History
Founded by Virginia Baptists in 1830 as a manual labor institute for men wishing to become ministers, with instruction begun by the Rev. Edward Baptist, an 1813 graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the school was incorporated ten years later as Richmond College. During the American Civil War, the entire student body formed a regiment and joined the Confederate army. Richmond College's buildings were used as a hospital for Confederate troops and later as a Union barracks. The college invested all of its funds in Confederate war bonds, and the outcome of the war left it bankrupt. In 1866, James Thomas donated $5,000 to reopen the college. The T.C. Williams School of Law opened in 1870.
In 1894, the college elected Dr. Frederic W. Boatwright president. President Boatwright would serve for 51 years. He is most remembered for raising the funds needed to move the college in 1914 from its original downtown location to a new 350-acre campus in what is now Westhampton area of Richmond, and in doing so creating Westhampton College for women. The university's main library, Boatwright Memorial Library, is named in Boatwright's honor. Symbolically, the library and its soaring academic gothic tower occupy the highest spot on the grounds.
In conjunction with the move, a new college for women, Westhampton College, opened on the new campus. In 1949, the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business opened, followed by the School of Continuing Studies in 1962. In 1969, when financial issues threatened closing the university or turning it over to the Commonwealth of Virginia, E. Claiborne Robins Sr., a trustee and alumnus, donated $50 million to the university, the largest gift made to an institution of higher education at the time. In constant dollars, it remains among the largest. Robins' goal was to make Richmond one of the best private universities in the country. Today, the university's endowment totals approximately $1.87 billion and ranked 33rd among North American university endowments for fiscal year 2012.
During World War II, Richmond 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.
In 1987, a donation of $20 million by Robert S. Jepson, Jr. facilitated the opening of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. The school, which opened in 1992, was the first of its kind in the U.S.
In 1990, the academic missions of Richmond and Westhampton Colleges were combined to form the School of Arts and Sciences.
On October 15, 1992, candidates George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot came to campus for the first-ever "town hall" televised presidential debate, viewed by 200 million people worldwide. Addressing a crowd of nearly 9,000, President Obama visited the University of Richmond to present the American Jobs Act on September 11, 2011.
Edward L. Ayers, former dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, is the current president of the University of Richmond. Dr. Ayers was named the ninth president of the University of Richmond on November 10, 2006. He took office on July 1, 2007.
Read more about this topic: Gottwald Center For The Sciences
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