Loras College is a four-year Catholic college located in Dubuque, Iowa, with a general attendance of approximately 1,700 students. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It is one of four four-year post-secondary institutions in the City of Dubuque, and is one of three Catholic colleges in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Loras College, a liberal arts college, was founded in 1839 by the Most Rev. Mathias Loras, first bishop of Dubuque, who established Saint Raphael's Seminary to educate young men for the priesthood with the expressed intention of also providing an opportunity for higher education to the citizens of the area. The college has functioned under several names: Saint Raphael's Seminary, Mount St. Bernard's College and Seminary, St. Joseph's College, Dubuque College, and Columbia College. The present name was adopted during the school's centennial in 1939. That same year, the national Catholic honor society, Delta Epsilon Sigma was founded at the college, by Father Fitzgerald.