Timeline

At the University's annual commencement, an honorary LL.D was presented to the President-elect of Brazil, Julio Prestes. "Dr. Prestes received what was one of the greatest ovations ever accorded the recipient of an honorary degree of Pennsylvania, providing evidence not only of the high esteem which citizens of this country hold for Latin-America's distinguished leaders but also their warm friendship toward the millions of Latin-Americans which these distinguished leaders have the honor to represent."

The College of Liberal Arts for Women was founded and admitted female students only. For the first time in Penn's history, women were offered a full-time, four-year, liberal arts, undergraduate degree program.

The School of Education established a Department of Nursing Education and offered graduates of the diploma schools of nursing an undergraduate, professional degree in education. This advanced course was designed to prepare graduate nurses for positions in hospitals, schools of nursing, and public health nursing agencies. The establishment of the Department of Nursing Education in the School of Education is generally regarded as the founding of the modern School of Nursing at Penn.

Czechoslovakian President Eduard Benes inducted George E. Nitzsche as a member of the Czechoslovakian National Order of the White Lion. He was recognized for securing around twenty-five scholarships for Czechoslovakian students in the Untied States shortly after World War I. This was not the first time Nitzsche had been honored internationally. He was "widely known abroad," and given the title of Chevalier of the Crown of Italy and the Silver Cultural Medal. Nitzsche was the first American presented with the Silver Cultural Medal from Italy.

After paying for his medical education, the Christian Association continued to support Dr. Victor Rambo as he worked to eliminate blindness in India through eye surgery.

The Louis Marshall Society was founded and described in the men's undergraduate yearbook for 1938 as "the religious and cultural organization of the Jewish students at the University. The Society is an outgrowth of the former Jewish Students' Association."