Bellarmine University
Louisville, Kentucky
Bellarmine is located minutes from downtown Louisville, one of the nation’s largest cities, yet a place with small town charm and friendly neighbors. Bellarmine is located in Louisville’s lively Highlands neighborhood. The city’s center for art and culture is a hotbed of entertainment, with cafes and coffee shops, art galleries and live music venues.
Our Campus
Our scenic 144-acre campus boasts more than 30 buildings, including the Norton Health Science Center, the W. L. Lyons Brown Library, seven residence halls, Campus Center and recreational facilities, including a new state-of-the-art stadium that is home to lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, and track and field.
The Bellarmine Knight
A famous fixture on the quad, the 3 1/2-ton Bellarmine Knight, astride his faithful steed, Veritas, is a source of pride and inspiration for all BU Knights, past, present and future. Can you find the hidden frog? One longstanding tradition among student athletes is to pat Veritas' front right hoof before a big contest. Surely that can't mean the difference between winning and losing. Or can it?
Campus Center
True to its name, the Campus Center is the center of action for BU students. It includes office spaces for the Student Government, the Bellarmine Activities Council and other student organizations. The Campus Center also features computers, a pool table, and a large-screen TV for students to enjoy between classes, as well as comfy chairs and couches for studying or just hanging out.
Enrollment
Bellarmine's students come from 28 states and 24 countries. Total enrollment is approximately 3,132, of which 2,402 are undergraduates.
Faculty
Bellarmine has 138 full-time faculty, with 78 percent holding a doctorate degree or the highest degree in their field.
W. L. Lyons Brown Library
The W. L. Lyons Brown Library is a four-story, state-of-the-art research facility.
Academic Resources
The W. L. Lyons Brown Library features hundreds of PCs with Internet access, over 20 individual and group study rooms, a convenient 24-hour study lounge, four multimedia classrooms, The Academic Resource Center, and the internationally acclaimed Thomas Merton Center.
The Merton Center
The Thomas Merton Center, located on the second floor of the W. L. Lyons Brown Library, houses over 45,000 items by and related to Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Merton was a brilliant writer, poet, philosopher, photographer, painter and social-justice advocate who serves as a role model for Bellarmine students.
St. Bellarmino
Roberto Bellarmino (1542-1621), our university’s namesake, was a scholar, a cardinal, a saint and one of only 33 Doctors of the Church. Bellarmine was a distinguished theologian who argued the Church’s position on controversial issues such as the divine right of kings and Copernican theory. He was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930, and declared a Doctor of the Universal Church in 1931. The larger-than-life bronze sculpture on campus, created by Bellarmine artist Bob Lockhart, is 10 feet tall and weighs more than 2,000 pounds.
Class Sizes
Bellarmine's average class size is 19. There are 29 students or fewer in 86% of our classes. The student/faculty ratio is 12:1. Looking forward to hiding in class so you can sleep? You'll have to go to Really Big U for that.
Angela Merici
The sculpture of Saint Angela Merici, located on the BU quad, pays tribute to Saint Angela Merici, who founded the Order of the Ursuline Sisters in 1535. The Merici statue, the work of Bellarmine Art Professor Bob Lockhart, serves to remind the community of Bellarmine's connection with Ursuline College, which merged with Bellarmine in 1968. Notice the position of St. Angela's outstretched hand, where a whimsical offering - a single rose or a slice of pizza - sometimes mysteriously appears, most likely a gift from a mischievous student. Pennies, too, have been known to appear, which are rumored to be good luck when taking final exams.
Majors
Bellarmine offers more than 50 majors in the arts and sciences, business, education, nursing and health sciences. Graduate degrees include master’s programs in business, teaching, spirituality, nursing and education. Doctoral programs are offered in physical therapy, nursing and education and social change.
Financial Aid Opportunities
More than $10 million in institutional scholarships and grants are awarded to freshmen each year. In fact, 100% of our freshmen receive one of these awards.
Lectures
Regular lecture series bring national and international thinkers to campus to speak at length about the important issues of the day. Past lecturers include William Styron, George McGovern, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, Ken Burns, Seamus Heaney, Wendell Berry, Billy Collins, Isabel Allende, Salman Rushdie, Andrea Mitchell, Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward, E. O. Wilson and Michael Pollan, pictured here.
National Rankings
Bellarmine is perennially ranked one of the and Top 300 Colleges in the Nation by The Princeton Review and one of America's Best Colleges by US News and World Report.
The Exploded Cube
Have you ever looked at a cube and wondered what it would look like exploded and displayed as a big sculpture? No? Well, fortunately, someone has done that for you. At the heart of the Bellarmine quad, you'll find a four-ton, perfectly geometrical exploded cube, created by Eric O. Swab. Swab designed the sculpture to symbolize the reunification of fragmented knowledge and the many academic disciplines taught at Bellarmine that are part of one truth. Don't believe it's perfect? Hey, you do the math.
Academic Excellence
30 percent of Bellarmine students ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school classes. 60 percent ranked in the top 25 percent.
Technology
BU students enjoy six campus computer labs and have hundreds of computers at their disposal. Most campus buildings, including all residence halls, offer wireless Internet access.
Residence Halls
BU's residence halls are furnished with laundry facilities, cafes and vending machines, microwaves, and TV lounges. The study lounges are also equipped with computers. More than half of our residence halls were constructed in the 21st century.
Residence Hall Life
Your life in the residence halls can be one of the most treasured memories of your college experience. The friends you make and the lessons you learn will be with you for the rest of your life.
Student Life
Knights Nation comes alive with exciting NCAA athletics and over 70 clubs and organizations.
Anniversary Hall
Anniversary Hall, known affectionately as Annie Hall to its residents, has a third-story porch that overlooks the athletic facilities in Knights Park. It's a great place to watch a game!
The Siena Halls
Our newest residence-hall complex, Siena, includes four state-of-the-art living spaces. Siena's architecture is designed to evoke the Italian hill towns of our namesake St. Robert Bellarmine's native Tuscany.
Our Lady of the Woods Chapel
Nestled on a hill above Frazier Stadium, Our Lady of the Woods Chapel is a place of worship and a work of art in its own right. A masterpiece of glass, wood, and steel, the chapel stands in memory of John A. Floersh, who was the Archbishop of Louisville when he founded Bellarmine as a local Catholic college for men in 1950. Today, Bellarmine is a school in the Catholic educational tradition that is open to people of all faiths and no faith. We help students find and get transportation to the church, temple, synagogue or mosque they choose and we encourage participation in community service and social justice work, and interfaith dialogue among students of all traditions.
SuRF
The Sports, Recreation, and Fitness Center has a lounge area with a pool table and big-screen television perfect for hanging out with friends after a workout. The exercise floor is equipped with treadmills, bikes, elliptical, weight machines, and free weights. Students also have access to tennis courts, basketball goals, volleyball nets, a nutritionist, and a personal trainer.
Events on Campus
Bellarmine offers a wealth of events, such as concerts, lectures, drama productions, dances, athletic events and much more that provide plenty of opportunities for socializing.
The University Dining Hall
Finding your favorite foods on campus is easy. We are proud to offer a dining program complete with signature brands and menu selections that include just about every item you can imagine. The University Dining Hall offers all-you-care-to-eat restaurant quality food from the steam table, grill, salad bar, sandwich station and more. The Café Ogle food court offers Einstein Bros. Bagels, Pizza Hut, Far East Fusion, and World of Wings. Simply To Go offers gourmet sandwiches, salads and more at three other locations on campus.
Owsley B. Frazier Stadium
Bellarmine is home to fantastic recreational facilities, including Owsley Brown Frazier Stadium, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a sand volleyball court, athletic fields and fitness facilities.
Student Athletes
The Bellarmine Knights perform as well in the classroom as they do on the athletic fields: BU student athletes boast a 95% graduation rate and nearly a 3.0 cumulative grade point average for all intercollegiate teams combined. All eight Bellarmine women’s sports teams and the men’s cross country, track, golf and tennis teams received an Academic Success Rate score of 100% from the NCAA in its most recent report.
Knights Hall
What do Mother Teresa and The Grateful Dead have in common? Besides being deeply spiritual, they both appeared at Knights Hall - but not together! The Dead played at Bellarmine in 1968. Mother Teresa accepted the Bellarmine Medal in 1982. Other notable winners of the Bellarmine Medal include Walter Conkrite, Jesse Jackson and Arthur Ashe. Other famous artists to appear at Bellarmine include Rusted Root, Widespread Panic, Jimmy Buffett and Maroon 5. When it’s not hosting speakers and rock stars, Knights Hall is home to the Bellarmine Knights, perennial favorites in a variety of Division II sports.
Arts
Looking for some entertainment? You could take in a play, a concert or an art exhibit in Wyatt Hall on campus...
Parks near Campus
...or take a hike in our City of Parks. Cherokee and Seneca Parks offer a combined 742 acres of nature's splendor right in the middle of Louisville, just a stone's throw from Bellarmine's campus.
The Bellarmine Farm
The Bellarmine Farm, a project of Bellarmine’s Center for Regional Environmental Studies, is a living laboratory and outdoor classroom that also provides food for the University Dining Hall.
Schedule a Visit
Come see Bellarmine yourself! We’d love to show you around. To schedule a visit, please go to
