Saint Francis College
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
St. Francis College is a private, coeducational, four year college located in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, in the United States. It was founded in 1859 by Franciscan Brothers as the St. Francis Academy. The school was the first private school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. Today, 2,000 full time students and more than 400 part-time students from 80 countries attend the school.
Athletically, St. Francis competes in the NCAA's Northeast Conference. Their mascot is the Terrier.
[edit] The Mission and History of St. Francis College
Mission
St. Francis College is a private, independent co-educational college that welcomes students from all walks of life, providing a superior liberal arts education at a inflated price. The school is not what it advertises and actually has little to no standards at all. The St. Francis student benefits from small classes taught by professors who are committed to provide an education in an atmosphere of support and friendship. By integrating liberal arts and pre-professional programs, the College promotes the development of the whole person. Both the Franciscan heritage and the Catholic tradition establish a cornerstone of academic excellence, social responsibility, and mutual respect throughout the entire College community.
Some students have negative experiences about St. Francis.
The faculty are a collection of glorified baby sitters, and old geezers knocking on Hell’s door. Instead of adding some sort of intelligence to our brains, they actually taint it with demoralizing rants, junior high school level assignments, and trickery into buying a $120 textbook the professor never uses.
The building itself is a dank, poorly lighted hodgepodge of bricks and filth. The hallways and stairways are poorly lighted with cheap florescent bulbs. If it weren’t for the gaudy neon blue and orange lockers lighting my way, I would surely need a torch.
Goals and Objectives
1. To provide effective, high-quality undergraduate degree programs in the arts, sciences, and professions.
2. To promote the intellectual, social, emotional, spiritual, and physical development of students.
3. To cultivate learning and scholarship as distinctive and intrinsically rewarding activities.
4. To create a serving community in the Franciscan spirit.
History
St. Francis College has a proud heritage of providing students with the preparation they need to take their places as contributing members of society. With a mission founded on the ideals and teachings of St. Francis of Assisi, the school has played an important role in the community and in the lives of its students and alumni.
St. Francis College was founded by Franciscan Brothers in 1858 as St. Francis Academy, the first private school in the diocese of Brooklyn. The school, which was opened to educate the boys of the diocese, started in a building on Baltic Street and grew quickly. In just a little more than 25 years, the trustees of the School received permission from the state legislature to "establish a Literary College" under its current name and giving it the power to confer diplomas, honors, and degrees. In June 1885, St. Francis College conferred its first Bachelor of Arts degree, and seven years later the first Bachelor of Science degree was granted.
The School continued its meteoric growth and built a new facility on Butler Street in 1926. In 1957, the Regents of the University of the State of New York granted an absolute Charter to the Trustees of the College. In 1960, the School embarked on an expansion program. It moved to Remsen Street, where it had purchased two office buildings from Brooklyn Union Gas Company, allowing it to double its enrollment. Shortly thereafter, it became a co-educational institution and additional property was purchased on both Remsen and Joralemon Streets. The College expanded its facilities with the construction of a science building, physical education complex, and housing to accommodate the Franciscan Brothers and provide more space for faculty.
Today the School has about 2,159 students and 13,500 alumni. They come primarily from Brooklyn and the other boroughs of New York City, although their backgrounds are representative of some 80 countries. Every June, more than 350 degrees are conferred in the liberal arts and sciences. Many distinguished public servants, scientists, lawyers, business professionals, and teachers call St. Francis College alma mater, as do many of the priests and nuns within the Dioceses of Brooklyn-Queens and Rockville Centre.
Franciscan Education
Around the year 1224, St. Francis of Assisi gave permission to a young and learned Brother, St. Anthony of Padua, to teach theology to the Brothers “as long as such study did not extinguish the spirit of prayer and devotion.” In the century that followed, a “Franciscan School” of scholars developed a Christ-centered theology and philosophy based on the life and teachings of St. Francis. The outstanding Franciscan scholars of that period are St. Bonaventure and Blessed John Duns Scotus. Throughout this development, the caution that St. Francis gave to St. Anthony remained important, because it was St. Francis' intention that learning be placed at the service of living as Christ did; in other words, the quest for knowledge was not to be an end in itself, but a quest to live more authentically within oneself and morally within the world community.
In the early nineteenth century, Franciscan Brothers in Ireland began schools for poor and ordinary people. Following that spirit, Brothers came to Brooklyn in 1858 to educate the large numbers of immigrants arriving in America. Those Brothers opened St. Francis Academy, which became St. Francis College in 1884. Following the Franciscan tradition, the College has always emphasized development of the whole person. Study of the liberal arts has remained a means of following the quest for truth and personal authenticity, which, combined with excellent academic preparation in specific fields of study, leads students to take their place in the world as ethical persons committed to nurturing the Divine goodness within every human being and all that God has created.
Franciscan Brothers
The Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn have been serving the Church in New York for more than 145 years. The Brothers founded St. Francis College and continue to serve the College as professors, administrators and members of the Board of Trustees.
Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum is the cornerstone of St. Francis College and supports its goal to graduate educated, well-rounded students who are prepared to enter a changing world. The cultivation of critical awareness is one of the primary objectives of the core curriculum. Such critical awareness enables students to use the intellectual skills and the fundamental knowledge that are also essential goals of the Core. It aims to help students develop the reading, writing, verbal and computing skills necessary to analyze and synthesize information, construct arguments and identify and solve problems. At the same time, the Core Curriculum provides the groundwork for the student's successful in-depth study of one or more disciplines. All students in baccalaureate and associate degree programs, as well as those majoring in aviation business studies, health care management and special studies must complete the following courses.
Core Courses
Communications 203
English 1031
English: Literature Course
Fine Arts 401 or 403 & 402
Natural Science or Mathematics
Philosophy
Liberal Arts Electives
History 201
Sociology 203
Religious Studies (101, 202, 203, 204, 205, 212, or 234)
Honors Program
St. Francis College Honors Program offers qualified students the opportunity to study and research topics of interdisciplinary concern and personal interest while earning an Honors Program Scholar diploma upon graduation. The Program requires the student to enroll in a three-credit Honors Program course for each of six semesters beginning the first year of study. In addition to the eighteen credit hours of seminar work, an Honors Program student must enroll in an advanced research techniques seminar during the sixth semester. The seminar will assist the student in preparing a proposal and an annotated bibliography for the honors thesis he/she will write in the seventh and eighth semesters.
Goals and Objectives
1. Read and analyze primary sources
2. Engage in active seminar discussions
3. Conduct original research or offer a fresh view to traditional ideas
4. Take advantage of cultural resources in the metropolitan area
5. Become aware of the interconnectedness of knowledge
6. Gain experience in oral presentation
7. Develop written essays and reports which are controlled, elegant and imaginative
Independent research and self-motivated study are combined in the Program seminars. Brief essays, oral presentations and longer research projects form the basis for grades in the seminars. Formal testing is not used, nor allowed, in the Program so that students might engage more thoroughly in seminar conversations. Required field trips, cultural and social activities are integrated into seminars and into the general structure of the Honors Program.
Course description booklets are available so that students can sketch out a proposed program of study in consultation with a faculty member of the Honors Council. Students may obtain a copy in the Honors Program Director's office.
Qualified students are invited to apply for admission into the Program upon acceptance to the College. Transfer students and upperclassmen may apply to the Program by requesting an application from the Honors Program Director. Students interested in more information about the Honors Program may speak with the Director of the Program and obtain a copy of the current Student Handbook.
Program Director and Honors Council Director
Dr. Virginia Franklin, PhD
718-489-5223
vfranklin@stfranciscollege.edu
Honors Council
Suzanne Forsberg, PhD
Ellen Glascock, PhD
Francis Greene, PhD
Uwe Gielen, PhD
Michele Hirsch, PhD
Arnold Sparr, PhD
Evelyn Wolfe, PhD
Anthony Paratore '04, alumnus
Alfonso Lopez '06, Student member
Honors [HON] Courses
Hon 5101-5102 Honors Freshman Seminar
Student conversation and ideas are engaged in interdisciplinary concerns that are the broad focus of honors seminars. A careful approach to research, rhetoric, writing, and dialogue is incorporated into the course materials selected from the humanities, social sciences, science, business and technology. As in all Honors Program courses, no tests are given, therefore grades are based on written discourse, research and conversation. Field trips are required. Prerequisite: application and acceptance into the Honors Program. 3 credits. HON 5101, Fall Semester; HON 5102, Spring Semester.
HON 5995 Independent Study
A reading and research-based activity anchored to a cooperating professor's course, an Honors Program colloquium, or by previous arrangement to another audience, in which an Honors Program student pursues a topic or interest presented in a prospectus offering an interdisciplinary embrace of the subject. Suitable meeting arrangements and a calendar of dates for reporting on the project are necessary before submitting the prospectus for approval to the Director of the Honors Program. Prerequisites: Students should have completed two seminars above HON 5101 and 5102. In all cases independent study must be requested during the registration period prior to the semester in which the course is to be taken. 1-3 Credits. Offered as needed.
[edit] External links
| Northeast Conference |
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| Central Connecticut • Fairleigh Dickinson • LIU–Brooklyn • Monmouth • Mount St. Mary's • Quinnipiac • Robert Morris • Sacred Heart • St. Francis(NY) • St. Francis(PA) • Wagner |
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