Seton Hall University

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Seton Hall University (SHU) is a private Catholic research university located in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the oldest diocesan university in the United States. Home to over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and offering more than 90 rigorous majors, Seton Hall's 58-acre main campus is located in the quaint town of South Orange, New Jersey, only 14 miles from Manhattan. The university is governed by the Archdiocese of Newark and is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity."

History and Founding

Like many Catholic universities in the United States, Seton Hall arose out of the Council of Baltimore, held in Maryland in 1844, with the goal of bringing Catholicism to higher education in order to help propagate the faith. The Diocese of Newark had been established by Pope Pius IX in 1853, just three years before the founding of the college, and it necessitated an institution for higher learning.

Seton Hall College was formally founded on September 1, 1856, by Newark Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley, a first cousin of James Roosevelt I, father of president Franklin Roosevelt. Bishop Bayley named the institution after his aunt, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton, who was later named the first American-born Catholic saint.

On a collegiate level, the school originated in Madison, New Jersey (site of the present day College of St. Elizabeth) and the campus remained active from 1856–1860 until the move to South Orange in 1860. Reverend Bernard J. McQuaid served as the first college president (1856–1857, 1859–1868) and directed a staff of four diocesan clergy including Reverend Alfred Young, vice-president; Reverend Daniel Fisher (the second college president, 1857–1859) and five lay instructors. Initially, Seton Hall had only five students — Leo G. Thebaud, Louis and Alfred Boisaubin, Peter Meehan, and John Moore. By the end of the first year, the student body had grown more than tenfold to 60.

Among other difficulties, several fires on campus slowed down the growth process. The first of several fires in the university's history occurred in 1867, which destroyed the college's first building.

The college was organized into a university in 1950 following a period of unprecedented enrollment growth. The College of Arts and Sciences and the schools of business, nursing, and education comprised the university; the School of Law opened its doors in 1951, with Miriam Rooney as the first woman dean of law in the United States. The South Orange campus became coeducational in 1968.

The Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry was established in 1954 as the first medical school and dental school in New Jersey. It was located in Jersey City, adjacent to the Jersey City Medical Center, which was used for clinical education. The college was sold to the state of New Jersey in 1965 for $4 million after the archdiocese could not support mounting school debt and renamed the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry.

With the construction of four new residence halls from 1986 to 1988 and the purchase of an off-campus apartment building in 1990, the university significantly changed its identity as a primarily commuter institution. Seton Hall is now recognized as a residential campus, providing living space for approximately 2,100 students.

The $20 million Walsh Library opened in 1994 with first-class study and research resources that marked the beginning of Seton Hall's technological transformation. The domed Rotunda of Seton Hall University's Walsh Library is an iconic landmark on campus and boasts 332,000 visitors to the building annually.

In 2023, the University launched the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media. The new college is poised as the singular place for interdisciplinary learning focused on innovation along the continuum of human development.

Campus and Academic Structure

Seton Hall is located primarily on three campuses. The main campus in the suburban village of South Orange, New Jersey, houses the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Human Development, Culture and Media, the School of Diplomacy and International Relations, the Stillman School of Business, and the Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology. The Interprofessional Health Sciences campus, located in the towns of Clifton and Nutley, NJ, is home to the College of Nursing and the School of Health and Medical Sciences. Seton Hall's School of Law is located in Newark, New Jersey.

The Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) campus, situated in the towns of Clifton and Nutley, N.J., opened in July 2018. The IHS campus creates a forward-thinking approach to healthcare education, bringing together future doctors, nurses and health professionals in the fields of medicine, nursing, physical therapy, physician assistant, occupational therapy, athletic training and speech language pathology.

The university has a total undergraduate enrollment of 6,146 (fall 2024), its setting is suburban, and the campus size is 58 acres. The student-faculty ratio at Seton Hall University is 14:1, and it utilizes a semester-based academic calendar. The four-year graduation rate is 64%.

The university, legally incorporated as "Seton Hall University, an educational corporation of New Jersey," is governed by a 16-member board of trustees. Eleven members of the board serve on it by virtue of their positions within the university or Archdiocese of Newark. The Archbishop of Newark, who serves as the president of the board, retains the power to appoint the remaining five members of the body.

School of Diplomacy and International Relations

One of the university's most distinctive academic units is the School of Diplomacy and International Relations. The School of Diplomacy and International Relations is the international affairs school of Seton Hall University. Founded in collaboration with the United Nations Association of the United States of America, it was the first school of international relations to be founded after the Cold War. The school was founded in 1997 and welcomed its first class in the Fall of 1998. Among the founding members was its first dean, Ambassador Clay Constantinou, a former U.S. diplomat and graduate of Seton Hall Law.

Students collaborate with faculty on timely research projects and practice diplomacy through required internships, international study seminars, and dialogue with visiting diplomatic practitioners and business executives. Through the school's relationships with the United Nations Foundation and other international organizations, students benefit from course offerings at UN Headquarters in New York as well as on-campus courses taught by UN experts and a Semester in Washington, D.C., program.

Athletics

Seton Hall's athletic teams compete under the name the Pirates in NCAA Division I as a member of the Big East Conference. The men's basketball team competes in the Big East Conference and plays their home games in the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.

Seton Hall's first season of basketball occurred in 1903–04, but the school did not field a team again until 1908–09, the year in which the university achieved its first winning season. The school adopted the Pirate mascot in 1931, and the teams soon gained national prominence with the arrival of John "Honey" Russell in 1936. During an 18-year span, the Pirates racked up a 295–129 record that included an undefeated 19–0 record in 1939–40 as part of a 41-game unbeaten streak.

The peak of this era occurred in 1953 when Richie Regan and Walter Dukes defeated rival St. John's University for the NIT title. Seton Hall became a charter member of the Big East Conference in 1979, where they are still a member to this day.

Seton Hall has appeared 14 times in the NCAA tournament and were national runners-up in 1989. They were NIT champions in 1953 and 2024. Beyond men's basketball, the university fields teams in a range of sports at the Division I level, and the university is home to WSOU-FM, a college radio station ranked #1 in the nation, which attracts more than 120,000 listeners a week from the NYC area.

Notable Alumni and Faculty

Seton Hall has produced graduates who have gone on to prominence in law, politics, entertainment, and sports. Prominent alumni include former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who received his Juris Doctor from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1987.

Craig Biggio, former Major League Baseball player for the Houston Astros and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, is among Seton Hall's athletic alumni. In the realm of public service, Raymond G. Chambers is a philanthropist and humanitarian who serves as the World Health Organization Ambassador for Global Strategy, with major focus areas in global health, mentoring, and revitalizing his home city of Newark, New Jersey.

Samuel A. Alito Jr. served as an adjunct professor of law at Seton Hall University School of Law from 1999 to 2004 before his elevation to the United States Supreme Court.

The university's academic success story includes more than 40 student and alumni national scholars and fellows, including 20 prestigious Fulbright Scholars, as well as Rhodes, Udall, Pickering and Truman Scholars.

Rankings and Recognition

In the 2026 edition of Best Colleges, Seton Hall University is ranked No. 158 in National Universities by U.S. News & World Report. The Seton Hall Law School has been ranked #1 in the nation for judicial clerkships and #11 in the nation for employment.

Seton Hall offers more than 17,000 internship opportunities, and over 80 percent of students have an internship or two on their resume before graduation; the university reports a 97% employment rate after graduation and mid-career earnings 50% higher than the national average. In fall 2025, 1,625 freshmen enrolled after receiving offers of admission from the largest applicant pool in Seton Hall history.

The university's more than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students — who hail from all 50 states and 67 countries — choose from more than 90 majors, including communication, business, diplomacy, nursing and education.