Q & A: What's in a Name?

Why is the College of St. Catherine changing its name to university?
The answer is rooted in the five-year strategic plan. That document, approved in 2005 by the Board of Trustees, calls on the College to develop a stronger and more visible role for graduate programs, and to broaden the institution’s visibility by focusing on areas where St. Catherine’s can attain national or even international pre-eminence.

How does St. Catherine’s resemble a university more than a college?
St. Catherine’s is the only college or university in the Minnesota Private College Council to confer degrees at the associate, baccalaureate, master’s and doctoral levels, making us the most comprehensive of the 17 institutions in the MPCC.

For the past 15 years the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has categorized St. Catherine’s as a master’s-level institution. That classification reflects the reality that we offer 11 graduate programs, including the recently announced Doctor of Nursing Practice.

Although we are best known as a women’s college, we began to move beyond the traditional liberal arts college model — serving traditional-age residential students, on one campus, with classes only on weekdays — with the founding of Weekend College in 1979.

Does the name change reflect a move away from a women-only baccalaureate program?
Absolutely not! The President and Board of Trustees have reiterated their commitment to a women-only baccalaureate program. We have worked hard to build our status as the largest women’s college in the country, and we remain committed to the education of women — which is at the heart of St. Catherine’s and distinguishes us from other academic institutions regionally.

Our graduate programs will continue to admit both women and men. However, programs at all levels benefit from the women-centered pedagogy of St. Catherine’s, with its emphasis on collaboration and personal interaction.

Will the name change alter the core liberal arts mission?
University most accurately reflects the comprehensive and complex nature of St. Catherine’s. At the same time, St. Catherine’s is and will remain an institution with liberal arts at its core. The newly proposed academic structure provides mechanisms to ensure that liberal arts continue to be infused at all degree levels. Equally important is the commitment to a strong Catholic identity in our curricular and co-curricular offerings.

How might a name change affect our recruitment goals?
Changing our name to university will help us serve and attract students. Internationally, college is associated with high school education, making it difficult to compete in an increasingly crowded marketplace of higher-education opportunities, especially through digital learning.

University connotes the prestige and academic rigor for which St. Kate’s is known, making it easier to attract funding and to recruit students — especially at the graduate level but also at the undergraduate level.

Who made this decision?
The final decision to change the name was made by the Board of Trustees at its quarterly meeting May 5, 2008. The Board considered a lengthy motion that included a number of “underlying commitments” crucial for a name change at an institution determined to uphold its strong and cherished traditions.

Click here to read the motion and learn more about the underlying commitments.
More >>

What concerns have been raised?
Chief among them is the imperative to keep the “women’s college” focus of our mission alive and vibrant — and to have it resonate throughout all our programs, even those associate and graduate programs that admit men.

Calling ourselves “The Nation’s Largest College for Women” does not describe the entirety of this institution, but it does illuminate one of our proudest distinguishing characteristics. We are a college that educates women to lead and influence, and according to President Andrea J. Lee, IHM, that mission and mandate will not change.

Who helped the Board of Trustees consider this important question?
President Andrea J. Lee, IHM, appointed a task force last August co-chaired by Vice President for External Relations Marjorie Mathison Hance ’70 and Special Assistant to the President for Special Initiatives Julie Belle White-Newman.

That team included representatives of alumnae, trustees, faculty, staff and the Sisters of St. Joseph, as well as the president of the student Senate.

Click here to learn more about the task force’s membership and process, including its outreach to key constituents of the College and its interviews with other institutions that considered this change. More >>

What is the size and scope of the student population at St. Kate’s today?
Our entire student body numbers more than 5,200. Another 1,300 people take a class or take advantage of one of our professional-development programs each year. Our total population of students varies in age from 16 to 70 and includes a mix of women and men in the associate and graduate programs. We resemble a small university (a word whose root means “collection of communities”) more than a college.

Our traditional day baccalaureate program — the core of the College, serving women primarily between the ages of 18 and 22 — enrolled 2,030 students this year.
Most selective, private liberal arts colleges with largely residential populations (Carleton, Grinnell and Macalester, to name a few) try to hold the size of their student bodies to around 2,000 students.

Why is it important to attract graduate students?
We are facing a declining number of high school–age students in the Upper Midwest. That demographic reality is presenting significant challenges to all institutions of higher learning, especially in baccalaureate programs.

In Minnesota alone, the number of high school graduates is expected to decline by 6 percent in the decade from 2004 to 2014. Surrounding states such as the Dakotas face an even more precipitous decline, according to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), which has been tracking high school graduate numbers for 30 years.

Our graduate programs are important for other reasons as well. Our newly launched School of Health, for example, presents significant “laddering” opportunities — allowing students to enter the College through the associate or baccalaureate programs and then progress to higher-level degrees without leaving St. Kate’s.

Could the growth in graduate or associate programs at St. Kate’s help our traditional women’s college?
Indeed it could — and already does! The task force’s research with other institutions that made the leap from “college” to “university” showed that many of those institutions used revenue from graduate programs to keep their undergraduate liberal arts programs on the leading edge.

All of the institutions that made the change felt it had been an overwhelmingly positive experience. Initial resistance, especially on the parts of students and alumni, was short lived. The most positive experiences were at institutions that linked their name changes with other strategic initiatives, such as a growth in new programs or a new structure for the organization.

Click here to learn more about the proposed academic restructuring of St. Catherine's that will be unveiled in fall 2009. More>>