Villanova University

<p>Villanova University, private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Villanova, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is affiliated with the Augustinian order of the Roman Catholic church. It offers degree programs at the associate, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral, and professional levels. Degrees are granted through colleges of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Commerce and Finance, Engineering, and Nursing and through the School of Law and the Graduate Studies program of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The university’s Falvey Memorial Library has special collections of illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, Augustiniana, and Irish and Irish-American history. Enrollment is approximately 10,000.</p>

<p>Villanova University began in Philadelphia with a foundation established at St. Augustine Church in 1796 and with the founding of St. Augustine Academy (for men) in 1811. In 1842 church officials established the Augustinian College of Villanova outside Philadelphia in a town that later took its name from the school. The college was named for St. Thomas of Villanova, a 16th-century bishop from Valencia, Spain. Classes began in 1843, but after St. Augustine Church was burned during anti-Catholic riots in 1844, officials were forced by financial constraints to close the college temporarily in 1845–46. The college received a state charter in 1848, and the first B.A. degrees were awarded in 1855. The college again closed in 1857 but reopened in 1865. To the original liberal arts curriculum was added engineering in 1905, science in 1915, and business in 1922. Graduate-level programs began to be separately administered in 1931. The college was elevated to university status in 1953, the year that the College of Nursing and the School of Law were formed. The school became coeducational in 1968.</p>

<p>Villanova University is a private Catholic university in Radnor Township, Pennsylvania. Named after Saint Thomas of Villanova, the university is the oldest Catholic university in Pennsylvania and the only Augustinian university in the United States.</p>

<p>Founded in 1842 by the Order of Saint Augustine, the university traces its roots to old Saint Augustine's Church, Philadelphia, which the Augustinian friars of the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova founded in 1796, and to its parish school, Saint Augustine's Academy, which was established in 1811. The school's identity remains deeply rooted in its Augustinian Catholic foundation—the majority of students are Catholic, the administration is led by priests, there is a cross on every building, and all students are required to take the Augustine and Culture Seminar (ACS) course their freshman year.</p>

<p>In October 1841, two Irish Augustinian friars from Saint Augustine's Church in Philadelphia purchased the 200-acre (81 ha) "Belle Air" estate in Radnor Township with the intention of starting a school. The school, which was called the "Augustinian College of Villanova", opened in 1842. However, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots of 1844 that burned Saint Augustine's Church in Philadelphia caused financial difficulties for the Augustinians, and the college was closed in February 1845. The college reopened in 1846 and graduated its first class in 1847. In March 1848, the governor of Pennsylvania incorporated the school and gave it the power to grant degrees. In 1859, the first master's degree was conferred on a student. In 1857, the school closed again as the demand for priests in Philadelphia prevented adequate staffing, and the crisis of the Panic of 1857 strained the school financially. The school remained closed throughout the Civil War and reopened in September 1865; since then it has operated continuously. Its prep department later moved to Malvern, a town along the Main Line, and is still run by the order.</p>

<p>The School of Technology was established in 1905. In 1915, a two-year pre-medical program was established to help students meet medical schools' new requirements. This led to a four-year pre-medical program, the B.S. in biology, and the founding of the sciences division in 1926.</p>

<p>Villanova was all-male until 1918, when the college began evening classes to educate nuns to teach in parochial schools. In 1938, a laywoman received a Villanova degree for the first time. It was not until the nursing school opened in 1953 that women permanently began attending Villanova full-time. In 1958, the College of Engineering admitted its first female student; other colleges admitted women only as commuters. Villanova University became fully coeducational in 1968.</p>

<p>During World War II, Villanova was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission. It has since graduated 25 US Naval Admirals and Marine Corps Generals, which is more than any other college or university with the exception of the Naval Academy in Annapolis.</p>

<p>After World War II, Villanova expanded, returning veterans swelling enrollments and the faculty growing fourfold. Additional facilities were built, and in 1953, the College of Nursing and the School of Law were established. Villanova achieved university status on November 18, 1953. Between 1954 and 1963, 10 new buildings were built or bought on land adjacent to the campus, including Bartley, Mendel, and Dougherty Halls.</p>