The University of Pennsylvania is a private university located in the city of Philadelphia, in the United States of America. It’s regarded as one of the Ivy League schools, and it’s also the oldest college institution in the country. The campus was founded back in 1740. It was conceived as a charity school by Benjamin Franklin and other respected Philadelphians of the time.
The school evolved into an academy by 1751, with Benjamin Franklin still on board as the head of the first board of trustees. By 1755 the academy was turned into the College and Academy of Philadelphia. Ten years would go with until the campus managed its first ever landmark by starting the first medical school in America in 1765. The institution changed names once more to become a university, but it wasn’t refereed as such until 1779.
The Evolution of the University
The University of Philadelphia was initially a state-supported institution, and as such, the state had a lot of input in the curriculum. This was often perceived as something that could go against the interests of the city and their increasing development. By 1791 it the board of directors handled that particular matter by privately endowing and giving full control of the institution to the most notable and wealthiest citizens of Philadelphia. These days, the University still receives state support in the form of subsidies, but they get most of their income of the fees paid by a body of 25,000 students.
First Steps on Social Justice
The University of Philadelphia also has a special place in history because it was one of the first institutions in the country to admit women among their students. They started to attend classes and had rights as non-degree status up until the late 1870s. They were formally recognized as graduate students when the first-ever graduate program was created in 1882.
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They could only opt to be undergraduates on the Education faculty. By 1933 a College of Liberal Arts aimed at women was set in place in the campus. This allowed women to pursue degrees in other professions other than education. The university would remain halfway coeducational until 1974 when the all women degrees were fused under a new banner and renamed “School of Arts and Sciences.”
The Institutions of the Campus
These days the University of Philadelphia has four schools for undergraduates: the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Science, the Nursing School, and the Business School running the Wharton program. Students can opt for graduate or professional programs by these schools, or they can choose for other schools such as medicine, law, dental medicine, veterinary medicine, communication, fine arts, education, or social work. The University is one of the best grounds for research with the Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences, or the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies. There is also the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
