Saint Mary's College, Whole

1855–2026

Chartered first. The school that moved to the Rush property in 1855 was Saint Mary's Academy, and the state met it the same year: chartered by Indiana in 1855, it stands in the college's chronology of important dates as the first Catholic women's college empowered to grant degrees. For forty years it remained an academy in form while it became a college in fact, and the woman who made it one was Mother M. Pauline O'Neill — born Bridget O'Neill (1854–1935) — who took charge as directress in 1895 and served as president for thirty-six years, until 1931. Under Mother Pauline Indiana recognized Saint Mary's as a bachelor degree-granting institution, the first degrees were conferred in 1898, and the school took the name Saint Mary's College. The legal completion came in 1908, when the charter was amended to authorize the legal existence of a college and Mother Pauline, then director, became the college's first president.

A building of its own. The college and the sisters' academy had shared buildings since 1855; Mother Pauline's project gave the college a house of its own, named for Le Mans, where Moreau had founded the congregation in 1841. Stella Hamilton Stapleton of the class of 1892 gave $50,000 in 1916 to start the fund; ground for Le Mans Hall was broken on 19 March 1924 — the date the archives keep for the separating of college from academy; the hall was completed in 1925 and dedicated in 1926 by the college's reference record, and the college kept Le Mans Hall's centennial in 2025. Holy Cross Hall's dedication stands in the record at two dates — 1903 in the college's chronology of important dates, 1906 in its reference record — and both print.

The presidents. The numbered line the record establishes runs: first, Mother Pauline O'Neill (1895–1931); second, Sister Irma Burns, who succeeded her in 1931; third, Sister M. Madeleva Wolff (1934–1961) — born Mary Evaline Wolff of Cumberland, Wisconsin (1887–1964), doctor of philosophy in English from the University of California, Berkeley (1925), president of the sisters' College of St. Mary-of-the-Wasatch in Salt Lake City before Saint Mary's, a published poet and president of the Catholic Poetry Society of America (1942–47), whose own founding, the graduate theology school, is told in its own article below. The numbers four through seven were not established from the record, and the gap is named rather than filled. The eighth president is documented at his inauguration: Dr. John M. Duggan, inaugurated 7 September 1975 in O'Laughlin Auditorium.

Dr. Marilou Eldred was president until 2004, unnumbered in the record reached. The eleventh president, Dr. Carol Ann Mooney (1 June 2004 – 31 May 2016), was the college's first lay alumna president — Saint Mary's class of 1972, first in her Notre Dame Law class of 1977 — and the endowment grew to some $160 million on her watch. The twelfth, Dr. Janice Cervelli, served from June 2016 until her resignation, announced in an open letter on 5 October 2018 with no reason given; in March 2019 she sued, alleging she had been forced out by the board's chair — printed here as her allegation, the suit's outcome not appearing in the record. Dr. Nancy Nekvasil served as interim president, 2018–2020. The fourteenth president, Dr. Katie Conboy, took office 1 June 2020 — a Notre Dame Ph.D. (1986) who came from the provost's office at Simmons — and set the college's course in the strategic plan "Revere and Revise: Saint Mary's College 2030."

The college today. The present state, verified November 2026: the college enrolls approximately 1,500 to 1,600 students — the federal IPEDS count for 2024–25 is 1,601 in all, 1,505 undergraduate and 96 graduate, with 91 percent of students resident by the college's own account — on the 140-acre campus inside the sisters' 278 acres. Its endowment stood at $311.2 million in 2024. It grants five bachelor's degrees and, in graduate programs open to men and women, four master's degrees and the Doctor of Nursing Practice; its nursing line, told in its own article below, runs from Mother Angela's hospital wards to a direct-entry master's begun in 2022, the first in Indiana. It remains what the merger article below shows it chose to remain in 1971: an independent Catholic women's college, a mile of riverbank from the coeducational university its sisters' congregation helped to raise.

Sources

1. Saint Mary's College, "Important Dates in Saint Mary's History" (HARC) — the 1855 charter and the first-Catholic-women's-college line; Holy Cross Hall 1903, as the chronology prints it; Le Mans Hall ground broken 19 March 1924.
2. Saint Mary's College record of Mother Pauline O'Neill — directress 1895, president thirty-six years to 1931; the 1898 first degrees; the 1908 charter amendment.
3. Saint Mary's College reference record — Le Mans Hall completed 1925, dedicated 1926, the Stapleton gift of 1916; Holy Cross Hall dedicated 1906, as the record prints it; the endowment of 2024.
4. Saint Mary's College record of Sister M. Madeleva Wolff — the Berkeley doctorate, the Wasatch presidency, the presidency of 1934–1961.
5. The Observer, 8 September 1975 — the inauguration of Dr. John M. Duggan, the eighth president, 7 September 1975.
6. Saint Mary's College releases (2004, 2016, 2018–2020) — the Mooney presidency and the first lay alumna president; the Cervelli resignation of 5 October 2018; the Nekvasil interim; the Conboy appointment and "Revere and Revise."
7. Inside Higher Ed, March 2019 — the Cervelli suit, as her allegation.
8. IPEDS 2024–25, via the federal data summaries — 1,601 students, 1,505 undergraduate and 96 graduate.
9. Saint Mary's College, Avenues (Fall 2025) — the Le Mans Hall centennial.