In our earliest documents, when the University Catalogue describes the situation and advantages of the young University it hits grace notes that are still found in the words of the Alma Mater (Upon the Bluff, high over the Willamette. . ..) The basic text from 1902 – alongside course offerings, program sequences, fees and tuition – is both stable and embellished over the years. By 1907-08 the campus is described in the Catalogue as a salubrious Shangri La-like health resort, “… the entire year the temperature varies little. Excessive cold or heat is comparatively unknown”, and where no one is ever sick (not a single serious illness in the six years since the school’s founding!).
The 1907-1908 Catalogue was issued twice: in the second revised version, after the initial description of the situation and mission, there are the usual paragraphs detailing the wonderful classroom building (a one building school-house in 1907) and a supplement which offers a more exact description of the extensive grounds and the facilities available for student recreation (this paragraph, below, is repeated in each new edition of the Catalogue from 1907-1934).
Enrollment for the 1907-1908 school year stood at 159 students. The University has grown from 1901-2018; from 25 acres to 150, and a current undergraduate and graduate community of 4,200 students. The new Franz Campus developments bring vastly improved recreational facilities still offering that ample opportunity for physical exercise and outdoor sports so necessary to the developing student. (1907-08 revised). This balance of classroom and other activities acknowledges that the whole-person is central to the educational mission defined by Fr. Basil Moreau, C.S.C. (founder of The Congregation of Holy Cross), for all his schools: We shall always place education side by side with instruction, the mind will not be cultivated at the expense of the heart.
Announcement on Franz Campus expansion plan
CURRENT BULLETIN: The University is situated on a bluff near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in one of the large metropolitan areas of the West. Located in a residential section of the city of Portland, the 150-acre campus offers lawns, hundreds of trees, and beautiful buildings in a quiet, peaceful setting which is conducive to the learning process.
