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COURIER LIFE, APRIL 15-21, 2022
BY KIRSTYN BRENDLEN
Brooklyn’s fi rst and
only historically women’s
college got an upgrade on
April 13 as St. Joseph’s College
was offi cially dubbed
St. Joseph’s University.
The New York State Department
of Education and
the Board of Regents offi -
cially granted the centuryold
Clinton Hill institution
“university status,” which
the school celebrated as the
beginning of the school’s
next chapter.
“I’m very excited about
this, the name ‘university’
describes what we already
are,” said Donald
Boomgaarden, the university’s
president, in a video
announcing the change.
“I’m so happy to be able
to announce this … and
I hope that you share the
joy that all of us share in
our new name, St. Joseph’s
University New York.”
A college, per the university’s
announcement, is
usually a local school with
a focus on undergraduate
studies, whereas a university
is a larger, regional
institution with undergraduate
and postgraduate
courses.
With campuses in
Brooklyn and Long Island
and a wide range of both
undergraduate and graduate
programs, St. Joseph’s
already fi t the bill — it just
took a while for the name
to refl ect reality.
“While the change of
designation will bring
many benefi ts to our community,
the academic focus,
character, and qualities
of St. Joseph’s will be
unchanged,” the school
said in its announcement.
“We will maintain
our commitment to the
charism of our founding
Sisters, and we will ensure
that our close-knit community
of scholars and staff
members will continue to
provide our students with
the personal attention and
encouragement that is the
hallmark of a St. Joseph’s
education.”
The new moniker will
not change tuition or fi -
nancial aid eligibility for
the university’s roughly
4,000 students. St. Joseph’s
bills itself as one of the
country’s most-affordable
private colleges. Yearly tuition
for undergraduates
is $29,967, according to the
school’s website, and 84
percent of students receive
some form of fi nancial aid.
“The college has always
been open to growth
and change, adapting to
the times, adapting to the
challenges of the times,”
said Sister Elizabeth Hill,
a former president of St. Joseph’s
and a member of the
school’s class of 1964. “I see
this as just part of that evolutionary
process that has
been happening since 1916.”
St. Joseph’s has
changed its name to keep
up with new priorities in
the past. The university
was founded as St. Joseph’s
Once a small, women’s-only college, St. Joseph’s University is now
a thriving liberal arts institution, and say the new name only refl
ects what the school has already been doing for years.
Wikimedia Commons/Beyond My Ken
College for Women by the
Sisters of St. Joseph —
who also founded the borough’s
much-loved Bishop
Kearney High School — in
1916. Half a century after it
opened its doors, the school
dropped “for Women” from
its name as it went co-ed.
“I think that the designation
of ‘college’ is a very
worthy one,” Hill continued.
“I went to St. Joseph’s
College for Women, as did
my mother. And I have always
been very proud of
being a graduate of the college.
But the designation
of university, I think, connotes
a different level of academic
depth, excellence,
challenge.”
Higher education!
St. Joseph’s College becomes St. Joseph’s University
“I see this as just a part of that
evolutionary process that has been
happening since 1916.”
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Supporting the Brooklyn Memorial Day
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