Roosevelt University

Roosevelt University is a national leader in educating socially conscious citizens for active and dedicated lives as leaders in their professions and their communities.

The University’s student-centered faculty and staff inspire academically qualified students from diverse backgrounds and all ages to benefit from rigorous higher education and professional development opportunities in the dynamic Chicago metropolitan environment.

Deeply rooted in practical scholarship and principles of social justice expressed as ethical awareness, leadership development, economic progress and civic engagement, Roosevelt University encourages community partnerships and prepares its diverse graduates for responsible citizenship in a global society.

HISTORY
Roosevelt’s founding in 1945 as an independent, nonsectarian, coeducational institution of higher learning was a feat requiring considerable courage. The new school had no campus, no library, and no endowment. But its founders had an ideal that enabled them to overcome great obstacles. They were determined to make higher education available to all students who could qualify academically. Considerations of social or economic class, racial or ethnic origin, sex, or age were, and remain, irrelevant in determining who is admitted. Originally named Thomas Jefferson College, the new school was soon renamed Roosevelt College in recognition of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s democratic ideals and values. Members of the early advisory board included Marian Anderson, Pearl Buck, Ralph Bunche, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Gunnar Myrdal, and Albert Schweitzer.

The Roosevelt experiment was a success from the start. Independent and unencumbered by tradition, Roosevelt was free to pioneer new educational programs and democratic decision making. Student representatives are voting members of the University Senate; and faculty, alumni, and student representatives serve on the Board of Trustees. While insisting that its students meet the same high standards of academic excellence that characterize any first-rate university, Roosevelt has kept its doors open to the residents of the inner city, to students who work full-time to support themselves, and to students who are the first members of their families to attend college. Current enrollment is approximately 7,700 students, of whom about one third are pursuing graduate studies. A large percentage of Roosevelt students also work either full-time or part-time.

Roosevelt offers programs and services that place the needs of its students uppermost in its priorities. Class schedules are flexible. Courses are offered from early morning until late at night as well as on weekends, and class sizes are small. The Roosevelt faculty, numbering more than 600 full-time and part-time members, is accessible to students. An impressive number of the faculty publish books and articles, conduct important research, and perform in the world’s great concert halls. But first and foremost, Roosevelt professors are dedicated teachers who enjoy teaching and excel at it.

WEBSITE
WWW.ROOSEVELT.EDU

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