University of St. Francis history

In 1930, the school was reorganized with a full college curriculum as the College of St Francis with bachelor's degree granting authority.

In 1935, the all-female college began an affiliation with the St Joseph Hospital School of Nursing – to create the St Francis College of Nursing.

By 1945-46, the first year with students enrolled in all six classes, the total student population was 88.

Although by 1952, the College Séraphique had graduated young men who went on to enter the priesthood, the Franciscans decided to transform the institution into a four-year liberal arts college, which became St Francis College.

For the first few years they continued the high school, but in 1958 they began to phase it out.

The first male students register (as part-time); by 1959, the college is co-ed.

The College of St Francis welcomed their first lay president in 1969 and after a failed merger with Lewis College in Romeoville, began to welcome male students.

The college became coeducational in 1971 and the next year saw the beginning of athletic programs.

Since 1978, when it had 36 medical students and 396 St Francis College undergraduates, the University of New England has grown into a more diverse institution with two distinctive campuses in Maine and one in Tangier, Morocco.

The school became the University of St Francis in 1998, the same year the school began offering online courses and degree programs.

In 2013 Doctor Arvid Johnson became the university's ninth president and the university's first overseas graduate program was established with Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic.

In 2016, Guardian Angel Hall opened to students at St Clare Campus, located at 1550 Plainfield Road (about one mile from the main campus) as the home to the USF Leach College of Nursing.

Home, Sweet Home! The college relocates to Fort Wayne after the Sisters purchase part of the Bass estate and 65 acres for $65,000 ($918,000 in 2018 terms).