St. John's University (New York City)

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St. John's University Coat of Arms
Motto	Educatio Christiana Animae Perfectio (Christian Education Perfects the Soul)
Type	Private school
Established	1870
Endowment	$500 million
President	Rev. Donald J. Harrington
Academic staff	1,456
Undergraduates	15,092
Postgraduates	5,254
Location	Queens, New York, USA
Campus	Urban, 105-acre (425,000 m²) Queens campus
Athletics	17 BIG EAST, Division I, NCAA teams
Mascot	Red Storm
Website	www.stjohns.edu

St. John's University is a private Roman Catholic university that was founded by the Vincentian Fathers in New York City. The primary campus is located in Jamaica, Queens, a neighborhood in the NYC borough of Queens. It is known for its programs in the liberal arts, business, pharmacy, and law. St. John's has over 140,000 alumni, many of whom reside in the Greater New York Metropolitan Area. As of 2006, the university had a total undergraduate and graduate enrollment of 20,346 students, making St. John's University one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States.

History

St. John's University was founded in 1870, by the Vincentian Fathers of the Roman Catholic Church in response to an invitation by the first Bishop of Brooklyn, John Loughlin, to provide the youth of the city with an intellectual and moral education. Following the Vincentian tradition, the university sought to provide an education that encouraged greater involvement in social justice, charity, and service. Originally located in Brooklyn, St. John's moved to its current 110 acre location in Queens during the 1960's. Until 2003, St. John's was primarily a commuter school, but since that time the university constructed several dormitories allowing the student population to include a higher number of students from outside the New York Area. It now has an enrollment of over 20,000 students in six schools and colleges spread across five campuses in New York and Rome.

Academics

Baccalaureate, master, law, and doctoral degrees are conferred by the university, and over 100 programs are offered through each of the following 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 Allied Health Professions
College of Professional Studies
St. John's Distance Learning
School of Law

Qualified prospective students also have the option of enrolling in St. John's Honors College, which provides specialized research classes and study facilities. Students at St. John's are also encouraged to participate in service activities through St. John's Bread & Life, Campus Ministries, or several other service organizations in New York as part of their collective education. The university also provides funding to the Student Government Association to be disseminated among several academic, professional, and recreational student organizations, and hosts many notable guest speakers throughout the academic year.

Campuses

St. John's University Locations:

Queens - The main campus of St. John's University is located in the Queens borough of New York City. This 105 acre campus houses several academic buildings, 6 residence halls, athletic facilities, the St. Augustine Library, and provides easy access to Manhattan via the subway system. The Queens campus features stone buildings and student residence halls. Facilities include laboratory and classroom buildings, the main collections of its 1.7 million-volume library; and athletic facilities for students and St. John's Division I athletic teams.

Staten Island - In addition to the Queens campus, St. John's also has two other residential New York City campuses, one located in lower Manhattan, and the other in Staten Island. Today the Staten Island Campus has expanded to include 16.5 acres serving over 2,000 students who are enrolled in undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The 16.5 acre campus features lawns, apartment-style student residences, and architectural styles that range from red-brick colonial to the modern. The campus is located in the residential Grymes Hill section of Staten Island.

Manhattan - St. John’s officially opened its Manhattan Campus in June 2001, after its merger with The College of Insurance (TCI). Through the merger, TCI became the School of Risk Management and operates as a unit of the Peter J. Tobin College of Business. This ten-story, prize-winning "vertical campus" features an five-story entrance atrium, 16 conference and seminar rooms, dormitories, 24 high-tech classrooms, and a variety of computer labs.

The locations in Oakdale and Rome are home to several graduate programs, but do not have residence halls. The Rome campus offers programs in government and business, while the Oakdale location offers graduate programs in education, psychology, crimial justice, and library science.

Centers & Institutes

St. John's University houses several centers, committees, and institutes. Some of the most notable are listed below, but reflect only a portion of the programs operating out of the university.

The Center for Community Services seeks to provide community health and human services to members of the community surrounding St. John's University who could not otherwise afford it. This facility houses the Center for Psychological Services, Speech and Hearing Center, and Reading and Writing Education Center. Previously located on St. John’s campus, these centers now are easily accessible to the entire community with a new location on Union Turnpike.

File:STJLaw2.jpg

St. John's Law School

"The Vincentian Center for Church and Society at St. John's University Center has deep roots in the Catholic Church, and supports the community at large with a number of service and educational programs. It is the site of many academic and cultural events, and the home of the Vincentian Chair of Social Justice, the Institute on Poverty Studies, and the Religion and Science Dialogue. The Center also conducts and disseminates research on topics related to poverty and social justice, and acts as a clearinghouse for gathering, developing and exchanging Vincentian-related information."

"Committee on Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) was established in 1994. Its policy is grounded in the University's Vincentian mission and a commitment to global education, as put forward by St. John's President Rev. Donald J. Harrington, C.M. St. John's is aware of the increasing importance of the U.S. economy on Latin American and Caribbean trading sectors through NAFTA and other agreements, and promotes an increase in education in that field through the various research and courses associated with the Committee."

The Italian Cultural Center was established at St. John's in 1992. The center conducts various educational and cultural activities that increase the awareness of Italian-Americans of their heritage, and strives to foster a greater appreciation of the significant contributions of Italians to American culture. In addition, the center seeks to preserve, communicate and celebrate Italian and Italian-American culture, values, and heritage, while supporting the mission of the University.

"The Center for Professional Education offers, workshops, certificate programs and professional designation examination preparation courses, as well as consulting services to industry, governments and regulators worldwide. For more than 30 years, the Center has served the educational needs of more than 10,000 professionals in the insurance, risk management and financial services industries."

"Institute for Biotechnology gives students an understanding of the scientific theory and advanced laboratory research techniques vital to success in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries through graduate level course work leading to a masters degree. The Institute draws upon such disciplines as microbiology, biochemistry and molecular and cellular biology to aid in the advancement of pharmaceutical biotechnology. This interdisciplinary program is a joint effort of the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions and St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences."

University Gallery "began with its first season in September, 1994. The gallery is dedicated to the exhibition of all forms of contemporary art, and it brings to the Queens campus works of art created by well known and emerging artists of regional, national and international backgrounds. The gallery is housed in Sun Yat Sen Hall."

The Institute for Asian Studies, founded in 1959, is housed in Sun Yat-Sen Hall. The main goal for all programs at the Institute of Asian Studies is to foster, facilitate and enhance a global, multicultural, multiethnic and multilingual education. Sun Yat-Sen Hall, where the Institute for Asian Studies is housed, reflects East Asian architecture and is home to the Dr. M. T. Geoffrey Yeh Art Gallery (University Gallery).

Bread & Life Program

The Bread & Life Program was established in 1982, and recently returned as an extension of St. John’s University. The program is located in Brooklyn at the original location of St. John’s University and provides a soup kitchen, food pantry, mobile meals, counseling services, medical support, a legal clinic, and advocates for the poor. It is one of the largest social service organizations serving the needs of the homeless and underprivileged in New York City. The Bread & Life Program serves daily meals at its Soup Kitchen facility in Brooklyn and provides social services to those in need all across the New York Metropolitan Area. The organization served more than 120,000 meals to the hungry, 140,000 through its food pantry and another 90,000 plus meals through their Mobile Soup Kitchen this past year. The program is operated in large part by student volunteers from St. John’s University, as well as other volunteers in the city.

St. John’s is constructing a new facility to house the Bread & Life program, a 22,000 square foot space (nearly doubling the current facility at 75 Lewis Avenue in Brooklyn) that will feature a new kitchen, a restaurant style dining area and much needed additional space for social service activities. Construction will be completed in April of 2008 and the building will be located at 795 Lexington Avenue in Brooklyn. The new location will provide a larger space for support services and include serving food on a daily basis to the homeless, but clinical services and a second mobile soup kitchen as well as much needed office space to conduct program activities.

Demographics

As of 2006, St John's has a total student population both undergraduate and graduate enrollment of 20,346 students. The undergraduate enrollment of 15,092 students are from 88 countries and 40 states. The 5,254 graduate school students are represented by students from 53 countries and 32 states.

There are 1456 faculty members, over 90% of whom hold doctoral or equivalent degrees in their field. St. John's boasts an 18:1 faculty to student ratio.

There are over 147,800 St John's alumni, many of whom reside in the greater metropolitan area. Standard and Poor's consistently ranks St. John's graduates among the top universities in the nation with alumni who hold executive positions at Fortune 500 companies.

St. John's was recently named one of the Top 10 Wireless Universities in the nation. The university maintains over 2,900 microcomputers on campus, and has over 100 high-tech multi-media classrooms. St. John's provides every undergraduate student with a wireless internet capable laptop. St. Augustine Library, on the Queens campus, is completely wired and provides students access to over 1.7 million volumes, making it one of the largest university libraries on the east coast.

Athletics

Big East Conference

St. John's 17 NCAA Division I teams compete in the Big East Conference, with the exception of the fencing and lacrosse teams, which compete in the ECAC.

Men's Sports

Basketball
Soccer
Baseball
Lacrosse
Tennis
Golf
Fencing

Women's Sports

Basketball
Soccer
Softball
Volleyball
Tennis
Track and Field
Cross Country
Golf
Fencing

St. John's Athletic Accomplishments:

Basketball - St. John's is the 5th most successful program in college basketball history (1673 wins), and has the 7th best winning percentage (.680) in the NCAA. St. John's boasts the 7th most NCAA tournament appearances (27), two Wooden National Player of the Year Award Winners, 11 consensus All-Americans, 6 members of the Hall of Fame and has sent 59 players to the NBA. The Red Storm play most of their home games at Madison Square Garden,"The World's Most Famous Arena", while their early non-conference games are held at Carnesecca Arena on the St. John's campus in Queens.

Soccer - St. John's soccer has recently climbed to national prominence, appearing in 15 straight NCAA tournaments, advancing to the Sweet 16 in each of the last ten seasons, and the Final Four on 3 occasions. They have captured 11 Big East Championships, including the 2006 season title, and in 1996, St. John's won the NCAA National Championship. Their home games are hosted at Belson Stadium, a state of the art 2,300 seat stadium on the university campus.

Baseball - The St. John's Red Storm have been to the College World Series 6 times, recorded 26 NCAA appearances, 6 Big East Championships and have sent 70 players on to professional baseball careers. Most recently, St. John's won the Big East Regular Season Title two of the last three years (2005/2007). The 3,500 seat "Ballpark at St. John's" was renamed "Jack Kaiser Stadium" in 2007 after the Hall of Fame Coach and former St. John's Athletic Director. The stadium is one of the largest college baseball stadiums in the northeast, and is a featured venue on the EA Sports MVP NCAA Baseball video game.

Fencing - The St. John's fencing program has also attained national prominence. In 2001, St. John's won the NCAA Fencing Championship. The team has ranked in the top five each of the last 10 years, and finished 2nd in the NCAA during 1995, 2000, 2002, and 2007 seasons. In addition to team accolades, St. John's has won eleven NCAA Individual National Championship titles.

Campus Renovations

In 2008, St. John's University broke ground for the new University Center/Academic Building, one of the largest and most comprehensive construction projects in St. John’s recent history. Located between Sullivan Hall and the Taffner Field House on the site that currently serves as stadium seating for lacrosse and track and field events, the 110,000 square feet complex has been designed to significantly enhance student life on campus. The building, which will rise dramatically over the upper campus, will contain 14 technologically sophisticated, state-of-the-art classrooms with approximately 800 seats. In addition, it will include a café, lounge, recreation and entertainment spaces, student organization offices and conference and meeting rooms devoted exclusively to student use.

St. John's University recently finished construction on Taffner Athletic Field House, a $23 million initiative. The two-story, 38,000 sq. ft. structure adjacent to Carnesecca Hall includes:

Four full size basketball courts-two for Student Life, two for Varsity Basketball
Academic support classrooms and study space for student-athletes
Office and meeting space for recreation and intramural activities
Audio/visual rooms for all varsity athletic teams
Dedicated locker rooms for both student recreation and men's and women's basketball
New offices and meeting rooms for men's and women's basketball
Exclusive Sports Medicine and weight training facilities

Carnesecca Hall and University Center renovations include:

A 6400 sq. ft. Health Center in Carnesecca Hall, for use by Student Life and Athletics, including weight training equipment, aerobic and dance studios and a student lounge
Reconfigured office and meeting space for Student Life and Academic Clubs
Additional audio/visual rooms for all varsity athletic teams.

The 2004-2005 academic years saw $35 million in capital projects, including the completion of St. Thomas More church, the DaSilva academic building, Carnesecca Hall Fitness Center, and Belson Stadium. In 2005 the science labs and student life facilities were the target of an additional $60 million in capital enhancements.

St. John's University recently finished construction on Taffner Athletic Field House, a $23 million initiative. The two-story, 38,000 sq. ft. structure adjacent to Carnesecca Hall includes:

Faculty Strike (1966-1967)

The St. John's University strike of 1966-1967 was a protest by faculty at St. John's University in New York City 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.