A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Background

American University was chartered by an Act of Congress in 1893 and was founded as a graduate institution under the auspices of the United Methodist Church. The institution was the vision of Methodist Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, who recognized the importance of establishing an institution to train and support public servants. For the institution to succeed, however, it needed more than a vision—it needed money. Bishop Hurst worked to gain financial backing for the institution. In 1902, the cornerstone of the McKinley Building, was laid by President Theodore Roosevelt. After more than two decades devoted to securing the funding necessary to hire teachers and hold classes, the university finally admitted its first class of 28 graduate students (including 4 women) in 1914. From its inception, the institution had close ties to Washington, D.C., and our nation’s government. President Woodrow Wilson officially dedicated the university on May 27, 1914. The first class graduated in 1916. In addition to hosting classes, during World War I the campus was used by the War Department for training and chemical testing.

By 1925, the first undergraduate students were admitted. Seventy-five students enrolled and, like the graduate programs, undergraduate programs were geared towards preparing students for a life of public service. While initially enrollment grew, the university had a difficult time retaining students during the Great Depression.
By the 1940s, the institution had recovered and enrollment jumped back to nearly 1,000 students. Once again, the nation’s War Department used the campus for training and research. In addition to a tremendous growth in the number of buildings on campus, the university changed programmatically as well. The Washington Semester Program was established in 1947 and the Washington College of Law merged with the university in 1949.

The 1950s and 1960s solidified many of the institution’s essential educational missions. Three departments were reorganized as schools: the School of Business Administration, subsequently named the Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod School of Business; the School of Government and Public Administration, now the School of Public Affairs; and the School of International Service. AU also experimented with providing a broader range of education and training. In 1965, it established both a College of Continuing Education and a School of Nursing. Both of these programs were eventually discontinued.

By the 1970s, AU had matured to the point where it had a solid sense of its mission and purpose. The 1970 mission statement emphasized that “American University should realize its potential by resourceful utilization of Washington’s three major dimensions: the National, the International, and the Urban. The University should bring its energies to bear on each of these dimensions of Washington’s identity.” In addition to emphasizing the institution’s important ties to the Washington, D.C., area, the mission statement also stressed the importance of combining “theory with practice, observation with participation.”

While the 1980s began with a period of financial difficulty for the institution, the decade was also a period of renewed commitment to making American University an institution of academic excellence. This commitment was symbolized by the opening of the new library building in 1979. Academic quality, admissions standards, and reputation rose. It was a period of unprecedented strategic planning geared towards putting the values of the 1970s mission statement into focus. In 1980, a master planning document, AU85, set specific goals geared towards improving academic quality and fiscal responsibility.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, American University was in a period of change and
renewal. Academically, the institution was never stronger. The quality of its students, faculty, and staff continued to improve. However, the university had had three presidents during that time, and leadership was in a state of flux.

1994 to Present

In the fall of 1994, a Statement of Common Purpose was adopted by the university’s Board of Trustees. It states that American University’s

distinctive feature, unique in higher education, is its capacity as a national and international university to turn ideas into action and action into service by emphasizing the arts and sciences, then connecting them to the issues of contemporary public affairs writ large, notably in the areas of government, communication, business, law, and international service.

Since the mid 1990s, much progress has been made towards realizing our mission. Signs of change and growth are everywhere. The financial health of the university is strong, major academic and student buildings have been renovated, student services have been expanded, student quality has increased, and faculty compensation and quality have improved.

Over the last 10 years, much has been accomplished. For example:

• The university has a highly qualified and experienced administrative team.

• The quality of faculty and support for faculty have improved. The percentage of faculty with the highest degree in their field has increased from 91.8 percent in 1994 to 96.2 percent in 2002. Standards for appointment and promotion have been raised. The salaries of all full-time faculty have improved, based on the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) standards. Full professors reached AAUP 1 status for the first time in fall 2000 and associate professors reached AAUP 1 in 2002.

• Improvements have been made in the area of enrollment management. The quality of students has improved. In 1994 the acceptance rate of undergraduate students was 77 percent and the average GPA was 3.21. In fall 2006, the admit rate was 59.8 percent and the average high school GPA was 3.40.

• Significant progress has been made in fulfilling the mission of academic excellence. The overall quality of academic programs—both undergraduate and graduate—has improved. The university was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter in August 1994. A report by the 2004 National Survey of Student Engagement compares American University with others in its Carnegie classification and gives AU first-year students the highest score for “active and collaborative learning” and “enriching educational experiences.”

• A thorough academic review of the university was completed in December 2003 as part of its re-accreditation process with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In addition, during the past ten years, reviews of a number of academic programs have been completed, including extensive reviews of the General Education Program (2000–2001), the University Honors Program (2000–2001), master’s programs (1997–2000 and 2002–2003), and doctoral programs (1994–1998 and 2002–2003). This resulted in significant improvements to the General Education and University Honors Programs and the elimination of several master’s and doctoral programs.

• Assessment has become more regularized. A complete review and revision of the university’s survey assessment tools was completed in 1997. The university’s schools and colleges continue to participate in the re-accreditation processes of their respective professional organizations, with the most recent re-accreditation, the Kogod School of Business, having occurred earlier this year. A performance management system incorporating goals and assessment of goals was established in 2000. A program to better articulate and assess learning objectives was established in 2002.

• There have been substantial improvements to both academic and student life spaces on campus. Major renovations include the Washington College of Law, the Ward Circle Building, the Battelle-Tompkins Building, and the Kogod School of Business Building. In 1995, the first floor of the Mary Graydon Center was renovated, and in 2002, the second floor of the center was renovated in order to provide student clubs and organizations and some student services with better facilities. As a result of generous gifts, the university opened the William I Jacobs Fitness Center in 1998 and the Harold and Sylvia Greenberg Theatre in 2003. The Dr. Cyrus and Myrtle Katzen Arts Center opened in 2005.

• In 1994, American University occupied 2,368,000 gross square feet.   Currently, university facilities occupy 3,303,000 square feet.  The university owns several off-campus buildings, some of which house university professional staff.

• Considerable progress has been made in the area of technology. From 1998 to 2002 more than 20 separate and largely incompatible administrative information systems were replaced by a single enterprise-wide system of relational databases. In 1997 American University was voted one of the 50 most “wired” campuses in the country. Today, American University is not only wired but wireless. In 2003, it became one of the few institutions that offer wireless access in all buildings and campus grounds.

• The library materials budget has doubled over the past 10 years, enabling the library to make significant improvements to its electronic holdings and increasing the total number of volumes to just over one million in December 2005.

• The financial health of the institution has improved. The institution received an A rating from Standard and Poor’s (2002). The endowment grew from under $40 million in FY1995 to more than $315 million in FY2006 (January 31, 2006). The AU budget has gone from $180 million in FY1995 to $310 million in FY2004.

• The number and variety of student services have improved, and the delivery of services has been better coordinated and consolidated in order to provide a more seamless experience for students.

These accomplishments have not come by chance. They are, in part, the result of a concerted strategic planning effort. This effort was noticeable in 1997 with the adoption of a new strategic plan. It has been advanced by the university’s latest planning efforts, led by the president in 2000.

In fall 2000, former President Benjamin Ladner initiated a series of Campus Conversations about the future of the university. Students, faculty, and staff from across campus discussed issues related to enrollment, academic excellence, globalism, management, and revenue. As the president pointed out, the conversations were designed to answer the question, “Which priorities will enable us to build a distinctive, high-quality academic community for the long term?”

The conversations culminated in an address by the former president to the university community on October 3, 2001. In this speech, the president said that to fulfill the paradigm expressed by the Statement of Common Purpose, AU would implement three integrated priorities:

• the quality of academic inquiry

• the quality of student experience

• the quality of extensive engagement with Washington and global affairs

These priorities are manifested in what has come to be known as the 15-point plan:

1)   We will undertake and complete the largest and most successful fund-raising campaign in AU’s history. . . .

2)   We will become a smaller university. . . .

3)   The undergraduate experience will become the central focus of the university. . . .

4)   There will be significantly fewer master’s and doctoral programs but with much higher academic quality and support. . . .

5)   As a smaller university, we will reduce cost and increase operational efficiency. . .

6)   We will add to our reputation as a Washington-based, global university. . . .

7)   Faculty teaching, research, and service will have added meaning and resources. . . .

8)   The number of adjunct faculty will be reduced sharply, with no more than 10 percent of undergraduate courses taught by adjuncts. . . .

9)   We will establish a system of differential teaching and research loads for faculty. . . .

10) The academic advising system will be restructured significantly and will become the single most important administrative service to students. . . .

11) We will enhance our profile as a values-based institution, emphasizing long-held university commitments to such values as human rights and dignity, social justice, environmental protection, diversity, and individual freedom. . . .

12) A new Office of Campus Life will be created, headed by the current vice president of student services. . . .

13) A new model of governance will be created to provide a more flexible, consultative, and efficient system of decision making. . . .

14) A new University Enterprise Center will be established under the direction of the vice president of finance and treasurer to pursue institutional development through financial opportunities. . . .

15) We should take seriously our responsibility to encourage physical fitness throughout our community. . . .

American University’s priority is excellent education. As the former president put it in his October 2001 address, “Our primary obligation will always be to prepare a generation of leaders who are broadly educated, spiritually deep, passionately engaged, and capable of translating in a complex and dangerous environment the lasting values of truth, beauty, and goodness, which are the hallmarks of a humane and civilized world.” It is this sense of purpose, this mission, that drives American University today.

 

September 2006