Bursting at the Seams

In the decade and a half after World War II, Saint Joseph’s College experienced tremendous growth in enrollments as well as in its physical plant, as did most other colleges and universities in the United States. This growth brought about changes, such as a restructuring of the college administration, a great expansion of the lay faculty, and reforms in the curriculum. As the Cold War settled upon the nation, Saint Joseph’s continued its written and verbal campaign against communism, while some of its sons went off to combat as the Cold War turned hot. The college celebrated the centenary of its founding during the first of these conflicts, the war in Korea.

During this period, too, Saint Joseph’s took its first steps toward becoming a residential campus as Philadelphians began moving to the suburbs in large numbers, leading to an erosion of the college’s pool of commuter students. This need to expand its facilities caused the college to start purchasing private residences across the street from the campus, on the Main Line side of City Avenue. At the same time, increasingly smaller percentages of the faculty belonged to the Society of Jesus, resulting in more influence among the lay faculty, however subtle. Even so, a majority of the lay faculty had attended at least one Jesuit college or university as part of their educations, and Jesuit administrators remained firmly in control of the institution. Philadelphia, the Jesuits, Roman Catholic practices and beliefs, national and international events, and the wider trends of American higher education all continued to shape the college during this crucial period....

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