page_title: Bellarmine University
section_title: Recent history
hierarchical_section_title: Bellarmine University / History / Recent history
caption_attribution_description: English: A aerial view of the Bellarmine University campus. I was given the opportunity to tour louisville from the sky and this is one of many photos I took.
context_page_description: Bellarmine University is a private Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky. The liberal arts institution opened on October 3, 1950, as Bellarmine College, established by Archbishop John A. Floersh of the Archdiocese of Louisville and named after the Cardinal Saint Robert Bellarmine. In 2000 the Board of Trustees changed the name to Bellarmine University. The university is organized into seven colleges and schools and confers bachelor's and master's degrees in more than 50 academic majors, along with five doctoral degrees; it is classified among "D/PU: Doctoral/Professional Universities."
  The university has an enrollment of over 3,900 students on its main 135-acre academic and residential campus in Louisville's Belknap neighborhood. At its 2011 commencement, the school graduated 482 undergraduate and graduate students, contributing to a total of 780 graduates for the school year, up from 700 the previous year.
  Bellarmine offers a large number of extracurricular activities to its students, including athletics, honor societies, clubs and student organizations. Its athletic teams are known as the Knights.
context_section_description: Dr. Joseph J. McGowan, became Bellarmine's third president in 1990. McGowan named buildings on campus for his predecessors, Horrigan and Petrik, and oversaw the addition of Miles Hall and the W.L. Lyons Brown Library. The Annsley Frazier Thornton School of Education was added in 1998, study abroad jumped from seven students in 1995 to 70 in 1999, and the school added women's soccer and women's golf. The decade also saw the beginning of Bellarmine's transition from a commuter school to a residential college. In 1995, a record 396 students lived in residence halls. McGowan sought to make Bellarmine "the region's premier residential liberal arts college", citing Stanford University, Vanderbilt University, and Duke University as models. In 1991, McGowan began instituting change in the form of a Five Year Strategic Plan, which later became the Master Plan. In 1994, the school began making perennial appearances in the Princeton Review and U.S. News and World Report, which both list Bellarmine among the top regional universities.
  In 2000, the school's 50th anniversary, the Board of Trustees changed the name from Bellarmine College to Bellarmine University to reflect its status as a Masters-I university. In 2005, McGowan announced Vision 2020, the university's plan to become "the premier Independent Catholic University in the South, and thereby the leading private institution in the Commonwealth and region." Among other things, the plan calls for tripling enrollment, doubling the number of buildings on campus, and adding schools of architecture, law, pharmacy, and veterinary medicine by 2020. In addition, the possibility of moving the remaining athletic programs to NCAA Division I (joining lacrosse) will be considered. Under McGowan's leadership, a construction, acquisition and renovation boom that continues still today included Our Lady of the Woods Chapel, The President's Residence in Glenview, the 2120 Building, the Norton Health Sciences Center (named in honor of Norton Healthcare support), The Siena Residence Halls complex, Owsley B. Frazier Stadium, Joseph A. and Janet P. Clayton Field, Via Cassia and Ponte Juneja, and the expansion of Miles Hall. Enrollment reached a record 2,881 students by 2009, with more than 700 in residence on the campus, and the average ACT score of entering Bellarmine students reached a record high. Bellarmine launched many new academic programs including The School of Continuing and Professional Studies, the Institute of Media, Culture and Ethics and the School of Communication, The Center for Regional Environmental Studies and Bellarmine Farm.
  Growth at the university includes 20 new academic programs, a 60% increase in full-time enrollment and a 56% increase in the number of residential students. The 135-acre (0.55 km²) campus was expanded from 15 buildings in 1990 to 40 buildings, winning 11 architectural awards. Future plans include a new life fitness and recreation center with an Olympic pool, and Bellarmine Centro, a campus center to be anchored by an extensively remodeled Horrigan Hall connected to three new buildings.
  McGowan died on March 1, 2016. Bellarmine's executive vice president, Dr. Doris Tegart, was appointed the university's interim president, with a national search planned for a new president.
  In February 2017, the Board of Trustees unanimously selected Susan M. Donovan as the university's fourth president. She assumed the presidency on June 1, 2017, following a long career at Loyola University Maryland.
caption: Aerial view of Bellarmine University in 2010
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