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Lawrence Technological University

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Lawrence Technological University

Lawrence Technological University (Lawrence Tech, LTU) is a private university in Southfield, Michigan. It was founded in 1932 in Highland Park, Michigan, as the Lawrence Institute of Technology (LIT) by Russell E. Lawrence. The university moved to Southfield in 1955 and has since expanded to 107 acres (43 ha). The campus also includes the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Affleck House in Bloomfield Hills. The university offers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs through its five colleges.

In 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, Lawrence Tech's founding president Russell E. Lawrence envisioned a new model of higher education that could serve both traditional students as well as working adults, and combined a teaching philosophy espousing both theory and practice.

Lawrence believed engineering and technological achievements would be what would spur economic recovery, both for the region and the nation. Henry and Edsel Ford agreed to lease their former Henry Ford Trade School building, a part of their Model-T assembly complex in Highland Park, to the new university, which began operations with a few hundred students. The institution's enrollment dropped during World War II but surged immediately thereafter as veterans enjoyed the education benefits of the G.I. Bill.

In 1955, Lawrence Institute of Technology (LIT) moved to a campus in then rural Southfield. Since the university was founded as an engineering school, it is fitting that the first building constructed on the Southfield campus was the Engineering building. The campus master plan was created by professor Earl W. Pellerin, who also led the teams that designed the Architecture and Science Buildings, the university's first residence hall on Ten Mile Road, University Housing-South, and what was originally the president's residence on nearby Circle Drive.

LIT began offering multiple master's degree programs through its colleges, and in recognition of these post-baccalaureate programs LIT changed it name to Lawrence Technological University (LTU) on 1 January 1989.

LTU continued its transformation from a primarily commuter institution to offering a full campus life with the construction of more residence halls—Donley Hall, Reuss Hall, and East Residence Hall, the latter for all first-year students. The university now has the capacity for more than 1,000 residential students.

A marker designating the college as a Michigan Historic Site was erected by the Michigan Historical Commission in 1986. The inscription reads:

Lawrence Tech was chartered in 1932 by the Lawrence brothers, Russell E. and E. George. The college was located in Highland Park on Woodward Avenue until 1955, when the first building opened on this campus. Lawrence Tech, founded as an undergraduate college of engineering, later added programs in architecture, management, arts and science, and various technological fields. The college pioneered in scheduling evening programs for working students and in 1935 developed the four-quarter academic calendar. "Theory and Practice" has been the motto of the college since its founding. Application of classroom theories to real situations involving the community or Michigan industries has been its goal. Lawrence Institute of Technology is a nonprofit independent college.

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