St. Joseph's College

When Archbishop Henry O’Leary became the second archbishop of Edmonton in 1920, he had a dream to build a western Canada Catholic college that would educate students in the Christian intellectual tradition.This is the story of how a small Roman Catholic institution confronted daunting challenges to become a Christian beacon of enlightenment at the very heart of the secular University of Alberta. Scholarship and community life in residence was always supplemented with teaching from the Christian Ministry Team, to form Christian citizens who would go out into the world to serve the larger community following graduation. In 1963, the Congregation of St. Basil took over the administration of the College from the Christian Brothers de la Salle who had administered the College from its founding in 1926. Since its establishment almost ninety years ago, the College has continued to provide young men and women with post-secondary courses grounded in Roman Catholic thought while pursuing their undergraduate degrees at the University of Alberta. Initially, a residence was built for men, but O’Leary’s dream of also constructing a women’s residence never died and was finally realized in 2015. Faced with slender means, misunderstandings, student mischief and personality clashes, the mission of St. Joseph’s College has guided faculty, administrators, staff and Board members throughout its history and melded them into a close-knit community whose example is the envy of other units at the University of Alberta.