The George Washington University (GW, GWU, or George Washington) is a private, coeducational research university located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on February 9, 1821, as the Columbian College in the District of Columbia.^[5] In 1904, it changed its name to the George Washington University in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. It is the largest institution of higher education in the District of Columbia.

The university awards undergraduate and graduate degrees in several disciplines through all of its ten different schools. GWU'sColumbian College of Arts and Sciences, School of Business, Elliott School of International Affairs, Milken Institute School of Public Health, School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the School of Nursing offer undergraduate and graduate degrees. The university also has specialized schools within colleges such as the School of Media and Public Affairs and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design.

GWU is consistently ranked by The Princeton Review in the top "Most Politically Active" Schools. Many of the university's graduates have gone on to high positions within both the United States Government and in foreign governments. Notable alumni include US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former First-Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, and former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. There are currently four George Washington University alumni serving in the United States Senate, nine serving in the United States House of Representatives, and ten serving as United States ambassadors.

The sports teams and current and former students in general are called "Colonials".

History[edit]

Founding and early history[edit]

Baptist missionary and leading minister Luther Rice raised funds to purchase a site for a college to educate citizens from throughout the young nation in Washington, D.C. A large building was constructed on College Hill, which is now known as Meridian Hill, and on February 9, 1821, President James Monroe approved the congressional charter creating the non-denominational Columbian College in the District of Columbia. The first commencement in 1824 was considered an important event for the young city of Washington, D.C. In attendance were President Monroe, John C. Calhoun, Henry Clay, Marquis de Lafayette and other dignitaries. During the Civil War, most students left to join theConfederacy and the college's buildings were used as a hospital and barracks. Walt Whitman was among many of the volunteers to work on the campus. Following the war, in 1873, Columbian College became the Columbian University and moved to an urban downtown location centered on 15th and H streets, NW.

 

George Washington, the university's namesake

In 1904, Columbian University changed its name to the George Washington University in an agreement with the George Washington Memorial Association to build a campus building in honor of the first U.S. president. Neither the university nor the association were able to raise enough money for the proposed building near the National Mall; however, the institution retained the name. Eventually the association donated the remaining funds that had been raised to the university for the development of Lisner Auditorium.

The university moved its principal operations to the D.C. neighborhood of Foggy Bottom in 1912.^[6]

The George Washington University, like much of Washington, D.C., traces many of its origins back to the Freemasons. The Bible that the presidents of the university use to swear an oath on upon inauguration is the Bible of Freemason George Washington. Freemasonry symbols are prominently displayed throughout the campus including the foundation stones of many of the university buildings.^[7]

Many of the Colleges of the George Washington University stand out for their age and history. The Law School is the oldest law school in the District of Columbia.^[8] The School of Medicine and Health Sciences is the 11th oldest medical school in the nation.^[9] The Columbian College was founded in 1821, and is the oldest unit of the university. The Elliott School of International Affairs was formalized in 1898.^[10]

Expansion[edit]

 

The historic 1925 F Street Clubcurrently serves as the President's Residence. International Monetary Fund buildings are seen behind it.

The majority of the present infrastructure and financial stability at GW is due to the tenures of Presidents Cloyd Heck Marvin, Lloyd Hartman Elliottand Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. In the 1930s, the university was a major center for theoretical physics. The cosmologist George Gamowproduced critical work on the Big Bang theory at GW in the 1930s and 1940s. In one of the most important moments in the 20th century,Niels Bohr announced that Otto Hahn had successfully split the atom on January 26, 1939, at the Fifth Washington Conference on theoretical physics in the Hall of Government.^[11] According to campus folklore, during the Vietnam War era, Mabel Thurston Hall, an undergraduate dormitory housing 1,116 students^[12] was a staging ground for Student Anti-War Demonstrations (at 1900 F Street NW, the building is 3 blocks from the White House). In 1996, the university purchased the Mount Vernon College for Women in the city's Palisadesneighborhood that became the school's coeducational Mount Vernon Campus. The campus was first utilized in 1997 for women only, but became co-educational in a matter of years. The Mount Vernon campus is now totally integrated into the GW community, serving as a complement to the Foggy Bottom campus. In December 2006, the university named Johns Hopkins University provost Steven Knapp its next president. He began his presidency on August 1, 2007.^[13]

Campuses[edit]

The George Washington University has three fully integrated campuses in the D.C. area. These are the Foggy Bottom Campus, the Mount Vernon Campus, and the Virginia Science and Technology Campus. The Foggy Bottom Campus houses the vast majority of academic programming. Residence halls exist on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses.

The George Washington University library system contains the Gelman Library,^[14] the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library,^[15] the Burns Law Library,^[16] the Eckles Memorial Library,^[17] and the Virginia Science and Technology Library.^[18]

Foggy Bottom[edit]

 

The Midcampus Walk, through Professor's Gate, leading to Monroe Court and Kogan Plaza

The main GW campus consists of 43 acres (170,000 m²) in historic Foggy Bottom and is located a few blocks from the White House, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, State Department and the National Mall. Barring a few outlying buildings, the boundaries of campus are delineated by (running clockwise from Washington Circle) Pennsylvania Avenue, 19th Street, E Street, Virginia Avenue, 24th Street, and New Hampshire Avenue. The university owns much of the property in Foggy Bottom and leases it to various tenants, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Other nearby institutions include the Harry S. Truman Building (Department of Stateheadquarters), John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, United States Institute of Peace, Watergate complex and the embassies of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

 

Lisner Auditorium

 

The George Washington University

The University Yard is the main open space and historic heart of the university. Along with George Washington's main library, Gelman Library, they constitute the hub of the main campus. The seven-story Gelman Library building contains over two million volumes and is constructed in the Brutalist architectural style of the 1970s. It features a concrete façade punctuated by windows that are divided by projecting vertical slabs. For most of the year, parts of the library are open 24 hours a day, seven days per week for use by students, faculty and staff. The seventh floor of the library includes the Special Collections Research Center, National Security Archives, Global Resources Center and Kiev Library. The NSA is a research institution that publishes declassified U.S. government files concerning selected topics of American foreign policy. It was a National Security Archive Freedom of Information Act request that eventually made theCentral Intelligence Agency's so-called "Family Jewels" public.^[19]

Close to the library (near the bookstore) is Lisner Auditorium and a large open area between them is known as Kogan Plaza. Southeast of the plaza and located near Monroe Hall and Hall of Government is the Monroe Court, a landscaped area with a large fountain. The Foggy Bottom–GWU Washington Metro station is located at the intersection of 23rd and I Streets NW due south of Washington Circle, and provides access to the Orange and Blue lines. The University Hospital is located next to the Metro station entrance.^[20][21][22]

The Foggy Bottom campus contains most of the residential dormitories in which GW students live. The most notable include: Shenkman Hall, Thurston Hall, Madison Hall, Potomac House, Fulbright Hall, Mitchell Hall, Crawford Hall, Schenley Hall, Munson Hall, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis Hall, Phillip Amsterdam Hall, the West End, City Hall, Guthridge Hall, Madison Hall, Townhouse Row, and the newest residence, South Hall, among others. The largest residence halls on campus are Thurston Hall, Shenkman Hall, Amsterdam hall, South Hall, Mitchell Hall, and District House, which is currently scheduled to open in 2016.

In late 2007, construction began on a large mixed-use residential, office and retail development located on the site of the old GW Hospital (Square 54) and just east of the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metrorail station. It was the second-largest undeveloped lot in the District of Columbia at the time of initial construction activity.^[23]

Mount Vernon Campus[edit]

In 1999, the university acquired the 23-acre (93,000 m²) Mount Vernon College for Women. It is now known as the Mount Vernon Campus.^[24] There are six residence halls on the Mount Vernon Campus. They are West Hall, Somers Hall, Clark Hall, Cole Hall, Hensley Hall, and Merriweather Hall.

 

Hensley GWU

Virginia Science and Technology Campus

The George Washington University also operates a research and graduate campus in Ashburn, Virginia (near Dulles International Airport). The Virginia Science and Technology Campus hosts more than seventeen research centers, labs, and institutes including the National Crash Analysis Center.^[25] The School of Nursing houses its administrative offices on the Virginia Campus. In addition, many academic and research labs focusing on computing, engineering, and health sciences are housed on the campus. The campus was started by a gift of 50 acres of land from Robert H Smith. The campus has expanded over the years to cover more than 100 acres.^[26] Finished in 2013, the Textile Museum, Fine Arts Collections, and the Albert H Small Washingtonia Collection^[27] house their collections in a new facility specially designed for their preservation. Additional space was allocated for other academic functions.^[28][29]

Organization

University

The George Washington University is governed by a Board of Trustees and the president who are in charge of managing the institution as a whole and providing a vision for the future.^[30] The current Chairman of the Board is W. Russell Ramsey. Ramsey is a business entrepreneur who is known as the co-founder of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, a top investment bank in the United States. He is currently the chairman, CEO, and CIO of Ramsey Asset Management.^[31] Other Trustees include: Randy L. Levine, president of the New York Yankees, and actress Kerry Washington.^[32]

The current President is Steven Knapp, who was the provost at Johns Hopkins University before being chosen by the Board of Trustees in 2007. Knapp is the sixteenth president of the university.^[33]

Schools and colleges

GW is organized into ten schools and colleges, each with a different dean and organization.^[34] The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences was the original academic unit of the university.^[35] The Medical School is the 11th oldest medical school in the nation and the first to open in the District of Columbia.^[36] The Law School was also the first law school in the District of Columbia.^[8] Each academic unit has a distinct identity within the broader university. The Graduate School of Political Management and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design were organized outside of the university, later to join in 1987 and 2014, respectively.

 

The historic Old President's Office features a time capsule with letters from former PresidentGeorge W. Bush and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Columbian College of Arts and Sciences

 

RomeHallPath

The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) is the oldest and largest college in the university. It was founded in 1821; at the beginning of the university's history, there was no distinction between this college and the university. The School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA), and the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration (SPPPA) belong to this college, although they are run separately. The Columbian College was among the first American institutions to grant a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), in 1888.^[37] The Columbian College is notable for its academic diversity, and offers a wide range of majors and courses of study.^[37] The Columbian College contains the Trachenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, the School of Media and Public Affairs, and the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design. The Columbian College is primarily house in Philips Hall, Rome Hall, Smith Hall of Art, MPA Building, Monroe Hall, Hall of Government, Old Main, Corcoran Hall, Bell Hall, Samson Hall, Lisner Hall, and many other places around campus. The college is also present on the Mount Vernon and Virginia Campuses.

Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration

The Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration is a graduate school in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.^[38] The Trachtenberg School offers Master of Public Policy, Master of Public Administration, and PhD degrees in Public Policyand Public Administration. The school works in partnership with the Elliott School of International Affairs, the School of Public Health and Health Services, and the Graduate School of Education & Human Development to offer a variety of concentrations for its graduates. ForPublic Affairs Schools, it is ranked 12th nationwide by US News & World Report, and 10th in Public Management Administration.^[39]

School of Media and Public Affairs[edit]

 

School of Media and Public Affairs GWU SMPA

The School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA), which, although run separately, belongs to the Columbian College of Arts in Sciences.^[38]It offers two undergraduate degrees, Journalism and Mass Communication and Political Communication and a master's degree in Media and Public Affairs. It is housed in the same building as the Graduate School of Political Management. The Public Affairs Project at GW, part of SMPA, is responsible for the creation and production of the PBS special, Planet Forward. School of Media and Public Affairs (SMPA) is one of the few schools in the country, and GW was the first, to offer a Bachelor's Degree in political communication. The program boasts a faculty of retired and current professionals - including CNN correspondents, journalists, political analysts, and campaign professionals. The school is consistently ranked in the top 10 programs in the nation. SMPA is primarily housing the MPA Building.

Corcoran School of the Arts and Design

The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design is housed in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.^[38] Previously the Corcoran College of Art and Design and Corcoran Gallery of Art, the institution merged the college operations with the George Washington University. The school retained over 20 full-time faculty members, and the college will continue to function as a separate entity within the university. The school has a historic building facing the White House on 17th Street.

School of Medicine and Health Sciences

 

Medical school students in class (1958)

The School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) or simply the George Washington Scho