Saint Francis University - Overview

Overview

Located in Loretto, Pennsylvania, Saint Francis University enrolls approximately 1,832 undergraduate students, of which 40.7% are male and 59.3% female; and 617 graduate students. The university offers 25 undergraduate and 7 graduate majors to its students including a Doctor of Physical Therapy. The university maintains an average graduation rate of 69.9%. Saint Francis University has 21 men's and women's sports teams and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level.

The current president of the university is Fr. Gabriel Zeis, TOR.

Mount Assisi Friary, which is the former mansion of industrialist Charles M. Schwab, is on the grounds of Saint Francis University.

Also contained in the grounds is the main building for the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art which has a number of smaller facilities across the local region.

Immergrün Golf Course is a 9-hole course located on the campus of Saint Francis University. Immergrün has never been altered since it was built by Donald Ross for Charles M. Schwab in 1917.

Also on the campus are The DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness and the Center of Excellence for Remote and Medically Under-Served Areas (CERMUSA) a research and applied technology center.

The university is perhaps most famous for the "The Legend of Squirrel-Joe", the widespread urban legend and seminal piece of Western Pennsylvania folk lore regarding a half-man, half-squirrel creature living in the sewers beneath the school for the latter part of the 20th century. Though no official proof regarding Squirrel-Joe's existence has been brought to light, in 1997 school officials confirmed their findings of several stock-piles of chestnuts - totaling over 300 pounds, scattered beneath school grounds in multiple drainage pipes.