Barry University is a private

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

university in Miami Shores, Florida. Founded in 1940 by the Adrian Dominican Sisters, it is one of the largest Catholic universities in the Southeast and is located within the Archdiocese of Miami. The university offers more than 100 degree programs, from bachelors to doctorate, in six schools and two colleges. Barry University has more than 7,000 students, a campus of 54 buildings, a branch campus in Tallahassee, a law school in Orlando, and 50,000 alumni.

History

Beginnings

Barry College was founded as a women's college by a pair of siblings: Patrick Barry, Bishop of St. Augustine, and his sister, Mary Gerald Barry, OP, then prioress of the Adrian Dominican Sisters. The construction of what was then the Barry College for Women began in 1940, in what had previously been "a tract of tropical vegetation". The empty lot was soon transformed into the main campus in Miami Shores, Florida. The original campus consisted of five buildings. Mother Barry served as president from 1940 to 1961. Barry College became Barry University on November 13, 1981. Barry University continues to be sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of

Adrian, Michigan Adrian is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Lenawee County, Michigan, Lenawee County. The population was 20,645 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Adrian lies in Michigan's 5th congressional district. The c ...

. It is an independent

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

and has an independent board of trustees.

Presidents

The university has had six Adrian Dominican Sisters serve as president since its inception: M. Gerald Barry, 1940–61; M. Genevieve Weber, 1962–63; M. Dorothy Browne, 1963–74; M. Trinita Flood, 1974–81; Jeanne O'Laughlin, 1981–2004; and Linda Bevilacqua, 2004–2019. Mike Allen began his tenure as the seventh president of Barry University on July 1, 2019. He is the first man and lay person to lead Barry University since its founding in 1940. The motherhouse of the sisters is in

Cor Jesu Chapel

The Cor Jesu ("Heart of Jesus") Chapel is intended to be the spiritual and physical heart of the campus. It was financed with the aid of Margaret Brady Farrell, a parishioner of St. Patrick's Church in Miami Beach. Soon after discovering that the construction of the Cor Jesu was postponed due to insufficient funds, Farrell donated all the funds needed for completion the chapel's construction. In her honor, the Division of Business and Finance building was dedicated as "Farrell House". The chapel is topped by an tower holding carillon chimes. It seats 500 persons. Traces of

Romanesque architecture Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Ro ...

can be seen in the inside of the chapel which "was built in choir style with wood wainscoting and a canopy over the altar". A stained-glass window of amber color, containing the image of a

Celtic cross upright 0.75 , A Celtic cross symbol The Celtic cross is a form of ringed cross, a Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring, that emerged in the British Isles and Western Europe in the Early Middle Ages. It became widespread through its u ...

, is visible from the main entrance of the campus.

Facilities

Barry University's main campus is in Miami Shores, Florida. While the main campus is in Miami Shores, Barry University offers several continuing adult education classes at other locations in Florida. Barry University has a campus in Orlando containing the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law. There are more than 40 buildings at the Miami Shores campus. These contain technology laboratories and indoor and outdoor sporting facilities. The Monsignor William Barry Memorial Library contains more than 710,000 items, including 2,600 periodical titles, 5,000 audiovisual items, 150 electronic databases, and an "excellent Catholic American collection". The library also contains a collection of documents pertaining to Operation Pedro Pan.

Expansion

While Barry University is primarily a

liberal arts college A liberal arts college or liberal arts institution of higher education is a college with an emphasis on Undergraduate education, undergraduate study in the Liberal arts education, liberal arts of humanities and science. Such colleges aim to impart ...

, the university has expanded its programs of study to include specialized programs in nursing, teacher education, medical technology, and social work. Barry began graduate programs for men and women in 1954, a continuing education program in 1974, a school of business in 1976, a division of biological and biomedical

sciences Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

in 1983, and a school of podiatric medicine in fall 1985. In 1999, the Barry University School of Law was established in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. Barry University's law school is named the Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law.

Academics

Barry University offers more than 50 traditional undergraduate programs, accelerated

bachelor's A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ( ...

programs designed specifically for working adults, and more than 40 graduate programs (many of these with evening/weekend classes) in 9 schools. As of 2019, student to faculty ratio was 12:1.

Schools and colleges

* School of Arts and Sciences * Andreas School of Business * Adrian Dominican School of Education (ADSOE) * Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law (Orlando) * College of Nursing and Health Sciences * Barry University School of Podiatric Medicine * School of Professional and Career Education * School of Social Work

Branch campus

Rankings

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

' 2015 Ranking of America's Best Colleges ranked Barry University 615th on their list of America's Top Colleges. In 2022-23, Barry University was ranked #331-440 in the National Universities category by ''U.S. News & World Report''.

Student activities

Athletics

Barry University became a member of the Sunshine State Conference (SSC) in June 1988 and a member of

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division II since 1984. The Buccaneers have won 16 NCAA Division II national championships (women's soccer 1989, 1992, 1993; volleyball 1995, 2001, 2004; men's golf 2007, 2013, 2014; men's tennis 2010, 2013, 2015; women's tennis 2011, 2014 and rowing 2015, 2016) and 65 SSC titles. The Bucs have produced 309 All-Americans and 361 Scholar All-Americans. The SSC sponsors championships in 14 sports for men and women:

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, men's and women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

, rowing, men's and women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

, men's and women's

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, and women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. Multiple alumni of Barry's baseball team have gone on to play

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

, including pitcher Henry Owens, catcher Yan Gomes, pitcher Tyler Kinley, and second baseman Alex De Goti. MLB pitcher Josh James also briefly attended Barry before transferring to Western Oklahoma State College.

Student organizations

Barry University has more than 60 student organizations, two fraternities and one sorority, honor societies, and a student government.

Student media

''The Barry Buccaneer'' is the

student newspaper A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station Graduate student journal, produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related new ...

, ranging from 8 to 16 pages, and is published at the first of every month starting in September and ending in May. ''The Buccaneer'' serves as a laboratory for journalism minors. All work, including writing, editing, advertising and design, is completed by students. WBUJ, 99.5 FM, is Barry University's student-run campus radio station. Sponsored by Barry's Department of Communications, WBUJ provides students the opportunity to gain knowledge of radio-industry practices and standards, hands-on technical skills, and marketable on-air experience. Student DJs cover a wide range of music genres, from hip hop and

classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

and inner city

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

.WBRY
Barry University Radio. Other programming includes sports shows, talk shows, and daily news.

Campus ministry

Barry has a Department of Campus Ministry. The sacraments of the Catholic Church are administered in accordance with the guidelines of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami. Protestant and Catholic campus ministers are employed by the university. Protestant Communion is offered monthly in multi-faith services.

Notable alumni

Footnotes

External links

* {{Authority control Universities and colleges in Miami-Dade County, Florida Dominican universities and colleges in the United States Universities and colleges established in 1940 Universities and colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Catholic universities and colleges in Florida Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami 1940 establishments in Florida