Press Releases
New Gift Expands Possible Saint Xavier University Site to 35 Acres in Orland Park Near I-80 & Route 45
CHICAGO (November 20, 2000) – The family that two years ago made a gift of ten acres of land along the I-80 corridor to Saint Xavier University surprised the university’s president earlier this month by telling him they now plan to donate a total of 35 acres of land to Chicago’s oldest Catholic university.
The 35-acre site is located near the intersection of Interstate 80 and Route 45 in Orland Park.
"We were profoundly grateful to Robert and Mary Rita Stump two years ago when they first made a generous gift of ten acres of land to Saint Xavier," said Dr. Richard A. Yanikoski, president of Saint Xavier University. "Words can’t begin to express how we feel now that they have increased their gift to approximately 35 acres." To illustrate the impact of the gift to Saint Xavier, Yanikoski pointed out that the university’s Main Campus in Chicago is located on a 70-acre site.
Dr. Yanikoski said he and other university officials are inspired by the Stump family’s enduring commitment to Saint Xavier University. Mary Rita Stump is the daughter of Morgan Murphy, Sr., a Catholic layman who was instrumental in the relocation of Saint Xavier to its present location on West 103rd Street in Chicago during the 1950s. Mary Judith O’Malley, the Stumps’ daughter, is an alumnus of Saint Xavier University who actively supports the university, and her husband, State Senator Patrick O’Malley, is a member of Saint Xavier’s Board of Trustees.
"The Orland Park site offers great potential for Saint Xavier University, given its location midway between I-57 and the planned I-355 extension," Yanikoski said. He said the university had been studying a number of options for developing the land, including the possibility of building a permanent South Campus on the site. Saint Xavier has been operating a South Campus in a leased facility in Tinley Park since 1997. The size of Saint Xavier’s present South Campus facility is 17,500 sq. ft.
Now, Yanikoski said, the university is able to consider bigger plans. "Our early discussions had been based on a site of approximately ten acres," he said.
Founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1846 as Chicago’s first Catholic academy, Saint Xavier is Chicago’s oldest Catholic university.