Holy Names University is a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

university in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the ...

. It was founded by and remains affiliated with the

Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary (Soeurs des Saints Noms de Jésus et de Marie) is a teaching religious institute founded at Longueuil, Québec, Canada, in 1843 by Blessed Mother Marie Rose Durocher for the Christian education o ...

. It was founded in 1868 and plans to close in 2023.

History

Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart 1884

The university was originally established as the Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in 1868 by six members of the Sisters of the Holy Names, a teaching order from

Quebec, Canada Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

. They were invited to

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

by Father Michael King, pastor of Saint Mary's Church to establish a school for girls and to provide means to train future teachers. The original site of the convent was on the shores of

Lake Merritt Lake Merritt is a large tidal lagoon in the center of Oakland, California, just east of Downtown. It is surrounded by parkland and city neighborhoods. It is historically significant as the United States' first official wildlife refuge, designate ...

. By 1908 the convent began to offer classes at a post-secondary level and was renamed the College of the Holy Names. In 1949 the college became one of the charter members of the

Western Association of Schools and Colleges The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Sam ...

(WASC). The coeducation graduate division was formally established in 1955. Soon afterward in 1957, the original site was purchased by Henry J. Kaiser where he constructed the Kaiser Building, and the school moved to its present location in the Oakland Hills. In 1971, Holy Names became coeducational at the undergraduate level and was renamed Holy Names College. The

Julia Morgan School for Girls Julia Morgan School for Girls is an all-girls middle school in Oakland, California, named for Julia Morgan, the building's architect and the first woman to be licensed in California as an architect. The school is housed in a historical and architec ...

held classes for its first two years, from 1999 through 2001, at Holy Names. The school took its present name on May 10, 2004, and became known as the "newest Catholic university in California." In December 2022, the university announced plans to close after the spring 2023 semester. It cited "rising operational costs, declining enrollment, and an increased need for institutional aid", particularly in the aftermath of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and related economic downturn. It has formed a relationship with

Dominican University of California Dominican University of California is a private university in San Rafael, California. It was founded in 1890 as Dominican College by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael. It is one of the oldest universities in California. Dominican is accred ...

to allow students to continue their studies there after Holy Names closes.

Campus

Holy Names University is located on a wooded, sixty-acre site in the

Oakland Hills Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay ...

about 2.5 miles southeast of the Montclair district. To the north of campus lies the neighborhood of Woodminster, and the City of Oakland's 500 acre

Joaquin Miller Park Joaquin Miller Park is a large open space park in the Oakland Hills owned and operated by the city of Oakland, California. It is named after early California writer and poet Joaquin Miller, who bought the land in the 1880s, naming it "The Hights ...

. To the southeast, Holy Names' campus is flanked with the Crestmont neighborhood to the east, and the Redwood Heights neighborhood is to the west across the

Warren Freeway A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval Angl ...

Redwood Regional Park Dr. Aurelia Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park (formerly known as Redwood Regional Park) is a part of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located in the hills east of Oakland. The park contains the large ...

, part of the

East Bay Regional Park District The East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of regional parks which ...

, lies about 2.2 miles east on Redwood Road.

Architecture

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...

architect Milton T. Pflueger, younger brother of the renowned architect

Timothy L. Pflueger Timothy Ludwig Pflueger (September 26, 1892 – November 20, 1946) was an architect, interior designer and architectural lighting designer in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first half of the 20th century. Together with James R. Miller, Pflue ...

, designed the mid-century modern campus buildings, which were constructed from 1955 to 1958, and dedicated in 1957. Milton Pflueger designed many campus buildings at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant un ...

and

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

, but Holy Names is the only complete campus he designed. The first buildings constructed included Michael and Maureen Hester Administration, the Paul J. Cushing Library, the Tobin Gymnasium, and McLean Chapel. The hillside location inspired a linear plan, with low-roofed buildings nestled along the slope. The site features panoramic views across the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water f ...

from San Jose on the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo Alt ...

Mount Tamalpais Mount Tamalpais (; ; Miwok: ''Támal Pájiṣ''), known locally as Mount Tam, is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mou ...

on the Marin Peninsula. The Valley Center for the Performing Arts was constructed in 1994, in the former location of the tennis courts. It houses two separate theatres; large audiences up to 390 can be accommodated in the Regents’ Theatre, while smaller groups use the Studio Theatre with movable seating for up to 125 participants.

Academics

HNU maintains small class sizes, with a student to faculty ratio of 13:1, and 90 percent of the faculty hold the highest degree in their fields. U.S. News & World Report ranked HNU as the most diverse university in the West in 2013. This same year, Holy Names University earned the highest diversity index score of all the colleges and universities included in the magazine's multiple diversity rankings. The university offers nineteen undergraduate degree programs, and five adult degree completion programs. HNU also offers seven master's degree programs in addition to a teacher education program leading to a California teacher's credential. Graduate degrees offered include several

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." Having a business name does not separ ...

degree concentrations (

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

with concentrations in energy and environment,

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of f ...

, management and leadership,

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

, or

sports management Sport management is the field of business dealing with sports and recreation. Sports management involves any combination of skills that correspond with planning, organizing, directing, controlling, budgeting, leading, or evaluating of any organiz ...

counseling psychology Counseling psychology is a psychological specialty that encompasses research and applied work in several broad domains: counseling process and outcome; supervision and training; career development and counseling; and prevention and health ...

(MA),

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty ...

( EdD and credentials), English (MA),

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

(MA), and

nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...

(MSN/MBA, MSN). The university added a Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology in 2006.

Library services

The Paul J. Cushing Library is a two-story facility with a distinctive vaulted ceiling and exceptional daylight on the main level. Its architectural design mirrors the campus chapel. The library provides the Holy Names community a full suite of electronic and traditional books and journals, as well as a wide range of gadgets and devices faculty and staff can check out. Library team members offer instruction to every department. The library regularly offers special events such as art exhibits, book talks, film showings, and lunchtime piano recitals. A popular spot for studying, the library averages more than 6,000 walk-ins per month.

Athletics

The Holy Names (HNU) athletic teams are called the Hawks. The university is a member of the Division II level of the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA), primarily competing in the

Pacific West Conference The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in California and Hawaii. T ...

(PacWest) since the 2012–13 academic year. The Hawks previously competed in the

California Pacific Conference The California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). The conference commissioner is Don Ott. Conference leadership is shared among the member in ...

(Cal Pac) of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) from 1996–97 to 2011–12. HNU competes in 13 intercollegiate varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer and tennis; while women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball. Men's volleyball is offered as a club sport. Former NAIA and NCAA teams included men's & women's track & field and Men’s Volleyball

Center for Social Justice and Civic Engagement

The Center for Social Justice and Civic Engagement (CSJCE) includes Service-Learning and Community-Based Leadership (CBL) programs. The CSJCE offers numerous volunteer opportunities, service projects, and dialogues through its CBL initiatives. The Holy Names University Early Admit Program (HNUEAP) is offered through the center. The CSJCE serves as an exemplary example of a strong partnership between academic and student affairs. Through its programs and services, the CSJCE promotes leadership development for social responsibility and cultural competence. Programs and services emphasize personal and social awareness, equity and equality, justice, diversity, service, community involvement, and social activism. Students are introduced to issues such as water rights, poverty, and education for the poor, all platforms pursued by the SNJMs.

Alumni

* Dame

Lydia Dunn, Baroness Dunn Lydia Selina Dunn, Baroness Dunn, (; born 29 February 1940) is a Hong Kong-born retired British businesswoman and politician. She became the second person of Hong Kong origin (the first was Lawrence Kadoorie, Baron Kadoorie) and the first fema ...

, Member of the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...

in the United Kingdom, DBE * Carol A. Corrigan, Associate Justice of the California State Supreme Court *

Belo Cipriani Belo Miguel Cipriani (born June 21, 1980, in Guatemala) is an American writer, publisher, and entrepreneur in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. He is the founder of Oleb Media, a digital inclusion firm, and the disability publishing house Oleb Books ...

, author of ''Blind: A Memoir''; Cipriani was also Holy Names University's 2012–2014 writer-in-residence. *

Masayoshi Son Masayoshi Son ( ja, 孫正義, translit=Son Masayoshi, ko, 손정의, translit=Son Jeong-ui) (born 11 August 1957) is a Korean-Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor, financier and philanthropist. A 3rd generation "Zainichi Kore ...

, Korean-Japanese businessman and the founder and current

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...

, the

SoftBank Mobile is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...

, and current chairman of

Sprint Corporation Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before it merged with T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 54.3 million customers as of June 30, 2019. The ...

. * Anthony Russell,

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

singer

References

External links

Official website

Official athletics website
{{authority control Education in Oakland, California Universities and colleges in Alameda County, California Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland Educational institutions established in 1868 Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges 1868 establishments in California Catholic universities and colleges in California Pacific West Conference schools Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Former women's universities and colleges in the United States 19th century in Oakland, California