Villanova University - Belle Air Yearbook (Villanova, PA)

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The CHRISTIAN IDEAL — transcending «ili purely economic and material aims: Not only to make a living — but to LIVE! Not only knowledge, but culture — which enables the poorest man to live richly, and the richest man to live more richly still! To the achievement of this ideal the School of Liberal Arts at Villanova is dedicated.

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INETY-THREE years ago the Augustinian Fathers from old Saint Augustine's Church in Philadelphia inaugurated the School of Arts and Philosophy and placed it under the patronage of Saint Thomas of Villanova. Rev. John F. Burns. O. S. A.. Ph. D. Dean of The School of Arts and Philosophy According to the best traditions of the Medieval Schoolmen, Father O'Dwyer, our first president, three assistant priests, and four law professors assumed charge of the student body number- ing six. In two years the student body had increased to forty-five; and the School of Arts and Philosophy needed but the recognition em- braced in the awardal of a State Charter on March 10, 1848, to fully raise the School to the rank of a College, and enable it to confer degrees. Because of the financial depression the college was forced to suspend classes in 1857. Classes were resumed after the close of the Civil War. And at this time French, German, History and Politics were added to the curriculum which at the outset included only courses in Cicero and Virgil, Greek, and a course in the classics. Throughout the remainder of the Nineteenth Century, the School of Arts and Philosophy strove to maintain its classical ideal, Veritas Unitas Caritas. During the first two decades of the following century three other schools branched forth from their classical parent. The Engineering School was founded in 1905, the Science School was