History

After ten years of effort, Friar Cristóbal de Torres, Archbishop of Santa Fe in the New Kingdom of Granada, was granted a Royal Patent by the Court of King Philip IV on December 31st 1651. The patent was for the foundation of Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, the title granted by the Spanish Crown; this as a very great honour and an historic distinction for a college in one of the colonies. Rosario was inaugurated on December 18th 1653 in the Claustro (“Cloisters”) it occupies today.

Archbishop Torres, educated by the Order of Preachers, initially designated two Dominican friars as Rector and Vice Rector of the University, but reserved the right to appoint Scholar Prefects who would be required to study Jurisprudence, Medicine or Theology after their education in the Arts, that is, in Philosophy.

The Dominican friars, who considered the College as their own, having been acquired by way of donation, protested to the founder when, among the first Scholar Prefects, no Dominican religious were included. Archbishop Torres responded by dictating the university’s Charter which, in essence, governs the University to this day. He presented a petition that the Order surrender the College to the Scholar Prefects who, in the manner of the Archbishop's College of Salamanca, would govern the University by the election of its Rector and Counsellors.

Prior to his death in 1654, Archbishop Torres appointed Cristóbal de Araque y Ponce de León to carry ot his wishes, and for ten years they maintained the Arcbishop’s petition against the Dominicans in the Royal Court. In the end, King Philip IV upheld the Archbishop's last wish, ordered dispossession of the religious orders and the transfer of the University to the community of students and professors and students together with the entire property of the Foundation. This included the vast lands of Mesitas, near Bogotá, whose main town was named El Colegio after the University.

It was this initial conflict over the administration of the College that gave Rosario its identifying symbol of the black and white fleur-de-lis cross, with which Santo Domingo de Guzmán had distinguished the Order of Preachers created by him and which had been worn by his predecessors as members of the Military Order of Calatrava. The dispute also resulted in the adoption of the Salamancan collegiate model which was, in turn, a legacy of Colegio de San Clemente in Bologna.

According to its Charter, Rosario University, as its students call it, is a private, autonomous institution, entirely independent of any political or religious organization. Following the Salamancan model the Scholar Prefects, numbering fifteen, participate actively in the university government.

The foremost responsibility of these active students, who must be of great academic merit and, above all, imbued with the highest moral qualities and irreproachable conduct, is to elect the principal University authorities and perform certain tasks in the University, particularly as members of the Academic Councils of the faculties.

The supreme governing body of the University is known as the Council, which is composed of five members. In the system governing the Universidad del Rosario the functions of the Council are equivalent to those of a Board of Directors. Its members are  elected by the Rector and the Scholar Prefects for a four-year-term. The Rector is elected by the Councillors and the Scholar Prefects for the same term.

The founder, Friar Cristóbal de Torres, defined Rosario as "a Congregation of elders, chosen to educate distinguished young men, exemplary gentlemen of the republic, erudite men of letters, destined to occupy the positions they thus merit, being in all terms a model of the culture of divinity and of the exemplary conduct befitting their profession".
The Council in setting the Mission and Vision of the Institution has used this definition as a starting point, as well as for the outlines of its Institutional Educational Project (PIE for its initials in Spanish)