Evolution of the University of St. Francis

Transcript of video (June, 2005):

My name is Sr. Clarence Golla. My recollections of the College of St. Francis begin way back, around the 1940’s.

When I was in high school at St. Peter and Paul High School, because the College put on, the dramatic department, put on a play each year.
I guess to have a practice; they would invite the high school students to come. That gave the actors a chance to act before a big group before they had their big opening night. And so we would go for those performances.

And then after that, it wasn’t too long after that, I joined the Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate.

And I attended the College. I can only speak my say of how I’ve seen the College grow. Because I went to the classes, but I lived in the novitiate or postulency and as soon as my novitiate was over I was out on mission, then I would come home for summer school.

When I came home for summer school, it was just as long as summer school took was in session.

I lived in, sometimes I lived right in the dorm, they had one floor for the Sisters that were studying for summer school at the College. And then, they also had 2 buildings, I think it was St. Clare and St. Joseph’s building, they were like houses. And the Sisters stayed there for the summer, some few of the Sisters.

Then they also had a place down the bottom of the hill or so, where they had 2 residences for the summer school Sisters and Marian Hall and another one. I forget what the other hall was called. Then I saw them put up the big dormitory there. I lived in that one much later in my schooling days. Then the laboratories and the Science and everything was in the original part of the College, that they had the Biology

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department there and Chemistry and so on. Then they put up St. Albert’s Hall. That went up and that became the Science area.

We would attend classes and we would have a time for to study and we did have time where we had, I’m trying to think of what I wanted to say here, it just slipped my mind.

The teachers we had were all very good and they were interested in our learning. And mainly I guess, for most of us, because we were a teaching community at that time, we did get a good education. Not only in the College but wherever our Sisters went; grade school, high school, they were known to be good teachers. We learned very many things that when you go out to teach, they would know that you had been or anyone that went to the College, they knew that they had a good background in English or Math or whatever it might be.

And then after our College days were over, our summer school was over with, when everybody left the College, the Sisters would stay on and they would clean the College. They would spend a whole week and clean that whole College. All the dorms, all the classrooms, everything. So actually I think the College would save a lot of money because of the Sisters doing that before they went back to their mission.

We used to always laugh, we cleaned the whole College now we go back and clean our own house when we get back because you didn’t have time to clean it before you left to go to summer school. So that was waiting for you and besides you also had to get your lessons ready for school in September.

So, as I say, I’ve seen many changes and different things take place at the College. It was all for the better and for the good. So, those are some of my reflections and I think that’s all I can remember that I can tell you.