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September
18, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 16Oakland,
CA
Former synagogue
in Berkeley is new home
for Dominican School
By Voice staff
After 30 years
in a leased facility, the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology
has a new, permanent home on the corner of Arch and Vine streets in north
Berkeley. Bishop Allen Vigneron blessed the school’s new chapel
on Sept. 13, one week after DSPT’s 100 students began their fall
semester as part of the Graduate Theological Union.
The new campus is located at the former Temple Beth-El, which the school
purchased when the synagogue moved to its new home several blocks away.
The synagogue’s worship space has been converted into classrooms
with state-of-the-art technology. One is equipped with a production studio
for recording and editing both audio and video that will allow the school
to develop a distance-learning program. On the level below the classrooms
are administrative offices and across from a small plaza are the chapel,
student lounge and faculty offices.
The site, five blocks from the center of the GTU complex, is twice the
size of DSPT’s previous home across the street from the GTU Library.
DSPT was the first of three Catholic institutions to join the GTU in 1964.
Known then as St. Albert’s College, it moved its offices and classrooms
from St. Albert Priory in Oakland to Berkeley in 1976, leasing a building
owned by the Episcopal Church’s Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Two years later the college changed its name to Dominican School of Philosophy
and Theology.
Students include 20 Dominicans studying for the priesthood and members
of the Salesians, Conventual Franciscans, Capuchin Franciscans, Verbum
Dei Sisters and Daughters of St. Paul. But lay men and women make up the
majority of the student body, said Brother Robert King, college spokesman.
There are 13 fulltime professors and 10 adjunct faculty.
The school offers Master’s level degrees in philosophy, theology
and biblical languages as well as a degree completion program for a B.A.
degree in philosophy. Non-degree study options are also available.
Brother King said DSPT’s new campus is a symbol of the school’s
commitment to continuing as a theological resource not only for the Church,
but the entire community.
Anyone wishing to tour the new campus can contact Brother Robert King,
O.P. at (510) 883-2086.
After more than $3 million in renovations, Temple Beth-El
has become the new campus for the Dominican School of Theology and Philosophy,
one of the three Catholic members of the Graduate Theological Union in
Berkeley. The school is located at Arch and Vine streets.
BROTHER ROBERT KING, OP PHOTO
