Georgetown College suffered from continual financial difficulties during its early years, but was bolstered when it received a
federal charter in 1815. The Medical School was founded in 1850, and the Law
Department (now Law Center) in 1870. The school nearly collapsed during the U.S. Civil War, as most of the students left to fight for both sides. After the
war, students chose to commemorate the actions of their predecessors by adopting blue and
gray as the official school colors. The school did not begin to recover
until the presidency of Reverend Patrick Healy, S.J. (1868-1878), the first African-American to head an American university. Healy is credited with reforming the undergraduate
curriculum and the Medical and Law programs, as well as creating the Alumni Association.The School of Nursing was founded in 1903. The School of Foreign Service
(SFS) was founded in 1919 by Father Walsh in response to the need for institutions to train
American youth for leadership in foreign commerce and diplomacy. The School of Languages and Linguistics (now Faculty of
Languages and Linguistics) was organized in 1949. The Georgetown School of Business was
organized out of the SFS in 1955. It was renamed for Robert E. McDonough in 1999.In December 2003, Georgetown completed its Third Century Campaign, joining only a handful of universities worldwide to raise
at least $1 billion dollars for financial aid, chair endowment, and new capital projects.In the Fall of the 2004 semester, Georgetown announced the appointment of former-CIA director George Tenet to the University teaching staff. Tenet joined other distinguished Georgetown faculty
including former National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, former Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright, Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick, former Ambassador at Large Robert L. Gallucci, and former Prime Minister of Spain Jose Maria Aznar.