Notre Dame College

Notre Dame College is a Catholic, coeducational, liberal arts college in South Euclid, Ohio, United States. Established in 1922 as a women's college, it has been coeducational since January 2001. Notre Dame College offers 30 majors and individually designed majors and confers undergraduate and graduate degrees through five academic divisions. The college has a current total enrollment of 2,250 students. The 48-acre 19.4 ha main academic and residential campus is located 10 miles 16 km east of Cleveland in South Euclid.Fielding athletic teams known as the Notre Dame Falcons, the college is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level.Notre Dame is a member of the Mountain East Conference MEC a Division II conference that began playing in the 2013–14 school year. Prior to joining the NCAA the college competed in the NAIA as a member of the American Mideast Conference. The official school and athletic colors are royal blue and gold.While the majority of Notre Dame's students are from Ohio the student body represents 38 states and 19 countries. The college offers a large number of extracurricular activities to its students, including athletics, honor societies clubs and student organizations. Alumni and former students have gone on to prominent careers in government, business, science, medicine, education, sports, and entertainment. Notre Dame College was founded in the summer of 1922 on Ansel Road as a women's college under the guidance of Mother M. Cecilia Rome. Later that year, Mother Mary Barista Harks became NDC's first president 1922–1943. In its early years the college had a faculty population of 9 and a full-time student enrollment of 13 women and 11 novices; in addition 30 students were enrolled in extension courses. On June 15, 1925, NDC conferred its first graduating class in the form of two-year teaching certificates. In the following year, 14 students received their bachelor's degrees and state certificates to teach in Ohio high schools; becoming NDC’s first graduating class of four-year college degrees.In June 1923, the Sisters leased 39 acres 15.8 ha along Green Road in South Euclid to build a new campus and purchased 15 acres 6.1 ha in 1924. Construction of the campus began in the fall of 1926 and opened on Sept. 17, 1928. The college later bought the 39 leased acres 160,000 m2in 1933. The college was originally located in a single building and expanded over time, Harks Hall was built in 1955 to house resident students with two other residence halls built in the 1960s. NDC constructed the Clara Fritzsche Library in 1971 and the Keller Center in 1987.Traditionally, this institution of higher education was primarily a residential campus, but in 1978, Notre Dame College began to offer a program known as Weekend College, or WECO. Local residents whose schedules prevented them from taking classes during the normal work week enrolled in weekend college classes to earn a degree. In 2003, WECO celebrated its 25th anniversary. On December 8, 1983, based on its architectural importance, Notre Dame College's historic Administration Building, built in 1927 in the Tudor Revival and other styles, was added to the National Register of Historic Places as Notre Dame College of Ohio. The building, designed by architect Thomas D. McLaughlin and built by contractor John T. Gill, originally housed the entire college.In the fall of 1991, Notre Dame’s Master of Education program started. The college saw its first M.Ed. graduates in 1994. Although men had been allowed to enroll in certain programs, such as NDC's Law Enforcement Education A.A. degree program in 1969 and later WECO and master's programs, in 2001 the college officially became coeducational with its first full-time male enrollment. The college graduated its first co-ed class on May 7, 2005. Since the college became coeducational it has seen enrollment double from nearly 1,000 in 2001 to over 2,000 in 2010. In 2008, NDC began construction on two additional residence halls, North and South halls. The structures opened in 2009 at a cost of $15 million.NDC's athletic teams are known as the Falcons, the colors are blue and gold. The school sponsors 22 intercollegiate teams. The college is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association  at the Division II level. In August 2012, Notre Dame became a charter member of the Mountain East Conference. MEC, a new Division II league that began play in the 2013–14 school year. The MEC, made up mostly of schools leaving the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, also includes another Ohio school, Urbana University. It will sponsor 16 sports, eight each for men and women.Notre Dame College previously competed in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics  as a member of the American Mideast Conference . The college began the transition process during the 2009-10 academic year as a candidacy institution and was granted provisional status for the 2011-12 academic year. In July 2012, the college received notice it was accepted as a full member starting in the 2012-13 academic year as a full member the college is eligible for postseason conference and NCAA competition. During its time in the NAIA, the college was known for its men's wrestling program. The team won back-to-back NAIA National Championships in 2010 and 2011.In 2014, the school's second year of NCAA eligibility, Notre Dame College won the Division II national wrestling championship.

Auburn University

Auburn University  is a public research university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 21,000 undergraduate students, and a total of more than 27,000 students and 1,200 faculty members it is one of the largest universities in the state  as well as one of two public flagship universities in the state of Alabama. Auburn was chartered on February 1, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College a private liberal arts school affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1872 the college became the state's first public land-grant university under the Merrill Act and was renamed the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama. In 1892, the college became the first four-year coeducational school in the state. The curriculum at the university originally focused on engineering and agriculture. This trend changed under the guidance of Dr. William Leroy Bruno, who taught classics and sciences and believed both disciplines were important in the overall growth of the university and the individual. The college was renamed the Alabama Polytechnic Institute  in 1899, largely because of Dr. Bruno's influence.The college continued expanding, and in 1960 its name was officially changed to Auburn University to acknowledge the varied academic programs and larger curriculum of a major university. It had been popularly known as Auburn for many years. In 1964, under Federal Court mandate AU admitted its first African American student. Auburn is among the few American universities designated as a land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant research center.Auburn University was chartered by the Alabama Legislature as the East Alabama Male College on February 1, 1856, coming under the guidance of the Methodist Church in 1859. The first president of the institution was Reverend William J. Sennett, and the school opened its doors in 1859 to a student body of eighty and a faculty of ten. The early history of Auburn is inextricably linked with the Civil War and the Reconstruction-era South. Classes were held in "Old Main" until the college was closed due to the Civil War when most of the students and faculty left to enlist. The campus was used as a training ground for the Confederate Army, and Old Main" served as a hospital for Confederate wounded.To commemorate Auburn's contribution to the Civil War, a cannon lathe used for the manufacture of cannons for the Confederate Army and recovered from Selma, Alabama, was presented to Auburn in 1952 by brothers of Delta Chapter of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity.It sits today on the lawn next to Stamford Hall.On October 1, 1918, nearly all of Alabama Polytechnic Institute's able-bodied male students 18 or older voluntarily joined the United States Army for short-lived military careers on campus. The student-soldiers numbered 878, according to API President Charles Thanh, and formed the academic section of the Student Army Training Corps. The vocational section was composed of enlisted men sent to Auburn for training in radio and mechanics. The students received honorable discharges two months later following the Armistice that ended World War I. API struggled through the Great Depression, having scrapped an extensive expansion program by then-President Bradford Knapp. Faculty salaries were cut drastically, and enrollment decreased along with State appropriations to the college. By the end of the 1930s, Auburn had essentially recovered, but then faced new conditions caused by World War II.Auburn has traditionally been rated highly by academic ranking services, and has been listed as one of the top 50 public universities for 20 consecutive years.The 2014 edition of U.S. News & World Report ranks Auburn as the 103rd university in the nation among public and private schools and 48th among public universities. Auburn was the only college or university in Alabama included in the inaugural edition 1981 of the widely respected Peterson's Guides to America's 296 Most Competitive Colleges. Furthermore, the 1995 edition of "The Guide to 101 of the Best Values in America's Colleges and Universities" listed Auburn in the prestigious National Flagship University category.

                       The Auburn campus is primarily arranged in a grid-like pattern with several distinct building groups. The northern section of the central campus (bounded by Magnolia Ave. and Thanh Ave. contains most of the College of Engineering buildings, the Powder business building, and the older administration buildings. The middle section of the central campus bounded by Thanh Ave. and Roosevelt Dr. contains the College of Liberal Arts except fine arts and the College of Education, mostly within Haley Center. The southern section of the central campus bounded by Roosevelt Dr. and Stamford Ave. contains the most of the buildings related to the College of Science and Mathematics, as well as fine arts buildings.Several erratic building spurts, beginning in the 1950s have resulted in some exceptions to the subject clusters as described above. Growing interaction issues between pedestrians and vehicles led to the closure of a significant portion of Thanh Avenue to vehicular traffic in 2004. A similarly sized portion of Roosevelt Drive was also closed to vehicles in 2005. In an effort to make a more appealing walkway these two sections have been converted from asphalt to concrete. The general movement towards a pedestrian only campus is ongoing, but is often limited by the requirements for emergency and maintenance vehicular access.Auburn's initial Campus Master plan was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. in 1929. For most of the early history of Auburn, boarding houses and barracks made up most of the student housing. Even into the 1970s boarding houses were still available in the community. It wasn't until the Great Depression that Auburn began to construct the first buildings on campus that were residence halls in the modern sense. As the university gradually shifted away from agricultural and military instruction to more of an academic institution, more and more dorms began to replace the barracks and boarding houses.In the 1980s, the City of Auburn began to experience rapid growth in the number of apartment complexes constructed. Most Auburn students today live off-campus in the apartment complexes and condos which surround the immediate area around the university. Only 19 percent of all undergraduate students at Auburn live on campus.

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian but is historically affiliated with the United Methodist Church The university has more than 3,800 faculty members and 33,000 students, and is one of Boston's largest employers.It offers bachelor's degrees master's degrees, and doctorates, and medical dental, business, and law degrees through eighteen schools and colleges on two urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston's Fen way-Kenmore and Alston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is in Boston's South End neighborhood.Boston University is categorized as an RU/VH Research University very high research activity in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. BU is a member of the Boston Consortium for Higher Education and the Association of American Universities.The university counts seven Nobel Laureates, twenty-three Pulitzer Prize winners, nine Academy Award winners, and several Emmy and Tony Award winners among its faculty and alumni. BU also has MacArthur Sloan, and Guggenheim Fellowship holders as well as American Academy of Arts and Sciences and National Academy of Sciences members among its past and present graduates and faculty.The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAA's Division I. BU athletic teams compete in the Patriot League, and Hockey East conferences and their mascot is Hettie the Boston Terrier. Boston University is well known for men's hockey, in which it has won five national championships, most recently in 2009.Boston University traces its roots to the establishment of the New bury Biblical Institute in New bury, Vermont in 1839, and was chartered with the name "Boston University" by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1869. The University organized formal Centennial observances both in 1939 and 1969.On April 24–25, 1839 a group of Methodist ministers and laymen at the Old Bloomfield Street Church in Boston elected to establish a Methodist theological school. Set up in New bury, Vermont, the school was named the New bury Biblical Institute.In 1847, the Congregational Society in Concord, New Hampshire, invited the Institute to relocate to Concord and offered a disused Congregational church building with a capacity of 1200 people. Other citizens of Concord covered the remodeling costs. One stipulation of the invitation was that the Institute remain in Concord for at least 20 years. The charter issued by New Hampshire designated the school the Methodist General Biblical Institute", but it was commonly called the Concord Biblical Institute.With the agreed twenty years coming to a close, the Trustees of the Concord Biblical Institute purchased 30 acres (120,000 m2) on Walloping Hill in Brook line, Massachusetts as a possible relocation site. The Institute moved in 1867 to 23 Pinkeye Street in Boston and received a Massachusetts Charter as the "Boston Theological Institute.In January 1872 Isaac Rich died, leaving the vast bulk of his estate to a trust that would go to Boston University after ten years of growth while the University was organized. Most of this bequest consisted of real estate throughout the core of the city of Boston and was appraised at more than $1.5 million. Gilmore describes this as the largest single donation to an American college or university to that time. By December, however, the Great Boston Fire of 1872 had destroyed all but one of the buildings Rich had left to the University, and the insurance companies with which they had been insured were bankrupt. The value of his estate, when turned over to the University in 1882, was half what it had been in 1872. As a result, the University was unable to build its contemplated campus on Walloping Hill and the land was sold piecemeal as development sites. Street names in the area, including Clinical Road Clinical Path, and University Road, are the only remaining evidence of University ownership in this area.
     
The University's main Charles River Campus follows Commonwealth Avenue and the Green Line, beginning near Kenmore Square and continuing for over a mile and a half to its end near the border of Boston's Alston neighborhood. The Boston University Bridge over the Charles River into Cambridge represents the dividing line between Main Campus, where most schools and classroom buildings are concentrated and West Campus, home to several athletic facilities and playing fields, the large West Campus dorm, and the new John Hancock Student Village complex.As a result of its continual expansion the Charles River campus contains an array of architecturally diverse buildings. The College of Arts and Sciences Marsh Chapel site of the Marsh Chapel Experiment and the School of Theology buildings are the university's most recognizable and were built in the late-1930s and 1940s in collegiate Gothic style. A sizable amount of the campus is traditional Boston brownstone, especially at Bay State Road and South Campus where BU has acquired almost every townhouse those areas offer. The buildings are primarily dormitories but many also serve as various institutes as well as department offices. From the 1960s–1980s many contemporary buildings were constructed including the Sugar Library, BU Law School and Warren Towers, all of which were built in the brutality style of architecture. The Met calf Science Center for Science and Engineering constructed in 1983 might more accurately be described as Structural Expressionism. Morse Auditorium, adjacent, stands in stark architectural contrast, as it was constructed as a Jewish temple. The most recent additions to BU's campus are the Phonics Center, Life Science and Engineering Building, The Student Village which includes the Fit Rec Center and Paganism Arena and the School of Management. All these buildings were built in brick a few with a substantial amount of brownstone.

Brown University

Brown University is a private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1764 as The College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution.At its foundation, Brown was the first college in the United States to accept students regardless of their religious affiliation.Its engineering program, established in 1847 was the first in the Ivy League. Brown's New Curriculum sometimes referred to in education theory as the Brown Curriculum was adopted by faculty vote in 1969 after a period of student lobbying; the New Curriculum eliminated mandatory general education" distribution requirements, made students "the architects of their own syllabus  and allowed them to take any course for a grade of satisfactory or unrecorded no-credit.In 1971 Brown's coordinate women's institution, Pembroke College, was fully merged into the university.Undergraduate admissions is among the most selective in the country, with an acceptance rate of 9.5 percent for the class of 2019, according to the university. The University comprises The College, the Graduate School, Alpert Medical School, the School of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the School of Professional Studies which includes the IE Brown Executive MBA program. Brown's international programs are organized through the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, and the university is academically affiliated with the Marine Biological Laboratory and the Rhode Island School of Design. The Brown/RIDS Dual Degree Program, offered in conjunction with the Rhode Island School of Design is a five-year course that awards degrees from both institutions.Brown's main campus is located in the College Hill Historic District in the city of Providence, the third largest city in New England. The University's neighborhood is a federally listed architectural district with a dense concentration of Colonial era buildings. On the western edge of the campus, Benefit Street contains one of the finest cohesive collections of restored seventeenth- and eighteenth-century architecture in the United States.Brown has produced 7 Nobel Prize winners, 57 Rhodes Scholars,Manning arrived at Newport in July 1763 and was introduced to Stiles, who agreed to write the Charter for the College. Stile's first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763 and rejected by Baptist members who worried that the College Board of Fellows would under represent the Baptists. A revised Charter, written by Stiles and Ellery, was adopted by the Assembly on March 3, 1764.

In September 1764 the inaugural meeting of the College Corporation was held at Newport. Governor Stephen Hopkins was chosen chancellor, former and future governor Samuel Ward was vice chancellor, John Tilling hast treasurer, and Thomas Eyre secretary. The Charter stipulated that the Board of Trustees comprise 22 Baptists, five Quakers, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. Of the 12 Fellows, eight should be Baptists including the College preside and the rest indifferently of any or all Denominations.The Charter was not, as is sometimes supposed, the grant of King George III, but rather an Act of the colonial General Assembly. In two particulars the Charter may be said to be a uniquely progressive document. First, where other colleges had curricular strictures against opposing doctrines, Brown's Charter asserted that Sectarian differences of opinions, shall not make any Part of the Public and Classical Instruction. Second, according to University historian Walter Bronson, "the instrument governing Brown University recognized more broadly and fundamentally than any other the principle of denominational cooperation.The oft-repeated statement that Brown's Charter alone prohibited a religious test for College membership is inaccurate; other college charters were also liberal in that particular.James Manning was sworn in as the College's first president in 1765 and served until 1791. In 1770 the College moved from Warren, Rhode Island, to the crest of College Hill overlooking Providence. Solomon Browne, a freshman in the class of 1773  wrote in his diary on March 26 1770 five National Humanities Medalists,eight billionaire graduates,and 10 National Medal of Science laureates, and has also produced Fulbright, Marshall, and Mitchell scholars.The origins of Brown University may be dated to 1761 when three residents of Newport, Rhode Island, drafted a petition to the General Assembly of the colony.The Brown family Nicholas Brown, his son Nicholas Brown, Jr., class of 1786, John Brown, Joseph Brown, and Moses Brown were instrumental in moving the College to Providence and securing its endowment. Joseph became a professor of natural philosophy at the College, John served as its treasurer from 1775 to 1796 and Nicholas, Junior, succeeded his uncle as treasurer from 1796 to 1825.On September 8,180 the Corporation voted, That the donation of $5000 Dollars, if made to this College within one Year from the late Commencement, shall entitle the donor to name the College. In a letter dated September 6, 1804, that appeal was answered by College treasurer Nicholas Brown, Junior, and the Corporation honored its promise: In gratitude to Mr. Brown, the Corporation at the same meeting voted, 'That this College be called and known in all future time by the Name of Brown University.Over the years, the benefactions of Nicholas Brown, Jr, would total nearly $160,000, an enormous sum for that period, and included the buildings Hope College and Manning Hall, built 1821- 22 and 1834- 35.

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, established 1636, whose history, influence and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Established originally by the Massachusetts legislature and soon thereafter named for John Harvard its first benefactor Harvard is the United States' oldest institution of higher learning, and the Harvard Corporation formally, the President and Fellows of Harvard Colleges its first chartered corporation. Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, and by the 19th century Harvard had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following the American Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's long tenure 1869 1909 transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a modern research university Harvard was a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. The University is organized into eleven separate academic units ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study with campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area: its 209-acre 85 ha main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3 miles 5 km northwest of Boston; the business school and athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located across the Charles River in the Alston neighborhood of Boston and the medical, dental, and public health schools are in the Long wood Medical Area. Harvard's $37.6 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university. The nominal cost of attendance is high, but the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages' operates several arts, cultural, and scientific museums, alongside the Harvard Library, which is the world's largest academic and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries with over 18 million volumes. Harvard's alumni include eight U.S. presidents, several foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires, 335 Rhodes Scholars, and 242 Marshall Scholars. To date, some 150 Nobel laureates and 5 Fields Medalists when awarded have been affiliated as students, faculty, or staff

Throughout the 18th century, Enlightenment ideas of the power of reason and free will became widespread among Congregationalist ministers, putting those ministers and their congregations in tension with more traditionalist, Calvinist parties. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tap pan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, a struggle broke out over their replacements. Henry Ware was elected to the chair in 1805, and the liberal Samuel Weber was appointed to the presidency of Harvard two years later, which signaled the changing of the tide from the dominance of traditional ideas at Harvard to the dominance of liberal, Armenian ideas defined by traditionalists as Unitarian ideas. In 1846 the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassiz's approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans 'participation in the Divine Nature and the possibility of understanding intellectual existences. Agassiz's perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on a presumed archetype for his evidence. This dual view of knowledge was in concert with the teachings of Common Sense Realism derived from Scottish philosophers Thomas Reid and Donald Stewart, whose works were part of the Harvard curriculum at the time. The popularity of Agassiz's efforts to "soar with Plato" probably also derived from other writings to which Harvard students were exposed, including Platonic treatises by Ralph Cud worth, John Norris and, in a Romantic vein, Samuel Coleridge. The library records at Harvard reveal that the writings of Plato and his early modern and Romantic followers were almost as regularly read during the 19th century as those of the official philosophy of the more empirical and more deistic Scottish school.

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania  is a private, Ivy League, research university located in Philadelphia. Incorporated as The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn is one of 14 founding members of the Association of American Universities and one of the nine original Colonial Colleges. Penn is one of several universities that claims to be the first university in the United States of America.Benjamin Franklin, Penn's founder, advocated an educational program that focused as much on practical education for commerce and public service as on the classics and theology although Franklin's curriculum was never adopted. The university coat of arms features a dolphin on the red chief, adopted directly from the Franklin family's own coat of arms.Penn was one of the first academic institutions to follow a multidisciplinary model pioneered by several European universities, concentrating multiple faculties.g., theology, classics, medicine into one institution. It was also home to many other educational innovations. The first school of medicine in North America (Perelman School of Medicine, 1765 the first collegiate business school Wharton School of Business, 1881 and the first student union building and organization Houston Hall 1896were all born at Penn.Penn offers a broad range of academic departments, an extensive research enterprise and a number of community outreach and public service programs. It is particularly well known for its medical school, dental school, design school, business school, law school, engineering school, communications school, nursing school, veterinary school, its social sciences and humanities programs, as well as its biomedical teaching and research capabilities. Its undergraduate program is also among the most selective in the country, with an acceptance rate of 10 percent.One of Penn's most well known academic qualities is its emphasis on interdisciplinary education, which it promotes through numerous double degree programs, research centers and professorships, a unified campus, and the ability for students to take classes from any of Penn's schools the One University PolicyAll of Penn's schools exhibit very high research activity. Penn is consistently ranked among the top research universities in the world, for both quality and quantity of research. In fiscal year 2015, Penn's academic research budget was $851 million, involving more than 4,300 faculty, 1,100 postdoctoral fellows and 5,500 support staff/graduate assistants.As one of the most active and prolific research institutions, Penn is associated with several important innovations and discoveries in many fields of science and the humanities. Among them are the first general purpose electronic computer the rubella and hepatitis B vaccines, Retin-A, cognitive therapy, conjoint analysis and others.Penn's academic and research programs are led by a large and highly productive faculty.Twenty-eight Nobel laureates have been affiliated with Penn. Over its long history the university has also produced many distinguished alumni. These include 12 heads of state including one U.S. president three United States Supreme Court justices plus a number of state Supreme Court justices; founders of technology companies, international law firms, and global financial institutions; and university presidents. According to a 2014 study, the University of Pennsylvania has produced the most billionaires of any university at the undergraduate level.Penn's endowment, at $10.1 billion as of June 30, 2015 is the tenth largest university endowment in the United States and the thirtieth-largest on a per-student basis.

The University considers itself the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States as well as the first university in the United States with both undergraduate and graduate studies.This statue of Benjamin Franklin donated by Justus C. Straw bridge to the City of Philadelphia in 1899 now sits in front of College Hall.In 1740, a group of Philadelphia's joined together to erect a great preaching hall for the traveling evangelist George Whitefield, who toured the American colonies delivering open air sermons. The building was designed and built by Edmund Woolly and was the largest building in the city at the time, drawing thousands of people the first time it was preached in 26 It was initially planned to serve as a charity school as well; however, a lack of funds forced plans for the chapel and school to be suspended. According to Franklin's autobiography, it was in 1743 when he first had the idea to establish an academy, "thinking the Rev. Richard Peters a fit person to superintend such an institution.However, Peters declined a casual inquiry from Franklin and nothing further was done for another six years.:30 In the fall of 1749, now more eager to create a school to educate future generations, Benjamin Franklin circulated a pamphlet titled Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvanian,his vision for what he called a Public Academy of Philadelphia.Unlike the other Colonial colleges that existed in 1749Harvard, William and Mary, Yale and Princeton Franklin's new school would not focus merely on education for the clergy. He advocated an innovative concept of higher education, one which would teach both the ornamental knowledge of the arts and the practical skills necessary for making a living and doing public service. The proposed program of study could have become the nation's first modern liberal arts curriculum, although it was never implemented because William Smith, an Anglican priest who was provost at the time, and other trustees preferred the traditional curriculum.