![]() | |
Former names | College of St. Thomas (1885–1990) |
---|---|
Motto | All for the common good |
Type | Private university |
Established | 1885[1] |
Religious affiliation | Catholic Church |
Academic affiliations | |
Endowment | $874.35 million (2023) [2] |
Budget | $374 million (2016) [3] |
President | Robert K. Vischer [4] |
Provost | Eddy M. Rojas |
Academic staff | 704 [1] |
Administrative staff | 1,041 |
Students | 9,347 (2021) [5] |
Undergraduates | 6,067 (2021) [5] |
Postgraduates | 3,280 (2021) [5] |
Location | , , United States 44°56′35″N93°11′25″W / 44.94306°N 93.19028°W |
Campus | Urban: 78 acres (32 ha) |
Colors | Purple and Gray |
Nickname | Tommies |
Sporting affiliations | |
Mascot | Tommie |
Athletics | 11 men's and 11 women's varsity teams |
Website | www |
Academic rankings | |
---|---|
National | |
Forbes [6] | 258 |
U.S. News & World Report [7] | 163 |
Washington Monthly [8] | 201 |
WSJ/College Pulse [9] | 301 |
The University of St. Thomas (also known as UST or simply St. Thomas) is a private Catholic research university with campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1885 as a Catholic seminary, it is named after Thomas Aquinas, the medieval Catholic theologian and philosopher who is the patron saint of students. As of fall 2021, St. Thomas enrolled 9,347 students, making it Minnesota's largest private, nonprofit university.
Founded in 1885 by John Ireland, archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, St. Thomas began as an all-male, Catholic seminary. [10] In 1894, the liberal arts program became an independent college through a gift from local railroad tycoon James J. Hill, who provided funds to establish the Saint Paul Seminary apart from the college. [10] In 1903, the College of St. Thomas established a military program on campus, and it was officially termed a military school by the U.S. War Department in 1906. Initially, the school gave out two-year diplomas in commercial and classical programs before awarding its first academic degrees in 1915. In 1922, military training became optional.
From the late 1920s through the mid-1930s, the Holy Cross Fathers, who run the University of Notre Dame, controlled the college's administration. The diocese called those priests in to help with the school's financial problems; those priests were known as a crisis intervention team of sorts for parochial schools of that time. During World War II, St. Thomas served as a training base for naval officers, which kept the school open when men who would have attended college were fighting in the war. After the war, in 1948, the college established "Tom Town" on the eastern end of the lower quadrant, which is currently the site to the O'Shaughnessey-Frey Library and O'Shaughnessey Education Center. Tom Town, made of 20 double-dwelling huts, consisted of white, barracks-like housing units for faculty, students, and their families. The units helped to meet housing demand after World War II.
In the latter half of the 20th century, St. Thomas started two of its most notable graduate programs, education in 1950 and business administration in 1974. The school became co-educational in 1977, and although women were not allowed to enroll until then, female students from St. Catherine University (then the College of St. Catherine) often took classes at St. Thomas. Women were also present as instructors and administrators on campus, but the staff, faculty, and administration have seen a vast increase in female employment since the move to co-education. In 1990, the College of St. Thomas became the University of St. Thomas [11] and the following year, the university opened the Minneapolis campus. In 2001, St. Thomas reinstated its School of Law at its Minneapolis campus; it had been shut down during the Great Depression. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was the speaker at the grand opening.
The St. Paul campus is the main campus and is home to most undergraduate students. The main campus, built on a farm site once considered "far removed from town", is located where St. Paul's Summit Avenue meets the Mississippi River. The site was farmed by ex-Fort Snelling soldier William Finn, who received the property as a pension settlement after he accidentally shot himself in the hand while on guard duty.
The western edge of the campus borders the Mississippi Gorge Regional Park. Summit Avenue, which runs through the middle of the campus, is the country's longest span of Victorian homes. This tree-lined avenue includes the Governor's Mansion, F. Scott Fitzgerald's townhome, and James J. Hill's mansion. [12]
In 2005, a new apartment-style residence hall was built on an existing parking lot. [13] McNeely Hall was also built the following year. It is a large classroom building for business that replaced the smaller building of the same name. [14] A new residential village, more parking ramps, and general planning all have been negotiated successfully with the surrounding neighborhood. These developments are expected to begin within the next five years.[ citation needed ]
In early 2012, St. Thomas completed the final stage of its three-building expansion on the St. Paul campus. [15] The two main additions that were completed are the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Center (AARC) and the Anderson Student Center. These projects were completed in the summer of 2010 and January 2012, respectively. [16] The Anderson Athletic and Recreation Center has a field house, basketball arena, weight room, and swimming pool. [17] The track in the field house is home to the most dominant track team in the MIAC conference. Other St. Thomas sports that use the AARC's facilities have also had recent success, including a playoff run for the football team, and a national championship for the men's basketball team.[ citation needed ] The new Anderson Student Center is home to new food venues, as well as entertainment options, including a game room and bowling alley, and a coffee shop. An art gallery on the second floor is home to the American Museum of Asmat Art. [18]
St Thomas' newest dormitories, Frey Residence Hall and Tommie North Residence Hall, opened on north campus in 2020. Frey Residence Hall is a 5-story facility which houses 260 second-year and transfer students. Tommie North is also a 5-story facility, houses 480 residents and has a 116-stall underground parking ramp. [19] It is connected to the Iverson Center for Faith and Ireland Hall via tunnel and sits on the site of the former John Paul II dormitory. [20] [21]
In 2021, St. Thomas moved forward with plans for a new $110 million, 130,000 square foot building on South Campus called Schoenecker Center. [22] A dedication ceremony to celebrate the latest addition to campus was held on May 8, 2024. The new facility will focus on STEAM fields. The 126-year-old Loras Hall, most recently used as an administrative building, was demolished to make way for Schoenecker Center. [23]
In 2023, the university announced plans for a $175 million on-campus indoor arena known as Lee and Penny Anderson Arena. The 6,000-seat arena is planned to be the home of the basketball and hockey teams in addition to hosting other events such as commencement. Cretin Hall, McCarthy Gymnasium and the Service Center are to be demolished to make way for the arena. [24]
In fall 1992, the university opened a permanent 150,000 sq ft (14,000 m2) campus at 1000 LaSalle Ave. in Minneapolis. The first building, named Terrence Murphy Hall in May 2000, is headquarters to the university's Opus College of Business. Artist Mark Balma created one of the largest frescoes in the United States on the arched ceiling of its atrium. [25] The seven-panel, 1,904 square feet (176.9 m2) fresco was completed in the summer of 1994 and portrays the seven virtues discussed in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Minneapolis campus also holds St. Thomas' School of Education, the School of Law, and Schulze School of Entrepreneurship.
As announced on May 15, 2014, the Daniel C. Gainey Conference Center was to be sold to Meridian Behavioral Health, LLC, with a plan to convert it to a treatment facility for addiction and behavioral disorders. The deal closed in August 2014. The deal included the entire 180-acre property and all the buildings except for the Winton Guest House, which was designed by architect Frank Gehry. St. Thomas then sold the house at auction and it was moved from the site.
Since 1999, the University of St. Thomas has been the only university in the United States to have a formal affiliation with the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). [26]
Each year, the university awards almost 2,500 degrees, including five different bachelor's degrees (B.A., B.M., B.S., B.S.M.E. and B.S.E.E.). It has 88 major fields at the undergraduate level, with 59 minor fields of study and seven preprofessional programs. At the graduate and professional level, the university offers 41 master's degrees, 2 education specialist degree, 1 juris doctor, and 5 doctorates.
The university offers its degree programs through nine divisions. The College of Arts and Sciences includes undergraduate departments in the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, plus a number of interdisciplinary programs. The Opus College of Business has seven departments offering graduate and undergraduate curricula including Executive Education and Professional Development at University of St. Thomas, and is one of six AACSB accredited business schools in Minnesota. [27] St. Thomas also houses the Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, which offers master's- and doctoral-level degrees oriented to theological study and the practice of ministry. Saint John Vianney Seminary, a minor college seminary, is also at St. Thomas. Other schools include the School of Education, the School of Engineering, and the School of Social Work. The Master of Social Work is offered as a double degree program with the St. Catherine University.
Schools housed on the Minneapolis campus include the Graduate School of Professional Psychology, Undergraduate and Graduate Schools of Education, Graduate Programs in Software Engineering, and the School of Law, which was re-opened in 1999 after a 66-year hiatus.
The University of St. Thomas is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC), a consortium of five private liberal arts colleges. This program allows students to take classes at one of the associated colleges for no additional cost. Other schools include Hamline University, St. Catherine University, Macalester College, and Augsburg University. [28]
In the Princeton Review 2023 rankings for best undergraduate entrepreneurship programs the St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship was ranked 18th in the country. [29]
St. Thomas's school colors are purple and gray, and the athletic teams are called the Tommies. The mascot for these teams is "Tommie". "Tommy" was changed to the "ie" spelling when women were accepted as full-time students, to be more inclusive.
For most of its athletic history, St. Thomas was a member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), which performs at the NCAA Division III level. Since 1885, athletics have been present on St. Thomas' campus. The first sports teams that became popular were intramural. The top intramural baseball teams in the 1890s were the "Blues" and "Grays", which is where the school colors come from. Varsity sports did not begin until 1904, and UST was a founding member of the MIAC in 1920. St. Thomas celebrated its 100th year of varsity athletics in 2003–2004. [30]
St. Thomas' longtime archrival was Saint John's University from Collegeville, Minnesota. Recent national titles include men's basketball in 2011 and 2016; [31] men's baseball in 2009 and 2001; women's softball in 2005 and 2004; men's lacrosse (MCLA Division II) in 2019, 2016, 2013, 2012, 2010 and 2009; women's volleyball in 2012; and dance team in 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2008 and 2006. St. Thomas also won national championships with women's basketball in 1991; men's cross country in 1986 and 1984; men's indoor track in 1985; and women's cross country in 1987, 1986, 1984 and 1982. In 2012, St. Thomas played for the first time in the Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia, which is the Division III Football National Championship game, against the University of Mount Union, losing 28-10. [32] In 2015, St. Thomas reached the Stagg Bowl for the second time, prompting another championship match against Mount Union. St. Thomas ultimately ended up losing the game, with a final score of 49-35. [33]
WCCO has broadcast radio coverage of Tommies football games since 2011. [34]
On May 22, 2019 it was announced that St. Thomas was "involuntarily removed" from the MIAC. [35] St. Thomas was to have been allowed to remain as a member of the conference until the spring of 2021 while they searched for a new conference had that become necessary but would be allowed to leave at an earlier date should a new conference accept them prior to spring 2021 or should they have decided to become an independent. On October 4, 2019, St. Thomas announced that it had been invited to the Summit League, an NCAA Division I conference. This announcement also noted that St. Thomas had applied for a waiver from the NCAA to move directly from Division III to Division I beginning with the 2021-22 season. While the process of transitioning from Division III to Division I normally takes 12 years and requires transitioning through Division II, on July 15, 2020, the NCAA announced they had approved St. Thomas's application to move directly to Division I. As the Summit League does not sponsor football or ice hockey, St. Thomas joined the Pioneer Football League for football, the CCHA for men's hockey [36] and the WCHA for women's hockey. [37] [38] Starting in the 2026-2027 season, St. Thomas will join the NCHC for men's hockey. [39]
Race and ethnicity [40] | Total | ||
---|---|---|---|
White | 74% | ||
Other [lower-alpha 1] | 8% | ||
Hispanic | 7% | ||
Asian | 5% | ||
Black | 4% | ||
Foreign national | 3% | ||
Economic diversity | |||
Low-income [lower-alpha 2] | 22% | ||
Affluent [lower-alpha 3] | 78% |
Undergraduate housing is found on the St. Paul Campus. Approximately 2,400 residents live in 10 traditional halls and apartments. Additionally, St. John Vianney College Seminary holds approximately 140 students. All residence halls are co-ed. Residence halls on campus are named after Archbishops of St. Paul-Minneapolis, such as William O. Brady, Austin Dowling, and John Ireland. Built in 1894, Cretin Hall is the oldest hall on campus and was designed (along with Loras and Grace halls) by Emmanuel Louis Masqueray.
Recently the department of residence life has purchased additional buildings on what they are calling 'mid-campus' in the area between Grand and Summit Avenues. These buildings house men and women transfer students in one of two buildings. There are two apartment complexes that are specifically designed for sophomores. Students are also housed in the residence above the Child Development Center, a day-care facility on campus.
The University of St. Thomas offers special interest floors, or floors that are intended to house specific residents with similar interests or class standing. Almost one-third of all floors are First Year Experience floors, which consist of only freshmen. This practice attempts to create a cohesive community by placing students together who will have a similar experience. First year students have the opportunity to participate in Living Learning Communities (LLCs). These include Sustainability, Aquinas Scholars, Tommies Do Well(ness), Pathways to Engineering, eMedia, Bridging Divides, Catholic Studies, Major Explorers, and Business for the Common Good. [41]
In 2007, the president of the University of St. Thomas, Father Dennis Dease, cancelled a planned speech by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and anti-apartheid figure, Desmond Tutu, on the grounds that his presence might offend some members of the local Jewish community. [42] Members of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace led an email campaign calling on St. Thomas to reconsider its decision, [43] which the president did and invited Tutu to campus. [44] Tutu declined the re-invitation, speaking instead at the Minneapolis Convention Center at an event hosted by Metropolitan State University. [45] However, he addressed the issue two days later while making his final appearance at Metro State.
In 2008, plans were announced to the public that the theater department at the University of St. Thomas was to be dissolved and that the school would no longer offer this major. Declining numbers of theater majors was publicly cited as the reason. However, during this same time, plans were underway to make space for a new student center to be named after the Anderson family, then the largest single donors to a single private institution in United States history. Despite protests from senior faculty and students, the decision was made to demolish the theater and dissolve the department the same semester; though, according to the Dean of St. Thomas's College of Arts and Sciences, Marisa Kelly, the two decisions were "completely unrelated". [46]
![]() | This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy.(February 2024) |
The University of Minnesota system is a public university system with five campuses spread across the U.S. state of Minnesota.
Macalester College is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution with an enrollment of 2,142 students in the fall of 2023. The college has Scottish roots and emphasizes internationalism and multiculturalism.
Carleton College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, the 200-acre (81 ha) main campus is between Northfield and the approximately 800-acre (320 ha) Cowling Arboretum, which became part of the campus in the 1920s.
The College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University are two closely related private, Benedictine liberal arts colleges in Minnesota. The College of Saint Benedict is a women's college in St. Joseph, while Saint John's University is a men's college in Collegeville. Students at the institutions have a shared curriculum and access to the resources of both campuses.
Augsburg University is a private university in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. It was founded in 1869 as a Norwegian-American Lutheran seminary known as Augsburg Seminarium. Today, the university enrolls approximately 3,000 undergraduate and 800 graduate students. Augsburg is known for its emphasis on service learning; volunteering in the community is both an instructional strategy and a required part of a student's coursework.
The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III. All 13 of the member schools are located in Minnesota and are private institutions, with only two being non-sectarian.
The University of Minnesota is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The Twin Cities campus comprises locations in Minneapolis and Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, approximately 3 mi (4.8 km) apart.
Bethel University is a private Baptist Christian university and seminary in Arden Hills, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1871 as a seminary and is affiliated with Converge. The university enrolls 5,600 students in undergraduate, graduate, and seminary programs. Its main campus is situated on about 290 acres on the east side of Lake Valentine just south of Interstate 694.
Concordia College is a private liberal arts college in Moorhead, Minnesota. Founded by Norwegian settlers in 1891, the school is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is unrelated to the Concordia University System operated by the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod. Concordia is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and has a total student enrollment of 1,800. It offers Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Education, and Master of Science, and Master of Music Education degrees.
Hamline University is a private university in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Founded in 1854, Hamline is the oldest university in Minnesota, the first coeducational university in the state, and is one of five Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities. The university is named after Bishop Leonidas Lent Hamline of the United Methodist Church. As of 2017, Hamline had 2,117 undergraduate students and 1,668 graduate students.
St. Catherine University is a private Catholic university in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was established as one of the first institutions of higher learning specifically for women in the Midwest and was known as the College of St. Catherine until 2009. St. Kate's offers baccalaureate programs for women as well as graduate and associate programs for women and men.
Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college in St. Peter, Minnesota. It was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans led by Eric Norelius and is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Gustavus gets its name from Gustavus Adolphus, the King of Sweden from 1611 to 1632. Its residential campus includes a 125-acre arboretum.
Saint Mary's University of Minnesota (SMUMN) is a private Catholic university with an undergraduate residential college in Winona, Minnesota; graduate and professional programs in Winona, the Twin Cities, and Rochester; and course delivery sites in Minnesota and Wisconsin as well as Jamaica. The institution was founded in 1912 and is associated with the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, also known as the De La Salle Brothers.
John Albert Kundla was an American college and professional basketball coach. He was the first head coach for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its predecessors, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL), serving 12 seasons, from 1947 to 1959. His teams won six league championships, one in the NBL, one in the BAA, and four in the NBA. Kundla was the head basketball coach at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul for one season in 1946–47, and at the University of Minnesota for ten seasons, from 1959 to 1968. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
Crown College is a private Evangelical Christian college in St. Bonifacius, Minnesota. It is affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Sports in Minnesota include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, especially in the Winter Olympics, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations and active amateur teams and individual sports. The State of Minnesota has a team in all five major professional leagues. Along with professional sports, there are numerous collegiate teams including the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and St. Thomas Tommies in NCAA Division I, as well as many others across the Minnesota public and private colleges and universities.
The Rev. Dennis Dease is a Roman Catholic priest, who served as the 14th president of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota from his election in 1991 to 2013.
St. John Vianney Seminary (SJV) is one of the largest Catholic college seminaries in the United States, located on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Representing 20 diocese throughout the nation, approximately 100 men are in formation annually. Established in 1968, SJV nurtures the seeds of a priestly vocation, preparing young men for major seminary through integral formation and discipleship in Christian character, a traditional Catholic program of spiritual growth, and a formative liberal arts education. The major seminary affiliated with SJV, the Saint Paul Seminary, is on the other side of the campus of the University of St. Thomas. Over 600 alumni had been ordained to the Catholic priesthood, including five who would go on to be bishops - one of whom, Blase J. Cupich, is a cardinal.
Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary was a high school seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, serving the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. It was founded in 1923 by Archbishop Austin Dowling and was closed in 1971, being replaced by Saint John Vianney Seminary. The campus is now the site of the University of Northwestern – St. Paul.
The 1962 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football season was the season of college football played by the eight member schools of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) as part of the 1962 NCAA College Division football season.