Georgetown University (then Georgetown College) received its charter from Congress, allowing it to award degrees, in 1815. Congressman William Gaston of North Carolina, Georgetown's first student, helped the college receive its charter.
Early charter debate
In 1789, wary of government interference in education, Archbishop Carroll declined to have Georgetown formally chartered. As a college in Washington, D.C., Georgetown needed a charter from Congress in order to award degrees. By the end of 1814, Archbishop Carroll and then Georgetown President John Grassi decided to formally seek a charter for the college.
Pursuing a charter
At that time, the relationship between colleges and the government had changed: “a college was no longer regarded as an arm of the state for the training of a provincial elite and the safeguarding of public character but as a form of private enterprise, as independent as any commercial corporation.”1 Additionally, the Society of Jesus had been restored by papal order, Georgetown’s first student, William Gaston had been elected to Congress, and President James Madison supported religious and Catholic rights.2
In January 1815, Congressman Gaston of North Carolina presented a petition from Georgetown to Congress asking for the authority to finally confer degrees. On March 1, 1815, President Madison signed the following bill into law:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall and may be lawful for such persons as now are, or from time to time may be, the President and Directors of the College of Georgetown, within the District of Columbia, to admit any of the students belonging to said College, or other person meriting academical honors, to any degree in the faculties, arts, sciences, and liberal professions, to which persons are usually admitted in other Colleges or Universities of the United States; and to issue in an appropriate form the diplomas or certificates which may be requisite to testify to the admission to such degrees.3
Two years later, Georgetown awarded its first Bachelor of Arts degrees to Charles and George Dinnies at Georgetown’s first Commencement in 1817.
- 1Emmett Curran, Robert. “The Bicentennial History of Georgetown University: From Academy to University” 2010, p.75.
- 2“Georgetown in 1816: An Online exhibit from the University Archives-Act Concerning the College of Georgetown in the District of Columbia, March 1, 1815.” Georgetown University Library Online Exhibition.
- 3“An Act Concerning the College of Georgetown in the District of Columbia,” Georgetown University Governance.
