Overview
Drew University 's highest priority is academic excellence. With that priority as its mission, Drew has focused on three aspects of learning to promote academic excellence in its students and faculty. Under the leadership of Drew's eleventh president, Robert Weisbuch, the University is devoting itself to maintaining the highest quality of teaching and learning, to the use of technology in gaining access to knowledge and interpreting it, and to an awareness of the global contexts of knowledge. In these areas, Drew seeks to be a national leader.
Drew faculty, administrators, students, staff, and alumni are committed to creating the special conditions that make Drew's mission attainable. They realize that the university must foster a genuine community of learners who challenge and support each other for growth and responsible citizenship. Thus, the university is dedicated to sustaining an on-campus community that is characterized by diversity, respect for differences, and a lively engagement with contemporary issues and concerns.
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University History
Established as Drew Theological Seminary in 1867 when classes were first offered, Drew University 's charter from the state of New Jersey dates from February 12, 1868. Born with a pledge of financial support from New York financier Daniel Drew, the seminary was located on a portion of the William Gibbons estate, known then and now as The Forest. The seminary was the first in America to operate entirely on the graduate level.
Drew's first president, John McClintock, took office in 1867 and served until his death in 1870. He was succeeded by Randolph Sinks Foster, a faculty member, who held the position until he was elected Methodist bishop in 1872. Another faculty member, John Fletcher Hurst, assumed the presidency following Foster's departure and served as president until 1880 when he, too, became a bishop and left Drew. His successor was Henry Anson Buttz who served until 1912.
The tenure of Ezra Squier Tipple extended from 1912 to 1929 and was a time of change for the seminary. The most significant was the addition of the College of Liberal Arts, which was endowed by brothers Leonard D. and Arthur J. Baldwin. In recognition of their generous gift, the trustees, on February 7, 1928, changed the name to Drew University. The college building was erected, named Brothers College after the Baldwins, and opened that fall with a first-year class of 12.
Arlo Ayres Brown, who since 1921 had been president of the University of Chattanooga, became Drew's sixth president in 1929. He was inaugurated on October 17, 1929, just days before the collapse of world stock markets and the onset of the Great Depression. The new president proved to be a superb administrator, who was to lead Drew through not only the Depression, but also World War II. In one of the first acts of his presidency, he created a committee to study the Master of Arts and doctoral programs at Drew. The results of its report led eventually to establishment of the Graduate School. During Brown's term the University's enrollment grew, the Rose Memorial Library was completed, and the College became coeducational.
Brown was succeeded in 1948 by the dean of the seminary, Fred Garrigus Holloway, who had come to Drew from Western Maryland College/Westminster Seminary. A minister of the former Methodist Protestant Church, he brought with him a bountiful sense of humor and a thorough knowledge of the Greek New Testament. A devotee of Emily Dickinson, Holloway advanced graduate study in the humanities at Drew. His strong academic leadership led to the foundation of the Graduate School in 1955, under the deanship of Stanley Romaine Hopper.
In 1960, Holloway reluctantly left Drew to be consecrated a bishop in the Methodist Church. The search that followed settled upon Robert Fisher Oxnam, president of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y., to be eighth president of the University and the first person not in Holy Orders to occupy the post. During his presidency a revised charter for the University was approved by the New Jersey legislature. Revised bylaws were also adopted. The changes enabled Drew to open trustee nominations and elections to members of any faith, in lieu of the strict Methodist requirements of the past.
Paul Hardin, former president of Southern Methodist University, was appointed the ninth president of Drew in 1975. During his administration, Drew achieved a number of distinctions. A chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was granted to the University in 1980. The William Kenan and the Donald and Winifred Baldwin professorships were added to the University's endowment. In the early 1980s, the campus added the United Methodist Archives and History Center, a new Learning Center, and the Charles A. Dana Research Institute for Scientists Emeriti (RISE), and completed a $2.2 million renovation of Rose Memorial Library.
In 1984, Drew introduced the Computer Initiative in the College of Liberal Arts and became the first major liberal arts college in the nation to issue computers to new students as part of their regular education package. This program continues and was enhanced in 1987 by the Knowledge Initiative, a voice and telecommunications system installed throughout the campus. The network links every student, faculty, and staff member on campus by computer and phone and through free Internet access to thousands of sites off campus. In 1990, the Graduate School was incorporated in both of these initiatives.
In 1988, in a cooperative project with the U.S. Olympic Foundation, Drew announced the construction of the U.S. Field Hockey Center on its campus. The stadium, which opened in 1989, is home to Drew's several field sports teams during the academic year and is one of the premier outdoor athletic facilities in the Northeast.
Also in 1988, when Paul Hardin became chancellor of the University of North Carolina, Drew trustees found their 10th president in New Jersey Governor Thomas H. Kean, who was unanimously elected by the board on February 10, 1989. An interim presidency was held by Executive Vice President W. Scott McDonald, Jr., allowing Kean to finish his term as governor, which ended in February 1990.
Kean was inaugurated in April 1990 before 6,000 members of the Drew community and guests from New Jersey and throughout the country. Promising to make Drew "one of the best small liberal arts institutions in America " in his inaugural address, Kean fulfilled that promise during his 15 years at Drew.
Kean worked diligently to improve the University's record of inclusiveness, especially in the area of minority enrollment. To this end, the Thomas H. Kean Fund for minority scholarships at Drew was established in 1990 with a $1 million challenge grant from the Amelior Foundation and a matching amount contributed by New Jersey business and civic leaders.
During Kean's term as president, Drew's endowment increased to more than $220 million. More than $65 million was spent on new buildings and improvements to existing structures, including student residence halls. Kean guided construction of the William E. and Carol G. Simon Forum and Athletic Center, a showcase venue for Drew and the region, which opened in January 1994 and the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts, which opened in the fall of 2003. The music wing of the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts was completed in the fall of 2004.
Robert Weisbuch became Drew's eleventh president in July 2005, replacing Kean,who retired after 15 years as head of the school. Weisbuch was president of the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation for eight years prior to Drew. At Woodrow Wilson, Weisbuch emphasized the Foundation's role in connecting higher education to the social sectors beyond academia and in connecting the levels of education to each other. He believes that Drew is poised to become a national leader in the renaissance of the liberal arts-a private university dedicated to the public good.
For more than a century, friends have been a major source of strength to Drew. In the early years, the facilities of the seminary were expanded through the generosity of John B. Cornell, William Hoyt, Samuel W. Bowne, and others. Generous financial support came from the Wendel family over many years, culminating in 1931 in bequests from Mrs. Rebecca A. D. Wendel Swope and Miss Ella Wendel.
Other notable gifts include the Rose Memorial Library and the Rose Scholarship funds; gifts of Mr. and Mrs. Lenox S. Rose; the Tipple scholarship and fellowship funds from Mrs. Ezra Squier Tipple; the Smith Fund, from Mr. Lloyd W. Smith; and, most notably, the continuing generosity of the families of Arthur and Leonard Baldwin. In 1989, Helene Stafford bequeathed the bulk of her estate, totaling $5 million, to Drew in memory of her late husband, Geoffrey, a former professor of Christian history.
The late 1980s also brought gifts of more than $1 million each, from the estate of Nettie Bowne for the Lena C. Coburn Media Resource Center and a bequest from Elsie Fisher for a number of scholarships. the late William E. and Carol G. Simon, a Drew trustee, gave the University $2.5 million, thereby making possible the new forum and athletic center that bears their names. Dr. Barbara Caspersen (G'86, '90) and Finn Caspersen provided a $5 million endowment for the Graduate School, which changed its name to the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies in their honor. Eleanor Haselton Barrett, sister of Trustee Emeritus Philip Haselton, pledged $5 million to endow a scholarship in the name of their mother, Cynthia Baldwin Haselton. Most recently, Dorothy Young gave $8.5 million for a new arts center which bears her name.
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