Historical Timeline of the College

Mount Mary’s roots are deep in the heritage of Wisconsin. Since its founding in 1913 the College has provided an inviting atmosphere that strongly supports teaching and learning. Below are just a few notable highlights.

Birth of a College: 1846 to 1929
1846 Milwaukee is chartered as a city.

1848 Wisconsin becomes a state.

1850 Mother Caroline Friess, School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND), founds St. Mary’s Institute “for the education of young women of the community” on Jefferson St. in Milwaukee.

1872 St. Mary’s Institute opens in Prairie du Chien with the same course of studies as the Milwaukee Institute.

1910 St. Mary’s Alumnae Association, nucleus of the present association, is organized.

1913 The first college curriculum goes into effect at St. Mary’s Institute, Prairie du Chien, this year. On October 28, St. Mary’s Institute becomes St. Mary’s College, chartered by the state of Wisconsin to grant degrees. It is the first four-year college for women in Wisconsin. Two young women make up the first graduating class of St. Mary’s College.

1926 St. Mary’s College, Prairie du Chien, is recognized by the North Central Association of Colleges as an approved college.

Archbishop Messmer of Milwaukee requests that St. Mary’s College move to Milwaukee in order to make Catholic education available to a wider group of students and also to provide for its students the advantages of a metropolitan center.

1928 On September 12, the cornerstone of the new school, renamed Mount Mary College, is laid.

1929 On September 16, Mount Mary officially opens its doors to 132 young women. The college consists of two buildings of Gothic style: Notre Dame Hall, with its distinctive tower, for classroom and administration, and Caroline Hall, the student residence.

One month and eight days later, the stock market crashes and the Great Depression begins.

Expansion and Growth: 1953 to 1982
1953 Ground is broken on May 19 for Fidelis Hall, a residence for the Sisters, and Kostka Hall, housing the auditorium. The cornerstone is laid on October 1.

1964 On December 19, Bergstrom Hall, location of the college dining rooms, bookstore, and post office, opens.

1965 Mount Mary launches the first four-year Fashion Design and Merchandising program in the nation.

1965 The Historic Costume Collection consisting of significant 20th century women's couture and ready-to-wear garments begins in the fashion department.

1981 On October 9, the Patrick and Beatrice Haggerty Library is dedicated.

1982 In September, Mount Mary begins its first graduate program—dietetics.

A Rising Star: 1990 to 2003
1990 Mount Mary launches a Master in Science in Art Therapy program and a Master of Arts in Education: Professional Development.

1995 The Master of Science in Occupational Therapy is accredited.

1998 The Mount Mary College Women’s Leadership Institute is launched.

A Title III grant of $1.75 million, given through the U.S. Department of Education, is received by Mount Mary College to enhance technology and innovation in the area of academic computing.

2000 “Celestial Conversations,” a major work by renowned metal sculptor Richard Hunt, is installed near Caroline Hall and dedicated.

2001 The U.S. Department of Education awards more than $141,000 to Mount Mary College from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education (FIPSE) to support development of the college’s Leadership for Social Justice course.

2002 On June 11, ground is broken for the new Gerhardinger Center.

Approval is granted by the State of Wisconsin Board of Nursing for a partnership program offering a joint bachelor of science in nursing degree from Mount Mary College and Columbia College of Nursing.

2003 In September, Mount Mary opens its doors to more than 1,600 students, the largest enrollment in its history. According to all available records, this number includes the largest freshman class and the largest graduate enrollment.

Leaders in Women's Education: 2004 to Present

2004 Mount Mary’s capital campaign closes after reaching $28 million, far surpassing the original goal of $16 million.

The Grace Scholars Program, formerly the Midtown Program, designed to bring higher education to young women in Milwaukee’s central city, is established.

2005 Enrollment reaches more than 1700 students, for the fourth year in a row, the highest in Mount Mary’s history. For four years, Mount Mary has ranked among the highest in enrollment growth of U.S. Catholic women’s colleges.

2006 In June, the Mount Mary College Women’s Leadership Institute sponsors the first annual NEW Leadership™ Wisconsin program in Wisconsin, in affiliation with the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

On July 1 Linda Timm, Ph.D., Mount Mary’s tenth president, assumes office.

Mount Mary’s newest building, the Bloechl Recreation Center, opens for use.

2007 In January, Mount Mary College begins offering the Master of Arts in English – Writing Concentration program.

Mount Mary College and its service learning agenda is named to the U.S. President’s Higher Education Community Service National Honor Roll. Mount Mary is the only institution of higher learning in Milwaukee and one of only nine in Wisconsin so honored.

The Urban Education Fellows Program (UEFP), a teacher training consortium administered by Mount Mary and Alverno Colleges, receives a $1.2 million grant. UEFP prepares men and women who already have bachelor’s degrees to teach in urban elementary and middle schools.

Mount Mary students initiate a new service project through the establishment of a community garden. The produce is donated to Second Harvest of Wisconsin and other local Milwaukee nonprofit agencies.

2008 Mount Mary launches a Master of Business Administration (MBA) in January of 2008. The Mount Mary MBA emphasizes the development of ethical and just business leaders who put knowledge into transforming action. Classes meet once a week for eight weeks and focus on ethical leadership.

In July, Mount Mary expands its master of science in counseling program to include concentrations in community, school and pastoral counseling.

For the 40th consecutive year, Mount Mary’s Alumnae Association hosts the Starving Artists’ Show® on the Sunday after Labor Day.

Mount Mary establishes a radiologic technology major through a consortium with the Radiology Alliance, which includes Columbia St. Mary’s, Froedtert, and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare – St. Joseph’s Hospitals.

2009 Mount Mary College joins with Columbia St Mary’s and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Francis hospitals in January to add a diagnostic medical sonography major to its undergraduate program offerings.

In September, Mount Mary College athletic program joins NCAA Division III.

In February, Dr. Eileen Mihm Schwalbach is named as Mount Mary’s eleventh president. The Inauguration celebration takes place on September 11.

Mount Mary College celebrates 80 years in Milwaukee. On September 16,1929, Mount Mary officially opened its doors to 132 young women. The college consisted of two buildings Notre Dame Hall and Caroline Hall.

Mount Mary administration signs an agreement with Gateway Technical College allowing Gateway associate degree graduates to transfer credits to Mount Mary to earn a bachelor’s degree, December, 2009.

2010 The Master in Science in Counseling program receives the National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential from the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), becoming one of only four other Wisconsin higher education institutions to earn the credential, February 2010.

Mount Mary’s College in the Community program is awarded the 2009 Program Innovation Award from ProLiteracy America, the nation’s largest adult literacy organization, February, 2010.

The first students to graduate from Mount Mary's MBA program cross the stage at May Commencement services.

Mount Mary College signs a Transfer Agreement with Waukesha County Technical College in July.

The Social Sciences and Related Disciplines Division adds Clinical Mental Health Counseling as a new concentration in the innovative Masters in Counseling program.

2011 In July, Mount Mary's first cohort begins in the new Professional Doctorate in Art Therapy program, the first of its kind in the nation.

In July, Mount Mary College receives a grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to design and implement a "Students Building Bridges" program that will serve the needs of its diverse student body.

The Promise Program, funded by a TRIO grant, begins in August to serve first-generation and/or low income students.

The first floor of the Haggerty Library is renovated to house a new Student Success Center and Learning Commons with facilities for academic resources, career advising and student counseling as well as a new computer lab and Starbucks Café counter. Other campus upgrades include additional electronic classrooms, a Barnes and Noble College Bookstore and a new grill in the lower level of Caroline Hall.

2012 Mount Mary College announced on February 24, 2012 that the institution’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved changing the institution’s name to Mount Mary University.

In July, Mount Mary College and the Medical College of Wisconsin signed a collaborative agreement to provide a dual degree program that includes a four-year baccalaureate degree from Mount Mary and a one-year Master of Public Health degree from the Medical College. It was the first 4:1 program of its kind to be offered by the two institutions.