Up until the mid 21st century the University of Pennsylvania was an "Ivy League" research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Earth. Many of the college structures were destroyed in the onset and continuing conflict of Earth's Third World War. Of the survivors of the faculty, the majority were not in residence of the city at the time of the first strike. Those survivors that were present were some of the unfortunate individuals hauled before the new courts and put to death for their crimes as academics and lawyers. The surviving structures, most of which were stone structures built more than 100 years prior to the onset of the war, were used as refugee housing by those attempting to save the city from the rampaging fires.
Historical (Pre WWIII)[]
In the early 21st Century the University of Pennsylvania, commonly referenced as Penn or UPenn, was a private research university. It was one of nine colonial colleges chartered prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence when Benjamin Franklin, the university's founder and first president, advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. Penn identified as the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this representation was challenged by other universities since Franklin first convened the board of trustees in 1749, arguably making it the fifth-oldest.
The university had four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools. Schools enrolling undergraduates include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School of Economics, and the School of Nursing. Among its graduate schools are its University of Pennsylvania Law School, whose first professor James Wilson participated in writing the first draft of the Constitution of the United States, its Perelman School of Medicine, which was the first medical school established in North America, and the Wharton School, the nation's first collegiate business school.
Modern History[]
In the wake of the WWII and the Post Atomic Horror, Philadelphia was one of only a handful of surviving cities of Earth in which pockets of historical, sociological, cultural, scientific, and political historical records could be recovered in the process of rebuilding. The archives of the main campus of the University of Pennsylvania were one of those caches that provided links to the past. It was not those caches of information that prompted the restoration of the University, but byproducts of the attempt to use the structures of the University by Re-founding Fathers as public housing. Nearly 100 years after the onset of WWII the oldest and most sturdy structures, including several of the dormitories such as the Quadrangle were still in use as public housing. The Quadrangle in particular had spent much of the period from 2060-2175 known as Fort Quad, as it had been converted into a castle defending residents from the dangers of the Post Atomic Horror and providing an enclave of rationality in the city.
In 2211, with the discovery of an archive that had been last seen in 2048 walled up in a subbasement of the university, formerly a tunnel directly beneath the Benjamin Franklin statue near the center of the University of Pennsylvania grounds, a movement was begun to attempt to restore the ancient University to that which would provide education for citizens of Earth, and the relatively young United Federation of Planets. Over the two and a half centuries following, the College of Agriculture, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering and Applied Science, College of History and Anthropology, College of Law, College of Nursing and advanced Practice, and the College of Oceanographic Research were established as part of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, the postgraduate branches of the institution were restored and added. Among them (In order of founding/re-founding) the Perelman School of Medicine, Edward Jenner School of Public Health, the Wharton School of Business, the Benedict School of Anthropology, the Wilson Academy of Political Science, the Rittenhouse School of Architecture, and the Delancey School of Art Preservation and Restoration.
Since the restoration of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia has become home to one of the largest populations of educators and students in the sector. It was the first of the new Ivy League Universities, leading the way for restoration of other institutions around the world, proving that Earth had in fact risen from the ashes.