The University of Delaware is a public university based in Newark, Delaware with roughly 19,287 undergraduate students. As of March 2026, U.S. News and World Report ranks the University of Delaware the 88th-best university in the nation and the 43rd-best public university. ¹ The university has a main campus in Newark, Delaware, as well as four additional campuses. ² It offers over 150 undergraduate major programs and more than 200 graduate and professional degree programs. ^{3  4}

The University of Delaware presents itself as a mainstream public institution but in recent years has reflected broader trends of left-of-center campus activism. The Biden School of Public Policy and Administration anchors a policy environment closely aligned with Democratic priorities, hosting figures such as University of Delaware alumnus and former President of the United States Joe Biden (D) and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) while emphasizing climate, equity, and regulatory policy agendas. ^{5  6  7}

The university also saw pro-Palestinian student activism following the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, including marches, a “die-in” demonstration, and an encampment organized by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Protesters pressed the university to divest endowment assets from the state of Israel. The University of Delaware also experienced isolated antisemitic incidents, including an arson attack on a Jewish center in 2020. ^{8  9  10}

The University of Delaware also leaned heavily into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activism, including critical race theory research and so-called anti-racism initiatives. The university also partnered with a race-based Ph.D. nonprofit organization that prompted a Trump administration investigation into the university’s potential violations of civil rights law. ^{11  12  13  14}

History

The University of Delaware finds its origins in 1743 when a petition by the Presbytery of Lewes expressing the need for an educated clergy led Francis Alison to open a school in New London, Pennsylvania. Several prominent figures graduated from the school’s first class, including Thomas McKean, George Read, and James Smith, who signed the Declaration of Independence; Read also signed the U.S. Constitution. By 1765, Alison’s school relocated to Newark. Newark College became a degree-granting institution in 1834 and was renamed Delaware College in 1843. In 1867, the college was designated a land-grant colleges. In 1914, a women’s college opened with 58 students, and in 1921, the two colleges joined to become the University of Delaware. ¹⁵

Since 1950, the University of Delaware has expanded its enrollment, faculty, and academic programs. In 2009, the University purchased a 272-acre parcel of land adjacent to the Newark campus that previously had been a Chrysler plant. That site, now the Science, Technology and Advanced Research (STAR) Campus, is home to the University’s Health Sciences Complex. ¹⁵

Notable Programs and Centers

In addition to its main campus in Newark, Delaware, the University of Delaware has several campuses. ² Its Wilmington and Dover campuses are home to the university’s workforce development programs, associate degree programs, and professional education tracks. ¹⁶ Home to the Carvel Research and Education Center, the University of Delaware’s Georgetown campus promotes agricultural research. ¹⁷ The University of Delaware also maintains the Hugh R. Sharp campus in Lewes, Delaware, which specializes in marine science and coastal research, environmentalism, and conservation. ¹⁸

College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the main college at the University of Delaware, spanning 23 academic departments, 27 programs and centers, as well as over 170 majors and 110 minors, including art conservation, biochemistry, international relations, music, and more. ¹⁹

Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics

The Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics is a flagship professional school at the University of Delaware that emphasizes finance, data analytics, and entrepreneurship. In addition to undergraduate degrees, the Lerner College offers an MBA program. Scholars at the Lerner College engage in artificial intelligence research and have contributed significantly to the field of business-integrated AI systems as well as AI detection programs to identify videos related to suicidal ideation and other potentially harmful content. ^{20  21  22}

College of Earth, Ocean and Environment

The University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean and Environment integrates marine science, climate research, and public policy studies. It emphasizes left-of-center environmental policy efforts, especially in coastal and energy sectors, including the promotion of the Green New Deal and other left-wing environmental activism. ^{23  24}

Biden School of Public Policy and Administration

The University of Delaware founded the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration in March 2017, and named it after University of Delaware alumnus and former Vice President (and later President) of the United States Joe Biden. The Biden Institute is a political theory and public policy research center for scholars, left-of-center political activists, and policymakers. ⁵

The Biden Institute’s programming features a heavy emphasis on so-called environmental climate justice, criminal justice reform, education policy, gun control policy, protest activism, and more. ²⁵ The Biden Institute has featured several prominent Democratic politicians as guest speakers and lecturers, including former President Joe Biden himself and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). ^{6  7}

Siegfried Institute

In July 2025, University of Delaware alumnus Robert L. Siegfried Jr. pledged a $71.5 million gift to found the Siegfried Institute for Leadership and Free Enterprise as a right-of-center, free-market, and limited government alternative to the left-leaning Biden Institute at the University of Delaware. ²⁶

Jewish Center

In November 2025, the University of Delaware Hillel Jewish group broke ground on the new Kristol Center for Jewish Life, a Jewish cultural center at the university intended to serve the 2,250 Jewish students on University of Delaware’s campus. The Kristol Center will feature an event hall for Shabbat dinners, spaces for students to study and gather, a beit midrash chapel, classroom space, and more. ²⁷

Political Activism

Pro-Palestinian Protests

In April 2024, a large pro-Palestinian protest drew roughly 300 students, faculty, and staff who marched from the Trabant Student Center to the Biden School of Public Policy and Administration. The University of Delaware chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine organized the event, which included a “die-in” demonstration to represent civilian casualties in Gaza. Protesters called for the university to divest from Israel-linked businesses and other entities. ⁸ The protest culminated in a three-day encampment of pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied a portion of the lawn near the Biden School on University of Delaware’s campus. ⁹

In September 2024, the University of Delaware chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine organized another protest calling on the university administration to divest from businesses and entities that support the state of Israel. University administrators met with the involved protest groups and agreed to “initiate a conversation with the UD Board of Trustees to create a human-rights-based investment strategy or environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policy for the endowment.” ²⁸

Antisemitism Controversy

In August 2020, an unidentified suspect set the University of Delaware Chabad Center on fire. The state fire marshal determined the fire was intentionally set but did not indicate there was evidence it was a hate crime. No one was in the Jewish center’s building at the time of the fire, but the building suffered around $75,000 in damage. University of Delaware leadership, as well as then-Delaware Governor John Carney (D) condemned the act of arson. ¹⁰

In May 2023, Jewish University of Delaware professor Dawn Fallik discovered a swastika and threatening message written on a drag-show poster on the door of her campus office. The university published a statement condemning the incident and assuring Jewish students that the campus would not tolerate “expressions of hate on campus.” The statement declared that “people of all faiths, ethnicities, race, genders and sexualities are welcome” at the University of Delaware. ^{29  11}

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The University of Delaware maintains a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) office that formerly held the title of “Office of Institutional Equity” but was renamed the Campus Culture and Engagement office following pressure from the Trump administration to dismantle DEI in higher education. ^{11  12}

In March 2025, the Trump administration’s Department of Education opened an investigation into the University of Delaware and nearly 50 other universities under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The investigation surrounded the University of Delaware’s partnership with the Ph.D. Project, a nonprofit organization that provided prospective doctoral students with insights into obtaining a Ph.D. and higher education job opportunities based on the race of participants. ¹³

In May 2025, the University of Delaware joined a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from freezing federal grants to universities based on several key issues, including DEI, allegations of campus antisemitism, and broader efforts to cut federal spending at universities. ³⁰ As of December 2025, the University of Delaware had lost $11 million in federal research funding due to the Trump administration’s pause or cancellation of grants. ³¹

In 2020, the University of Delaware founded its UD Anti-Racism Initiative (UDARI) and joined a group of universities called Universities Studying Slavery (USS), an initiative to promote a critical race theory-based account of American history. ¹⁴

In February 2026, following continued pressure to abandon DEI activism on campus, the University of Delaware removed a website that featured student research on the city of Newark and the university’s historical ties to slavery. ³²

Leadership

Laura A. Carlson is the University of Delaware’s president as of 2026. She joined the university as provost in 2022 and was appointed interim president by the Board of Trustees in July 2025 and formally appointed permanent president in December 2025. Prior to joining the University of Delaware, Carlson worked at the University of Notre Dame where she held various roles, including vice president, associate provost, and dean of the graduate school. She worked as director of graduate studies in the psychology department and later as associate chair. Carlson joined the Notre Dame faculty in 1994 as an assistant professor of psychology and became a full professor in 2008. She is a fellow of the Association of Psychological Science. Her research in the field of cognition and language has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Carlson received her bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, her master’s at Michigan State University, and her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. ³³

William Farquhar is the interim Provost at the University of Delaware as of March 2026. He has been a faculty member at the university since 2002 and has worked as dean of the College of Health Sciences since 2022. He previously was dean of research, and from 2011 to 2017, he chaired the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology. Farquhar also chaired the University’s Institutional Review Board, a group of University of Delaware scientists, non-scientists, and outside community members that reviews and approves research projects. Prior to joining the University of Delaware, Farquhar was an instructor at Harvard Medical School and an assistant scientist at the HRCA Research and Training Institute. His research on hypertension has been continuously funded by the NIH for 20 years. A fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology and fellow and former Vice President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), Farquhar also sat on several medical and academic boards, including the ACSM’s World Congress on the Basic Science of Exercise and Vascular Health, which he co-chaired. Farquhar earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at East Stroudsburg University and his doctorate in Exercise and Sports Science and Exercise Physiology at Pennsylvania State University. ³⁴

Finances

In 2024, the University of Delaware reported $1,663,250,801 in total revenue, $1,603,303,670 in total expenses, and $4,649,702,865 in total assets. That year, the university received $186,511,555 in government grants (approximately 11 percent of that year’s revenue). ³⁵ The University of Delaware manages approximately $2 billion in endowment assets. ³⁶

In November 2023, the University of Delaware received a $600,000 grant from the Ford Foundation for an environmentalist program. ³⁷

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