Clarke University

Clarke University is a four-year liberal arts college located in Dubuque, Iowa, United States, affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The campus is situated on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and picturesque downtown Dubuque. Clarke is known regionally as the "College for the Arts", and offers a broad undergraduate curriculum in 19 academic departments with over 40 majors and programs. The university also provides graduate master's and doctoral degrees in select areas of study and has a general enrollment of approximately 1,200 students.

History

What is now known as Clarke University was established in 1843 as St. Mary's Female Academy by Irish emigrant Mother Mary Frances Clarke, the founder of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was one of the first such schools for women built west of the Mississippi River.

In 1881, St. Mary's moved to its present location atop Dubuque's Seminary Hill (Clarke Drive) and was renamed Mount St. Joseph Academy and College. The college became a liberal arts school in 1901, and the first bachelor's degree was awarded in 1904. In 1910, Mt. St. Joseph was chartered by the state of Iowa, becoming a four-year college by 1913. The North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools accredited Mount St. Joseph in 1918. The academy portion of the school closed in 1928 and the college was renamed Clarke College to honor Mother Mary Frances Clarke and her vision for the college written in 1884 to her community of sisters, almost all of whom were instructors: “Let us…keep our schools progressive with the times in which we live…In teaching, we must…endeavor to make [students] think.”