Franklin & Marshall College

Franklin College was chartered on June 6, 1787, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on the site of a former brewery.[13] It was named for Benjamin Franklin, who donated £200 to the new institution.[6] Founded by four prominent ministers from the German Reformed Church and the Lutheran Church, in conjunction with numerous Philadelphians, the school was established as a German college whose goal was "to preserve our present republican system of government" and "to promote those improvements in the arts and sciences which alone render nations respectable, great and happy." Its first trustees included five signers of the Declaration of Independence, two members of the Constitutional Convention, and seven officers of the Revolutionary War.[14]

The school's first classes were taught on July 16, 1787, with instruction taking place in both English and German, making it the first bilingual college in the United States.[7]

The first class consisted of 78 men and 36 women; Franklin was the first college in the United States to accept female students. "However, the coed policy was soon abandoned. Coeducation was not revived at the College for another 182 years."[10]

In July 1789, Franklin College went into debt because tuition income did not cover operating costs. Enrollment dwindled to a few students. In an effort to help the ailing school, an academy was established in 1807. For the next three decades, Franklin College and Franklin Academy limped along financially, with instructors supplementing their income with private tutoring.[7]

Having grown from a Reformed Church academy, Marshall College opened in 1836 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.[15] The school was named for the fourth Chief Justice of the United States John Marshall,[16] who had died the previous year. It was founded with the belief that harmony between knowledge and will was necessary to create a well-rounded person.

Upon opening, Marshall College had five students, which expanded to ten in the first year.[17] After significant difficulty in finding a proper academic to lead the nascent college, Dr. Frederick Augustus Rauch was installed as Marshall College's first president. Rauch was a recent immigrant to Pennsylvania from Germany, arriving in 1831 and teaching briefly at Lafayette College before being selected as Marshall College's president.[18] Dr. Rauch spoke little English and this came with great amusement and ridicule from critics.[18]

The school's small faculty grew in both size and status with the addition of John Williamson Nevin and another German scholar, church historian Philip Schaff. Frederick Augustus Rauch died suddenly in 1841, five years after becoming the college's founding president. Professor Nevin became the college's second president upon Rauch's sudden death in 1841.[19]

In July 1837, a riot erupted in Lancaster over abolitionism and slavery because Marshall College invited an abolitionist minister and professor, Jonathan Blanchard, to lecture. Blanchard was forced from his hotel room and the next morning, on his way to church, assaulted by a mob. A brawl between students and residents of Lancaster ensued.[20]

Marshall College gained national recognition and attracted students from a large geographical area, with some coming as far away as the West Indies. However, despite being initially well-funded, Marshall College began to experience financial difficulties of its own. By the late 1840s, financial support and enthusiasm among the local community had virtually disappeared and the school was in danger of closing its doors permanently.

In 1835, the school's debating society was renamed Diagnothian Literary Society. A further debate society was named Goethean, in honor of German philosopher and poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The two organizations merged in 1955, but became separate entities again in 1989. The Diagnothian Society is said to be the oldest student organization on campus.

On December 6, 1849, Franklin College and Marshall College began to consider merging as a way to secure the future of both institutions. Three years later, on June 7, 1853, the combined college was formally dedicated at Lancaster's Fulton Hall. The merger created an all-male Reformed Church institution that combined the resources of both schools. James Buchanan, four years prior to becoming the 15th President of the United States, was named president of the first Franklin & Marshall board of trustees.

The college's first two presidents, Emanuel Vogel Gerhart, a Marshall College graduate, and Nevin struggled to keep the young school afloat with an inadequate endowment. The hope of creating a reputable liberal arts institution fueled their efforts to push on. "No second- or third-rate school will do," said Nevin at the formal dedication of the united college. "We must either have no college at all or else have one that may be in all respects worthy of the name."

The citizens of Lancaster agreed to donate $25,000 towards the construction of a building for the merged college. A site on the east end of the city was proposed near where the new Lancaster County Prison was constructed in 1851. Two parallel streets in the area were renamed, one for Franklin and one for Marshall.[7] However, Buchanan ultimately rejected the proposal, saying "I do not think the best location for a literary institution should be between a court house and a jail." Instead, Buchanan and the board selected a site at the northwestern end of Lancaster. Known locally as "Gallows Hill," it was the former site of Lancaster's public executions and the highest point of ground in city. At the laying of the building's cornerstone in 1853, Henry Harbaugh, a Marshall College graduate and pastor of the Reformed Church of Lancaster noted that the city's lowest point was the prison. Harbaugh stated: "Thank God! The College stands higher than the jail. Education should be lifted up and let crime sink to the lowest depths!" The distinctive, tall-towered structure, designed in the Gothic Revival style, was dedicated on May 16, 1856, as "Recitation Hall." Recitation Hall came to be known as "Old Main" and the ground as "College Hill".[21]

Franklin and Marshall College took as its motto the Latin phrase Lux et Lex, which translates in English to "Light and Law". This reversed the Marshall College motto Lex et Lux. While legend has it that the switch was the result of an error by an engraver, it has since been suggested that the words deliberately reflect its namesakes Benjamin Franklin ("light") and John Marshall ("law").

The college seal depicts profiles of Franklin and Marshall looking to the left. It has been suggested that this represents the two leaders looking westward to the future expansion of the United States. Despite his nominal secondary priority, John Marshall is on the left of the seal and Benjamin Franklin is on the right. But Franklin's entire head is shown, while Marshall's profile is cut off and far in the background. Speculation has suggested that this demonstrates an unspoken tendency to favor Franklin's legacy over Marshall's. This preference became explicit when the school celebrated Benjamin Franklin's 300th birthday but ignored John Marshall's 250th birthday during consecutive semesters of the 2005–2006 academic year. The school recognized Marshall's milestone birthday only after a petition was signed by a significant portion of students and faculty.

Old Main, Goethean Hall, and Diagnothian Hall were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.[12]

In 1872, the Franklin and Marshall Academy, an all-male prep school, opened on campus. When it closed in 1943, it was the last prep school in America to be directly affiliated with a private college or university.

College Days, the first student newspaper, began publication in 1873. Later student newspapers included The College Student (1881–1914), The F&M Weekly (1891–1915), The Student Weekly (1915–1964), The Blue and The White (1990–1992), and The College Reporter (1964–present).

Oriflamme, the Franklin and Marshall College yearbook, was established in 1883.

In 1887, the centennial celebration of Franklin College was held. By then, over 100 students were enrolled at F&M.

1899 saw the formation of the college's first theatre group, the Franklin & Marshall Dramatic Association. The next year, it was renamed the Green Room Club. The club performed plays at Lancaster's Fulton Opera House. Because the college admitted only men, the female roles were played by local actresses. In 1937, the Green Room Theatre opened on campus. F&M alumni who have performed on the Green Room stage include Oscar-winning film director Franklin J. Schaffner and actors Roy Scheider and Treat Williams.

Old Main, Franklin & Marshall College, c. 1910

The college grew rapidly after World War I. Enrollment rose from around 300 students in 1920, to over 750 by 1930. In 1924, the architectural firm of Klauder and Day presented a master campus plan in the Colonial Revival style. Dietz-Santee dormitory, Meyran-Franklin dormitory, the Mayser Physical Education Center, and Hensel Hall were all completed within three years. Two additional dormitories were planned, but never constructed.

The sesquicentennial celebration of Franklin College was held in October 1937. Student enrollment by then was 800. A commemorative plaque celebrating the sesquicentennial and the signing of the United States Constitution was presented to the college by the Lancaster County Historical Society.

In 1939, the school began an aviation program in the new Keiper Liberal Arts Building. The Aeronautical Laboratory eventually became a government-sponsored flight school with 40 faculty members. Two airplanes were disassembled, moved into the building and reassembled on the third floor as flight simulators.

During World War II, Franklin and Marshall College was one of 131 colleges and universities that adopted the V-12 Navy College Training Program offering students a path to a Navy commission.[22]

By 1945, with most young men in the armed services, the college population dwindled to just under 500 students and 28 faculty members. The end of the war brought an influx of students pursuing degrees under the G.I. Bill. By 1946, enrollment had swelled to over 1,200 students (including four women in the pre-med program), causing a sudden critical shortage of faculty.

The 1950s and 1960s brought more college expansion and construction, including North Museum (1953); Marshall-Buchanan Residence Hall (1956), Appel Infirmary (1959), Schnader Residence Hall (1959), Mayser Physical Education Center (1962), Benjamin Franklin Residence Halls (1964), Pfeiffer Science Complex (now Hackman Physical Science Laboratory) (1967), Grundy Observatory (1967), Whitely Psychology Laboratory (1968), and Thomas Residence Hall (1968).

Like other academic institutions in the 1960s, Franklin and Marshall endured student protests during the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In April 1961, students rioted in front of the President's house and Hensel Hall, burning effigies and college property in protest of administration policies.

Martin Luther King Jr. visited the campus on December 12, 1963, three weeks after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and spoke on civil rights to an overflow crowd of more than 4,000 in Mayser Center, the school's gymnasium.[23]

In 1965 Robert Mezey, a 30-year-old visiting English instructor and poet, spoke on campus against the Vietnam War, and traveled to Washington, DC to march against the conflict. When he was accused of urging students to burn their draft cards, he was suspended with pay for a month while the college investigated. The incident generated controversy in the local press, with some residents ordering him to "get the hell out of Lancaster" and "go to Russia." Though Mezey was reinstated, he left the college the following spring. This became known as the "Mezey Affair."[24]

In the spring of 1969, black students protested the final examination of the history course "The Black Experience in America." Demanding an apology from the faculty for exploitation and an "A" in the course, the students argued that no white man can test them on their "blackness." The day before the exam, the professors agreed to the apology, but insisted that the students take the final exam. On May 22, the day of the exam, 40 black students—many of whom were not enrolled in the course—blocked the entrance to the exam room in Old Main. The professors attempted to hand out the exam, but the protesters confiscated them. Retreating to Goethean Hall next door, the professors and staff met to evaluate the situation. The protesters followed them to the building, blocked all doors and exits and held them hostage, declaring that they would not release the faculty members until they received an apology and immunity from punishment. The standoff lasted until midnight, when the professors agreed to allow the students to grade themselves. The students relented and released the hostages. The college's Professional Standards Committee later overturned the decision, declaring that the professors must grade their students.

In 1969, Franklin and Marshall College ended its formal affiliation with the United Church of Christ, becoming a secular school.

Franklin College had enrolled female students during its first few years in the eighteenth century, to its academy for teenagers. Franklin and Marshall College was an all-male institution. Women were permitted to attend summer school classes at F&M beginning in 1942. Continuing a trend at gender exclusive schools across the country, the Board of Trustees announced on January 17, 1969, that it had voted to admit women to F&M, a decision that was supported by male students. In the fall of 1969, 82 freshman women and 34 female transfer students were enrolled in F&M's first coeducational class.

In 1970, F&M students protested the administration's failure to rehire popular sociology instructor Anthony Lazroe and history instructor Henry Mayer. The protest, known as the "Lazroe-Mayer incident," culminated in an East Hall sit-in on April 30, where students took over the building for several hours.

On September 17, 1970, the Herman Art Center (named after Jacob Leon Herman, Class of 1916) was dedicated as part of Convocation, during which painter Jim Dine and sculptor Chaim Gross were awarded honorary degrees. The building was designed by Fisher, Nes and Campbell of Baltimore, MD, for the studio art program, but only half of the original design was constructed due to lack of funds.

In 1976, the Steinman College Center was constructed. The building—designed by Minoru Yamasaki, architect of New York's World Trade Center—originally housed the campus bookstore. Today it houses the College Reporter, the Oriflamme Yearbook, the College Entertainment Committee, the Phillips Museum of Art, Pandini's (a restaurant), the campus radio station WFNM, and a post office.

On April 29, 1976, the Green Room Theatre staged the world premiere of the John Updike play Buchanan Dying, about former President James Buchanan, a Lancaster resident and former president of the board of trustees. The production was directed by Edward S. Brubaker and starred Peter Vogt, an F&M alumnus. After the premiere, a reception was held at Wheatland, Buchanan's Lancaster residence.

On March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in nearby Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, experienced a partial meltdown, forcing the college to close briefly.

The college prospered during the 1980s. Construction projects initiated during the decade included Hartman Green (1982), French House (1984), Murray Arts House (1984), Ice Rink (1984), Spaulding Plaza (1985), and the Other Room Theatre (1985). Major renovations and expansions included Fackenthal Library (1983, renamed Shadek-Fackenthal Library, currently over 510,000 volumes), Stahr Hall (1985, renamed Stager Hall, 1988), the Black Cultural Center (1986), and Weis Residence Hall (1989).

On June 6, 1987, Franklin and Marshall College celebrated its bicentennial.

The 1990s brought a major expansion to the north side of campus with the construction of College Square in 1991. The multi-use complex houses a bookstore, laundromat, video store, restaurants and a food court. Other buildings from the decade include International House (1990), Martin Library of the Sciences (1990, currently over 61,000 volumes), and the Alumni Sports and Fitness Center (1995).

At the start of the 21st century, the college continued to grow with the addition of several new buildings. In 2003, the National Park Service established the Franklin and Marshall College Campus Historic District, listing 14 buildings (including Old Main, Goethean Hall, and Diagnothian Hall, previously listed in 1975) and three architectural features.[25]

On January 19, 2006, the college celebrated the tricentennial of Benjamin Franklin's birth. Franklin scholar Walter Isaacson gave a lecture, and a full-page ad praising Franklin and promoting the college was purchased in The New York Times.

On March 10, 2010, it was announced that then current president John Fry would be leaving the college to become the president of Drexel University on August 1, 2010. The college immediately began a search for a new president for the fall semester.[26] Alumnus John Burness took a one-year leave from his job at Duke University as senior vice president for public affairs and government relations to head the college as interim president.[27]

On November 16, 2010, Daniel R. Porterfield was announced as the new president, effective March 1, 2011. Porterfield came to F&M from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where he served as a senior vice president. He became the 15th president in the college's history.[28]

Since 2011 hundreds of talented, underserved high school students from across the country have taken part in F&M College Prep, a summer immersion program that offers an introduction to college life. Each of these participants have gone on to college, and more than 90% have gone on to enroll at four-year colleges, including Harvard, Brown, Stanford, Georgetown, and Bucknell universities, the University of Texas-Austin, Pomona College, Trinity College, Spelman College, and Franklin & Marshall.[29] The Office of Student and Post-Graduate Development offering life skills workshops, job-search boot camps for seniors and recent grads, on-campus recruiting and alumni programming, opened in 2012 and enjoys wide support from students and alumni.[30] The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded F&M a $700,000 grant for its Faculty Center, which was launched in 2013 to improve support for faculty in their roles as researchers and educators.[31]

On May 1, 2014, Franklin & Marshall College was named as one of 55 colleges under review or investigation by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, for their policies or practices for handling sexual assault reports.[32] Prior to the public announcement, President Porterfield sent an email to address the impending OCR "fact-finding investigation."[33]

Franklin College:

• Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1787–1815)
• Operated as an academy by Board of Trustees (1816–1853)

Marshall College:

• Frederick Augustus Rauch (1836–1841)
• The Rev. John Williamson Nevin (1841–1853)

Franklin and Marshall College:

• The Rev. Emanuel Vogel Gerhart '38 (1854–1866)
• John Williamson Nevin (1866–1876)
• The Rev. Thomas Gilmore Apple '50 (1877–1889)
• The Rev. John Summers Stahr '67 (1889–1909)
• Henry Harbaugh Apple '89 (1910–1935)
• John Ahlum Schaeffer '04 (1935–1941)
• H. M. J. Klein '93 (1941) (acting president)
• Theodore August Distler (1941–1954)
• William Webster Hall (1955–1957)
• Frederick deWolf Bolman, Jr. (1957–1962)
• Anthony R. Appel '35 (1962) (resigned after one week)
• G. Wayne Glick (1962) (acting president)
• Keith Spalding (1963–1983)
• James Lawrence Powell (1983–1988)
• A. Richard Kneedler '65 (1988–2002)
• John Anderson Fry (2002–2010)
• John Burness '67 (2010–2011) (interim president)
• Daniel R. Porterfield (2011–2018)
• Barbara K. Altmann (2018– )

In the U.S. News & World Report annual college rankings for 2023-24, Franklin and Marshall College tied for 35th in National Liberal Arts Colleges, 25th in Best Undergraduate Teaching, 52nd in Top Performers on Social Mobility, and 33rd in Best Value Schools.[38] In the similar Forbes rankings, Franklin and Marshall ranked 101st in overall top colleges, 57th in private colleges, 24th in Liberal Arts Universities, and 43rd in the Northeast.[39] Washington Monthly ranked Franklin and Marshall 21st in their list of Liberal Arts Colleges.[40]

Franklin and Marshall's admissions process is rated as "more selective" by U.S. News & World Report. For the class of 2026, F&M received about 9,000 applications and had an acceptance rate of 36%.[38] The acceptance rate for F&M, for the most recent class of 2027, was 30%.[41]

F&M also boasts several student-run clubs, most notably men's and women's rugby, both of which have become serious contenders for regional, and national championships each season and which compete in the Eastern Pennsylvania Rugby Union. Ultimate frisbee is also a popular club sport on campus, fielding both a men's and a women's team. In 2009, the college water polo team was revived and currently competes in the American Water Polo League and the Collegiate Water Polo League.[54]

Sponaugle-Williamson Field

Location	Harrisburg Pike Lancaster, PA 17604-3003
Owner	Franklin & Marshall College
Operator	Franklin & Marshall College
Capacity	4,000
Surface	Kentucky bluegrass
Construction
Broke ground	1920
Opened	1920
Tenants
F&M Diplomats (NCAA)

Sponaugle–Williamson Field is a stadium for the outdoor athletic teams of the college. It was built in 1920 as Williamson Field, named after S. Woodrow Sponaugle, who coached football and basketball and was the athletic director at F&M for 15 years. He shares the stadium's dedication with Henry S. Williamson, who was a trustee of the college from 1894 to 1917.[55]

Shadek Stadium is used for football and lacrosse. Construction began in the fall of 2016 and ended in the fall of 2017. The stadium was named after the Shadek family, a family prominent at the school. The turf field in the stadium, Gilburg Field, is named after football player and former F&M coach Tom Gilburg. In the first football game played in the stadium, the Diplomats defeated Centennial Conference rivals Dickinson College 56–0.[56]