Tunnels, Pools, and Ghosts: Exploring Space at St. Catherine University

Brief History of St. Kate's

Before we can talk about space it is important that everyone reading this has at least a beginner’s knowledge of St. Catherine University. You do not have to be a part of the St. Kate's community to enjoy the spaces and histories of the university. Many of the historical events that impacted space at St. Kate’s impacted hundreds of other spaces around the Twin Cities and the country. For example, the Great Depression had its impact here like it did around the United State. However, St. Kate’s was uniquely impacted by the Great Depression because of the Sisters that ran the University and their values. The sisters worked to make sure the campus was still a place of joy even during difficult economic times and put their penny pinching skills to work. Due to their careful and creative use of limited finances campus life changed little. Students still had tea parties and a similar college experience that other students enjoyed a few years before the depression. 

St. Catherine University is located in St. Paul, Minnesota just a mile from the Mississippi River. The university was opened in 1905 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a group of sisters known for the “Leslie Knope” style of courage, perseverance and creativity. The College was opened in January after many years of planning; beginning in the 1890’s when Bishop Ireland and Mother Seraphine Ireland purchased 110 acres of land in St. Paul.1 Due to economic conditions the sisters could not start the construction of their college until the early 1900’s. In the meantime they worked against the stigma of educating women and collecting funds. Hugh Derham, a farmer, donated $20,000 for towards the first building and because of his generosity the building was named after him.2 The sisters worked tirelessly to establish the then college teaching courses during the school year and spending their summers obtaining their own degrees. 

Sister Antonia, the first college president, worked to obtain accreditation and the Phi Beta Kappa chapter making St. Kate's the first catholic college with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. The work of Sister Antonia and the following ten presidents helped to maintain St. Kate's as a exceptional women's college through trying times. During the Great Depression sisters worked to make sure that students could attend college and to keep the experience rich even during economic hardship. During World War I and World War II the sisters helped the college participate in the war effort and helped students make sense of a changing world.  In the Cold War the sisters helped to maintain normalcy during a period of fear of atomic attack. Here the sisters extended their reach far beyond students and welcomed the neighborhood to campus as a fallout shelter. Today the University is no longer run by sisters but the work they started over a hundred years ago continues. President ReBecca Koenig Roloff the current and 11th University president, is known for her Friday afternoon emails. On February 1st 2017 she wrote

"I can never say it often enough that all of you in the St. Catherine community are unequivocally welcome here, that our students are our first priority and that we will all work diligently to continue to make St. Kate’s a place of inclusion, not exclusion.

We are our sisters' (and brothers') keepers. We are all in this together. You belong.

There is no need to wonder where we stand as a community because we have stood here since the day the doors opened in 1905. The very fact we exist is a radical idea that I hope each of you is very proud to claim. To educate young, immigrant women from the prairies of the Midwest was as crucial to their lives, and the lives of their families and communities, as it is today. To imagine that these young women deserved the finest education in the tough disciplines of the humanities, arts and sciences, and that it would be done within a specific religious discipline based on faith and reason--Catholicism--was a statement of boldness and belief in the future."

With these words President Becky continues the mission began by Mother Seraphine Ireland and Sister Antonia McHugh; this University is a place for students to learn and to grow and to feel safe. The University is committed to creating a place where students belong and for making that place special. No matter what is happening outside the gates the university is committed to creating an experience of joy, belong and inclusion for its students.

1Rosalie Ryan CSJ and John Cristine Wolkerstorfer CSJ, More than a Dream Eighty-five years at the College of St. Catherine (St. Paul: The College of St. Catherine, 1992), 1.
2 Ibid, 2.

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