The university provides special admission opportunities and scholarships to the Widener School of Law–Harrisburg Campus. Also available are early admission assurance programs with Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Temple University School of Medicine. In cooperation with the Pennsylvania State University, Columbia University, and Thomas Jefferson University, West Chester University offers a 3–2 dual-degree program combining liberal arts, physics, and engineering. Paraprofessional studies are available in law, medicine, and theology. Students take part in games similar to a field day to win Banana Day T-shirts, from push-up competitions to banana eating contests.ġ22 in Top Performers on Social Mobility (tie)Īt the undergraduate level, the university offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Fine Arts, and Bachelor of Music degrees. Banana Day was conceptualized by WCU senior, Rodolfo P. In April each year, students celebrate Banana Day, on which a gorilla, Rammy, and many others give out bananas across the entire campus. The Underground Railroad Network to Freedom recognized the Frederick Douglass Institute for its great work in understanding the history of the underground railroad. It has been named a national historic landmark by the U.S. Now, the university has the Frederick Douglass Institute on its campus as well as a statue of Douglass. The lecture took place on February 1, 1895. Nineteen days before his death, Frederick Douglass gave his last public lecture at West Chester University.

Spencer Poetry Awards recognize undergraduate achievement in formal poetry. It has established a poetry center that sponsors readings and an annual book competition oriented toward formal poetry. Its annual conference on form and narrative in poetry began in 1995 and is devoted to New Formalism. West Chester is recognized for its formal poetry program. Along with its new name- West Chester University of Pennsylvania-the institution acquired a new system of governance and the opportunity to expand its degree programs. With passage of the State System of Higher Education bill, West Chester became one of the 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education on July 1, 1983. They include Ruby Jones Hall, Recitation Hall and the Old Library. The buildings, with the exception of Anderson Hall and Philips Memorial Building (named after long-time principal George Morris Philips), were each built with local Chester County serpentine stone. The campus quad located on North Campus appears on the National Register of Historic Places, and is called the West Chester State College Quadrangle Historic District, featuring WCU's historic buildings. In 1960, as the Commonwealth paved the way for liberal arts programs in its college system, West Chester was renamed West Chester State College, and two years later introduced the liberal arts program that turned the one-time academy into a comprehensive college. West Chester became West Chester State Teachers College in 1927 when Pennsylvania initiated a four-year program of teacher education. In 1913, West Chester became the first of the normal schools to be owned outright by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The normal school admitted its first class, consisting of 160 students, on September 25, 1871. As the state began to take increasing responsibility for public education, the academy was transformed into West Chester Normal School or West Chester State Normal School, still privately owned and state certified. The university traces its roots to the West Chester Academy, a private, state-aided school that existed from 1812 to 1869. Entry to Old Main Building, reconstructed on High Street opening onto the Quadrangle

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