Temple University — now with 37,000 students, eight locations and more than 300 degree programs — started in 1884 as a neighborhood institution housed in a Baptist temple on North Broad Street. The university's growth and role in the evolution of higher education and Philadelphia is chronicled by Temple history professor and former administrator James Hilty, author of Temple University: 125 Years of Service to Philadelphia, the Nation and the World. "As I was doing my research for the book, I was looking for themes, and it goes back to Temple's founder and to the democratization of higher education and the accessibility that Temple offers — those are Temple's major contributions, not only to Philadelphia, but really to the world at large," Hilty said.