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Duquesne University

Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit (/djˈkn/ dew-KAYN; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, Duquesne first opened as the Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost in October 1878 with an enrollment of 40 students and a faculty of six. In 1911, the college became the first Catholic university-level institution in Pennsylvania. It is named for an 18th-century governor of New France, Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville.

Duquesne has since expanded to over 9,300 graduate and undergraduate students within a self-contained 49-acre (19.8 ha) hilltop campus in Pittsburgh's Bluff neighborhood. The school maintains an associate campus in Rome and encompasses ten schools of study. The university hosts international students from more than 80 countries, although most students—about 80%—are from Pennsylvania or the surrounding region. Duquesne is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". There are more than 93,000 living alumni of the university ranging from two cardinals and the current bishop of Pittsburgh to a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The Duquesne Dukes compete in NCAA Division I. Duquesne men's basketball appeared twice in national championship games in the 1950s and won the NIT championship in 1955.

The Pittsburgh Catholic College of the Holy Ghost was founded on October 1, 1878, by Fr. Joseph Strub and the Holy Ghost Fathers, who had been expelled from Germany during Otto von Bismarck's Kulturkampf six years earlier. When the college was founded, it had six faculty members and 40 students. The college obtained its state charter in 1882. Students attended classes in a rented space above a bakery on Wylie Avenue in downtown Pittsburgh. Duquesne established itself at its current location on the Bluff and built the original five-story red brick "Old Main" in 1885. At the time, it was the highest point on the Pittsburgh skyline.

On May 27, 1911, under the leadership of Fr. Martin Hehir, the college became the first Catholic institution of higher learning in Pennsylvania to become a university. It was subsequently renamed Duquesne University of the Holy Ghost, after Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Marquis du Quesne, the French governor of New France who first brought Catholic observances to the Pittsburgh area. The year 1913 saw the university record its first woman graduate, Sister M. Fides of the Sisters of Mercy. In 1914, the graduate school was established.

The 1920s were a time of expansion for the developing university. The campus grew to include its first single-purpose academic building, Canevin Hall, as well as a gymnasium and a central heating plant. Institutionally, the school grew to include the School of Pharmacy in 1925, a School of Music in 1926, and a School of Education in 1929. Hard times, however, came with the Wall Street Crash of 1929; plans for expansion had to be shelved.

The beloved Fr. Hehir was succeeded in 1931 by Fr. J. J. Callahan. Though Fr. Callahan was not as able an administrator as Fr. Hehir, his tenure did see the university add numerous new programs, a short-lived School for the Unemployed, and, in 1937, the Nursing School. The university's sports programs also thrived during the Depression era, with some of the greatest triumphs of the basketball and football teams occurring in that time period—a 6–0 football defeat of Pitt in 1936 was a high point of student exuberance. A university library was completed in 1940.

Some of the darkest years of the university's history passed during World War II, when the university was led by the young Fr. Raymond Kirk. The school's enrollment, which had been 3,100 in 1940, dropped to an all-time low in the summer of 1944, with a mere one thousand students enrolled. Fr. Kirk's health broke under the strain of leading the school through such struggles, and he was relieved of his duties by Fr. Francis P. Smith in 1946. After the war, the school faced a wave of veterans seeking higher education. In contrast to the lean war-time years, the 1949 enrollment peaked at 5,500, and space became an issue. Fr. Smith took advantage of the Lanham Act, which allowed him to acquire three barracks-type buildings from Army surplus. The science curriculum was expanded, and the School of Business Administration saw its enrollment rise to over two thousand. Also during this time, a campus beautification project was implemented and WDUQ, Pittsburgh's first college radio station, was founded.

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