QU | Academic Feature
INSIDE THE
METRICS by Barbara Schleppenbach, PhD ’71
“We prepare him to enter as an educated apprentice in any position in life.” -Fr. Anselm
In retrospect, 1860 might not have been an auspicious year for new ventures. The German friars who ventured to Quincy to establish a college were confronted by a late frost, a spring drought, and a summer that was the hottest within memory. According to Quincy University historian, Fr. Francis Jerome Gray, OFM, the weather was just one of the challenges to “bestowing the blessings of classical education on the reluctant youth of western America.” AT LEAST 80% OF COLLEGES FOUNDED BEFORE 1861 HAD CEASED TO EXIST BY 1932, FR. GRAY NOTES IN HIS HISTORY OF QU. But in 1862, the friars made two fateful and intertwined decisions: They would press on with their project, and they would include adding business courses to their ambitious curriculum. Within five years, the business program was a well known and popular course of study, and sources consider 1867 to be the birthday of business at QU. From the beginning, QU president, Fr. Anselm Mueller, OFM, distinguished QU’s degree program from “the so-called Business College.” A graduate of QU’s program has mastered the liberal arts as well as professional studies. “Above all that, he has learned to think and act intelligently and preserve a disposition to improve his knowledge by future studies,” Fr. Anselm wrote in his memoir. “We prepare him to enter as an educated apprentice in any position in life.”
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QUniverse | Fall 2020
By 1904, Fr. Anslem observed that “the great majority of graduates are businessmen.” Then, as now, they benefited from an education that prepared them for versatility and flexibility in a rapidly changing professional environment. The founders would have proudly viewed the current curriculum as a continuation of their vision. According to the 2020 Academic Catalog, “the School of Business emphasizes education through critical thinking and decision-making skills, experiential learning, leadership development, and exposure to diverse academic theories and practical experiences.” For many years, the artful blending of liberal arts and general preparation in business subjects prepared students for successful careers. In the 1960s, the Department of Business
