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March 7, 2005 
VOL.
43, NO. 5Oakland,
CA
The Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology,
housed for nearly 30 years in a commanding brick building above the UC-Berkeley
campus, is poised to leave its rented space and take up new quarters.
In November, DSPT purchased the Temple Beth El property, a Reform synagogue
on Vine Street in Berkeley and a six-minute walk from its present quarters.
Beth El is moving to a new site, and DSPT plans to begin renovations this
summer and move in by the fall of 2006.
Dominican Father Michael Sweeney, DSPT president, said Church Divinity
School of the Pacific, an Episcopal institution, owns their present building
and has plans to use the space. The Dominicans must be out by this summer.
This leaves DSPT without a home for a year, Father Sweeney said, and he
is looking into possible space somewhere else within the Graduate Theological
Union of which DSPT is a member. He is also “desperately trying”
to find $3.2 million for renovations. The Valley Foundation has given
$500,000 toward the $3 million purchase price and another $500,000 for
renovations, and other foundation grants are pending, he said.
The new site includes 15,000 square feet and two buildings, according
to Steve Doctors, project manager. When renovation is complete, the property
will have three classrooms, administrative and faculty offices, a gathering
space for students, a study room and a computer room.
It will also have a courtyard that will serve as the entryway, Doctors
said, which will be an outdoor space appropriate for ceremonial functions
such as orientation and graduation.
Father Sweeney said members of Beth El congregation and neighbors all
showed support for the DSPT plans. “They were very, very welcoming,”
he said.
Currently, DSPT has more than 100 full- and part-time students, 11 full-time
and 11 adjunct faculty members. It offers 30 classes, but many of them
are held off the campus in other GTU sites. About 20 classes – not
all of them with DSPT – are held in the present building.
After the school has moved into the new site, students will still take
classes on other GTU-member campuses and other schools will continue to
use the Dominican classrooms. Father Sweeney noted that DSPT was the first
Catholic school to join GTU when it formed in the 1960s. Now, at last,
he said, “For the first time we will have our own campus.”
