Saint Francis University

Saint Francis University

Type	Private
Established	1847
Religious affiliation	Roman Catholic
Endowment	$45,254,000 (2015)
President	Rev. Malachi Van Tassell
Academic staff	241
Undergraduates	1,745
Postgraduates	619
Location	Loretto 40°30′15″N 78°38′15″W / 40.50417°N 78.63750°W / 40.50417; -78.63750Coordinates: 40°30′15″N 78°38′15″W / 40.50417°N 78.63750°W / 40.50417; -78.63750
Campus	Rural, 600 acres (243 ha)
Colors	Red and White
Nickname	Red Flash
Sporting affiliations	NCAA Division I – NEC      A-10, and EIVA.
Website	www.francis.edu

Saint Francis University (SFU) is a four-year, coeducational Catholic liberal arts university in Loretto, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1847 and conducted under the tradition of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular. The university is situated on 600 acres (243 ha) in the forests and farmland of Loretto.

Located in Loretto, Pennsylvania, Saint Francis University enrolls approximately 1,745 undergraduate students (of whom 39% are male and 61% female) and 619 graduate students. The University offers 25 undergraduate majors and 7 graduate fields of study (including Physical Therapy, in which the University awards a doctorate) to its students. The University maintains an average graduation rate of 70.8%. Saint Francis University has 22 men's and women's sports teams and competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The current president of the University is Rev. Malachi Van Tassell, T.O.R., Ph.D.

Mount Assisi Friary, formerly the residence of industrialist Charles M. Schwab, is home to several of the friars who staff the university.

Also on the campus is the main building for the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art which has a number of smaller facilities across the local region. Immergrün Golf Course is a semi-private, nine-hole, regulation-length 3,234-yard, par-36 course on rye grass located on the campus of Saint Francis University at 105 Saint Elizabeth Street. Immergrün has not been altered since Donald Ross built it for the steel magnate Charles M. Schwab in 1917.

Also on the campus are The DiSepio Institute for Rural Health and Wellness, the Center for the Study of Occupational Regulation (CSOR), Center for Watershed Research & Service, and The Institute for Contemporary Franciscan Life.

Saint Francis College was established in 1847 by six Franciscan teaching Brothers from Mountbellew, Ireland, who had been given land in Loretto by Michael O'Connor, the first Bishop of Pittsburgh, to establish a school. The university was one of the first Catholic universities in the United States and the first Franciscan college in the nation. Although it originally only admitted males, it became one of the first Catholic Universities to become co-educational. Loretto is the site of the first English-language Roman Catholic settlement established west of the Allegheny Front, in what is now the United States, by Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin in 1799.