Simmons College

This article is about the College in Massachusetts. For other schools of the same name, see List of colleges named Simmons.
Simmons College
Established 1899
Type Private women's Undergraduate, Co-educational Graduate
President Helen Drinan
Academic staff
 251 full-time/327 part-time
Undergraduates 2,060 women
Postgraduates 2,873 men and women
Location Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Campus Urban
Nickname Sharks
Affiliations Colleges of the Fenway
Website www.simmons.edu

Simmons College, established in 1899, is a private women's undergraduate college and private co-educational graduate school in Boston, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

History

Simmons was founded in 1899 with a bequest by John Simmons, a wealthy clothing manufacturer in Boston. Simmons founded the college based on the belief that women ought to live independently by offering a Liberal Arts education for undergraduate women to integrate into professional work experience.[1] Simmons is a member of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium, which also includes Emmanuel College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Wheelock College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Simmons absorbed Garland Junior College in 1976.[2]

Simmons graduated its first African American student in 1914. Furthermore, Simmons was one of the only private colleges not to impose admission quotas on Jewish students for the first half of the 1900s.[1]

The undergraduate program is exclusive to women, with approximately 1800 students enrolled in the 2012-2013 academic year. The graduate schools (Library and Information Science, Social Work, Health Sciences, Business Management, and an Arts and Sciences program that provides degrees in Education, Communications Management, Gender and Cultural Studies, Public Policy and Liberal Arts) are coed, and have about 3,000 students. The school's MBA program is the first in the world designed specifically for women.

In November 2014, the institution released an explicit policy on the acceptance of transgender students, claiming a strong tradition of empowering women and challenging traditional gender roles and a "rich history of inclusion." Its undergraduate program accepts applicants who are assigned female at birth as well as those who self-identify as women, making Simmons the third women's college in the United States to accept transgender women.[3] Government documentation of gender is not required. Graduate programs are co-educational, so gender identity is not of concern.[4]

Campus

Simmons College currently consists of two separate campuses located near the Back Bay Fens in Boston:

Academic Campus

The Academic Campus is located at 300 The Fenway in the Longwood Medical Area. It is immediately adjacent to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Boston Latin School. This campus currently consists of five buildings:

Simmons College Main College Building

Residential Campus

The Residence Campus is located one block from the main campus. It is near the Landmark Center and the Fenway and Longwood MBTA stations. The residence campus consists of 13 buildings centered on a grassy quad:

Most of the buildings on the residence campus serve as dormitories, but the campus also includes a large dining hall, a health center, a large fitness center, a public safety office, an auditorium, and several other facilities.

The residence campus is separated from the main campus by Emmanuel College and Merck Research Laboratories Boston.

Academics

The principal academic units of Simmons College are:

Athletics

Simmons College sponsors athletics teams in a variety of sports including basketball, crew, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, tennis and volleyball. The mascots are the Sharks and the colors are blue and yellow. They compete as members of the NCAA Division III in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC), the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC).

Environmental Sustainability

Simmons has made several significant sustainability efforts. Former President Susan Scrimshaw signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) as a formal commitment to eliminate campus greenhouse gas emissions over time. Furthermore, the School of Management is addressing sustainability in its curriculum as well as in building and resource-management programs. [5]

Simmons' environmental efforts earned the school a "C" on the College Sustainability Report Card 2010, published in Fall 2009 by the Sustainable Endowments Institute.[6]

Notable alumnae

Simmons alumnae include

Notable faculty

Simmons faculty include Gregory Maguire, the author of the popular novels Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Son of a Witch and many others. Maguire was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. Also, Nancy Bond, winner of a Newbery Honor, taught at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979 to 2001.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "History: About Simmons College". Simmons College.
  2. ↑ Massachusetts Colleges that have Closed, Merged, or Changed Names, Brown, Ray C., retrieved 2015-01-08
  3. ↑ "Simmons College Opens Its Doors to Trans Students". The Advocate.
  4. ↑ http://simmons.edu/admission-and-financial-aid/undergraduate-admission/how-to-apply/admission-requirements-and-deadlines/admission-policy-for-transgender-students-faq
  5. ↑ "Environmental Commitments". Simmons College. Retrieved 2010-06-07.
  6. ↑ "Simmons College - Green Report Card 2010". Greenreportcard.org. 2008-06-30. Retrieved 2014-08-26.
  7. ↑ "Chen, Eagan, and Knowles elected to ALA Executive Board". ALA. 2008-02-05. Retrieved 2014-08-26.
  8. ↑ Fox, Margalit. "Barbara Margolis, Prisoners’ Advocate, Dies at 79", The New York Times, July 12, 2009. Accessed July 21, 2009.

External links

Coordinates: 42°20′23″N 71°06′01″W / 42.339800°N 71.100200°W