Jesuit Ivy

Jesuit Ivy

"Jesuit Ivy" is the title of a commencement speech delivered at and, subsequently a nickname given to, Boston College, a Jesuit university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. The term was coined in a 1956 commencement address by then-Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy. Speaking at the Jesuit university, he was likely making reference to the Ivy League which had been formally established two years prior, in 1954. The term "Jesuit Ivy" was somewhat of a contradiction in terms. The Ivy League's members were generally Protestant-founded institutions; Boston College had itself been founded in part because Catholics were being denied admission to Harvard University in the nineteenth century. The nickname suggested both Boston College's rising stature and the declining prevalence of discrimination at elite American universities. A Catholic whose family were longtime Boston College benefactors, Kennedy graduated from Harvard in 1940.