St. Gregory’s expands

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St. Gregory the Great Seminary in Seward is undergoing a big expansion. The seminary, which opened in 1998, is in its first phase of expanding its space to add new dorm rooms, classrooms, office space, a full-size gymnasium and social space.

The original building was built in a pentagon shape in 1985 for a youth psychiatric hospital. The Catholic Diocese of Lincoln bought the building in 1997, opened the seminary in 1998 and added on and remodeled in 1999. That expansion included the construction of a chapel at the front of the building.

Rector Jeffrey Eickhoff, who has served at the college for 15 years, said the seminary has had 320 men enter, 175 men graduate and 74 men become ordained Catholic priests. The seminary is a four-year academic institution that offers a bachelor of arts degree.

The plan to expand the building is a result of the seminary’s ability to serve the region.

“When we started, we only had 23 men, and it was all Lincoln,” Eickhoff said. “We again had 23 men from Lincoln last year, but we had 38 from outside dioceses, so most of our expansion has been these other dioceses.”

The seminary began accepting students from dioceses outside Lincoln in 2001. Eickhoff said they have had students from Illinois, Missouri, Kansas City, Denver, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, California and North Dakota.

From an economical standpoint, Eickhoff said serving more students will make it cheaper per student to attend. He said officials felt comfortable with being able to serve 70 to 80 students while still providing a meaningful and personal experience to each individual.

Last fall, the seminary had 61 students attending with the capacity of 58.

“That’s part of the reason for the expansion,” Eickhoff said.

Phase I began in April and includes new dorm rooms to add 14 beds this fall and another 14 beds in the fall of 2018 in order to increase the capacity to 86 students.

With that increase in student numbers comes a need for more classroom space.

“It’s mostly dorms. It was just the increased number. We needed more social space, more study space, more dormitory space and more classroom space, so it’s doing multi functions,” Eickhoff said.

The second and third phases of the project will include a full-size gymnasium, racketball courts, exercise space including a weight room, classrooms and offices, as well as a bigger multi purpose lecture hall.

The third phase will connect the new addition with the current building and will add a second courtyard. The existing courtyard is enclosed by the pentagon. The new addition is built onto the pentagon to the north. The second and third phases will be built onto the new addition and will connect to the existing building. The second courtyard will have four sides to it.

Eickhoff said the hope is to begin the next phase of building the gymnasium within a year of the completion of the first phase. He said fundraising has begun for the second phase. The first phase was primarily funded through a fundraising campaign hosted by the Catholic Diocese of Lincoln. Eickhoff said the project also received money from some generous estates, as well.

Part of the expansion includes a geothermal heating and cooling system. Eickhoff said they wanted a system that was cost efficient and ecofriendly.

“That’s something we’re trying out with the new wing, and then we made the well field and all of the equipment big enough to retrofit some of our old building onto that, too,” he said.