Photo Courtesy / YouTube St. John’s Education Specialties

For more than 50 years, the St. John’s campus in the Grymes Hill section of Staten Island offered an affordable and conveniently located education to local students.

On May 12, the University sold that campus to the adjacent Wagner College for tens of millions of dollars. For many, this moment has been bittersweet. It was the end of the St. John’s era at a campus that, for many alumni, helped shape their careers, lives and even families. 

While the two institutions have hailed the deal as a “successful” and “strategic” decision according to recent press releases from both St. John’s University, and Wagner’s president, Dr. Jeffrey A Doggett, others were saddened. 

Professor Stephen G. Adubato now works as an assistant editor for Compact Magazine. But he taught philosophy courses for St. John’s at the Staten Island campus when University President Rev. Brian Shanley announced the University would permanently close in the spring of 2024. 

Adubato wrote an opinion guest essay for The New York Times in opposition of the closure. 

In the opinion pages of New York City’s largest newspaper, Adubato wrote of the importance the location held for many of the school’s commuter students in Staten Island and Brooklyn.

“After hearing the news of the campus’s closing, many of my students complained to me about having to commute to or live on the Queens campus, about 27 miles away, which would require them to disrupt their relationships with their family, friends and jobs.”

St. John’s alumna Wendy Cirillo felt the same way. 

Cirillo, class of ‘93, commuted to the now-defunct campus from her home in Staten Island. She said she enjoyed her time at the University’s local campus because of the convenience. 

“With the other schools in the city, you had to take a bus, you had to take a train, you had to take a boat,” she told The Torch during an interview. “It was saddening that option wasn’t there anymore for Staten Island.” 

Her favorite memories of the campus were centered around the strong relationship she had with professors and peers. She told The Torch that she had initially attended Rutgers University before ultimately transferring to St. John’s, where she felt at home. “It was a tight-knit community, everybody knew each other,” she said. 

Cirillo later married another graduate of the Staten Island campus, Rich Cirillo. The two hadn’t met on campus but were able to bond over their shared experience at the University. 

“The St. John’s Staten Island campus, as small as it was, had so many recruiting opportunities on campus. People would get jobs, and you know how hard that is in this market,” Cirillo said.

But Cirillo also said that she was pleased to see the campus stay under the stewardship of a college. 

“Knowing that it is going to stay as a learning institution makes me feel good,” she told The Torch. 

For the administration, identifying a buyer that would continue the educational legacy that had been established by St. John’s and the campus’s original owner, Notre Dame College, was essential. 

Savills, an international real estate services provider, represented St. John’s during the deal. According to officials from Savills, they were brought in to help St. John’s “identify a buyer that shares its educational values and long-term vision for the campus.”

As Wagner College prepares to start classes in the fall, Cirillo remembered what it meant to be a St. John’s student at Grymes Hill. 

“If you were looking for something new and exciting, that wasn’t the place,” said Cirillo.

“It was a place where students could get an affordable education close to home,” she continued.

“We wanted an education. We wanted good jobs.” Cirillo concluded. 

Many of them ended up getting those good jobs. Cirillo’s husband Rich got a job straight out of college at The Staten Island Advance, a local newspaper in the area. 

The administration hopes that the sale will allow the University to further invest in its Queens campus to advance programs that help students like Cirillo’s husband Rich whose internship through the Staten Island campus laid the foundation for a fruitful career in communications. 

The St. John’s era may be over in Grymes Hill, but the legacy of upward mobility and educational advancement lives on through the newly expanded Wagner College.