John B. Creeden

Following the end of the First World War, enrollment in all of Georgetown's schools increased greatly, especially in the Medical, Dental, and Law Schools. This put the existing facilities under significant strain.[13] Creeden responded by buying up property bounded by 35th, 37th, P, and N Streets, adjacent to the main campus. He also sought to enhance the national reputation of the university by creating a Georgetown Publicity Bureau.[14] Together with these concrete improvements, he established an endowment association, whose goal was to raise $5 million in two years,[2] equivalent to $97 million in 2022.[15] This represented the first time in Georgetown's history that an endowment was sought.[2]

The most ambitious of Creeden's visions was a vast expansion of the built campus known as the "Greater Georgetown Plan". This would involve constructing a new neo-Gothic quadrangle composed of several buildings on the site of the existing athletic field next to Healy Hall. This quadrangle would be a new home for the Medical and Dental Schools, a dormitory, a classroom building, and a science building. Creeden also planned to build a stadium nearby that could hold twenty thousand spectators. This grand plan never came to fruition because the Depression in 1921 made funding unavailable.[16]

Creeden in 1920

At the commencement ceremony of 1919, Creeden announced that Georgetown Preparatory School would move to a separate campus at the start of the following academic year.[17] Construction of the North Bethesda, Maryland, campus was begun under his predecessor, Donlon.[18] The purpose of this relocation was to remove the younger students from what the Jesuits viewed as the indecent temptations of the city. It was also part of the larger movement among Jesuit institutions in the United States, facing pressure from the Association of American Universities, to create separate four-year high school programs and four-year college programs, instead of combined seven-year programs.[17] Despite the move away from Georgetown's collegiate campus, Creeden continued to take an active interest in the administration of the preparatory school, frequently visiting and meeting with the headmaster to set policies.[19]

Following the renaming of Georgetown's School of Foreign Service for Edmund A. Walsh in 1958, Henri Wiesel, a Jesuit contemporary and acquaintance of both Creeden and Walsh, wrote to the archivist of Georgetown University that, though Walsh was instrumental in the creation of the school, the true founder of the School of Foreign Service was Creeden. He said that Creeden envisioned the establishment of such a school and frequently discussed the subject, at a time when Walsh was still studying theology as part of his Jesuit formation. His motivation for the creation of the school was to bring the Society of Jesus into contact with prominent men in government and finance.[20]

Creeden sought to establish the school at the start of his presidency, but this goal was delayed by the First World War.[21] Another Jesuit contemporary verified that Creeden worked closely with Fr. Constantine McGuire to present the plan for the School of Foreign service to the board of regents in June 1918.[22] Opening in 1919, the school quickly became well received in government circles in Washington, and Creeden sought to establish an endowment for it. He recruited Walsh,[23] whose personality was more suited to public life, to recruit faculty and students and to be the face of the school,[21] and appointed him as the first regent of the school.[9] In recognition of Creeden's role in the founding of the School of Foreign Service, the president of Venezuela, Victorino Márquez Bustillos, awarded him the Medal of Public Instruction in 1920, the highest educational honor bestowed by Venezuela on a foreign citizen. He was presented with the award during the Venezuelan Minister of Public Education's visit to Washington.[24]

At this time, Georgetown Law School was located in Judiciary Square in downtown Washington.

The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) gave Georgetown Law School a quality rating of B, prompting Creeden to undertake a major reorganization of the governance of the school. In the spring of 1920, he obtained the consent of the board of regents to effectively terminate the semi-autonomous status of the law school, bringing it under closer control of the university leadership. This involved appointing a Jesuit regent to ensure the school was conforming to the tradition and mission of the university (a reform Creeden and a later president, Coleman Nevils, implemented at all of the university's professional schools), and creating an executive faculty that consisted of the president, the dean of the law school, and six professors chosen by the president.[25]

In order to improve the quality of the school, he also had new bylaws adopted, which significantly raised the standards for admission to the law school. Applicants were required to have at least completed four years of high school.[25] By 1925, this standard was raised to require at least two years of college, with courses in history, economics, political science, ethics, logic, and rhetoric. With the support of Dean George E. Hamilton, in October 1921, day classes were offered for the first time (while until then, there were evening classes designed for part-time students), and several full-time professors were hired to supplement the part-time faculty that maintained active law practices. Evening students were required to study for four years, instead of the previous three. These reforms resulted in the AALS upgrading Georgetown's rating to an A in 1925. Creeden and other administrators anticipated a decrease in enrollment due to these heightened standards, but this decrease was smaller than expected, and returned to previous levels within several years.[26]