Benedictine University

History

The school secured its charter from the state of Illinois in 1890, and moved to its current location in 1901. In 1957, its high school section began operating independently of the college and is now Benet Academy. St. Procopius College changed its name to Illinois Benedictine College in 1971, and became Benedictine University in 1996 adding a third school color of black to their existing colors in which the home football team wears a black jersey.

Michael S. Brophy, Ph.D., became the 11th president of Benedictine University in August 2015. He succeeded President Emeritus William J. Carroll, Ph.D., who had served as Benedictine’s president since 1995.

In June 2015, monks from St. Procopius Abbey sued the university, claiming that they had been shut out of important decisions in defiance of the university's by-laws. The suit also alleges that the trustees, again in defiance of the by-laws, have not disclosed conflicts of interest in the search for a new president.

Presidents

Academics

Benedictine University offers 56 undergraduate majors through The College of Science, The College of Liberal Arts, The College of Business and The College of Education and Health Services. Newer offerings are undergraduate programs in Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management, Business Analytics, Exercise and Sports Studies, Music Education and Theology. Adult programs are offered through the School of Graduate, Adult and Professional Education. Master’s degrees are offered in Accountancy, Business Administration, Business Analytics, Clinical Exercise Physiology, Clinical Psychology, Education, Finance, Leadership, Linguistics, Management Information Systems, Management and Organizational Behavior, Nursing, Nutrition and Wellness, Public Health, Reading and Literacy, Science Content and Process, and Taxation.

The university also offers 15 graduate programs, 34 graduate certificates, and 4 doctoral programs. Ph.D. programs are offered in Organization Development and Values-Driven Leadership, a D.B.A. program in Values-Driven Leadership, and an Ed.D. program in Higher Education and Organizational Change.

Rankings

Forbes magazine named Benedictine among "America’s Top Colleges" for the sixth consecutive year in 2016. Benedictine University’s Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) program is listed by Crain’s Chicago Business as the fourth largest in the Chicago area in 2016.

Lisle campus

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 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 Starbucks 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 50,000 specimens ranging from small invertebrates to a roqual skeleton. The Jurica-Suchy Nature Museum is open to the public as well as to school groups.

Benedictine's Lisle campus has approximately 2,635 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.

Athletics

Benedictine is a member of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference and its athletic teams, known as the Eagles, compete at the NCAA Division III level. Benedictine offers 20 men's and women's sports: men's baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball, and indoor and outdoor track and field; and women's basketball, cheerleading and dance, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, volleyball, and indoor and outdoor track and field.

In the fall of 2011, the new Benedictine Fitness Center open to students, faculty and staff was unveiled in the Dan and Ada Rice Center. The facility, part of a $6.7 million renovation, was made possible through the generosity of the Rice Family Foundation and hundreds of individual and corporate donors, including members of the Benedictine community. The Dan and Ada Rice Center is the university's primary indoor athletic facility.

The football, baseball, softball, lacrosse, soccer and track and field teams compete at the Village of Lisle-Benedictine University Sports Complex, which was made possible through a partnership between the university and the Village of Lisle and was dedicated in 2004. It has hosted the NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Track and Field Championships and hundreds of college, high school and community athletic events. The facility is also home to the Chicago Red Stars of the National Women's Soccer League.

The Benedictine University men's basketball team's 2015–16 season included a school-record 31-game winning streak and an appearance in the title game of the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. Senior center Luke Johnson of Naperville was named the D3Hoops.com National Player of the Year and head coach Keith Bunkenburg was named the D3Hoops.com National Coach of the Year.

Benedictine University at Mesa

In early 2012, Benedictine University and the City of Mesa announced a proposal for Benedictine to establish a branch campus in downtown Mesa and offer traditional undergraduate programs. Benedictine University at Mesa offers undergraduate degrees in:

The athletic teams are known as the Redhawks. Benedictine–Mesa competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics as a member of the California Pacific Conference. The Redhawks currently sponsor 13 sports:

Springfield branch campus

The Springfield 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, following Illinois Board of Higher Education guidelines and those of the U.S. Department of Education. In 2010, Benedictine University established a branch campus known as Benedictine University at Springfield. Springfield College in Illinois ceased all academic programs in August 2011. In fall 2014, the Benedictine University Board of Trustees decided that the Springfield campus would end programs that cater to undergraduate students and transition to an adult-centric academic community. Adult programs are now offered through the University’s School of Graduate, Adult and Professional Education.

Benedictine in Asia

More than 1,000 students have graduated with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) or Master of Science in Management Information Systems (M.S.M.I.S.) from Benedictine University through its partnerships with two Chinese universities – Shenyang University of Technology (SUT) and Shenyang Jianzu University (SJZU) -- formed in the early 2000s. In 2009, Benedictine partnered with two universities in Vietnam—the Vietnam National University (VNU) in Hanoi and Binh Dong University in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon)—to offer graduate programs in business administration and management information systems. In 2012, Benedictine received approval from the Ministry of Education in China to offer a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) through a partnership with Dalian Medical University.

Center for Values-Driven Leadership

The Center for Values-Driven Leadership is a scholar-practitioner center located in the College of Business at Benedictine University. Founded in 2008, the Center (also known as the CVDL), was established to help leaders improve their companies and make significant contributions to business and society through their lives and work. James D. Ludema, Ph.D., professor of Organization Development; and Sandra Gill, Ph.D., dean of the College of Business, are co-founders. The Center's doctoral program in values-driven leadership offers a Ph.D. or D.B.A. (Doctor of Business Administration) degree in a format designed for senior executives. Notable students include Kathy Hopinkah Hannan, National Managing Partner with KPMG and the National Chair of the Board for Girl Scouts U.S.A. The Center has partnered with the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan and with the Small Giants Community to create the Return on Values research initiative. This initiative explores the link between culture and profit in small and mid-size businesses.