Opinion ID: 2350429
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Georgetown University

Text: In 1789, the year in which the Constitution was ratified and the federal government created, Georgetown University was established. Its founder was John Carroll, a Jesuit priest, a friend of George Washington and later, as Bishop of Baltimore, the first Roman Catholic prelate in the nation. On this academy, he declared, rests all my hope for the flourishing of our holy religion in the United States. In 1805 Georgetown College, as it was then known, was formally committed to the control and guidance of the Society of Jesus. [3] In 1815, Congress bestowed on Georgetown College the first university charter to be granted by the federal government. Act of March 1, 1815, 6 Stat. 152. This charter was signed by James Madison as president of the United States. By decree of the Holy See in 1833, Georgetown College was given the status of a Pontifical University. This grant from the Pope empowered the University to confer the highest ecclesiastical degrees in Philosophy and Sacred Theology. To this day, Georgetown remains one of only two universities in the nation with this distinction. In 1844, Georgetown College was incorporated by a special Act of Congress. Act of June 10, 1844, 6 Stat. 912. Its charter was amended in 1966 to allow it to operate as a nonprofit corporation and to adopt the name Georgetown University. Act of Oct. 4, 1966, Pub. L. No. 89-631, 80 Stat. 877. Today, approaching the bicentennial it shares with the ratification of our Constitution, the college Carroll founded on the banks of the Potomac is a major private, co-educational university and the oldest Roman Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States. Its enrollment consists of roughly 10,000 students in several undergraduate, graduate and professional schools. Georgetown University also runs a hospital and sponsors research institutes and other educational endeavors.