The Drexel University Founders
On Founders Day, Drexel University gives due recognition to our ancestors. First, there were Constantine Hering, Jacob Jeanes, and Walter Williamson, who in 1848 established the Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania, which grew into Hahnemann Medical College.
Then came the forward-thinking Quaker women and businessmen, clergy, and physicians who created the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1850—headed by philanthropist William J. Mullen, a leader in women's emancipation and prison reform.
And then, of course, came Anthony J. Drexel, who founded the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry in 1891.
During the late 19th century, Anthony J. Drexel was arguably America's most influential financier and a great philanthropist. In 1891, he donated $3 million to establish this University. By today's standards, that $3 million would be equivalent to $6 billion.
He crafted this University with the 20th century firmly in mind and a visionary foresight that still drives Drexel onward. Consider Mr. Drexel's bold innovations. His Institute admitted students of all races and classes, offering practical, applied learning in subjects such as business, chemistry, cooking, and library sciences. And the Institute admitted both men and women. It offered scholarships and free tuition to many students, with low-cost tuition to everyone else. Night classes meant that working men and women could easily attend, and the Institute's location was central to public transportation.
Mr. Drexel's commitment to industrial education prefigured the needs and interests of 20th century America. As time went on, his University welcomed change and innovation. For instance, during World War II, Drexel stayed open around the clock to serve more than 3,000 participants in our Engineering Defense Training Program.
Drexel has paved the way for others to follow, by establishing one of the nation's first cooperative education programs in 1919. Drexel was the first University, in 1983, to require all students to have access to a computer as a learning tool. The University enriched this focus on technology in the fall of 2000, when Drexel became the first major university to operate a fully wireless campus.
The Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania was established at a time when one did not need a medical degree or any formal certification to be called a legitimate physician. Among the medical systems of healing being practiced then was homeopathy, developed by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Homeopathy is based upon two major principles: the law of similars, or "likes are cured by likes," and the belief that a very small amount of that which causes an illness can, in fact, cure it. In 1848, physicians Jacob Jeanes, Walter Williamson—both graduates of the University of Pennsylvania's medical school—and Constantine Hering established the Homeopathic College of Pennsylvania, based upon Hahnemann's theories.
In 1869, the college was renamed in his honor, as Hahnemann Medical College. Not only was the school's philosophy radically different; in the early 20th century, Hahnemann admitted Jewish, Latin American, and Italian students, when other schools denied them an education or set narrow quotas. Hahnemann gained university status in 1982.
In 1850, two years after Hahnemann's founding, came the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania. A small group of Quaker women, businessmen, clergy, and physicians—headed by philanthropist William J. Mullen—had recognized a tremendous waste of talent, because women until then were barred from a medical education. The Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, as it was soon known, was the world's first medical school for women. This was truly a radical step at the time.
At the turn of the 20th century, all of the country's other medical schools for women closed their doors, but the Medical College, ardently devoted to the interests of female medical students and practitioners, remained open, although severely stressed. In 1969, the College began admitting men, and in 1970 was renamed the Medical College of Pennsylvania, reflecting its coeducational status.
Both medical schools continued their parallel histories of innovation and excellence for a century and a half. In 1993, the schools united as Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, as part of the Allegheny Health Education and Research Foundation, or AHERF.
But by 1998, AHERF collapsed in the nation's largest bankruptcy of a non-profit health care organization. The subsequent events led to Drexel and the former MCP Hahnemann University merging in 2002. Since November 11, 1998, it has been learned that the three academic units that form today's Drexel University are complementary. Each has a long tradition of experiential learning. Each recognizes the central role technology plays in education and in healthcare.
Drexel's complementary partnership with Tenet positions the University at the forefront of the movement in academic medicine to partner a non-profit educational institution with a for-profit hospital system. Drexel is committed to creating a quality learning and research environment, allowing Tenet to concentrate on continuing to provide quality patient care and training for Drexel students. Drexel and Tenent's complementary visions fill a distinctive niche in higher education. As Drexel links technology with healthcare, healthcare with business, public health with public policy, and so on, the University will gain more learning opportunities for its students and will continue to attract top academic leaders to teach them.
With the addition of the nation's largest private medical school, an outstanding college of nursing and health professions, and one of only two schools of public health in Pennsylvania, Drexel now comprises eight colleges, the Pennoni Honors College and three schools, with more than 1,000 faculty members, 16,000 students, and 90,000 alumni.
Drexel University continues to build upon the legacy of our founders. The University remains committed to the education of all who are qualified, to originality, and to applied learning.
