Students returning to the Barat College Campus this week for the new school year are reveling in revitalized academic opportunities, along with $6.2 million in campus renovations.

Thanks to a strategic alliance forged earlier this year with DePaul University, Barat, an 800-student liberal arts college in Lake Forest, can provide new choices in higher education not available before in Lake County.

The agreement between the two centuries-old Catholic institutions means DePaul is expanding its reach into the northern suburbs by offering programs and residential facilities on the Barat Campus, nestled within 30 wooded acres off Sheridan and Westleigh roads.

“We are bringing DePaul into the back yard of students in Lake County, a market where we will have a much stronger presence than before,” said Raymond Kennelly, DePaul’s associate vice president for enrollment management. “This provides the best of both worlds for students interested in a small campus who also will have all the resources of the largest Catholic university in the country available to them.”

Incoming freshmen this fall, for instance, are participating in the innovative Discover Chicago program that parallels the hands-on curriculum students enjoy on DePaul’s Lincoln Park and Loop campuses. They will have the chance to participate in four projects that delve into such issues as poverty in the land of plenty, and Chicago’s past, present and future geological and ecological environments. To help bring the lessons alive, students will work in soup kitchens and homeless shelters or hike through lakefront dunes and forests containing rare plant life.

Curriculum for the new Barat Campus still is evolving, but already academic paths are more clearly defined. The Illinois Board of Higher Education recently approved 15 new programs that DePaul may offer in Lake County. Eventually, they will be expanded. For the next few years, traditional Barat majors will be augmented by seven Barat and DePaul’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences degrees, in addition to four new multidisciplinary majors.

These unique multidisciplinary majors—in the areas of science, the social sciences, humanities and leadership—are expected to be in place by fall 2002. “Barat faculty are working closely with DePaul Lincoln Park and Loop faculty to develop high-quality academic programs for this campus,” said Jerry Cleland, dean for Academic Affairs for the Barat Campus.

This year, students enrolling as math and computer science majors will take some of their classes under the auspices of DePaul’s renowned School for Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems, and the rest in the traditional Barat math department. DePaul’s longtime program for adult students – the School for New Learning – also is planning to offer classes on the Barat Campus in the near future.

Beginning in 2002, Barat students will be able to complete their degrees at Barat, as well as have the chance to transfer to other DePaul campuses if they choose, and vice versa. “Students could start at Barat, take all the core classes there, and finish up in Lincoln Park. They would be right on track with all other DePaul students,” Kennelly said. “This could be a seamless transition on either campus.”

While returning students still will graduate from their programs within the existing Barat College, freshmen are enrolled in Barat College of DePaul University. Next fall, every new student must enroll in Barat College of DePaul. All 33 of Barat’s tenured and tenure-track faculty will teach out returning students in their existing programs without disruption. The last Barat College class will graduate in spring 2005.

Barat’s infrastructure also has experienced a renaissance of sorts. Along with modernizing the 97-year-old campus, making it more accessible to students with disabilities and more aesthetically pleasing, Barat College of DePaul has significantly improved its technological offerings. For instance, Smart Carts, or multimedia aids that connect computers to large screens for instruction, are available for most classrooms. And for the first time, all dormitories have Internet and cable television access.

All of these changes, especially the expanded opportunities for degree programs, are expected to increase enrollment on the Barat Campus. Administrators predict a gradual growth over the next five years, with the population peaking at 2,500 students, 1,500 of whom will be part-time graduate students.

While Barat can plug into DePaul resources and benefit from its name recognition, administrators pledge to keep the college’s small liberal arts identity. “We expect to maintain the intimate campus,” said Gene Beiriger, associate dean for academic affairs. “The charm and the ambiance won’t change, nor will the individualized attention Barat has prided itself on giving its students.” The Religious Order of the Sacred Heart founded Barat in 1858 as a values-based women’s academy. It relocated to Lake Forest in 1904 and became co-educational in 1982. DePaul was founded by Vincentian Fathers in 1898 and now has more than 20,000 students within nine colleges spread on seven campuses throughout the Chicago area.