Benedictine University

Benedictine University, also called BenU, was founded in 1887 as St. Procopius College by the Benedictine monks of St. Procopius Abbey, who lived in the Pilsen community of Chicago's West Side. The monks created the all-male institution just two years after their community began, with the intention of educating men of Czech and Slovak descent. While the school was called a college from its founding, it did not begin offering post-secondary courses until after it moved from Chicago to rural Lisle in 1901. It became fully accredited in 1957 and, as the area around it transitioned from rural to suburban, it grew substantially. Also in 1957, the institution's high school component began operating independently of the college and is now called Benet Academy . The college became fully coeducational in 1968, though the first female, Joan Hewitt, graduated in 1953. [ 7 ] The school changed its name to Illinois Benedictine College in 1971, and in 1996, it became Benedictine University . While the institution continued to grow in Lisle, it expanded its reach to include campuses in other cities, including Springfield, Illinois, in 2003 and Mesa, Arizona, in 2012. The university added the Kindlon Hall of Learning and the Birck Hall of Science in 2001 and the Neff Alumni Center in 2012, and in 2015, Benedictine opened the Daniel L. Goodwin Hall of Business, which features the Trading Lab and a 600-seat auditorium. After recognizing that there is great demand for American business programs overseas, Benedictine joined forces with Shenyang University of Technology and Shenyang Jianzhu University in China to bring Master of Business Administration and Master of Science in Management Information Systems programs there. [ 8 ] The Springfield, Illinois branch campus of Benedictine University was founded in 1929 as a separate institution known as Springfield Junior College. The college changed its name in 1967 to Springfield College in Illinois .

In early 2003, Springfield College in Illinois and Benedictine University formed a partnership through which Benedictine offered bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in Springfield. This partnership resulted in a merger between the two institutions; in 2010, Benedictine University established a branch campus named Benedictine University at Springfield and Springfield College in Illinois ceased all academic programs in August 2011. On February 27, 2018, the Benedictine University Board of Trustees and the Board of Springfield College in Illinois announced that the Springfield property would be offered for sale. As of the end of the 2018 spring semester, courses were no longer offered at the Springfield branch campus. [ 9 ] In 2024 Benedictine University cut 40 employees including both faculty and staff positions. [ 10 ] President Foy stated that "This was the reality of the university for many years, operating well beyond what our resources were” according to the student newspaper. [ 11 ] While the president is confident that this effort will lead to financial stability and an increase in enrollment many remain weary about the possibility of the university closing after more than a century offering undergraduate degrees. Presidents Rev. Daniel Kucera , O.S.B. – a Benedictine who later became Archbishop of Dubuque , 1959–1965, 1971–1976. Richard C. Becker , Ph.D., 1976–1995 William J. Carroll, Ph.D., 1995–2015 Michael S. Brophy, Ph.D., 2015–2018 Charles Gregory, 2018–2023 Joseph J. Foy, Ph.D., 2023–Present [ 12 ]

Lisle Daniel L. Goodwin Hall of Business Benedictine University moved to Lisle, Illinois, in the far western suburbs of Chicago and DuPage County, in 1901. After the dedication of Benedictine Hall, new buildings were added throughout the early 1900s. Although it had admitted women from time to time, the college became fully coeducational in 1968. In 1971, it changed its name to Illinois Benedictine College. In response to community needs, graduate, doctorate and adult learner programs were added. In 1996, the college was renamed Benedictine University. The Birck Hall of Science and the Kindlon Hall of Learning were built in 2001. The Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex, a unique cooperative venture between a governmental body and private university, was dedicated in 2005. Renovation of the Dan and Ada Rice Center was completed in October 2011. The rapid growth of the Daniel L. Goodwin College of Business created the need for construction of the Daniel L. Goodwin Hall of Business – the largest classroom building on campus at 125,000 square feet – which houses the college's undergraduate and graduate business programs and doctoral programs in Organization Development and Values-Driven Leadership. The building also features classrooms, study areas, seminar rooms, offices, a 600-seat auditorium to facilitate lectures, a 40-seat real-time trading lab that provides hands-on investing experience, a 7,500-square-foot main hall and a café. The Lisle campus' additionally features the Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum , a small natural history museum located on the second floor of the Birck Hall of Science. The museum represents the work of Frs. Edmund and Hilary Jurica, O.S.B., who collected specimens for their students to use during their almost 100 combined years of teaching at Benedictine University, and Fr. Theodore Suchy, O.S.B. (d. 2012), who served as museum curator for more than 30 years.

The museum has continued to collect specimens since the Juricas' deaths in the early 1970s and now has a collection numbering more than 10,000 specimens ranging from small invertebrates to a rorqual skeleton. The Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum is open to the public as well as to school groups. Benedictine's Lisle campus has 2,885 undergraduate students of which 44 percent are male and 56 percent are female, and the student body represents 50 states and territories, and 15 countries. Approximately one-third of the students are minority.