Lasell University
Former names
Auburndale Female Seminary (1851–1852)
Lasell Female Seminary (1852–1874)
Lasell Seminary for Young Women (1874–1932)
Lasell Junior College (1932–1989)
Lasell College (1989–2019)
Lasell University (2019–present)
MottoRepulsae Nescia[1]
Motto in English
Ignorant of Defeat
TypePrivate university
Established1851 (1851)
Endowment$55.6 million (2022)
PresidentEric Turner
Students1,628 (2022)
Undergraduates1,236
Postgraduates392
Location
Newton
,
Massachusetts
,
United States

42°20′29″N 71°14′36″W / 42.3413°N 71.2434°W / 42.3413; -71.2434
CampusSuburban 54 acres (218,530.2 m2)
Colors   Blue & white
NicknameLasers
Sporting affiliations
ECAC, NCAA (NAC, GNAC)
MascotBoomer the Torchbearer
Websitewww.lasell.edu

Lasell University (LU) is a private university in Newton, Massachusetts. Lasell offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in the liberal arts, sciences, and professional fields of study.

History

East Hall

Lasell was founded in 1851 as the Auburndale Female Seminary by Williams College Professor of Chemistry, Edward Lasell, after he took a sabbatical from his job in Williamstown to teach at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley,[2] where the experience inspired him to invest more personally in women's education. He died of typhoid fever during the first semester, but his school proved highly successful as a first-rate educational institution and was soon renamed Lasell Female Seminary in his memory.[3]

Its name later changed to Lasell Seminary for Young Women, and in 1874, governance was given to a board of trustees and Principal Charles C. Bragdon.[4] Bragdon further expanded the faculty to make Lasell renowned as a more academically rigorous institution, a prestigious school with a highly scientific approach to domestic work, art, and music.[2] As an innovative institution, known for a radical approach to women's education at the time, Lasell also administered the Harvard exams and offered law courses for women.[2][5][6]

Lasell also offered two years of standard collegiate instruction as early as 1852 and is cited as having been the "first successful and persistent" junior college in the United States.[7] In 1932, the college changed its name to Lasell Junior College, and the school officially began offering associate degrees in 1943.[8] In 1989, Lasell adopted a charter to become a four-year institution (it no longer offers any two-year undergraduate degrees), and began admitting male students in 1997.[9] Lasell also began offering master's degrees in 2002.

Lasell faced controversy in 2000 when seven former students sued and claimed that the nursing program, which had been discontinued in 1999, had been a "sham."[10] The following year, the college built Lasell Village, an elderly education facility in which residents paid to live and attend classes. Although the college argued that the property was in line with its non-profit mission and exempt from property taxes, the city successfully sued the college for not paying property taxes for the property.[11][12]

In September 2010, a settlement was also filed in Suffolk Superior Court stipulating that Lasell would have to pay $191,314 to over 1,000 students over a conflict of interest in their Financial Aid Department. The investigation was done by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley.[13]

The college explored merging with Mount Ida College, another liberal arts institution located in Newton, in February 2018. The reasons given for the proposed merger were to help keep tuition cost as low as possible and maintaining academic quality.[14]

In 2019, the institution's application to become a university was approved by the state board of education and it changed its name to Lasell University.[15]

The university's financial challenges came to light in 2023 when several academic programs - Global Studies, Sociology, English, History, and Fitness Management - were eliminated and 4 faculty and 12 staff members were let go. Lasell had a $12 million budget deficit in 2022-2023.[16] Undergraduate enrollment was down following COVID-19 pandemic.[17] In academic year 2023-24, the university reduced tuition and fees to $26,000.[18]

Academics

Lasell University campus

Lasell has been accredited by the Commission on Institution of Higher Education (CIHE) of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) since 1932 or its successor[19] and offers bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts and professional disciplines.[20] Through its "Connected Learning" program, students work on off-site projects and assignments.[21] Lasell also offers graduate degrees in education, communication, sport management, athletic training, criminal justice, human resources, marketing, management (MS and MBA), and rehabilitation science.[22]

In 2018, U.S. News & World Report listed Lasell College among only five other colleges with having 100 percent of its graduating seniors participate in an internship experience.[23]

Lasell University spring fashion show.

Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program

In 2022, Lasell acquired the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program[24] from Pine Manor College, where it had been hosted since 2006.[25] Solstice is four-semester Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing. In the low-residency format, students complete five 10-day, on-campus residencies and four semesters in which they work with their faculty mentors remotely from their homes. Residencies occur in January and July and start the spring and fall semesters, respectively. Solstice students may concentrate in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, comics & graphic narratives, or writing for children and young adults.[26]

Campus

The Lasell campus covers roughly 54 acres (22 ha) in the Newton, Massachusetts, village of Auburndale, adjacent to the Lasell Neighborhood Historic District. There are approximately 58 buildings, 27 of which are student dormitories.[27]

The campus is located about half a mile from the Auburndale Commuter Rail station on the Framingham/Worcester Line, and about one mile away from the Riverside MBTA Station on the Green Line's D train, which takes commuters into the downtown Boston area. A shuttle runs regularly between the campus and Riverside Station.[28]

Student life

In 2018, of the 1,600 students who attend Lasell, 73% lived on campus, 40% came from out-of-state (undergraduate students), and 22% were students of color.[29] Roughly 36% of students at Lasell were male.[30]

Athletics

Lasell University is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III athletics. The Lasell Lasers compete as members of Eastern College Athletic Conference, the North Atlantic Conference, and the Great Northeast Athletic Conferences[31] in baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, cross-country, field hockey, softball, lacrosse, and track and field as inter varsity sports.[32] In 2009, a mascot was introduced: Boomer the Torchbearer, named for the industrialists who sponsored Lasell's founding.[33] Additionally, the school has a popular women's and men's rugby club, and has intramural sports such as flag football in the fall, as well as basketball in the winter.

Organizations

The student newspaper is called the 1851 Chronicle in reference to Lasell's founding year, and the student yearbook is called the Lamp. Polished Magazine is made by Lasell students/[34] A student-run online college radio station began operation in the fall of 2004;[35] in 2016, the radio station began broadcasting on FM as WLAS-LP (102.9).[36]

Notable people

Alumni

Faculty

References

  1. ↑ Gillooly, John (May 14, 2019). "You Have Not Backed Down Yet". lasell.edu. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Christian work: illustrated family newspaper, Volume 63. 1897. p. 206.
  3. ↑ Crane, Ellery Bicknell (1907). Historic homes and institutions and genealogical and personal memoirs of Worcester County, Massachusetts with a history of Worcester Society of Antiquity, Volume 3. Lewis Pub. p. 44.
  4. ↑ The American kitchen magazine, Volumes 7–8. The Home Science Publishing Co. 1897. p. 221.
  5. ↑ Early days in Auburn Dale: a village chronicle of two centuries, 1665–1870. Auburndale woman's club. 1917. pp. 79–85.
  6. ↑ Journal of pedagogy, Volume 17. Albert Leonard, William Henry Metzler, Jacob Richard Street. 1904. p. 252.
  7. ↑ The rise and demise of the Hershey Junior College: an historical-descriptive study of the Hershey Junior College, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 1938–1965. Stiegel Print. 1973. p. 29.
  8. ↑ "1943 Chap. 0552. An Act Authorizing Lasell Junior College To Grant The Degrees Of Associate In Arts And Associate In Science". state.ma.us. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  9. ↑ "Lasell College: Rich Past, Bright Future". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  10. ↑ Lyons, Sean Patrick (December 31, 2000). "Former Nursing Students Sue Lasell College Program Was A Sham, Women Allege". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on December 29, 2014.
  11. ↑ "Lasell tax-case ruling is one for the textbooks". Boston Globe. December 28, 2003.
  12. ↑ "Lasell Village, Inc. vs. Board of Assessors, Newton" (PDF). 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 16, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Mass.gov". Mass.gov. Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  14. ↑ Krantz, Laura (2018-02-25). "In effort to save money, two small colleges move toward merger". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2018-03-23.
  15. ↑ "Welcome to Lasell University". Lasell University. 2019. Retrieved August 13, 2019.
  16. ↑ Wolfe, Ellie; Burns, Hilary (July 20, 2023). "Facing financial woes, Lasell University plans to cut humanities majors and lay off faculty". The Boston Globe. Retrieved July 24, 2023.
  17. ↑ "Our Students". www.lasell.edu. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  18. ↑ "Mass. school cutting tuition, room and board by 33%". WCVB. 2022-09-21. Retrieved 2023-11-29.
  19. ↑ NEASC: Lasell College
  20. ↑ "Undergraduate Majors and Minors". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  21. ↑ "Our Approach: Connected Learning". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  22. ↑ "Graduate & Professional Studies". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  23. ↑ Kowarski, Ilana (January 16, 2018). "10 Colleges Where Students Usually Get Internships". U.S. News & World Report. Archived from the original on 2018-01-20.
  24. ↑ SOLSTICE MFA IN CREATIVE WRITING home page, Lasell University website. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  25. ↑ Petler, Tamar. "News: The Solstice MFA Creative Writing Program Transitions to Lasell University," Pine Manor College website (Mar. 16, 2022).
  26. ↑ Discover Lasell: Solstice MFA In Creative Writing," Lasell University website (March 15, 2022).
  27. ↑ "Lasell at a Glance". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  28. ↑ "Lasell College: Programs and Services". Archived from the original on 2010-10-09. Retrieved 2011-04-01.
  29. ↑ "Lasell at a Glance". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  30. ↑ "U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges: Lasell College". Retrieved 6 February 2018.
  31. ↑ "Lasell". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  32. ↑ "Varsity Sports". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  33. ↑ "Boomer". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  34. ↑ "Polished Magazine". polishedfashion.com. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  35. ↑ "Lasell College Radio – Free College Radio Station Directions". lasell.edu. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  36. ↑ Fitzgerald, Ryan; Ritchie, Taylor (September 23, 2016). "WLAS broadcasts FM, offers internship program". The 1851 Chronicle. Retrieved June 11, 2018.

Further reading

  • Donald J. Winslow (1987). Lasell: a history of the first junior college for women. Lasell Junior College. ISBN 0-9619720-0-9.
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