Lafayette College history

The college opened on May 1, 1829, with four students under the guidance of Rev.

Classes began on May 9, 1832, with instruction of 43 students in a rented farmhouse on the south bank of the Lehigh River.

In 1838 the college instituted one of the first teacher-training programs in the United States.

Junkin led to the latter man's resignation from the presidency in 1841.

The class of 1857, a close-knit group of 27 men, worked in secrecy to establish charters in national fraternities, thus founding the first Greek fraternities at Lafayette College.

Porter was moved by his conversation with Lafayette, who remembered Porter’s father and uncle who served with him at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777, according to The Biography of a College by David Bishop Skillman, Class of 1913.

In preparation for United States entry into the Great War, which had involved European nations from 1914, Lafayette announced that current students would be awarded their degrees in absentia if they enlisted or went to work for farms to support the war effort.

Lafayette remained a war camp until January 2, 1919, when the regular course of study was re-established there.

Though the college faced its own deficits during the Depression, it aided the larger community by offering a series of classes free to unemployed men beginning in 1932.

In 1967, in consideration of cultural changes that included women seeking more participation in society, faculty requested that a special committee be formed to discuss making Lafayette a co-educational institution.

In September 1970 Lafayette College welcomed its first official coeducational class with 146 women (123 freshmen, and 23 transfers).

In 2004, a report on religious life at Lafayette College was compiled, recommending a review of the college's formal relationship with the Presbyterian church.

In 2007, the college commemorated the 250th birthday of General Lafayette through a series of lectures and campus dedications.

On January 16, 2013, Doctor Alison R. Byerly was announced as Lafayette's 17th and first female President.

The Williams Arts Campus, completed in 2016 at a cost of more than $24 million, is the primary gateway between Lafayette’s main campus and the city’s downtown.

Opened and dedicated in September 2019, the Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center offers a signature space for the biology and computer science departments and environmental science and environmental studies programs.

The 165-bed, mixed-use McCartney Street residences opened in fall 2020, along with the neighboring Trolley Stop diner and the new College Store and Café, which are open to the public and campus community.

Nicole Hurd, the founder of the College Advising Corps, was announced as Byerly's successor as president on May 15, 2021.