The 1950s
1950
Bishop Charles F. Buddy and Mother Rosalie Hill consider bids for the College for Women: two buildings, a chapel, a theater and a kitchen/dining room.
Building contract is signed for the San Diego College for Women. First concrete poured.
1951
Construction continues on Camino Hall and Sacred Heart Hall. Camino Hall includes classrooms, offices, dormitory rooms, a theater and a library. Sacred Heart Hall houses academic departments and the women's formal dining room.
Duchesne Hall and its chapel (later Founders Hall and Founders Chapel) nearly complete. Duchesne Hall contains classrooms, offices, dormitory rooms and the convent of the Religious of the Sacred Heart.
1952
Sacred Heart nuns move into the partially completed buildings. First Mass celebrated in a temporary chapel (Founders Room 190 today) at Duchesne Hall.
College for Women registers 33 students and opens with a staff of nine who serve as faculty and/or administrators. Mother Rosalie Hill is honorary president. Mother Catherine Parks is president. Tuition is $600 per year for day students (including lunch) and $1,400 per year for resident students (all meals included). Rooms range from $100 per year for a quad room to $400 per year for a single room.
300-seat Camino Theatre opens.
Camino Library opens with 13,000 volumes.
College for Women holds first major community project, a three-day workshop on health problems in San Diego schools. Leading the workshop are prominent medical and nursing professionals, heads of schools and others in related fields. More than 70 participants attend each session.
1953
Therese Truitt Whitcomb is the first College for Women graduate.
Associated Student Body founded at the College for Women.
1954
College for Men opens with 39 students and no permanent building. Shares quarters with the School of Law in Bogue Hall (now the University of San Diego High School campus) across Linda Vista Road. College for Men uses the classrooms during the day; law school uses the classrooms in the evening. Bishop Charles F. Buddy is chancellor of the men's University of San Diego. Father John L. Storm is president of the College for Men. Tuition at the College for Men and School of Law is $10 per unit.
School of Law opens with 30 students; offers only evening classes until 1959. The law dean recruits a volunteer faculty of nine practicing attorneys.
The sister's chapel in Duchesne Hall (later Founders Chapel) is dedicated and the altar is consecrated. Chapel features a white Botticino marble altar and matching altar rail from Italy, gold leaf on the ornamental wall - the reredos - behind the altar, 14 stained-glass nave windows and a rose-white Tennessee marble floor.
Diocese of San Diego completes its administration and chancery building on campus. Plans call for university and chancery offices, residences for clergy, offices for The Southern Cross and the bishop's private apartment and chapel.
In honor of the Marian Year - a year-long study and celebration of the Virgin Mary declared by Pope Pius XII - Bishop Buddy announces a church will be built on campus, named The Immaculata for the Virgin Mary. Also, the main thoroughfare through campus is named Marian Way and blessed on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8.
Bishop Buddy initiates a campaign within the diocesan parishes to raise $2 million for a new seminary building on campus. Immaculate Heart Seminary will house a school of theology and is named in honor of the Virgin Mary.
First San Diego College for Women graduation ceremony; nine degrees granted.
1955
Football field completed.
1956
Mother Frances Danz is named president of the College for Women.
The State of California grants the College for Women full accreditation.
College for Men awards first degree to James Vernon Freed.
College for Women publishes first yearbook, Alcalá .
Pioneers football team plays first game against Air Force Academy at Balboa Stadium.
1957
Immaculate Heart Seminary building opens (later known as De Sales, then Maher Hall), bringing a third component to the men's institution: the School of Theology. The building - which houses the theology school, Immaculate Heart Major Seminary for graduate-level studies, St. Francis Minor Seminary for undergraduate studies - contains living, learning and recreation facilities for the seminarians and 14 professors. The top floor contains a suite of rooms and a chapel for a community of nuns who serve as domestic staff.
Thomas More Hall (now Warren Hall) completed. Named for the patron saint of jurists and lawyers. Houses the School of Law and serves as temporary home for College for Men.
Celebration of Mother Hill's golden jubilee, 50 th year since profession of vows.
Bishop Buddy initiates a $3.5 million fund-raising appeal - The Educational Development Drive - for the construction of an arts and science building for the College for Men.
USD Auxiliary is established, first to promote the university to the community, then to raise funds for special needs, particularly student scholarships.
College for Men publishes first yearbook, Hilltopper .
1958
Knights of Columbus Library completed. The volumes for the College for Men are moved from the third floor of More Hall to the new library.
College for Women begins offering graduate degrees.
First law school graduating class awards eight diplomas.
The first student newspaper, The Paper , begins publication; lasts less than a year.
1959
Father Russell Wilson is named president of the College for Men.
The Immaculata, largest church building in the San Diego Diocese, opens with a solemn ceremony in which 15 priests simultaneously consecrate 15 of the altars. Church features 20 side chapels. Pews are built by College for Men carpenter Manuel Hernandez. The main altar is one slab of marble. The Stations of the Cross are imported from Italy and the hand-carvedcrucifix on the north wall of the church is from Oberammergau, Germany. Church is owned and administered by the diocese.
Vice President Richard M. Nixon dedicates the new Hall of Science (now Serra Hall) and delivers commencement address for the College for Men and School of Law. Commencement takes place at the newly constructed Alcalá outdoor amphitheater, in the location where Guadalupe Hall now stands.
University Terrace apartments open.
The Western College Association grants accreditation to the College for Men.
The California State Committee of Bar Examiners grants accreditation to the School of Law.
School of Law offers first daytime classes.
10th Anniversary Snapshot Enrollment 993 Faculty 44 CW*
63 CM**, SOL***
Annual Tuition & Board $700 CW* day students
$1600 CW* resident
$980 CM*
Annual Room $200- $500 CW*
$270-$400 CM*
Degrees Awarded 79 Campus Buildings 8 Square footage 597,000 *College for Women **College for Men ***School of Law