From historical firsts to campus traditions to special places and faces, there are lots of things to love about our American University community. Here are 37 of them:

1. Opened in 1925, the Mary Graydon Student Center is named for an early AU benefactor whoseidentity was shrouded in mystery for more than 50 years. 
2. The inaugural class of the School of International Service in 1958 included 80 students from 36 countries.
3. Nearly 50 federal work-study students serve an average of 650 customers a day at the Dav, the oldest of AU’s three coffee shops.
4. Ted Sorensen, an aide to John F. Kennedy for 11 years, delivered the Kennedy Political Union’s inaugural lecture in September 1968. KPU has since hosted hundreds of big names, including boxer Muhammad Ali, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, and activist Malala Yousafzai
5. Tenleytown, DC’s second-oldest neighborhood and home to AU, got its name from a local tavern owned by John Tennally. Although the spelling evolved, the name stuck. 
6. In 1937, AU became one of the first universities in a segregated city to enroll Black students.
7. Nirvana played a blistering 25-song set before a sold-out crowd in Bender Arena on November 13, 1993. Tickets cost just $15.
8. In 2018—two years ahead of schedule—AU became the first urban campus, the first research university, and the largest higher education institution in the US to achieve carbon neutrality. 
9. Affectionately known as “the flaming cupcake,” the Kay Spiritual Life Center—one of the oldest interfaith centers in the US—is home to 17 faith communities. 
10. Hurst Hall, the first building erected on campus, opened in 1897. Today, a second-floor classroom is home to AU’s last remaining chalkboard.
11. The alumni community surpassed 150,000 members last year.
12. WCL is the first law school founded by women: Ellen Spencer Mussey and Emma Gillett. The inaugural class included three women, and tuition was $5 per month.
13. The oldest of more than 6,000 trees on campus—a certified and award-winning arboretum—stands in front of the East Quad Building. The scarlet oak was first photographed in 1893.
14. Four Eagles have combined for six national championships in wrestling, diving, and track and field. 
15. Eight sitting US presidents have visited campus.
16. AU boasts about 200 student clubs and organizations that help Eagles build community around a shared interest, from birdwatching and beekeeping to crocheting and community service.
17. Of the College of Arts and Sciences’ inaugural class of 75 undergrads in 1925, more than half were women.
18. President John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most consequential speeches of his short term, “A Strategy of Peace,” during AU’s 49th commencement on June 10, 1963. 
19. Every semester on the eve of finals, hundreds of students gather on the quad at 11:59 p.m. for a good, long scream, sponsored by the Spirit and Traditions Board. 
20. Proud Eagle Muriel Bowser, SPA/MPP ’00, is in her third term as Washington’s mayor—and the first woman to be reelected to the post.
21. AU fielded its first sports teams, including football and men’s and women’s basketball, in 1926.
22. Faculty, staff, and students don AU red and blue every week for Thank Clawed It’s Wednesday. 
23. Ketanji Brown Jackson delivered her first commencement address as a sitting Supreme Court justice—an ode to her favorite reality show, Survivor—at WCL in June 2023.
24. Woods-Brown Amphitheater boasts a sapling from a tree planted by President George Washingtonat Mount Vernon.
25. AU’s fleet of 10 biodiesel-powered buses shuttled 1 million riders a combined 220,000 miles in 2024. The shuttle runs 18 hours a day from campus to the Tenleytown-AU Metro station.
26. Theodore Roosevelt in 1902 laid the cornerstone for the School of Communication’s McKinley Building, named for President William McKinley.
27. Bagpipes have been a staple of the AU experience since 1980, when the university president surprised graduates by replacing the usual “Pomp and Circumstance” with a Scottish procession at commencement.
28. AU is one of only six universities chartered by Congress.
29. Exiled Korean president Syngman Rhee planted the first cherry trees on campus in April 1943 near the East Quad Building. Today, AU boasts more than 200 cherry trees.
30. Nearly 90 percent of undergrads complete at least one internship, and 52 percent study abroad.
31. For the first three decades of AU’s history, a US president served on the Board of Trustees.
32. The student newspaper in 1927 advocated for a fine-feathered mascot, praising the eagle’s “strength, endurance, and keen vision.” A year later, student reporters began referring to AU’s sports teams as the Eagles. 
33. During the fall semester, the Market—AU’s free food pantry for students—supported nearly 350 Eagles experiencing food insecurity. 
34. AU awarded its first degrees—two doctorates and a master’s degree—to a trio of US Department of Agriculture employees in June 1916.
35. In 1956, David Carrasco, the first Mexican American head coach of a major collegiate program, helped AU men’s basketball team became the first in the DC area to integrate.
36. AU is just eight Metro stops from the National Mall, home to 11 Smithsonian Institution museums and more than 70 monuments and memorials. 
37. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI) founded Earth Day in 1969 at Airlie Center, AU’s property in Warrenton, Virginia. 
38. The School of Public Affairs, ranked No. 9 in the nation, was created during the Great Depression to train federal employees to implement President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.
39. In 2024, the Dav, the oldest student-run coffee shop on campus, sold 30,000 iced chai tea lattes alone.
40. Bruce Springsteen and his E Street Band treated 1,200 lucky concertgoers to four hours of tunes on November 16, 1974, in the Leonard Gym. The marathon show was one of the earliest stops on the band’s yearslong, multi-continent, seven-leg Born to Run tour.
41. Eagles flock to AU from all 50 states; Washington, DC; and more than 100 countries.
42. Suffragist Alice Paul, author of the Equal Rights Amendment, was among the Washington College of Law’s first graduates. She is one of only 250 or so triple Eagles.
43. In 1926, AU students voted for the official school colors: blue and . . . orange. That combination, which belongs to another AU, eventually gave way to blue and red.
44. Once an Eagle, Always an Eagle.

Tell us what you love about AU: Email magazine@american.edu and receive a copy of the original print by Jaylene Arnold.