A defunct Catholic women's college in Wisconsin that evolved from a 19th-century academy into a pioneering coeducational institution.
Dominican College of Racine was established in 1864 as St. Catherine's Female Academy by the Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic. It evolved through multiple iterations: a normal school for teacher training was added in 1888, the academy closed in 1924 when a high school was built, and it became St. Albertus Junior College in 1935. In 1946, it became Dominican College, added a fourth year, and began admitting lay students and conferring Bachelor of Science degrees. The college moved to a new 25-acre lakefront campus north of Racine in 1960 with 363 students. In 1968, management transferred from Dominican Sisters to an independent nondenominational board. The institution merged with Mount Saint Paul College in 1970 and was renamed College of Racine in 1972 before closing in 1974.
The college offered undergraduate degrees in Music and Education starting in 1946, with accreditation from the University of Wisconsin obtained in 1935 and North Central Association accreditation in 1962. In 1972, a Master of Science degree program in Education was introduced. The college joined the Union of Experimenting Colleges and Universities in 1973 and implemented the Racine Plan, a year-round academic program organized into six short terms.
The college fielded intercollegiate athletic teams beginning in the 1964–1965 season, initially known as the Shakespearean Players before becoming the Squires under coach Paul Pryor. By 1968, the athletic teams were renamed the Lakers. Sports offerings included basketball, golf, tennis, and softball. In 1973, Bill Cofield became athletic director and basketball head coach, making him the nation's first Black athletic director and head coach at a predominantly white institution. Bo Ryan began his collegiate coaching career in 1973 as an assistant coach under Cofield.
The college attracted distinguished faculty and alumni, including Bill Cofield, a pioneering African American coach; Paul Pryor, a National League Umpire; and Bo Ryan, who later became head coach of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Badgers men's basketball team. Alumni included businessman George N. Gillett Jr., linguist William D. Lutz, and Rose Thering, a Dominican nun known for activism against antisemitism.