The story
Western Reserve College (1826–1882) and University (1882–1967)
Western Reserve College, the college of the Connecticut Western Reserve, was founded in 1826 in Hudson, Ohio, as the Western Reserve College and Preparatory School by the Presbyterian Church. Western Reserve College, or "Reserve" as it was popularly called, was the first college in northern Ohio. The school was called "Yale of the West"; its campus, now that of the Western Reserve Academy, imitated that of Yale. It had the same motto, "Lux et Veritas" (Light and Truth), the same entrance standards, and nearly the same curriculum. It was different from Yale in that it was a manual labor college, in which students were required to perform manual labor, seen as psychologically beneficial.
Western Reserve College's founders sought to instill in students an "evangelical ethos" and train Christian ministers for Ohio, where there was an acute shortage of them. The college was located in Hudson because the town made the largest financial offer to help in its construction. That town, about 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Cleveland, had been an antislavery center from the beginning: its founder, David Hudson, was against slavery, and founding trustee Owen Brown was a noted abolitionist who secured the location for the college. The abolitionist John Brown, who would lead the 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, grew up in Hudson and was the son of co-founder Owen Brown. Hudson was a major stop on the Underground Railroad.
With Presbyterian influences of its founding, the school's origins were strongly though briefly associated with the pre-Civil War abolitionist movement; the abolition of slavery was the dominant topic on campus in 1831. The trustees were unhappy with the situation. The college's chaplain and Bible professor, Beriah Green, gave four sermons on the topic and then resigned, expecting that he would be fired. President Charles Backus Storrs took a leave of absence for health, and soon died. One of the two remaining professors, Elizur Wright, soon left to head the American Anti-Slavery Society.
Western Reserve was the first college west of the Appalachian Mountains to enroll (1832) and graduate (1836) an African-American student, John Sykes Fayette. Frederick Douglass gave the commencement speech in 1854.
In 1838, the Loomis Observatory was built by astronomer Elias Loomis, and today remains the second oldest observatory in the United States, and the oldest still in its original location.
In 1852, the Medical School became the second medical school in the United States to graduate a woman, Nancy Talbot Clark. Five more women graduated over the next four years, including Emily Blackwell and Marie Zakrzewska, giving Western Reserve the distinction of graduating six of the first eight female physicians in the United States.
By 1875, Cleveland had emerged as the dominant population and business center of the region, and the city wanted a prominent higher education institution. In 1882, with funding from Amasa Stone, Western Reserve College moved to Cleveland and changed its name to Adelbert College of Western Reserve University. Adelbert was the name of Stone's son.
Case School of Applied Science (1880–1947) and Institute of Technology (1947–1967)
In 1877, Leonard Case Jr. began laying the groundwork for the Case School of Applied Science by secretly donating valuable pieces of Cleveland real estate to a trust. He asked his confidential advisor, Henry Gilbert Abbey, to administer the trust and to keep it secret until after his death in 1880.
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On March 29, 1880, articles of incorporation were filed for the founding of the Case School of Applied Science. Classes began on September 15, 1881. The school received its charter by the state of Ohio in 1882.
For the first four years of the school's existence, it was located in the Case family's home on Rockwell Street in downtown Cleveland. Classes were held in the family house, while the chemistry and physics laboratories were on the second floor of the barn. Amasa Stone's gift to relocate Western Reserve College to Cleveland also included a provision for the purchase of land in the University Circle area, adjacent to Western Reserve University, for the Case School of Applied Science. The school relocated to University Circle in 1885.
In 1921 Albert Einstein came to the Case campus during his first visit to the United States, out of respect for the physics work performed there. Besides noting the research done in the Michelson–Morley experiment, Einstein also met with physics professor Dayton Miller to discuss his own research.
During World War II, Case School of Applied Science was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.
Over time, the Case School of Applied Science expanded to encompass broader subjects, adopting the name Case Institute of Technology in 1947 to reflect the institution's growth.
Led by polymer expert Eric Baer in 1963, the nation's first stand-alone Polymer Science and Engineering program was founded, to eventually become the Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering.
Federation of two universities
Although the trustees of Case Institute of Technology and Western Reserve University did not formally federate their institutions until 1967, the institutions already shared buildings and staff when necessary and worked together often. One such example was seen in 1887, when Case physicist Albert Michelson and Reserve chemist Edward Morley collaborated on the famous Michelson–Morley experiment.
There had been some discussion of a merger of the two institutions as early as 1890, but those talks dissolved quickly. In the 1920s, the Survey Commission on Higher Education in Cleveland took a strong stand in favor of federation and the community was behind the idea as well, but in the end all that came of the study was a decision by the two institutions to cooperate in founding Cleveland College, a special unit for part-time and adult students in downtown Cleveland.
By the 1960s, Reserve President John Schoff Millis and Case President T. Keith Glennan shared the idea that federation would create a complete university, one better able to attain national distinction. Financed by the Carnegie Corporation, Cleveland Foundation, Greater Cleveland Associated Foundation, and several local donors, a study commission of national leaders in higher education and public policy was charged with exploring the idea of federation. The Heald Commission, so known for its chair, former Ford Foundation President Henry T. Heald, predicted in its final report that a federation could create one of the largest private universities in the nation.
Case Western Reserve University (1967–present)
In 1967, Case Institute of Technology, a school with its emphasis on engineering and science, and Western Reserve University, a school with professional programs and liberal arts, came together to form Case Western Reserve University.
In 1968, the Department of Biomedical Engineering launched as a newly unified collaboration between the School of Engineering and School of Medicine as the first in the nation and as one of the first Biomedical Engineering programs in the world. The following year in 1969, the first Biomedical Engineering MD/PhD program in the world began at Case Western Reserve.
The first computer engineering degree program in the United States was established in 1971 at Case Western Reserve.
On August 18, 2003, the university unveiled a new logo and branding campaign that emphasized the "Case" portion of its name. The decision to put emphasis on the "Case" portion of the name was motivated by issues related to name recognition of the existing CWRU acronym, especially outside of northeast Ohio. In 2006, interim university president Gregory Eastwood convened a task group to study reactions to the campaign. The panel's report indicated that it had gone so poorly that, "There appear to be serious concerns now about the university's ability to recruit and maintain high-quality faculty, fund-raising and leadership." Also, the logo was derided among the university's community and alumni and throughout northeastern Ohio; critics said it looked like "...a fat man with a surfboard."
On May 9, 2003, the 2003 Case Western Reserve University shooting occurred when Biswanath Halder entered the Peter B. Lewis Building of the Weatherhead School of Management where he killed graduate student Norman Wallace and wounded two professors. Halder took people in the building hostage, and they ran, barricaded themselves in, and hid as the gunman roamed the building, shooting indiscriminately. Halder was finally apprehended by a SWAT team after seven hours. Halder was convicted on multiple felony counts and sentenced to life in prison; he lost a 2008 appeal.
In March 2007, the Branding Task Group presented its recommendations; a key recommendation was to return a graphic identity that gave equal weight to both the "Case" and "Western Reserve" names. As part of this, the creation of a new logo and wordmark was also recommended, with an implementation group to work with various stakeholders to develop a replacement logo and wordmark. At a June 2nd meeting, the university's board of trustees approved a shift back to giving equal weight to "Case" and "Western Reserve". In an open letter to the university community, interim president Eastwood admitted that "the university had misplaced its own history and traditions" with the 2003 branding changes. Implementation of the new logo began July 1, 2007. The replacement logo, informally known as the "sunburst", would last until 2023. The "Forward Thinking" campaign was launched in 2011 by President Barbara Snyder and raised $1 billion in 30 months. The board of trustees unanimously agreed to expand the campaign to $1.5 billion, which reached its mark in 2017. The campaign ultimately raised $1.82 billion.
A 2020 United States presidential debate, the first of two, was held at the Samson Pavilion of the Health Education Campus (HEC), shared by the Cleveland Clinic.
In February 2020, president Barbara Snyder was appointed the president of Association of American Universities (AAU). Later that year, former Tulane University president Scott Cowen was appointed interim president. On October 29, 2020, Eric W. Kaler, former University of Minnesota president, was appointed as the new Case Western Reserve University president, effective July 1, 2021.
On 2 June 2023, the 16 year old "sunburst" logo was replaced by a new logo which retained the sun element, but presented a more simple design, new fonts and brighter colors. The new logo was met with mixed feelings from students, some praising the font choice and colors. Others disliked the removal of the university's establishment year, 1826, present on the 2007-2023 logo, and the redesign of the sun image. The editorial board of Case Western Reserve's student paper, The Observer, expressed overall dissatisfaction with the new logo, describing it as "bland" and "an embarrassment and stains the reputation of success that built our historic institution."
Concerns were also expressed about the frequency of logo changes, as this was the third logo in 23 years. Such frequent changes could harm the university's image and brand consistency and lead to a repeat of the 2003 logo situation reoccurring.
From Wikipedia’s article on Case Western Reserve University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5