976-1989) and Rev. Leo O’Donovan, S.J., (1989-2001), Georgetown saw significant increases in the diversity of its students and faculty, and the number of faculty positions. In 2001, John J. DeGioia became Georgetown’s 48th and first lay president.
Georgetown is now a major international research university with 12,000 undergraduate and graduate students, nine schools, an affiliated hospital and many highly ranked academic programs. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education recently classified Georgetown as an institution with “very high research activity.” The largest employer in Washington, D.C., Georgetown continues to move forward as one of the world’s leading universities, building upon its distinctive history, unique values, and commitment to justice and the common good.
Nancy Robertson is the director of editorial services in the Office of Strategic Communications at Georgetown University.