NEWS
Class of 2020 Gets Their Commencement “Welcome back to campus. Welcome back to that commencement ceremony you couldn’t have in 2020. Welcome back for that in-person event you deserve,” said SJU Transitional President James Mullen in his welcome to the CSB and SJU classes of 2020 for their unique celebration on Sept. 11, 2021. Roughly 425 graduates returned to campus, along with more than double that many guests. “This is the first time a lot of you have been back on either of these campuses since hurriedly packing your bags in March 2020,” said CSB Transitional President Laurie Hamen. “A lot has changed since then. But
I can tell you with confidence that the heart of Saint Ben’s and Saint John’s remains the same.” The warm, sunny, September day included a joint commencement ceremony held outdoors in Clemens Stadium at Saint John’s, followed by a reception and celebration on the Mall at Saint Ben’s. “In the 19 months since campus closed, and we were sent home in the middle of March of our senior year, we’ve changed,” said CSB student speaker Lauren Simonet. “We went from brighteyed undergrads with a few months of college (still to come) to navigating a postgraduate and pandemic-wrought world as young adults, waving a resume in hand. But we did it. We graduated!”
Saint Ben’s Shines in College Rankings Once again, the College of Saint Benedict is well positioned in national rankings by a number of respected publications and organizations. Washington Monthly CSB was ranked No. 18 this year by Washington Monthly and SJU No. 49 among liberal arts schools. CSB rose from No. 31 and SJU from No. 60 in the Monthly’s 2020 findings. Washington Monthly ranks liberal arts colleges – four-year institutions that award almost exclusively bachelor’s degrees and that focus on arts and sciences rather than professional programs – based on their contribution to the public good in three broad categories: social mobility, research and promoting public service.
4 | College of Saint Benedict Magazine
U.S. News and World Report CSB rose slightly to No. 92 in the 2022 U.S. News and World Report rankings of liberal arts schools. That was an improvement of four spots from the magazine’s 2021 placement. Meanwhile, SJU checked in at No. 105, a slight drop from its 2021 ranking (No. 102). College Factual Among 63 colleges in Minnesota, College Factual ranks CSB No. 3 and SJU No. 5 this year. On a national scale, CSB was ranked No. 107 and SJU No. 142. CSB’s ranking puts it in the top 4.2% of the schools in the country examined by College Factual, while SJU’s ranking is in the top 5.5% of the schools. College Factual’s analysis looked at 2,576 schools in the United States to determine
which were the best in terms of overall quality. Its ranking methodology focuses on over 20 different objective factors (such as graduation rate, post graduation earnings and a school’s average expenditure per student) to make this determination. Zippia Zippia, a career website, found that SJU was once again the best college for employment placement in Minnesota in its 2021 analysis, with a 95.16% job placement rate. It was the fourth time in five years that SJU earned the top spot in Minnesota. For the third year in a row, CSB was second in the state with a 94.88% placement rate. Using the Department of Education College Scorecard data, Zippia searches for the college in each state with the highest listed job placement numbers 10 years after graduation.
