Benedictine College is a four-year residential, Benedictine Catholic, coeducational college providing liberal arts education for students of all backgrounds and faiths. It is located on a beautiful 120-acre campus on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River in Atchison, Kansas. Benedictine College was officially opened in 1859, just two years after the foundation of St. Benedict's Abbey. The college was incorporated under the laws of Kansas and empowered to confer degrees and academic honors in the year 1868. After 1915, St. Benedict's gradually abandoned the traditional academy, greatly enlarged the curriculum, and became an accredited liberal arts college, in 1927. Today, Benedictine is known as America's Discovery College. Benedictine College offers four undergraduate degrees with more than 33 majors and two graduate degree programs. The academic programs also include the discovery college program, which offers students exceptional opportunities for research and personal growth. Benedictine College provides a rare opportunity for all students to collaborate with their professors on significant research projects. The college library that lies in between the administration building and St. Benedict’s Abbey is a three-storied modern facility having extensive holdings of books and periodicals along with a temporary depository for U.S. Government Documents. It is one of the largest private undergraduate college libraries in the country. Benedictine College is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is sponsored by the monks of St Benedict's Abbey and the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica Monastery.