St. John’s raises $271M for campus improvements

In 1998, St. John’s University set out to refurbish and restructure their campus, calling it the “Fulfilling the Dream” campaign. The original hope was to raise $100 million for the remodeling. They not only doubled that amount, but nearly tripled it; last Thursday, June 15th, St. John’s celebrated the conclusion of the newly named Capital Campaign that raised $271 million in support for student scholarships, faculty and academic programs, technology, and athletic field construction and enhancement.
“The extraordinary generosity of St. John’s graduates and other friends who supported our mission and vision assures me that we are on the right course,” Rev. Donald J. Harrington, C.M. president of St. John’s University.
With the donations, St. John’s was able to create or remake the Taffner Field House, a state of the art, four full-court practice facility for their basketball teams; St. Thomas More Church, the first freestanding place of worship in the school’s 136-year history; Montgoris Dining Hall; Residence Villages, the first ever on-campus housing at St. John’s; Belson Stadium, home to the men’s and women’s soccer teams; CVS/ Pharmacy Student Lounge; Napoli Lecture Hall; DaSilva Academic Center on the Staten Island campus and Belson Moot Court.
“A walk across the St. John’s University campus reveals it as a place significantly transformed over the last few years,” said William Montgoris, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees and the Chair of the Capital Campaign.
As part of the celebration, those in attendance got to sit in on a Mass at St. Thomas More Church, and enjoy a cocktail reception and dinner in the Taffner Field House.
The school has also expanded its technological capabilities, providing each freshman with a laptop computer; they also built a wireless network that led Intel Corporation to rank St. John’s among the top ten in the United States. Just as significant, St. John’s has enhanced its academic programs and more than doubled the number of financial aid packages each year with more than 80 scholarships now available for students in need.
These advances have helped St. John’s enrollment reach over 20,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students at the five campus locations, and this past fall’s freshmen applications increased to the highest level ever, at 20,669, trailing just NYC and Cornell amongst private New York State universities.