Villanova University history

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.

Father John Possidius O’Dwyer was named president, and the classes for the new college began on 18 September 1843.

The anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant “Know Nothing” riots in Philadelphia in 1844 resulted in the burning of Saint Augustine’s Church.

In March 1848, the governor of Pennsylvania incorporated the school and gave it the power to grant degrees.

Demands on the services of priests through the expansion of parishes in the area created staffing problems for the Augustinians, while the “Panic of 1857” brought on hard economic times.

In 1859, the first master's degree was conferred on a student.

The school remained closed throughout the Civil War and reopened in September 1865; since then it has operated continuously.

1867) distinguished himself as a promoter of Slavic traditions and was a founder of the Agricultural Society of Moravia.

One such project was a Victorian Gothic church, dedicated to St Thomas of Villanova, which began construction in 1883.

Perhaps the most notable member of the Brno monastery, however, was Gregor Mendel (d.1884) because of his unique contribution in discovering the laws of heredity.

Ten years later, in 1893, Villanova celebrated it’s “Golden Jubilee” fiftieth anniversary.

His work, however, was largely ignored until, in the spring of 1900, three botanists, Hugo de Vries (Holland), Carl Correns (Germany) and E. von Tschermak (Austria) reported independent verifications of Mendel’s work which amounted to a rediscovery of his first principle.

Villanova University's second degree-granting unit was the College of Engineering, which began in 1905 under the name of the School of Technology.

In 1915, a two-year pre-medical program was established to help students meet medical schools' new requirements.

In 1916, The Villanovan, Villanova’s student run newspaper, began its long history of printing only the most pressing and interesting stories for their classmates’ consideration.

Beginning in 1918, the College offered programs to women religious, in large part to assist in their preparation to teach in the parochial school system, and to lay women.

The Chemical Engineering program started in 1919.

The misfortunes of College (Tolentine) Hall that began with its introduction to the campus were amplified in 1928 when a fire spread throughout its construction.

The flames caused severe damage, but not enough damage to constitute a complete renovation, as it was rebuilt in 1929 within its original exterior walls.

Graduate-level programs began to be separately administered in 1931.

The first degree was granted to a lay woman in 1938.

In the fall of 1950, the University established, on campus, a Division of Nursing within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for part-time registered nursing students who wished to complete study for a bachelor’s degree.

Villanova achieved university status on November 18, 1953.

Harold Gill Reuschlein was appointed the first dean and in 1957, Garey Hall, designed especially for the law school, was opened and dedicated.

The move toward receiving women as full-time students on the main campus took another major step when the College of Engineering admitted its first female student in 1958 and the other academic divisions were allowed to admit women as commuters.

Full-scale university planning was initiated and, in an effort to affirm Villanova’s mission as a Catholic, Augustinian institution, the University Mission Statement was adopted in 1979.

Fuller also wrote the screenplay of the critically acclaimed film adaptation (A Soldier’s Story; 1984), for which he received an Academy Award nomination.

The College has maintained the Sigma Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa since 1986, an honor conferred primarily in recognition of outstanding scholarly achievement in the liberal arts and sciences.

An innovative new undergraduate curriculum, introduced in fall 2008, provides students with outstanding business knowledge and skills and an emphasis on the liberal arts in the Augustinian tradition.

He also penned the children’s book Snatch: The Adventures of David and Me in Old New York (2010).

In 2011, VSB’s undergraduate business program ranked #7 nationally, the part-time MBA program ranked #12 nationally, and the Executive MBA is recognized in Bloomberg Businessweek.