Donnelly College

Donnelly College is a private Catholic college in Kansas City, Kansas, founded in 1949 by the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica and Bishop George Joseph Donnelly of the Diocese (now Archdiocese) of Kansas City in Kansas. It began as a two-year college staffed by the Benedictines and later added bachelor’s programs. Wikipedia describes it as the only college or university in Kansas designated both a Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) and a minority-serving institution (MSI). Motto: “True Light” (John 1:9).¹

Overview

Founded	19491
Founders	Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica; Bishop George Joseph Donnelly1
Type	Private Catholic; associate, bachelor’s, and nursing certifications1
Designations	Kansas’s only HSI and MSI, per Wikipedia1
Campus move	New academic building, fall 2020; former academic building / hospital later demolished1
Website	https://www.donnelly.edu/

History

The college opened in 1949 as a two-year institution. The Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica in Atchison supplied the original faculty; the school took the name of Bishop George Joseph Donnelly.¹

The first bachelor’s program, Organizational Leadership, launched in 2006 and was later renamed Business Leadership. An Information Systems bachelor’s followed. In fall 2020 the college moved into a new academic building; KSHB reported in December 2020 that the former academic building (a former hospital) was slated for demolition.¹

Wikipedia states that since 2001 Donnelly has run a college-in-prison program and that “as of 2023, over 30 men have graduated,” but marks that enrollment figure citation needed. This page does not elevate the graduate count.¹

Enrollment figures circulating on Wikipedia (304 / 294 total / 179 full-time) rest on a 2017 Kansas City Business Journal ranking and should be treated as dated.¹

Sources

See also

• bishop-ward-high-school
• kansas-city-kansas-community-college
• kansas-city-kansas
• Wiki

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Donnelly College.” — asserts: private Catholic college in Kansas City, Kansas; motto “True Light” (John 1:9); founded 1949 by Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica and Bishop George Joseph Donnelly; originally two-year, Benedictine faculty; first bachelor’s (Organizational Leadership) 2006, later Business Leadership; Information Systems bachelor’s added; only Kansas HSI and MSI; new academic building fall 2020; former building/hospital demolition (KSHB Dec 2 2020); college-in-prison program since 2001 (graduate count unsourced). Official site: donnelly.edu. KSHB on the 2020 move: kshb.com ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰