History
Heritage
York College of Pennsylvania traces its institutional lineage to the York County Academy, which received its charter from the General Assembly of Pennsylvania on September 20, 1787, for the purpose of offering courses of instruction in "the learned and foreign languages, English, mathematics, and other useful branches of literature." The Reverend John Campbell of St. John's Episcopal Church played a leading role in the Academy's establishment and the early years of its operation. For well over a century the York County Academy functioned as a center of classical studies and the fine arts, educating thousands of persons who became leaders in local and national affairs as well as in the professions of education, medicine, and law.
In 1929, the Academy merged with the York Collegiate Institute, a non-denominational sister institution which had been founded in 1873 by Samuel Small, a prominent businessman and philanthropist. In 1941, the trustees accepted the recommendation of the Institute's President, Dr. Lester F. Johnson, that the charter be amended to provide for a two-year liberal arts program at the junior college level. The new institution adopted the name York Junior College and appointed Dr. Johnson as its first president.
In the 1950s, the Junior College outgrew its physical facilities in the center of downtown York, and its academic capabilities advanced beyond the boundaries of a two-year program. Through the generosity of the trustees and other community leaders, a 57-acre site for a new campus was acquired and fund raising began to construct an entirely new and larger complex of campus buildings. In October of 1965, the new campus was dedicated, with words of commendation from then-Governor Scranton that the splendid new buildings testified to "private support and self-help at the local level." The new facilities, along with yet another successful capital campaign, also made feasible the extension of the curriculum to a full bachelor's degree program in 1968, leading once again to a change in the institution's name, this time to York College of Pennsylvania.
In the last thirty-five years the College has continued its advancement as a center for learning, scholarship, public service, and cultural affairs. Curricular resources have grown notably, providing increasingly diverse and sophisticated educational offerings, including master's degree level courses. Total enrollment now exceeds 5000, with students coming from a widening geographic sphere. Yet, the full-time undergraduate enrollment of about 4,300 students, the emphasis on teaching excellence, and the increasingly high proportion of students residing on campus permit the preservation of the personal collegiate atmosphere that has characterized the York educational experience for more than two hundred years.
