Loras College

Coordinates: 42°30′10″N 90°40′53″W / 42.502805°N 90.681401°W / 42.502805; -90.681401

Loras College is a four-year Catholic college in Dubuque, Iowa with an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It is one of four four-year post-secondary institutions in the City of Dubuque and one of three Catholic colleges in the Archdiocese of Dubuque.

History

Loras College, a liberal arts college, was founded in 1839 by the Most Rev. Mathias Loras, first bishop of Dubuque, who established Saint Raphael's Seminary to educate young men for the priesthood with the expressed intention of also providing an opportunity for higher education to the citizens of the area. The college has functioned under several names: Saint Raphael's Seminary and later Saint Rephael's Academy (1839-1850), Mount St. Bernard's College and Seminary (1850-1860), St. Joseph's College (1873-1914), Dubuque College (1914-1920), and Columbia College (1920-1939). The present name was adopted during the school's centennial in 1939. That same year, the national Catholic honor society, Delta Epsilon Sigma was founded at the college, by Father Fitzgerald. From the time of its founding, the college has devoted its faculty and facilities to an undergraduate program; it conferred the Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees.