Within a few months of each other, Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) and Texas A&M University-Kingsville were among the first secular U.S. universities to create housing specifically for Catholic students.
With the cooperation of the Diocese of Orlando, FIT broke ground for the Marty Star of the Sea Catholic Student Residence in December.
In October, a Catholic residence hall was dedicated at Texas A&M’s Thomas Aquinas Newman Center. Mati Zerrusen of the Newman Student Housing Fund at FIT said, “Fifty percent of student on college campuses lose their faith by the time they graduate,” and called the new facilities “pioneers” for what could become “authentic Catholic campuses inside secular ones” nationwide.
(Source: America, Jan. 21-28).