History
The school was founded in Beaver, Pennsylvania in 1853 as Beaver Female Seminary. By 1872 it had attained collegiate status, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was named Beaver College. The school admitted men from 1872 to 1907, then again limited enrollment to women until 1972. In 1925 Beaver College moved east to Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. In 1928, the school acquired the current campus in Glenside. The college operated both the Jenkintown and Glenside campuses into the mid-1960s, when it consolidated all activities onto the Glenside campus.
In July 2001, upon attaining university status, Beaver College officially changed its name to Arcadia University. It was thought that a new name would emphasize the school's position as one of the top small institutions of higher learning on the East Coast, and would cement its change in designation from "college" to "university." The decision was also made in part to shed its association with the former commonly derided name. As then-president Bette Landman noted, " too often elicits ridicule in the form of derogatory remarks pertaining to the rodent, the TV show Leave It to Beaver and the vulgar reference to the female anatomy."
This decision resulted in Arcadia University being included as a question in the 20th anniversary edition of Trivial Pursuit. The question, in the news category, was: What Pennsylvania institution changed its name to Arcadia University in 2001, after web filters began blocking its old moniker? During the subsequent years, memorabilia from the former name became very popular for Arcadia students to give as gifts.
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—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)