St. Francis College

In the 1930s, Father Arthur Decary, pastor of St. Andre's Parish in Biddeford, turned to the Franciscan Order in Montreal to establish a high school and junior college - a college séraphique - to educate young Franco-American men, descendants of the Québécois settlers of the late 19th century, in the tradition of their own heritage and culture, especially with an eye toward the priesthood.

The Franciscans realized Decary's vision at a location at the mouth of the Saco River in Biddeford, on the same spot where European explorers had first sighted a village of the indigenous people of the Wabenaki.

On May 1, 1939, ground was broken for the new high school, and on November 15, 1939, the College Séraphique opened its doors with 14 ninth graders. The cost of attending was $200 a year, which included "board, room, tuition, books, sports equipment, and transportation to and from the railroad station."

The first class of 14 boys studied a strictly liberal arts curriculum. It included religion, French, Latin, English, algebra, general science, physics, music and chant. Four years later, in the 12th grade, they studied apologetics, Latin, French, English, history and trigonometry.

The College Séraphique continued to grow. By 1945, the first year with students enrolled in all six classes, the total student population was 88. By graduation 1950, the enrollment had risen to 115 in the high school and 20 in the junior college.

Although by 1952, the College Séraphique had graduated young men who went on to enter the priesthood, the Franciscans decided to transform the institution into a four-year liberal arts college, which became St. Francis College. Its mission was the preparation of young Catholic men to become part of the larger dominant culture.

The Franciscans received a state charter to grant a college degree in 1953. For the first few years they continued the high school, but in 1958 they began to phase it out. By 1961, the College was solely a four-year post-secondary institution, and in 1966, it was fully accredited by the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

St. Francis College built on but also expanded far beyond the curriculum of the college séraphique. In 1960 for instance, the curriculum consisted of four divisions - humanities; mathematics and the natural sciences; social science, education and business; and theology and philosophy. Despite all the changes, the Franciscan and Catholic identity remained strong.

In the 1960s, the St. Francis began holding a series of symposia open to the community at large, addressing contemporary issues, such as "The Christian in the Modern World," in response to Vatican II; and "The Negro and the Quest for Identity," which brought to the campus many of the nation's civil rights leaders, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins, Stokely Carmichael and Dorothy Day.

By 1959, enrollments had reached 152, and in 1967, women were fully admitted for the first time. Enrollment continued to swing upward, reaching its peak in 1969 with 730 students.

From 1968-1974, however, the College underwent many changes. The Franciscans in Montreal decided to withdraw from administration and control of the College, turning its ownership over to board of lay people. Also during the 1970s enrollments at the College and at small liberal arts colleges throughout the Northeast began to drop with many colleges closing their doors.

But St. Francis College transformed itself to survive. It redefined its mission around programs in the biological sciences, human services, and business administration, and it also began discussions with the New England Foundation for Osteopathic Medicine, discussions that led to the founding of the New England College of Osteopathic Medicine on the campus in 1978, and the creation of the University of New England by combining St. Francis College and the College of Osteopathic Medicine into one institution.

Two decades later, in 1996, the University merged with Westbrook College in Portland, one of Maine's oldest institutions of learning, founded in 1831.

Westbrook College

Westbrook College, always located in the same geographic place, has been located in three towns - Westbrook (1831-1870), Deering (1871-1898), and Portland (1899-present). It has also had four name changes - Westbrook Seminary, Westbrook Junior College, Westbrook College and the Westbrook College Campus of the University of New England.

Westbrook Seminary, a co-ed boarding school that existed for 91 years, had its beginnings in September, 1830, when the Kennebec Association of Universalists resolved that a school that would promote "piety and morality" be established at Steven's Plains in Westbrook. The Universalists, whose belief in salvation for all people differed from the Calvinist belief in salvation for those who had been divinely selected, wanted their young people to have an educational environment that would not conflict with or refute their religious beliefs.

The charter for Westbrook Seminary was signed by Governor Daniel Smith, March 4, 1831. The campus's original eight acres (32,000 m²) were a gift to the Association from Zachariah Stevens (Steven's Plains and the present Stevens Avenue were named for him) and Oliver Buckley. Three years passed before the first class was held on June 9, 1834 in the newly constructed Seminary Building, this is now called Alumni Hall.

Tuition was three dollars for "common English studies" and four dollars and a half for "languages and branches of the mathematics." Male and female students, who were "admitted to equal privileges," boarded in neighboring homes for a dollar and a quarter a week. For comparison purposes, it is interesting to note that Lowell mill workers, many of whom were the same age as the seminary students, earned $1.60 a week, which was considered a good wage.

Although it was founded by the Universalists and its first principal was Steven's Plains Universalist, Westbrook Seminary did not teach any sectarian doctrine. However, students were required to attend daily devotional exercises and services. After All Soul's (Ludcke) was built, students who did not have written parental permission to attend another church were obliged to attend services there. This regulation continued until 1930s.

Strict rules governed the students' behavior in and out of class. A late 19th century catalog states that the Seminary is "not a suitable one for those who are idle, wayward, or averse to study." In 1886, female students informed the Seminary president that for one week they would disregard all rules that they thought were too restrictive. One of rules that they ignored was the one that required them to be escorted or chaperoned if they walked to Morrill's Corner.

By the 1890s, the Seminary offered four courses of study: a three-year English course and four-year programs titled scientific, ladies' classical, and preparatory. Young women who completed the ladies' classical or the scientific course received either a Lauriate of Arts or a Lauriate of Science, degrees that seemed to be unique to Westbrook. In the last part of the 19th century, the Seminary added chemistry and physics labs to Alumni Hall and promoted a serious interest in athletics that lead to the construction of McArthur Gym in 1900.

When Clarence Quimby became Seminary president in 1914, he In 1941, Westbrook Junior College women enjoyed equestrianism. attempted to convince the trustees and faculty that they should concentrate on women's two-year college education. Unable implement his plan, he left in 1920. Within five years, however, cost of co-ed education and competition from other prep schools convinced the trustees to authorize the Seminary to add a two-year women's college curriculum. The last co-ed seminary class graduated in the spring of 1925.

Gradually, the junior college added courses of study to its curriculum. By 1936, three years after it dropped its preparatory program, the institution had 11 programs, seven of which prepared young women to transfer as juniors to four-year colleges or universities. Westbrook Junior College's career-oriented two-year programs increased its enrollment from 27 in 1933 to 370 in 1947.

Because Goddard and Hersey could not house all the students, the junior college purchased buildings on College Street and Stevens Avenue for senior students who were supervised by either house mothers or faculty who lived in these small home-like residences. Several of these houses also contained The crowning of the May Queen was a Westbrook Junior College tradition in the 1940s and 1950s.

During 1960s, the junior college, with the assistance of major grants and federal money, constructed six buildings - Linnell, Ginn, MacDougal, Alexander, Blewett, and Coleman. Despite their size, the dormitories were easier and less costly to maintain than the numerous smaller houses. They also permitted more regulated supervision of the resident students.

During the 1970s, the Art Gallery was the only new building on the campus. The campus itself, however, increased in size when the college exchanged property on Stevens Avenue for 25 acres (100,000 m²) of woods and fields.

Two major academic changes occurred in the 1970s. Looking toward the future, the trustees legally changed the institution's name to Westbrook College. Federal legislation mandated that federal funds could not be granted to colleges that practiced gender discrimination so Westbrook College returned to co-education.

The first Westbrook College male students enrolled in the 1973 fall semester. In the 1980s and early 1990s the College continued to build upon the 1970s decisions. Westbrook made a firm commitment to four-year programs that combined liberal arts with professional education. The new Josephine S. Abplanalp '45 Library opened in 1986, contributing to the College's academic strength, while the new Beverly Burpee Finley '44 Recreation Center was completed in 1989, providing sports and leisure opportunities.

Despite new programs and buildings, the College in the late 1980s and early 1990s found itself caught in national trends of enrollments that especially hit small colleges hard. By the mid 1990s, College trustees began looking at other institutions for a possible merger.

On July 31, 1996, Westbrook College and the University of New England in Biddeford merged, creating a larger, more diverse institution of higher learning. The merger took place under the original 1831 Westbrook College charter. When the documents were signed, the combined institutions became Westbrook College, and Westbrook College changed its name to the University of New England, which now maintains two distinct campuses: the Westbrook College Campus and the University Campus.

Today the Westbrook College Campus is a vital institution. It is home to the University's College of Health Professions, which is initiating on the campus a center for integrated, interdisciplinary health and healing education, training, research and practice.