St. John's University (New York City)

St. John's University is a private Catholic university in Queens, New York City, United States. It was founded in 1870 by the Congregation of the Mission (C.M., the Vincentian Fathers) with a mission to provide the youth of New York with a Catholic university education. Originally located in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, the flagship campus was moved to its current location in the Queens borough during the 1950s. St. John's has an additional New York City campus in Manhattan. The university's Staten Island campus closed in May 2024. Additionally, the university has international campuses located in Rome, Italy; Paris, France; and Limerick, Ireland.Limerick, Ireland, St. John's University. Retrieved 2018-05-01

St. John's is organized into five undergraduate schools and six graduate schools offering more than 100 bachelor, master, and doctoral degree programs as well as professional certificates. In 2026, the university had 15,640 undergraduate and 3,749 graduate students, making St. John's the third largest Catholic university in terms of enrollment in the U.S. The student body represents 46 states, District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and 119 countries. As of 2020, St. John's alumni total more than 190,000 worldwide.

History

Foundations St. John's University was founded in 1870, by the Vincentian Fathers of the Catholic Church in response to an invitation by the first Bishop of Brooklyn, John Loughlin, to provide the youth of the city with a Catholic intellectual and moral education. Originally established as the College of St. John the Baptist, the first campus was located at 75 Lewis Avenue, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Ground was broken for St. John's College Hall, the university's first building, on May 28, 1868. The cornerstone was laid on July 25, 1869."Laying the Corner Stone of the College of St. John the Baptist". The New York Times. July 26, 1869. p. 8. It opened for educational purposes on September 5, 1870.Stiles, Henry R. History of Kings County. Vol. 2. p. 955.

Founding principles

St. John's Vincentian values stem from the ideals and works of St Vincent de Paul, who is the patron saint of Christian charity. Following the Vincentian tradition, the university seeks to provide an education that encourages greater involvement in social justice, charity, and service. The Vincentian Center for Church and Society, located on the university's Queens campus serves as "a clearinghouse for and developer of Vincentian information, poverty research, social justice resources, and as an academic/cultural programming center"."Home". Vincentian Center for Church and Society. Retrieved August 25, 2015.

The St. John's University Seal bears one phrase in Latin and one in Greek. The Latin phrases "Sigillum Universitatis Sti Joannis Neo Eboraci" translates in English to "Seal of St. John's University, New York". The Greek phrase translates to "A lamp, burning, and shining", a reference to the way Jesus describes St. John the Baptist in John 5:35.Fr. Patrick J Griffen, The Seal of SJU: A Representation of Our Students (The Torch, Vol 93:01, April 15, ) 382 pp. The University Crest bears the Latin phrase "Educatio Christiana Animae Perfectio", which translates to "A Christian education perfects the soul".

As a Catholic school run by the Vincentians, clergy can be found in positions within the administration, faculty, and spiritual staff. Crosses adorn many rooms and buildings throughout the campus and the university maintains close ties to the Catholic Church.

Growth Beginning with the law school in 1925, St. John's began establishing other graduate and undergraduate schools, and became a university in 1933. In April 1936, St. John's bought the Hillcrest Golf Club's of land for about $500,000, with the intention of eventually moving the school to the new site."St. John's Buys University Site: Brooklyn Institution Acquires 100-Acre Tract in Jamaica Occupied by Golf Club". The New York Times. April 10, 1936. p. 25. Under the terms of the sale, the golf club continued to operate on the site for a few years. On February 11, 1954, St. John's officially broke ground on a new campus in Hillcrest, Queens, on the former site of the Hillcrest Golf Club."St. John's Campus in Queens is Begun". The New York Times. February 12, 1954. p. 18. During the official groundbreaking ceremony, the shovel used was the same shovel that had broken ground on the original campus in 1868. The following year, the original school of the university, St. John's College, moved from Bedford-Stuyvesant to the new campus. (The old campus would change ownership over the years and remains extant but has been converted to residential use.)

Over approximately the next two decades, the other schools of the university, which were located at a separate campus at 96 Schermerhorn Street in Downtown Brooklyn, moved out to the new campus in Queens. The last of the schools to relocate to Queens moved there in 1972, bringing an end to the Downtown Brooklyn campus of the university. In 1959, the university established a Freedom Institute to provide lectures and programs that would, in the words of university president John A. Flynn, focus "attention on the dangers of communism threatening free institutions here and abroad," with Arpad F. Kovacs of the St. John's history department as its director.Flynn, John A. ", in Kovacs, Arpad F. (1960). The Twentieth Century: An Abstract of the Main Events Which Have Shaped Our Times. St. John's University Press. (A volume of lectures given at the Freedom Institute was edited by Kovacs and published in 1961 as Let Freedom Ring.) The university also hired the noted historian Paul Kwan-Tsien Sih to establish an Institute of Asian Studies in that same year,"Paul Kwan-Tsien Sih (1909–1978)," Chinese American Who Was Who. and similarly set up a Center for African Studies under the directorship of the economic geographer Hugh C. Brooks.

The university received praise from Time Magazine in 1962 for being a Catholic university that accepted Jews with low household income. Time also ranked St. John's as "good−small" on a list of the nation's Catholic universities in 1962.

The St. John's University strike of 1966–1967 was a protest by faculty at the university which began on January 4, 1966, and ended in June 1967. The strike began after 31 faculty members were dismissed in the fall of 1965 without due process, dismissals which some felt were a violation of the professors' academic freedom. The strike ended without any reinstatements, but led to the widespread unionization of public college faculty in the New York City area. In 1970, arbitrators ruled that the university had not acted improperly.

On January 27, 1971, the New York State Board of Regents approved the consolidation of the university with the former Notre Dame College (New York), a private women's college, and the Staten Island campus of St. John's University became a reality. Classes began in the fall of 1971, combining the original Notre Dame College with the former Brooklyn campus of St. John's, offering undergraduate degrees in liberal arts, business and education. The Grymes Hill campus on Staten Island was closed in 2024.

Further expansion (1999–present)

Circa 1989, according to Steve Fishman of New York Magazine, "St. John's was essentially a commuter school" but that changed after Donald Harrington became the president of the university that year, replacing Joseph Cahill. During his tenure, the school increased its infrastructure and international profile. By 1990, the tuition and fees at St. John's was less than half of that at schools like NYU and Columbia. Moreover, in 1999, the university completed the first residence halls on the main Queens campus, making it easier for out-of-state and international students to attend the flagship campus. The university is now led by Brian Shanley, former president of Providence College.

Beginning in 1995, the university began a series of acquisitions lasting for the following 22 years and establishing new locations throughout New York and the world. Rome Campus. In 1995, St. John's establishes its first international campus in Rome, Italy. The campus offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Manhattan Campus. St. John's acquired The College of Insurance in Manhattan, in 2001. The school was converted to the School of Risk Management and added several programs to the St. John's academic portfolio, including Actuarial Science. The campus also included additional dormitories in downtown Manhattan. Paris Location. In 2008, the university established a location in Paris, France, with residential accommodations and multiple programs. The locations purpose allowing students to complete a portion of their studies under St. John's faculty in France while being exposed to the cultural offerings of the city.

Organization and administration St. John's University is a Catholic non-profit organization controlled by privately appointed board of trustees which is chosen by the Vincentian order. Brian J. Shanley is the 18th and current president of the university.

Prior presidents include:

John T. Landry, 1870–1875 Patrick M. O'Regan, 1875–1877 Aloysius J. Meyer, 1877–1882 Jeremiah A. Hartnett, 1882–1897 James J. Sullivan, 1897–1901 Patrick McHale, 1901–1906 John W. Moore, 1906–1925 John J. Cloonan, 1925–1931 Thomas F. Ryan, 1931–1935 Edward J. Walsh, 1935–1942 William J. Mahoney, 1942–1947 John A. Flynn, 1947–1961 Edward J. Burke, 1961–1965 Joseph T. Cahill, 1965–1989 Donald J. Harrington, 1989–2013 Joseph L. Levesque, 2013–2014 Conrado Gempesaw, 2014–2021 Brian J. Shanley, 2021–present

Per the university's statutes, presidents must be priests from the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians). The trustees waived this requirement due to the limited number of candidates. In 2014, Conrado Gempesaw, became the first ever lay person to be appointed President of St. John's University and in 2021, Brian Shanley became the first non-Vincentian Catholic priest appointed president. Shanley is a member of the Dominican Order.

Academics St. John's is a large doctoral/research university. It is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and has 13 additional specialized accreditations.

Colleges The university is organized into six colleges and schools:

St. John's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences School of Education Peter J. Tobin College of Business College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences The Lesley H. and William L. Collins College of Professional Studies (St. Vincent's College) St. John's University School of Law

Student body

Student body composition as of May 2, 2022 Race and ethnicityTotal White Hispanic Asian Black Other Foreign national Economic diversity Low-income Affluent In fall 2019, St. John's student body numbered 21,721 students (17,088 undergraduates and 4,633 graduate students). In 2019, there were 3,135 new undergraduates—the largest freshman class at any US Catholic college or university. Students came from 46 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and 119 countries. The freshman retention rate was 84 percent. In 2016, the university conferred more than 4,000 undergraduate and graduate degrees.

In 2019, St. John's received 27,000 applications for freshman admission, with an anticipated enrollment of more than 3,000 students. With an admission rate of 72%, St. John's is considered 'more selective' by U.S. News & World Report. Half the applicants admitted had SAT scores between 1080 and 1300.