{"id":238219,"date":"2026-05-20T17:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238219\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:16:08","slug":"remembering-the-staten-island-campus-the-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/238219\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Staten Island Campus \u2013 The Torch"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photo Courtesy \/ YouTube St. John\u2019s Education Specialties<\/a><\/p>\n

For more than 50 years, the St. John\u2019s campus in the Grymes Hill section of Staten Island offered an affordable and conveniently located education to local students.<\/p>\n

On May 12, the University sold<\/a> 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\u2019s era at a campus that, for many alumni, helped shape their careers, lives and even families.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the two institutions have hailed the deal as a \u201csuccessful\u201d and \u201cstrategic\u201d decision according to recent press releases from both St. John\u2019s University, and Wagner\u2019s president, Dr. Jeffrey A Doggett, others were saddened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Professor Stephen G. Adubato now works as an assistant editor for Compact Magazine. But he taught philosophy courses for St. John\u2019s at the Staten Island campus when University President Rev. Brian Shanley announced the University would permanently close in the spring of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adubato wrote an opinion guest essay for The New York Times<\/a> in opposition of the closure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the opinion pages of New York City\u2019s largest newspaper, Adubato wrote of the importance the location held for many of the school\u2019s commuter students in Staten Island and Brooklyn.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter hearing the news of the campus\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s alumna Wendy Cirillo felt the same way.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cirillo, class of \u201893, commuted to the now-defunct campus from her home in Staten Island. She said she enjoyed her time at the University\u2019s local campus because of the convenience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the other schools in the city, you had to take a bus, you had to take a train, you had to take a boat,\u201d she told The Torch during an interview. \u201cIt was saddening that option wasn\u2019t there anymore for Staten Island.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s, where she felt at home. \u201cIt was a tight-knit community, everybody knew each other,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cirillo later married another graduate of the Staten Island campus, Rich Cirillo. The two hadn\u2019t met on campus but were able to bond over their shared experience at the University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe St. John\u2019s 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,\u201d Cirillo said.<\/p>\n

But Cirillo also said that she was pleased to see the campus stay under the stewardship of a college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that it is going to stay as a learning institution makes me feel good,\u201d she told The Torch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the administration, identifying a buyer that would continue the educational legacy that had been established by St. John\u2019s and the campus\u2019s original owner, Notre Dame College, was essential.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Savills, an international real estate services provider, represented St. John\u2019s during the deal. According to officials from Savills, they were brought in to help St. John\u2019s \u201cidentify a buyer that shares its educational values and long-term vision for the campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Wagner College prepares to start classes in the fall, Cirillo remembered what it meant to be a St. John\u2019s student at Grymes Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were looking for something new and exciting, that wasn\u2019t the place,\u201d said Cirillo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a place where students could get an affordable education close to home,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted an education. We wanted good jobs.\u201d Cirillo concluded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many of them ended up getting those good jobs. Cirillo\u2019s husband Rich got a job straight out of college at The Staten Island Advance, a local newspaper in the area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u2019s husband Rich whose internship through the Staten Island campus laid the foundation for a fruitful career in communications.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The St. John\u2019s era may be over in Grymes Hill, but the legacy of upward mobility and educational advancement lives on through the newly expanded Wagner College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo Courtesy \/ YouTube St. John\u2019s Education Specialties For more than 50 years, the St. John\u2019s campus in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-238219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}