The story
Wayne State University was established in 1868 as the Detroit Medical College by five returning Civil War veterans. The college charter from 1868 was signed by founder Theodore Andrews McGraw, M.D., a University of Michigan graduate (B.A. 1859). In 1885, the Detroit College of Medicine merged with its competitor, the Michigan College of Medicine and they consolidated buildings. After the reorganization, McGraw became the first president and dean. The institutions evolved into the Wayne State University School of Medicine.
In 1881, the Detroit Normal Training School for Teachers was established by the Detroit Board of Education. In 1920, after several relocations to larger quarters, the school became the Detroit Teachers College. The Board of Education voted in 1924 to make the college a part of the new College of the City of Detroit. Eventually it became the Wayne State University College of Education.
In 1917, the Detroit Board of Education founded the Detroit Junior College and would make Detroit Central High School's Old Main Hall its campus. Detroit's College of Pharmacy and the Detroit Teachers College were added to the campus in 1924, and were organized into the College of the City of Detroit. The original junior college became the College of Liberal Arts. The first bachelor's degrees were awarded in 1925. The College of Liberal Arts of the College of the City of Detroit became the Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Recognizing the need for a good law school, a group of lawyers, including Allan Campbell, the school's founding dean, established Detroit City Law School in 1927 as part of the College of the City of Detroit. Originally structured as a part-time evening program, the school's first class graduated with the bachelor of laws degree (LL.B.) in 1928 and achieved full American Bar Association accreditation in 1939. The school became Wayne State University Law School.
In 1933, the Detroit Board of Education voted to unify its colleges into a university. In January 1934, that institution was officially named Wayne University, taking its name from Wayne County (in which both the university and the city of Detroit reside), which was itself named after Anthony Wayne, a notable major general in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Wayne University added a School of Social Work in 1935, and the School of Business Administration in 1946. Wayne University was renamed Wayne State University in 1956 and the institution became mandated by an amendment to the Michigan Constitution in 1959. The Wayne State University Board of Governors created the Institute of Gerontology in 1965 in response to a State of Michigan mandate. The institute's primary mission in that era was to engage in research, education and service in the field of aging. Wayne State University in 1973 added the College of Lifelong Learning. In 1985, the School of Fine and the Performing Arts, and the College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs further grew the university.
In the early 21st century, WSU constructed the Integrative Biosciences Center (IBio), a 207,000-square-foot (19,200 m2) facility for interdisciplinary work in the biosciences. More than 500 researchers, staff and principal investigators work out of the building, which opened in 2016. In 2013, M. Roy Wilson became Wayne State's 12th president. In 2018, the new Mike Ilitch School of Business facility opened in The District Detroit. Richard Bierschbach was voted in as the 14th president of Wayne State in 2026 after serving as interim president since 2025.
From Wikipedia’s article on Wayne State University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5