American University

American University was established by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892, and chartered on February 24, 1893, primarily through the efforts of Methodist bishop John Fletcher Hurst, who also chose the university's site on the rural periphery of Washington, D.C. . The university was founded under the auspices of the United Methodist Church with the goal of creating a national institution that would train future public servants .

President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone of the first building in 1902, though the university did not open for instruction until October 1914, with 28 graduate students—19 of whom were graduate students and five women, a notable figure at a time before women could vote . The first commencement was held in 1915, and the first degrees (one master's and two doctorates) were awarded in 1916 . In 1915, an African American student won a fellowship to pursue a doctorate .

During World War I, the university allowed the U.S. military to use its grounds for testing, establishing Camp Leach and Camp American University, which became the birthplace of the United States' chemical weapons program and a site for chemical weapons testing . The campus also hosted the U.S. Navy Bomb Disposal School during World War II, and the Victory ship SS American Victory was named in the university's honor for its wartime contributions .

Undergraduates were first admitted in 1925 with the establishment of the College of Liberal Arts (now the College of Arts and Sciences) . The School of Public Affairs was founded in 1934, partly to train federal employees in new methods of public administration during the New Deal, with President Franklin Roosevelt speaking at its launch . The innovative Washington Semester Program, founded in 1947, began drawing students from around the nation to participate in semester internships in the nation's capital .

In 1949, the university merged with the Washington College of Law, which had been founded in 1896 as the first law school in the District created by women for women . By that same year, though Washington, D.C. was still a segregated city, the AU community included over 400 African American students .

The 1950s brought further expansion. The business program, launched in 1924, became the School of Business Administration in 1955 (now the Kogod School of Business) . In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower broke ground for the School of International Service, urging the new school to remember that "the waging of peace demands the best we have" . The school opened in 1958 .

A pivotal moment came in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy delivered his "A Strategy of Peace" commencement address, calling on the Soviet Union to work with the United States on a nuclear test ban treaty . Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, AU students joined national protests against the Vietnam War, often blocking the cars of Washington policymakers as they passed the campus .

The university continued to grow and establish new programs. The School of Communication was established in 1984 . In 1986, the university bought the Immaculata Campus (later Tenley Campus) to alleviate space problems . Construction of the Sports and Convocation Center was completed in 1988 .

The 1990s brought major cleanup efforts to remove chemical weapon remnants from World War I testing buried beneath the campus, particularly a cache of over 200 mustard-gas shells . In 1997, American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates signed a contract with AU for academic management .

The 21st century brought significant campus development. The Katzen Arts Center and American University Museum opened in 2005, bringing all visual and performing arts programs into one 130,000-square-foot space and featuring the Washington area's largest university facility for exhibiting art . The new School of International Service building broke ground in 2007 and was completed in 2010 .
Cornelius M. Kerwin, a long-time AU administrator, became the first alum to serve as president in 2007 and guided the university through implementing its strategic plan . In 2017, Sylvia Mathews Burwell, former HHS secretary, became the 15th president and the first woman to serve in that role . That same year, Taylor Dumpson became AU's first Black female student body president, though her first days in office were marked by racist incidents that led to a landmark lawsuit against neo-Nazi website founder Andrew Anglin .
In 2024, Jonathan Alger became president, and the university maintained its R1 research classification, continuing its legacy as a leader in public service and international education . Throughout its history, 11 U.S. presidents have visited AU and six have served on its board of trustees .