In 1867, Daniel Drew (1797-1879), a financier and railroad tycoon, endowed his antebellum estate in Madison for the purpose
of establishing the Drew Theological Seminary. To this day, the Theological Seminary continues to graduate candidates
for service in the ministry, however, the institution grew to include a liberal
arts curriculum.The College admitted its first class of 12 students in 1928, after the trustees of the
Drew Theological Seminary voted to accept a gift of $1.5 million from Arthur and Leonard Baldwin to build and endow a College, and to change the name of the institution to Drew University.
In 1955, a Graduate School became the third of the university's degree granting
entities.From its beginnings, the College has honored its founders' wish that it be ecumenical in its choice of faculty and students.
The Baldwins also asked that the new institution be named
Brothers College in recognition of their extra ordinary
relationship. The name was later changed to the
College of Liberal Arts, but its major academic building still bears the
College's original name.In its early years, Drew provided educational opportunities for women, through enrollment in religious classes. However, for a
brief time, Drew became an all-male institution, during the 1930's until 1942.During the Second World War, the draft threatened to take too
many of Drew's students and the college of liberal arts responded by enrolling both women and US Navy recruits, through a V-12 program. At this time, Drew became coeducational.During the 1970's, the College also established, with generous assistance from the Mellon Foundation, a now widely
imitated freshman seminar program. It allows first-year students to participate, with faculty who also serve as their academic
advisers, in intensive study of a topic of mutual interest.Interdisciplinary study became a focus of the curriculum as well, with the creation of majors in behavioral studies, and Russian studies, and minors in such
fields as American studies, arts administration,
business management, and writing.Thomas H. Kean (b. 1935),
former Governor of New Jersey (1982-1990) and Co-Chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States, is currently the President of Drew University, serving in this post since leaving the governor's office in 1990. President Kean announced earlier in 2004 that he will
be leaving the position at the end of the academic year in 2005.During his tenure as president, Kean has succeeded in adding new faculty in African, Asian, Russian, and Islamic studies,
significantly increased opportunities for students to study abroad, increased applications from prospective students, nearly
tripled the school's endowment, and committed more than $60 million to construction of new buildings and renovation of older
buildings—principally student residence halls.Drew University is home to the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, and the Methodist Archives.