Virginia Sapiro posted a working paper on her blog that will be of interest to those studying the responses of college and universities during the current coronavirus pandemic. Her paper, "
Fires, Epidemics, Natural Disasters, and Higher Education: A Brief Sketch," offers a short narrative weaving together historical examples of institutions that have faced fires, epidemics, or natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, tornadoes or hurricanes. The paper includes an appendix with a lengthy list of accredited U.S. institutions that have experienced fires that threatened institutional survival.
Sapiro concludes that these emergencies need more emphasis when researchers study institutions and that appreciation for the impact of disasters contributes to a better understanding of higher education history.
The author serves as Professor of Political Science and Dean Emerita of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. This recent working paper draws from a previously posted working paper and data set,
“Working Paper: The Life Course of Higher Education Institutions: When the End Comes, 1890-2019” 2019.
For those interested, I also created the table below with information on institutions impacted by fires from my file of
Colleges and Universities that have Closed, Merged, or Changed Names. There is some overlap with Sapiro's list in her appendix, though the total pool of institutions is larger since it includes any institution that referred to itself as a colleges or university. As a result, institution may or may not have offered college level programs or have been accredited.
A number of College History Garden blog posts over the years have highlighted resources on specific campuses that have had significant fires:
Please leave a comment below if you are aware of information on other institutions that faced significant fires or other disasters in their past.
