Did You Know: College of St. Scholastica
Throughout the 2013-14 academic year the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) will be highlighting its member institutions by sharing unique facts about each school. The series will allow the opportunity to become more familiar with UMAC institutions. In this edition we feature the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota.
-The College of St. Scholastica was founded in 1912 and was an all-women's school until 1968. The institution went co-educational in the fall of 1969.
-St. Scholastica's main campus is in Duluth, Minn., but the institution features satellite campuses in Brainerd, Minn., St. Cloud, Minn., St. Paul, Minn. and Rochester, Minn.
-The first varsity sport introduced was men's hockey in 1972. The 20th and most recent sport introduced was women's hockey in 2010.
-St. Scholastica won its first national championship in any sport in 1975 when the men's hockey team won the NAIA title.
-There are approximately 530 student-athletes at St. Scholastica, which make up close to one-fourth of the total undergraduate enrollment at the school.
-St. Scholastica won the Jostens Cup, a national community service award, in 2006. School President Larry Goodwin was quoted as saying, “Winning the Jostens Cup is like winning a NCAA Division III national championship in a sport, except this sport is community service.”
-St. Scholastica began competing in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) at the start of the 1995-96 school year. It has won a conference-best nine Jerome Kruse Awards (UMAC All-Sports Trophy).
-St. Scholastica has three top 100 Directors Cup Finishes, since becoming a full-time NCAA Division III member in 2006. (2009, 2012, 2013).
-The Saints compete in three different conferences as an Athletics Department. Men's & women's hockey takes part in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA), men's & women's nordic skiing competes in the Central Collegiate Ski Association (CCSA), while the other 16 sports compete in the UMAC.
-During the 2011-12 Athletics Year, the Saints won a total of 20 regular season and tournament conference championships. That was the most conference titles of any NCAA Division III program.
-At many colleges it may take five or six years to graduate with a "four-year" degree. At St. Scholastica, first year undergraduates who follow a few simple guidelines will graduate in four years - guaranteed - or subsequent years are free.
-96 percent of St. Scholastica graduates are in career fields or graduate school within six months of graduation. (based on five year average)
- St. Scholastica was the first UMAC school to win a NCAA Division III postseason contest.
-Women's Cross Country's Chelsea Johnson became the school's first NCAA Division III National Champion in 2013.