The Founding of Roosevelt University: The Legacy of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt
About Roosevelt University

Roosevelt University was named after Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt in recognition of their democratic ideals and achievements. For over the last 60 years, Roosevelt University has carried on Franklin and Eleanor’s legacy by making higher education available to academically qualified students from all social, racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. The University has also balanced a rigorous education with an unwavering commitment to social equality and justice.

What were some of Franklin and Eleanor’s achievements?

Franklin Roosevelt (1882 -1945) proposed and Congress enacted upon recovery legislation during the depth of the Great Depression when he was elected to his first term in office in 1932. With an increase of factory closings, farm foreclosures, and bank failures, bold new programs were created to bring recovery to business and agriculture, relief to the unemployed and to those in danger of losing their farms and homes. More legislation followed in 1935 that included the establishment of the Works Projects Administration (WPA) that provided jobs not only for laborers but also for artists, writers, musicians, and authors. Also introduced during this time was the Social Security Act, which provided unemployment compensation and retirement and survivor benefits.

During FDR’s presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) used the position of first lady to bring public awareness to various social causes. Eleanor brought attention to civil rights, the need for low-income housing, the hardships of the unemployed, and the importance for women’s political involvement and equality.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt inspired people to believe change was possible. They gave people hope for a better future not only for their generation but for future generations as well.

With the passing of FDR in 1945, most Americans still lived in a country often divided along religious and racial barriers. In Chicago, as in many other places in the country, one sign of that discrimination was the practice of placing quotas on admission to colleges and universities for black people, Jews, immigrants, and women.

During the time that the country was mourning the death of FDR, Edward J. Sparling, president of the Central YMCA College, refused to provide his board of trustees with demographic data about the student body. He believed the information would become the basis of a quota system and would limit those seeking enrollment. Sparling was quickly fired and an angry faculty responded by voting to abandon the College and create a new one by a margin of 62 to 1. During this time, the students were asked to join in this new endeavor and approved by a vote of 488 to 2. A feeling of liberation swept over the faculty and students.

The College under President Sparling’s leadership was quickly established with financial help from Marshall Field III, the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union and other organizations and individuals. Originally chartered as Thomas Jefferson College on April 17, 1945, the name was changed to Roosevelt five days later when Eleanor granted President Sparling’s request to honor FDR’s memory. The University was later renamed after Franklin and Eleanor in 1959.

Eleanor worked vigorously in supporting the school’s early success. In November 1945, she evoked the American dream when she formally dedicated Roosevelt College. She noted that its purpose was to “provide educational opportunities for persons of both sexes and of various races on equal terms and to maintain a teaching faculty which is both free and responsible for the discovery and dissemination of the truth.”

FDR envisioned a world where people need to be allowed to enjoy the Four Freedoms: The Freedom of Speech, The Freedom to Worship, The Freedom from Want, and The Freedom from Fear. He saw these four ideals as an inspiration for people to be productive and engaged citizens. As Eleanor said, they guide us as we seek to attain “the enlightenment of the human spirit.”

Roosevelt University values the role that higher education needs to play not only for the success of the individual but also for society as a whole. The American dream of opportunity, civic engagement and democratic values, depends upon many things, but the integrating factor is the education of the people so that the principles upon which the country was founded will survive and prosper in the future.

The death of FDR and the birth of a college in 1945 provided an opportunity to continue a legacy and to influence and inspire generations to come.