Saint Joseph's College (Indiana)
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Saint Joseph's College (SJC; colloquially, Saint Joe) is an unaccredited
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college in Collegeville, Indiana, with a Rensselaer postal address. It was founded in 1889 and suspended academic operations in 2017 with approximately 1,100 students enrolled. In 2021, the college began offering some courses and certifications at the Rensselaer campus in the fields of
business management Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...
,
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, and
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.


History

The college was founded in 1889 by Father Joseph A. Stephan, a missionary from Germany as a secondary school to assimilate Native Americans. In 1962, President Eisenhower dedicated the Halleck Center (named after Republican representative Charles Halleck). From 1944 to 1974, the
Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC North, North division. They are one of two remaining ...
held their training camp at Saint Joseph's College. The 1971 film ''
Brian's Song ''Brian's Song'' is a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week that recounts the life of Brian Piccolo ( James Caan), a Chicago Bears football player stricken with terminal cancer, focusing on his friendship with teammate Gale Sayers ( Billy Dee Williams) ...
''—about Brian Piccolo, a Chicago Bears
running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive American football plays#Offensive terminology, handoffs from the quarterback to Rush (American football)#Offense ...
who died from
carcinoma Carcinoma is a malignancy that develops from epithelial cells. Specifically, a carcinoma is a cancer that begins in a tissue that lines the inner or outer surfaces of the body, and that arises from cells originating in the endodermal, mesoder ...
in the 1970s—was filmed on campus. A charity game for Joy Piccolo, with the Bears versus college all-stars, was played on July 23, 1971. During training camp one year,
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linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...
Dick Butkus was reportedly seen out on a
tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...
in the cornfield adjacent to the campus. The college football
all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...
was played at the college's football stadium, Alumni Stadium, for many years. The main academic building burned to the ground on February 3, 1973. At the time, many thought the fire would close the school, but it recovered. After much discussion, on February 3, 2017, college administrators announced that the college would close at the end of the 2016–17 academic year, as the college needed $100 million to continue operating: $27 million in debt, $35 million in infrastructure improvements, and $38 million to "re-engineer" the college. Outgoing president Robert Pastoor noted hopes of reopening, although his resignation was to take effect in May 2017. Three months later, administrators also announced that they were resigning the college's accreditation with the
Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
. In October 2018, it was announced that St. Joseph's would reopen as a
junior college A junior college is a type of post-secondary institution that offers vocational and academic training that is designed to prepare students for either skilled trades and technical occupations or support roles in professions such as engineering, a ...
in July 2019 through a partnership with Marian University. The college would first begin operations in Indianapolis, where Marian University is located, under the name Saint Joseph's College of Marian University-Indianapolis and could later restart operations at its Rensselaer campus. One year later, resignations of a number of key members of the administrative team and board raised questions about the future viability of the closed Rensselaer Campus, further dimming the hopes of former alumni and the local community. However, in February 2020 the college announced a plan to resume some classes and academic operations in partnership with other colleges and universities beginning in the fall of 2021.


Campus

The campus has several distinctive features. The Romanesque-style
Chapel A chapel (from , a diminutive of ''cappa'', meaning "little cape") is a Christianity, Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. First, smaller spaces inside a church that have their o ...
and the reflecting pond in front of the Chapel are the most recognized features of campus. Drexel Hall was one of the first buildings on campus, and is distinctive for its unique atrium. Drexel has been renovated and restored to its historical appearance. The campus also includes a private recreational lake which is an old stone quarry.


Academics

From 1932 until 2017, the college was
accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
by the
Higher Learning Commission The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa ...
(HLC). Specific programs were accredited or approved by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the National League for Nursing (NLN), the Board of Commissioners of the International Assembly of Collegiate Business Education (IACBE), and the State of Indiana Professional Standards Board for the Training of Elementary Teachers. Saint Joseph's College was known for its Core Program under which students learned the basics of history, political science, natural science, literature and philosophy in integrated "core classes". This departs from the cafeteria-style approach to general education used by most colleges and universities in which students take discrete lower division classes in these subjects. However, credits for “core classes” were non-transferable to other colleges and universities. Saint Joseph's College had a student-faculty ratio of 14:1. 69% of full-time faculty at Saint Joseph's had their
doctorates A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...
or
terminal degree A terminal degree is the highest-level university degree that can be achieved and awarded in an academic discipline or professional field. The term "terminal degree" is also used to refer to a degree that is awarded because a doctorates, doctoral-le ...
. SJC offers 75 major, minor, and pre-professional programs, along with the nationally acclaimed Core Curriculum, which provides a solid
liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...
education and a distinct career advantage.


Student life

Like most other Indiana colleges, SJC held an annual "
Little 500 The Little 500 (also known popularly as the "Little Five"), is a track cycling race held annually during the third weekend of April at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind ...
" race. Unlike the bed or bicycle races held elsewhere, Saint Joseph's College staged a
go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performanc ...
race in the same manner as Purdue University’s Grand Prix, albeit on a much smaller scale. The event was popular and brought alumni back to the school every year.


Athletics

The Saint Joseph's athletic teams were called the Pumas. The college was a member of the Division II ranks of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
(NCAA), primarily competing as a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) from 1977–78 until its initial closure at the end of the 2016–17 academic year. Saint Joseph's competed in 15 intercollegiate varsity sports teams: Men's sports included baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis and track & field; while women's sports included basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball. As of fall 2021, when the school was reopened, it has yet to decide on reinstating an athletics program.


Mascot

The school mascot was the Puma. It is the only post-secondary institution in the United States with the puma as its mascot, although several have mountain lions, which is a different name for the same species.


History

In 1956, the Saint Joseph's football team won a share of the NAIA Football National Championship, playing Montana State to a 0–0 tie in the Aluminum Bowl at War Memorial Stadium in
Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
. The Pumas won six
Indiana Collegiate Conference The Indiana Collegiate Conference (ICC) was a men's college athletic conference in the United States, in existence from 1950 to 1978. It consisted solely of schools in Indiana. The charter members of the conference were Indiana State University ...
titles; 1955 co-champions, 1956, 1957, 1971, 1976 co-champions and 1977 co-champions. The football team had been dominant in their conference near its final years, winning the Great Lakes Football Conference championship in 2006, 2009 and 2010. The school's
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
team was runner-up to the
NCAA Division II Baseball Championship The NCAA Division II baseball tournament (formerly the NCAA College Division baseball tournament) is an annual college baseball tournament held at the culmination of the spring regular season and which determines the NCAA Division II college bas ...
in 1996, led by pitcher Rick O'Dette, who would later be drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 1997 MLB Draft (15th Round). The same year, the women's
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
team was the runner-up in the NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship. The school's women's
tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
team has captured six GLVC conference titles since 1985 and completed three undefeated seasons. In 2010, the men's basketball team led by head coach Richard Davis put together a string of three wins in the NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament to reach the Elite Eight for the second time in school history.


Notable people

* Philip F. Deaver, writer and poet, graduated from St. Joseph's College in 1968. He went on to win O. Henry and Flannery O'Connor awards for short fiction, and to publish poetry and fiction in dozens of literary journals. * Mark S. Doss, Grammy Award-winning African-American bass-baritone, specializing in opera, concert and recital. *
Gil Hodges Gilbert Raymond Hodges (born Hodge; April 4, 1924 – April 2, 1972) was an American first baseman and manager (baseball), manager in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played most of his 18-year career for the History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Broo ...
,
Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
Hall of Fame player, played college basketball and baseball at Saint Joseph's College, and later went on to play for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers and the
New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National ...
. The Mets traded him to the Washington Senators, he retired and became the Senators manager. Following 5 seasons in Washington (1963–67), he returned to New York and led the Mets to their first World Series title in 1969. The baseball field is named in his honor. * J. Patrick Lewis, American poet and prose writer noted for his children's poems and other light verse. * John McGarry,
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
player. *
Kevin McGuff Kevin Patrick McGuff (born December 3, 1969) is an American college basketball coach who is the current head women's basketball coach at Ohio State University after spending two seasons as head coach of the University of Washington. Prior to his ...
, current
Ohio State Buckeyes women's basketball The Ohio State women's basketball team represents Ohio State University and plays its home games in the Value City Arena at the Jerome Schottenstein Center, which they moved into in 1998. Prior to 1998, they played at St. John Arena. They hav ...
head coach. * Gilbert Parent, former Canadian Member of Parliament and
Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada The speaker of the House of Commons () is the presiding officer of the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. A member of Parliament (MP), a speaker is elected at the beginning of each new parliament by fellow MPs. The speaker's role in pre ...
. * Michael Y. Scudder, American lawyer and
Seventh Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (in case citations, 7th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the courts in the following districts: * Central District of Illinois * Northern District of Ill ...
judge. * Jake Teshka, member of the
Indiana House of Representatives The Indiana House of Representatives is the lower house of the Indiana General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Indiana. The House is composed of 100 members representing an equal number of constituent districts. House mem ...
. * Edward Vrdolyak, former Chicago Alderman.


References


External links

*
Saint Joseph's College Archives
{{authority control Buildings and structures in Jasper County, Indiana Education in Jasper County, Indiana Universities and colleges established in 1889 Catholic universities and colleges in Indiana 1889 establishments in Indiana Missionaries of the Precious Blood Marian University (Indiana) Defunct private universities and colleges in Indiana Defunct Catholic universities and colleges in the United States