Southwestern University

Southwestern University is a private, selective, four-year, undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Georgetown, Texas, USA

History

Prior to its founding in Georgetown, charters had been granted by the Legislature (Texas Congress 1836-1845) to establish four earlier educational institutions: Rutersville College of Rutersville, Texas in 1840, Wesleyan College of Saint Augustine, Texas in 1844, McKenzie College of Clarksville, Texas in 1848, and Soule University of Chappell Hill, Texas in 1856. Southwestern thus claims its founding date as 1840, when Rutersville opened its doors, the basis of its claim as Texas' First Institution of Higher Learning.

Related Topics:
Legislature - Rutersville, Texas - 1840 - Saint Augustine - Texas - 1844 - Clarksville - 1848 - Chappell Hill - 1856

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None of these four institutions lasted very long, but in 1873, the union of these four institutions opened in Georgetown as Texas University, after a group had been founded for its creation in 1870 as Methodism's central university in Texas during a meeting in Galveston by church donors. Wanting the name for a state school of nearly the same name, the University of Texas, in Austin, the state granted the new university a charter in 1875 under the name of Southwestern University continuing in the tradition of the original charter for Rutersville.

Related Topics:
1873 - 1870 - Galveston - University of Texas - Austin - 1875

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Southwestern was a charter member of the Southwest Conference in 1915 and for decades the main sports rival was Southern Methodist University, as remembrance over the near-removal of Southwestern to Dallas, leading to the founding of Methodism's second institution of higher learning in Texas. SMU, however, grew to the point of no longer being near Southwestern in size. In the 1970s and 1980s, Southwestern transformed itself into a small rigorous liberal arts institution, getting rid of its post-graduate degrees and completely rebuilding the campus with a massive capital campaign. The endowment also rose substantially, as did academic standards.

Related Topics:
1915 - Southern Methodist University - 1970s - 1980s

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Southwestern has a history of drawing prolific lecturers to campus, including Helen Keller and alumnus J. Frank Dobie stopping off from the train on their way to or from Austin, giving their lectures, and catching the next train in the earlier part of the 20th century to the topical lectures more common on campus nowadays. Speakers at the annual Brown Symposium include such a range as author Isaac Asimov (through a videoconference) in the early 1980's to Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz in 2002. The Fleming Lecture series has drawn such names recently as presidential advisor Karen Hughes(2003), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2004), and former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (2005).

Related Topics:
Helen Keller - J. Frank Dobie - Austin - Isaac Asimov - Videoconference - 1980's - Nobel Laureate - Economist - Joseph Stiglitz - 2002 - Karen Hughes - 2003 - Archbishop - Desmond Tutu - 2004 - Pakistani - Prime Minister - Benazir Bhutto - 2005

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See also: Texas State Handbook Online Entry for Southwestern University

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