Haverford College

Haverford College was founded in 1833 by members of the Orthodox Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends to ensure an education grounded in Quaker values for young Quaker men. It was the earliest Quaker liberal arts college. The college's seal bore the likeness of William Penn, which remains on the seal today. In 1849 it opened enrollment to non-Quakers. Originally an all-male institution, Haverford began admitting female transfer students in 1969 and became fully co-educational in 1980. The first woman to graduate (the wife of a faculty member) was a member of the class of 1971. The first Black student to graduate from Haverford, Osmond Pitter, a Jamaican Quaker, did so in 1926. He became a doctor and returned to practice medicine in Jamaica. The second (and first African-American to receive a bachelor's degree) was Paul B. Moses, class of 1951, who became an art history professor at the University of Chicago. During the intervening quarter century, a number of other Black men, including Howard Thurman, enrolled as graduate students.

For most of the 20th century, Haverford's total enrollment was kept below 300, but the college went through two periods of expansion during and after the 1970s, reaching a total of about 1350 students in 2020. Thomas R. Tritton was president of the college between 1997 and 2007 and oversaw the construction of several new buildings, including the Marian E. Koshland Integrated Natural Sciences Center and the Douglas B. Gardner Integrated Athletic Center.

In the fall of 2020, much of the student body went on strike, sparked by anger at the administration's response to the killing of Walter Wallace in Philadelphia. The strike later expanded into a broader protest over concerns of racial injustice at the college. Some students opposed the strike, arguing that strikers were demonizing students who expressed concerns and suppressing dissenting views. After two weeks, the strike ended when the administration agreed to most of the organizers' demands.

Wendy Raymond has been president of the college since 2019. On May 7, 2025, testifying at a hearing of the United States House Committee on Education and Workforce, Raymond was questioned regarding her handling of antisemitism on campus. Representative Elise Stefanik noted that "while the other presidents’ statements outlined specific steps taken to prevent antisemitism and specific disciplinary measures in particular, Haverford has not", and president Raymond was criticized in part because she repeatedly refused to answer questions about aggregate statistics or specific instances of students and faculty who were suspended or otherwise disciplined by the college for antisemitic conduct. As a result, Representative Ryan Mackenzie of Pennsylvania threatened to withdraw federal funding from the college. To Jewish Haverford students, Raymond stated, “I wish to make it unmistakably clear that you are valued members in our community … I am sorry that I have let you down.” In November 2025, Raymond announced her retirement effective in June 2027.