St. Catherine’s University is a prestigious women’s university in St. Paul. Since opening in 1905, it has grown to include a student body of over 5,000, graduate programs, a Minneapolis campus, and an extensive physical plant. The school’s inclusive atmosphere and diverse curriculum have made it one of the premier institutions of higher education in the United States.
The College of St. Catherine opened its doors in 1905 to a handful of women students. All of them were housed and taught in a single building in what would become the Highland Park area of St. Paul.
The school reached its first milestone in 1916 when it received full accreditation from the North Central Association (NCA). It did so despite its lack of the $500,000 endowment then required by the NCA. College dean (later president) Sister Antonia McHugh persuaded NCA officials to accept the contributed services of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who had founded and staffed the college, in place of a cash endowment. Sister Antonia showed her leadership during the building of the 800-seat Our Lady of Victory Chapel, one of Minnesota’s architectural jewels.
In 1937, the school became the first Catholic college or university to be awarded with a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa (PBK), the country’s most prestigious honor society. It was only the third institution in Minnesota to acquire one (the University of Minnesota and Carleton College being the first). St. Catherine’s earned inclusion in PBK through its outstanding faculty and its commitment to the liberal arts.
By the early 1930s, college enrollment had grown to nearly 600. Faculty held degrees from prestigious schools across the United States and Europe. Together, they implemented a curriculum featuring a full range of majors in the liberal arts and sciences. Career-oriented fields of study such as nursing, occupational and physical therapy, library science, business, and education all required a solid core of liberal arts training—a provision that continues to lend distinction to St. Catherine’s degrees in all fields.
The college gained more recognition in the late 1930s when it was the only Catholic college among the twenty-two schools selected for the University of Chicago’s cooperative study to evaluate general education. Later in the decade, it also was the only Catholic college among the thirty-four selected by the American Council of Education to evaluate teacher education.
The student body began to diversify in 1918, when two students from France enrolled. Students from across Europe, South and Central America, Asia, and the Middle East followed. In 1942, the college offered Japanese American women a chance to attend classes and avoid being sent to internment camps. In later decades, the college’s ambiance attracted women from Ethiopian, Hmong, and other immigrant groups.
Outreach to non-traditional students expanded in 1979 with the introduction of Weekend College. It was Minnesota’s first baccalaureate program held in a weekend format for adult women (with no formal education beyond high school). At the time, 93 percent of adult women in the state were eligible. Curricular innovations included the Area Studies program, begun in the 1950s with funding from the Hill Family Foundation.
In 1953, in collaboration with Hamline, Macalester, St. Thomas, and Augsburg, St. Catherine began offering interdisciplinary study of Russia, the Near East, East Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Faculty further extended college outreach by offering an Area Studies lecture series on KTCA-TV beginning in 1957.
St. Mary’s Junior College, founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1962, became the Minneapolis campus of St. Catherine’s in the mid-1980s.The new site enriched the curriculum with an array of two-year health-related programs. It also introduced innovative adaptations to the education of hearing-impaired students.