Expansion pervades the entire campus: Legacy Hall, the hospital, off-campus houses. Each succeeding freshman class in recent years has been larger than the last.
It all started about 15 years ago when Benedictine “decided to focus on its mission—educating men and women in a community of faith and scholarship,” Dean of the College Kimberly Shankman said. “That is very attractive to people. They like to go to a place that knows what it is.”
Some students are optimistic.
“Benedictine has a great deal to offer,” freshman Josh Kuestersteffen said. “There is probably no other Catholic school in the country that offers students such a wide range of majors while still remaining solid in the faith. Benedictine will benefit from the contributions of new students.”
Some of the students, however, are wary of the continuous expansion.
“I don't like it at all,” sophomore Rebecca Howard said. “I feel like BC is so busy trying to recruit new people that it isn't planning ahead to accommodate the people they recruit.”
Other students also mentioned frustration with the parking situation, class sizes, and seating availability in the caf and in the classrooms.
“I honestly don't care if the school expands, I just want them to do it more slowly,” senior Stephanie Mouser said. “Personally, I want all of my friends to come here and have this opportunity. But there is no possible way that can happen overnight.”
With the acquisition of the hospital, administration hopes that some of the obvious problems will be solved.
“The expansion has had very positive aspects,” Dean Shankman said. “On the negative side, campus is more crowded. That's why the hospital is a gift. It should help us change all that.”
Besides the obvious issues with space, some students also fear the community feel of the college is starting to deteriorate.
“The college is defined by the people we accept and the community they build,” Howard said. “If we accept so many people, you're going to lose the relationships between groups.”
Howard is not the only student who believes that community will diminish. Both students who support the expansion and students who fear it have expressed concern about a possible loss of community.
“As Benedictine grows larger, the community will change from a small group of people who all know each other to a larger group of people who are not as close together,” Kuestersteffen said.
However, Kuestersteffen did not believe that the loss would be complete.
“I believe that the fact that we are all students of Benedictine College is enough to unite us in school pride.”
Faculty members seem to think that the community aspect of BC will survive the expansion. Pete Helgesen of admissions said the community spirit has “an ability to maintain” due to strong residential programs.
President Minnis spoke of coordinating the different aspects of the expansion with “the desire to build community. I think that is working. The question never is how to grow; the question is how would you not grow?”
Minnis said several other Catholic colleges have successfully sustained a strong community with student populations of 1,600-2,000. Benedictine's current student body contains approximately 1,430 members.
According to administration, community is currently more a matter of initiative than of numbers.
“We have to analyze what keeps community strong, we have to see what programs work, and we have to know there are limits,” Shankman said.
Minnis added that Benedictine is trying to take the expansion one step at a time.
“What we have done is we've taken the growth in increments of 250. Always our mission is to educate within a community of faith and scholarship, and if we see that being affected, then we'll have to back off.”
