1740-1915

Pioneers at Penn

"I think that what diversity means today is also meaningful for the whole history of racism and sexism and classism in this country. And that is, it means breaking down the barriers to opportunity and to a really excellent education, and to really open leadership in our society- and those barriers have been many. And a commitment to diversity, to me, means a commitment to struggling against those barriers."

President Amy Gutmann, "Towards Inclusion"
2006

Benjamin Franklin and Penn's first Trustees took control of the Charity School trust and completed construction of the "New Building" at Fourth and Arch Streets.

The Trustees appointed Frances Holwell the first Mistress of Girls in the Charity School and opened the school to girls. 212 years later, during the University's Homecoming Weekend of October 1965, the Trustees dedicated Holwell House, one of the four houses in the Robert C. Hill Residence Hall, in her honor. Ms. Holwell served the School for seven years, concluding her work in 1760.

The College was chartered.

Two Mohawk Indian brothers, Jonathan and Philip Gayienquitioga, attended the Academy of Philadelphia. They are the first Native Americans to attend what became the University of Pennsylvania and were joined in 1756 by another Indian, John Montour, who studied English.

The Revolutionary government of Pennsylvania chartered the University.

First student from Venezuela, Auxencio Maria Pena, graduated from the Medical School.

Robert Daniel Ross became the first Indian to earn a medical degree.

The Law School was founded.

Rev. Dr. Morris Jacob Raphall delivered a lecture on "The Poetry of the Hebrews" in the hall of the University of Pennsylvania on 9th St. above Chestnut

A Department of Music was created and accepted six women as part of a two-year program.

The first African-American students enrolled at Penn: William Adger, James Brister, Nathan Mossell.

The first Japanese student, Tosni Imadate, graduated from the College.

The first female students admitted into degree programs were Mary Alice Bennett, M.D. and Anna H. Johnson, to the School of Auxiliary Medicine. Bennett received a degree of Doctor of Philosophy in June, becoming the first woman to receive a degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

A Certificate of Proficiency in Science was awarded to Mary Thorn Lewis.

The Wharton School was founded.

The Law School accepted its first female student, Caroline Burnham Kilgore.

James Brister graduated from the Dental School, the first African-American to earn a degree from Penn.

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences was founded.

William Adger earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and is the first African-American to graduate from the College. Adger planned a career in the ministry and was a student in the Divinity School of the Episcopal Church, Philadelphia. Unfortunately he died at a young age in 1885.

Anna Robertson Brown becomes the first woman to receive a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Fuji Tsukamoto enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the first Asian American woman to matriculate at Penn.

The Wharton School appointed W. E. B. DuBois "Assistant in Sociology" while he conducted research and wrote on "the social condition of the colored People of the Seventh Ward of Philadelphia." The Philadelphia Negro, a well-known publication of his findings, was published in 1899. After spending a year at Penn, DuBois left for Atlanta University where he taught economics, history and sociology from 1897 to 1909. He became famous, on a national level, for serving as a co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909).

Lewis Baxter Moore earned the first Ph.D. awarded to an African American at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to attending Penn, Moore was awarded his A.B. and A.M. degrees from Fisk University. At Penn Moore studied the Classics and was one of five African-Americans to have earned a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from any university.

At the University's annual commencement, an honorary LL.D. was presented to both the President of Mexico, Porfirio Díaz, and the Minister of China, Ting-fang Wu.

The Christian Association (CA) opened a summer camp for boys in Greenlane, PA, continuing the community-oriented service work started in 1898. Penn students served as counselors and the camp required a 50/50 white/non-white ratio. This camp and its corresponding camp for girls (started in '25), prospered well into the 1960 when both were separated from the CA and placed under control of the Diversified Community Services (DCS). The DCS, being religiously unaffiliated, mad the camp eligible for funding from the United Way.

The development of an international house at Penn started with a chance meeting between Dr. A. Waldo Stevenson and a group of Chinese students. After befriending the students, Stevenson was informed of the difficulties international students regularly face, namely, their isolation on campus. In Dr. Stevenson's apartment, and later Houston Hall, the group met regularly to discuss issues affecting international students at Penn.

John Baxter Taylor, Jr. graduated from the Vet School and at the summer Olympics in London was the first African-American to win a gold medal. Part of the winning and world record setting 1,600 meter relay team, his teammates included Nathaniel Cartmell, Melvin Sheppard and William Hamilton. A testament to his character, the Vet School Class of 1908 yearbook stated "We of the Class of 1908 are proud and can boast of having one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known."

George Nitzsche, Penn's first director of publicity, created a recruiting brochure, translated into Spanish. Approximately 10,000 copies circulated throughout Latin America over the next two years. One newspaper article called Nitzsche, "a foster father to students from foreign countries."

The Cosmopolitan Club started the year off in a new house on 3419 Walnut St. They held an opening 'smoker,' with students from 40 nations represented, as they were formally welcomed to the University. Vice Provost Edgar F. Smith delivered a speech on the University of Pennsylvania as he sought to "bring together students of different countries and break down misunderstandings existing between them."

The School of Education was founded and the first to offer a modern, full-time, four-year, undergraduate, professional degree to women. In the same year, the School of Medicine and the School of Dental Medicine admitted women for the first time.

1916-1966

Minorities at Penn Appear Across the Campus

"We have an enrollment at the University of 12,000 students, who have registered from every State in the Union, and 253 students from at least fifty foreign countries and foreign territories, including India, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and practically all the British possessions except Ireland; every Latin American country, and most of the Oriental and European nations."

George E. Nitzsche
1921

 

1967-1989

From Presence to Permanence

"[The committee] does subscribe to the notion that a major part of the total educational experience of a university student is found in the interchange of ideas with other students and the mingling of cultures represented within the student body. Thus, it believes that diversity of student background is a positive educational value and should be actively pursued, even at the expense of other desirable attributes. The admission policy of the University should be designed to produce a student population having the highest possible diversification as to (1) intellectual interests, (2) special talents, (3) social and economic background, and (4) cultural characteristics. The social, economic, and cultural homogeneity of the present student body is a source of some concern to the Committee, and some of the subsequent recommendations of this Report reflect this concern,"

"Admissions Policy for the Undergraduate Schools of the University of Pennsylvania,"
Chaired by Dan M. McGill,
1967

 

1990 - Present

Towards Inclusion

"There is a big difference between diversity and inclusion. Diversity is sort of- it's just a snapshot. I say that there can be no case for diversity because the case is already made, it is the- it is the reality in which we live. What doesn't exist and what takes hard work and what you have to think about is inclusion. So just simply having, you know, the existence of different groups and a multiplicity of cultures isn't enough. And so really it is inclusion, real efforts that you make affirmatively, to include people of different backgrounds and sort of accentuating those differences. And what that means is that ultimately as you as an institution will change, and will have to change. That's not a bad thing,"

Gilbert F. Casellas, Esq., "Towards Inclusion"
2006