{"id":1918,"date":"2010-06-02T19:57:15","date_gmt":"2010-06-02T19:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/?p=1918"},"modified":"2016-02-05T17:44:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T17:44:26","slug":"depaul-presidents-rev-thomas-f-levan-c-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2010\/06\/02\/depaul-presidents-rev-thomas-f-levan-c-m\/","title":{"rendered":"DePaul Presidents: Rev. Thomas F. Levan, C.M."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Bygone DePaul is a series highlighting DePaul&#8217;s campus and how it has changed through the years.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1919\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/FrLevan_sp.jpg?resize=350%2C432\" alt=\"Fr. Levan\" width=\"350\" height=\"432\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/FrLevan_sp.jpg?w=742&amp;ssl=1 742w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/10\/FrLevan_sp.jpg?resize=243%2C300&amp;ssl=1 243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Fr. Thomas Levan served as DePaul&#8217;s fourth president from 1920 to 1930. He was born in 1877 in Peru, IL, and ordained in 1900. In 1898, Fr. Levan became one of the founders and first faculty members of DePaul University. He left for Rome in 1899 to complete his studies for the priesthood, and did not return in DePaul until his presidency began in 1920.<\/p>\n<p>During the decade of Fr. Levans tenure, DePaul&#8217;s enrollment grew from 1500 students to nearly 6000. The <a href=\"http:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2009\/04\/08\/bygone-depaul-the-college-theater\/\" target=\"_blank\">College Theater<\/a>, which had been used as barracks during WWI, was converted into a gymnasium when athletic programs returned. Fr. Levan began ambitious new building projects, recognizing that DePaul was growing and space needed to keep up with demand. A Liberal Arts and Sciences building was constructed on Osgood (now Kenmore), and the building is now named the Levan Center.<\/p>\n<p>Fr. Levan enjoyed telling the story of how he was granted permission to construct what is now the Levan Center. When the Superior General of the Vincentians, Rev. Francis Verdier, visited Chicago, Fr. Levan met him in a cab. Fr. Levan presented his proposal there, and Verdier approved it before even getting out of the cab. As president, Fr. Levan was involved in fundraising, construction, and the initial occupancy of the skyscraper built for Loop students at <a href=\"http:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2009\/08\/05\/bygone-depaul-64-e-lake-street\/\" target=\"_blank\">64 E. Lake Street<\/a> in 1928, right before the onset of the Great Depression. The Graduate School was formed during this decade, and along with Commerce and Law, occupied this space.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:archives@depaul.edu\">Contact <\/a>DePaul&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/libguides.depaul.edu\/dpuarchives\">University Archives<\/a> for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bygone DePaul is a series highlighting DePaul&#8217;s campus and how it has changed through the years. Fr. Thomas Levan served as DePaul&#8217;s fourth president from 1920 to 1930. He was born in 1877 in Peru, IL, and ordained in 1900. In 1898, Fr. Levan became one of the founders and first faculty members of DePaul <\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2010\/06\/02\/depaul-presidents-rev-thomas-f-levan-c-m\/\" class=\"read-more\">continue reading<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-collections-and-archives"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8GMS7-uW","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2876,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/2876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}