Photo: Ambrose Hall, the oldest building on the St. Ambrose University campus, was built in 1885.

Photo: Ambrose Hall, the oldest building on the St. Ambrose University campus, was built in 1885.

When it started 125 years ago, 33 boys came to school.

In the first few years, they attended St. Marguerite's School, now Sacred Heart Cathedral at 11th and Iowa streets.

According to the Rev. George McDaniel, author of "A Great and Lasting Beginning," a history of St. Ambrose University, those students attended what was then St. Ambrose Seminary.

"For the most part, those boys lived in the neighborhood," Rev. McDaniel said. "They were mainly high-school-age boys, between 13 and 16 years old.

"Essentially, it began as a high school and later became St. Ambrose Academy. For several decades, it was an academy/high school."

The name changed to St. Ambrose College in 1908. Students from Davenport, Rock Island and Moline followed, along with classmates from cities and villages from southeast Iowa.

Today, Chicago and central Illinois are the strongest areas of student recruitment, according to Rev. McDaniel. The reasons for the university's success through the years are many.

"You come to a school because it teaches what you want to learn," Rev. McDaniel said. "Or, it is convenient for students in the immediate area. Others want to come to a Catholic school.

"You go to school for a purpose. There's a sense of, 'We like it here. We feel good here.'

"Those are subjective things."

Night school classes started in 1924, and a summer school started in 1931.

During World War II, the United States Navy chose the college for training of many of its officers. Classes actually stopped for a short time, and the campus served as a training ground for the Navy's V-12 squads.

The high school program, St. Ambrose Academy, moved to new quarters at Assumption High School in 1958. In 1968, St. Ambrose became fully coeducational, although women had been taking classes on campus since the 1930s.

Rev. McDaniel said St. Ambrose now has a good number of graduate programs and a few doctoral programs. In 1987, St. Ambrose College became St. Ambrose University. The university was organized into the Colleges of Business, Human Services and Arts and Sciences.

"We've added a significant number of new programs, many in general health care, occupational therapy and physical therapy," Rev. McDaniel said. "Nursing has been brought back. This is in addition to the liberal arts core and strong areas in history."

Rev. McDaniel is a professor of history who spent more than two years researching his book.

Today, St. Ambrose has more than 75 academic programs and a current annual budget of $71 million, according to spokesperson Jane Kettering. She said the enrollment has gone from 33 students to 3,780 students.

Two classrooms have grown into a 60-acre campus and two educators into a faculty and staff of nearly 700, according to Ms. Kettering.

And, being around for 125 years doesn't necessarily mean there are no more firsts.

Sister Joan Lescinski will be St. Ambrose's first woman president. It was announced in December that she would succeed Ed Rogalski.

"I really have one task," she said in January. "And that is to listen and to learn."

St. Ambrose facts

All students

Enrollment: 3,780

Female: 2,334 (62 percent) Male: 1,446 (38 percent)

Full-time: 2,638 (70 percent) Part-time: 1,142 (30 percent)

Undergraduate students

Enrollment: 2,829

Female: 1,741 (61.5 percent) Male: 1,088 (38.5 percent)

Full-time: 2,328 (82 percent) Part-time: 501 (18 percent)

On-campus residents: 1,419

Most popular majors: Business and accounting, education, nursing, psychology and biology

Minority students: 9.44 percent of students identify themselves as belonging to a minority group

More than 34 percent of freshmen students were in the top 25 percent of their high school class

Graduate students

Enrollment: 951

Female: 593 (62 percent) Male: 358 (38 percent)

Full-time: 310 (33 percent) Part-time: 641 (67 percent)

Most popular programs: MBA, Doctor of Physical Therapy, Organizational Leadership, Social Work, Transition (master's to doctor) DPT, and Occupational Therapy

Faculty and Staff

Student-faculty ratio is approximately 15 to 1

Faculty: 299 (76.4 percent of full-time faculty hold the highest degree offered in their field)