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Founded by Russell Conwell in 1884.1
Founding
Temple University was founded in 1884 by Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia and its pastor Russell Conwell, a Yale-educated lawyer, orator, and ordained Baptist minister, who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Conwell came to Pennsylvania in 1882 to lead the Grace Baptist Church. One evening in June 1884, a young aspiring minister named Charles Davies approached Conwell after a service to express his desire to prepare for the ministry, but did not have the means to attend college. Conwell offered to teach Davies, who showed up to the first class with six friends. By the third class, this number had reached forty. where he began tutoring working-class citizens at night in the basement of Conwell's Baptist Temple (hence the origin of the university's name and mascot).
Conwell's night classes quickly grew popular within the North Philadelphia area. The Grace Baptist Church created a board of trustees, which named Russell Conwell president of the Temple College. Following an unsuccessful meeting with 34 Philadelphia Baptist churches, the Grace Baptist Church appointed a new board of trustees, printed official admissions files, and issued stock to raise funds for new teaching facilities. The church provided classrooms, and teachers, and financed the school in its early years. The church and Conwell's desire was "to give education to those who were unable to get it through the usual channels".
In 1891, Temple's first graduating class of eighteen men received the Bachelor of Oratory degree. However, state and federal education agencies would not identify Temple as a legitimate college level institution. Philadelphia granted a charter in 1888 to establish the Temple College of Philadelphia, but the city refused to grant authority to award academic degrees. By 1888, the enrollment of the college was nearly 600: because of Temple's aim of offering an education to Philadelphia's working class, there were no admissions requirements and tuition was free.
Over time, Temple expanded. Samaritan Hospital (now Temple University Hospital) was founded by the Grace Baptist Church in 1892, and Temple added a medical school in 1901. Temple merged with Garretson Hospital the Philadelphia Dental College in 1906. After the merger, Temple officially reincorporated as Temple University on December 12, 1907. The School of Nursing was established in 1911, followed by the Teacher's College in 1914. Russell Conwell died in 1925 after a 38-year presidency at Temple, and is buried at the Founder's Garden on campus.
20th century expansion
In 1954, Temple's board of trustees made a pledge to grow the campus to 210 acres. That year, Temple University agreed to terms to purchase 11+1⁄2 acres (4.7 ha) of the adjacent Monument Cemetery and repurpose it for athletic fields and a parking lot. Families of the deceased claimed about 8,000 of the 28,000 bodies on the site and the rest were moved to an unmarked mass grave at Lawnview Memorial Park. Many of the remaining headstones from the cemetery, including a monument to George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette, were used as riprap for the Betsy Ross Bridge. This land is now an athletic field, student recreation center, and parking lot, and is slated to be a new media and performance center.
Temple hired Philadelphia architecture firm Nolen & Swinburne Associates to devise a university expansion plan in 1955. The plan called for the demolition of historic row houses and proposed a classic campus quadrangle comprising large Modernist towers, a central plaza, a bell tower, walkways, lawns, and cloistered gardens.
The firm complained that the "squeeze of the slum area is becoming intolerable" and went on to say that Temple was positioned, finally, "to wipe the slate clean from the ground up. Hundreds of North Philadelphia residents were displaced when Temple demolished rowhomes, churches, and businesses to make room for its expansion. In 1966, Nolen & Swinburne returned to work for Temple University, this time creating a development plan. All that remains of the 1800 block of Park Avenue is a group of facades that have been incorporated into a single building (called 1810 Liacouras Walk) and a small church (Shusterman Hall).
The Ambler Junior College of Temple University was formed by the merging of the Pennsylvania School of Horticulture for Women with Temple University. This created Temple University Ambler, which is approximately 15 miles (24 km) from Temple's Main Campus. That same year, the Ambler Campus of Temple University began accepting men, two of which applied that year.
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In 1965, Temple became a Pennsylvania state-related university, meaning the university receives state funds, subject to state appropriations, but is independently operated. It is one of four schools to have this designation, alongside Lincoln University, Pennsylvania State University, and the University of Pittsburgh. This is the only public-private hybrid system of higher education of its particular type in the United States.
In the spring of 1969, the Steering Committee for Black Students pushed for more community voices involved in Temple's plans for expansion, as well as an Afro-Asian Institute and special admissions for Hispanic and African-American students. Then-university President Paul R. Anderson feigned cooperation, but meetings between the committee and school administration went nowhere. It wasn't until Pennsylvania Governor Raymond Shafer forced one: Temple would limit the height of buildings on the campus perimeter and keep 10 of 22 disputed acres.
Marvin Wachman, Anderson's successor, sought to be more open with students than Anderson was. When students protested over campus cafeteria food prices and seating arrangements, Wachman delivered what the students wanted: food trucks on campus. To this day, food trucks line the streets of Temple's Main Campus, offering students an alternative to the dining halls.
Peter J. Liacouras, namesake of the Liacouras Center and Liacouras Walk, served as Temple's seventh president from 1982 to 2000. Under Liacouras, Temple's profile began to grow: men's basketball coach John Chaney helped the team reach national prominence. Temple's iconic "T" logo was designed under Liacouras's presidency. Liacouras expanded both the school's academics and budget: the university's endowment rose from $15 million in 1982 to $109 million in 1999.
21st century
In 2016, Temple was classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a research university with very high research activity, with research expenditures reaching $242 million.
On March 13, 2020, the university suspended in-person instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Liacouras Center, Temple's basketball arena, was converted into a 200-bed "COVID-19 surge facility" due to the potential of hospitals reaching patient capacity, although only 14 patients were admitted. Temple reopened Main Campus for the Fall 2020 semester under a hybrid model, offering a mix of online classes and in-person learning. The university required COVID-19 tests for all students moving into campus housing, face coverings to be worn in all buildings, and students and faculty maintain six feet of physical distance from one another to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. However, in September, Temple suspended in-person classes for remainder of fall semester, three days after deciding to stop in-person classes for two weeks as a precaution after 103 students on campus tested positive for COVID-19. In May 2022, Temple held its first in-person, university-wide graduation ceremony since 2019.
On November 29, 2021, Moshe Porat, former dean of Temple University's business school was convicted on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud for a scheme in which he and others used false data to boost the school's position on the US News & World Report rankings.
On January 31, 2023, the graduate student workers' union at Temple University declared an ongoing labor strike, following a year of stalled negotiations for a labor contract. Temple University retaliated on February 8 by terminating the strikers' health insurance and tuition benefits, an action that propelled the strike to national news. The strike ended in mid-March.
Shortly after graduate student strike ended, university president Jason Wingard resigned. In the months prior to his resignation, he had come under fire for his decisions during the strike as well as a rise in crime and violence on and near the university's campus. Shortly before his resignation, the university's board of trustees had announced increased oversight of the university. The university's faculty had also planned a no-confidence vote. JoAnne Epps was named Acting President on April 11, 2023. Epps died after suffering a sudden, as yet undisclosed, medical episode during a university event on September 19, 2023.
In October of 2023, Temple University students protested against the Gaza war and criticized the administration's pro-Israel stance. The protesters called for justice in Palestine and demanded financial divestment from companies that profit from the war in Gaza. The ACLU became involved when administration started disciplinary action against students for participating in a "Gaza Solidarity" encampment off-campus. The protests continued into the next academic year with the University amending its campus guidelines to discourage further protests.
On July 3, 2024, Temple's Board of Trustees announced it had appointed John Fry as its 15th president.
From Wikipedia’s article on Temple University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5