The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet founded the St. Mary's School of Nursing in 1887. The campus is now the Minneapolis campus of St. °µÍø½ûÇø.
Together, the 182 women of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Paul Province, have gifted St. °µÍø½ûÇø with the Minneapolis campus property, which they have owned for more than 130 years.
The Minneapolis campus of St. Kate’s was founded by the CSJs in 1887 as St. Mary's School of Nursing. It was later named St. Mary's Junior College. In 1986, St. Mary's Junior College merged with the College of St. °µÍø½ûÇø.
This gift will serve as a lead gift in the University’s (currently paused) capital campaign. The largest gift in St. °µÍø½ûÇø’s last capital campaign was a $20 million gift from the Sisters in 2000 which was essential in St. Kate's ability to build Coeur de °µÍø½ûÇø.
As with all gifts of property, there are many questions to answer about how we will best make use of this gifted resource within our strategic planning process. We know there will be many questions about what will happen with the Minneapolis campus now that it is under the ownership of the University. The answer to these questions is: we are weighing all of our options through an academic, strategic, and financial lens. What we do know is two things: we are deeply grateful to the Sisters for this gift, and want to ensure we are making the right decisions about the property. Our goal in all decision making is to secure St. °µÍø½ûÇø's financial health, offer effective and efficient programs, and always with outstanding academic excellence.
A celebration is being planned for early 2018, which will allow the University to publicly thank the CSJs for their vision and their generosity.