It started off as a great love story. There were flirtations, dates, even marriages. Time, however, changed things. They went down different paths but they managed to stay friends.

Today, the University of St. Thomas and St. Catherine University may not have the closely linked relationship they used to, but a connection still exists between the two institutions.

The relationship between St. Thomas and St. Kate’s started with the founders. St. Thomas’ founder, Archbishop John Ireland, and St. Kate’s founder, Mother Seraphine Ireland, were siblings. Sister Sharon Howell, Assistant Dean of Students, said Archbishop Ireland supported his sister and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in the foundation of a school for women.

After St. Kate’s was created in 1905, the affiliation between the two institutions came about naturally, Howell said.

“It was primarily because we have people who have a common cause,” Howell said. “That is Catholic men and women, Catholic schools, wanting to develop leadership in men and women.”

Pat Sirek, assistant to the president at St. Thomas, attended St. Kate’s in the mid-70s when both two universities were still single-gender schools. She, like many other St. Kate’s students, took several classes at St. Thomas. She said the two schools encouraged a social connection between the student bodies.

“Social interaction among students at the two colleges was frequent,” Sirek said. “Both in terms of organized student events and informal, spontaneous get-togethers.”

St. Kate’s students took on the role of cheerleaders and homecoming queens for the all-male St. Thomas community, Sirek said. Though the women were targets of teasing by some students and singled out by a few professors, she said most of St. Thomas was welcoming.

“I still count a number of St. Thomas guys I met in college as my best friends,” Sirek said. “And I’ve been married to one of them for the past 37 years.”

Sirek graduated in 1977, the same year St. Thomas changed to a coeducational university. This step, Howell said, altered the connection between St. Thomas and St. Kate’s.

“It’s sort of like any other situation when someone feels like they need to go another way,” she said. “People can still choose to work together and continue to be friends.”

Though the relationship may have changed, St. Thomas and St. Kate’s are still connected.

“There still is that great affiliation between the two institutions, but they have grown and changed and evolved,” Howell said.

One strong connection that still exists is the School of Social Work, a shared program between the two universities. Social work student and St. Kate’s senior Caitlyn Wright said she has a strong connection with St. Thomas and its community members.

“I’ve had St. Thomas professors, took my first semester of classes at St. Thomas, and am fulfilling my current internship with a St. Thomas student,” Wright said.

Though travel between the schools can be inconvenient, Wright said the collaboration between the universities has created more resources for her, other students and faculty.

As a member of the ACTC, St. Thomas is affiliated with several other schools besides St. Kate’s. Howell, however, said the shared visions of these two schools creates a different connection.

“As the two Catholic institutions a mile apart from each other, having grown up with such strong roots in St. Paul, I would say there is a strong relationship there,” Howell said.

Howell also said that connection will not end anytime soon.

“I fully expect that there will continue being strong, solid, collegial power relationship between St. Thomas and St. Kate’s,” Howell said. “You still hear the great stories of the Katies and the Tommies getting married.”

Rebecca Mariscal can be reached at mari2162@stthomas.edu.