During this time (1852-1878), under the management of various lay people, the College was a public middle school, a girls' school and a Swiss Institute of Languages and Commerce, with mixed fortunes.
On establishing the Apostolic Administration of Ticino in 1885 (Diocese of Lugano since 1971), Pope Leo XIII entrusted the College, which in the meantime had returned under the management of a Ticino parish priest, Don Alessandro Verda, to the Apostolic Administrators (Bishops) of Lugano.
Two religious orders subsequently ran the college: the Salesians from 1894 to 1910 and the Assumptionists from 1910 to 1917.