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St. Bonaventure University

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St. Bonaventure University
St. Bonaventure University Logo
MottoBecoming Extraordinary
TypePrivate
Established1858
Endowment$46 million
PresidentSr. Margaret Carney, OSF
Undergraduates~1,900
Postgraduates~500
Location
Olean
,
New York
,
USA
CampusSmall town/Rural, 500 acres (2 km²)
AthleticsBonnies
ColorsBrown & White
Websitewww.sbu.edu

St. Bonaventure University is located in Cattaraugus County in western New York. The university was established by the Franciscan Brothers in 1858 and is a private, Catholic university, located near Olean, New York. It has roughly 2,400 undergraduate and graduate students. The current president is Sister Margaret Carney OSF, the 20th president and the first religious sister to hold the position full time. Its sports teams, the Bonnies (formerly nicknamed the "Brown Indians"), play NCAA Division I sports in the Atlantic 10 Conference. The basketball teams play in the 6,000-seat Reilly Center Arena.

Students and alumni refer to the university with an affectionate nickname—"Bona's"—which originates from the school's original name, St. Bonaventure's College. The college became a university in 1950.

Location

The campus sits on 500 acres in the town of Allegany, just over the line from the city of Olean (total pop.: 24,000). The university is located off of Interstate 86 (exit 24).

The south edge of campus lies on the Allegheny River. Campus buildings are designed in red brick with Italianate roofs, to reflect the architecture of St. Francis' native Italy. A small portion of the campus is wooded. Across the street from campus, the university owns a cemetery, 9-hole golf course, and restaurant. The campus proper has several residence halls, townhouses and academic buildings, including a state-of-the-art science center that will open in 2008. The campus also has a new $6 million recreation center, a new Starbucks-product coffee café, and a completely renovated dining hall. The expansive front lawn has been cited as the largest front lawn in New York state.

About 25 miles from campus, the university also owns a plot of land on an Allegheny Mountain foothill in West Clarksville, New York called Mount Irenaeus. "The Mountain," as it is referred to by students, faculty and alumni, provides a retreat for students.

St. Bonaventure University has its own U.S. Post Office. Mail may be addressed to St. Bonaventure, NY 14778.

History

The college was founded by Utica financier Nicholas Devereux, one of the first to gain land grants in newly surveyed Cattaraugus County from the Holland Land Company. Devereux founded the town of Allegany on the grant, hoping to build a new city. A great city needed religious instruction, so Devereux approached John Timon, the bishop of Buffalo, for assistance. The two invited the Franciscan order to Western New York, and a small group under Father Pamfilo da Magliano OFM arrived in 1856. This was the first group of Franciscan brothers to settle in the United States. The school graduated its first class in 1858. St. Bonaventure's College was granted university status by New York State in 1950. The largest dormitory on campus, Devereux Hall, is named for the founder.

Once one of the nation's most prominent Catholic colleges, St. Bonaventure ran into financial difficulties in the early 1990s, and nearly declared bankruptcy in 1994. Since then, the school has been put on a more solid financial footing and has seen record growth and campus improvements in the past five years.

Thomas Merton taught English at St. Bonaventure for a year just at the start of World War II. It was at this school that Merton finally gave into his vocation and decided to join the Trappists. He entered the monastery in Kentucky in 1941. An unusual botanical phenomenon on a mountain in view of campus, where the trees have fallen and left a clearing in the shape of a heart, is linked to Merton in campus myth. Some students call it "Merton's Heart" and claim that Merton visited the place often.

St. Bonaventure is strongly identified with the Western New York region. A notable proportion of the student body are from the Buffalo and Rochester metro areas, and references to Buffalo and Rochester—and their Catholic high schools—are common even among students not from those areas. However, the university has students from 34 states and nearly a dozen countries.

Athletics

File:StBonaventureBonnies.png
St. Bonaventure Bonnies logo

St. Bonaventure has been long known for a successful men's basketball program that plays in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Nearly every member of the spirited student body attends home games, leading ESPN to call St. Bonaventure one of the top-five "worst places to play" in the country, along with Duke and Michigan. The team has struggled lately, but had success in the recent past. St. Bonaventure most recently appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2000, falling in the first round to Kentucky 85-80 in double-overtime.

Bob Lanier played at St. Bonaventure, leading them to the Final Four in 1970, as did Tom and Sam Stith. In addition to these, and other NBA players, other St. Bonaventure players have played in the top European leagues. The last St. Bonaventure player to reach the NBA was J.R. Bremer, who played for the Boston Celtics in 2002 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2003.

Mike Gansey, who finished his college career in 2006 as a star at West Virginia and signed with the Miami Heat as an undrafted free agent, played his first two years of college basketball at St. Bonaventure, but transferred along with several teammates in the wake of an academic scandal in 2003 involving a junior college transfer.

The scandal took a toll on the program. Dismissed in the aftermath of the scandal were: University president Robert J. Wickenheiser, head basketball coach Jan van Breda Kolff, assistant basketball coach and son of the president Kort Wickenheiser, and athletic director Gothard Lane. Lane was later absolved by the NCAA of culpability in the situation. In the most unfortunate event following the scandal, University trustee Bill Swan committed suicide on August 20, 2003, following sharp criticism from media and internet bloggers. He was criticized for not interceding earlier to prevent the scandal.

St. Bonaventure hired Robert Morris University's head basketball coach, Mark Schmidt, on April 10, 2007 to replace former head coach Anthony Solomon. Solomon was hired in May 2003 after the NCAA imposed sanctions resulting from the academic scandal, and was fired after a four-season record of 24-88 (10-54 in the Atlantic 10). The current women's basketball coach is Jim Crowley.

The men's and women's basketball teams play at the Bob Lanier Court in the Reilly Center. The court was named in honor of Lanier during a dedication ceremony on October 12, 2007. New scoreboards and floor were installed, including Lanier's signature on two places on the court. Lanier, as well as his mother, sister and daughter were in attendance at the ceremony. The Arena seats 6,012 and is often sold out during basketball season. Many people from the Olean area have been season-ticket holders for years.

The men's rugby team claimed the New York state title this year, obliterating almost every team they played, but fell to Middlebury in the Northeast Rugby Union semifinals.

The university today

The school is well known in New York state and the mid-Atlantic region for its journalism, business and education programs, having produced five Pulitzer Prize-winning writers. John Hanchette, one of the Pulitzer Prize winners, is currently a journalism professor at the university. The institute is traditionally considered as a "Buffalo and Rochester" school. New dual-degree programs, enabling students to be accepted into medical, dental, physical therapy or pharmacy schools as freshmen, have helped the university attract talented students from across the country. The university has more than 50 academic programs, including new ones in gerontology, theater arts and art history. The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is one of the premier art facilities in the state, boasting serveral art galleries and a 321-seat theater.

St. Bonaventure is home to the Russell J. Jandoli School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Its campus newspaper, The Bona Venture, has been published continuously since 1926. The school is also home to The Laurel, the nation's oldest continuously published college literary magazine. The school's student radio station, WSBU 88.3 The Buzz, is ranked No. 1 nationally by The Princeton Review. The school has a unique organization known as SFM (Students for the Mountain). SFM holds retreats for students at the Franciscan Mountain Retreat Centre at Mount Irenaeus, and prides itself on several renowned service organizations, most notably BonaResponds — which sent nearly 300 people to the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and continues to perform relief work at home and across the county wherever needed — and SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise), which has established successful business and education programs in the Bahamas.

The Franciscan connection

The school is the largest Franciscan-affiliated institution of undergraduate higher education in the English-speaking world. The friars at the St. Bonaventure Friary belong to the Holy Name Province, OFM. Franciscan brothers at the school are members of the Order of Friars Minor, one of the orders of Franciscan brothers.

The Bonaventure friars are involved in a number of activities in the greater Olean community, besides ministry on campus. They administer St. Bonaventure's Parish in Allegany, called "Little Bona's". There is a strong Franciscan presence at Olean General Hospital, and the university operates the Warming House, an area soup kitchen believed to be the oldest student-run soup kitchen in the United States. Also adjacent to campus is the Motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, a group of Franciscan religious sisters.

St. Bonaventure himself (1221-74), born John of Fidenza, was a cardinal and Doctor of the Church. A theologian and contemporary of St. Thomas Aquinas at the university in Paris, he became head of the Franciscan order and did much to institutionalize that order. His most famous work is Itinerarium mentis in deum, or The Soul's Journey to God. Bonaventure was canonized in 1482 by Sixtus IV.

The university is also home to the world-renowned Franciscan Institute. Founded in 1939 by Fr. Thomas Plassmann, O.F.M., then president of St. Bonaventure College, and led by its first Director, Fr. Philotheus Boehner, O.F.M., the Franciscan Institute stands as the preeminent center in North America of teaching, research and publication on the history, spirituality and intellectual life of the Franciscan movement.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni of St. Bonaventure University include

The school also boasts five Pulitzer Prize winners as alumni.

Four Members of the United States Congress also attended St. Bonaventure.

References

  1. ^ James John Howard, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Accessed August 30, 2007.
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