Manhattan College

This article is about the college in the Bronx, New York. For the college in Manhattan, Kansas, see Manhattan Christian College.

Coordinates: 40°53′22″N 73°54′7″W / 40.88944°N 73.90194°W / 40.88944; -73.90194

Manhattan College
Motto Signum Fidei (Latin)
Motto in English
Sign of the Faith
Type Private Liberal Arts College
Established 1853
Affiliation Roman Catholic (Lasallian)
Endowment $71.8 million (2014)[1]
President Brennan O'Donnell
Provost William Clyde
Undergraduates 3,195[2]
Postgraduates 480 [2]
Location The Bronx, New York, United States
Campus Urban, 22 acres (8.9 ha)
Colors kelly green and white[3]
         
Athletics NCAA Division IMAAC
Nickname Jaspers / Lady Jaspers
Affiliations ACCU
NAICU
Annapolis Group
CLAC
Oberlin Group
Website www.manhattan.edu

Manhattan College is a private, independent, Roman Catholic, liberal arts college located in the Bronx, New York City, United States. After originally being established in 1853 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools (De La Salle Christian Brothers) as an academy for day students, Manhattan College was officially incorporated as an institution of higher education through a charter granted by the New York State Board of Regents. In 1922, the College moved from Manhattan to the Riverdale section of the Bronx, roughly 10 miles (16 km) north of Midtown. Manhattan College offers undergraduate programs in the arts, business, education, health, engineering, and science. Graduate programs are offered for education, business, and engineering. U.S. News & World Report lists Manhattan as one of the top 20 colleges in the Regional Universities North category.[4] In addition, Manhattan consistently ranks in the top twenty in surveys that evaluate return on investment. In the 2014–2015 Payscale.com College Return on Investment survey, Manhattan placed 15th nationally.[5]

History

The Quad in 1923

Manhattan College was founded as the Academy of the Holy Infancy in 1853 by five French De La Salle Christian Brothers in a small building on Canal Street. When the need to expand forced them from Lower Manhattan, the college moved to 131st Street and Broadway, in the Manhattanville section of Harlem. The school's name was changed to Manhattan College in 1863, and moved to its present location in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in 1922 as it outgrew its facilities in Manhattanville. This is often the cause of some confusion as the college is located outside of Manhattan but still within the city limits of New York City.

Originally exclusive to men, Manhattan College established a cooperative program with the College of Mount Saint Vincent after the pair became coeducational in 1973 and 1974, respectively. This partnership lasted until 2008. Since then, Manhattan College and the College of Mount Saint Vincent have been completely separate.

Manhattan Prep

For 118 years, a boys' secondary school, Manhattan College High School, known to students, parents, and rivals as Manhattan Prep was located on campus. Founded in 1854, the school educated its young men in a Catholic college preparatory curriculum geared toward eventual university matriculation. It was, indeed, a "prep" school in the classic sense: coats and ties were mandatory for class attendance; strict standards of behavior were enforced. The curriculum included 3 years of Latin (with an optional 4th year); foreign language study, including Greek, French, and Spanish; 4 years each of theology, mathematics, English rhetoric and literary forms, history and social studies.

Throughout its existence, Manhattan Prep was a partner of its host institution with a significant percentage of its graduates continuing on to study at Manhattan College. The High School was located in De La Salle Hall. Students shared the college chapel, cafeteria, auditorium, and athletic facilities, and its sports teams bore the nickname, "the Jaspers" just as the Manhattan College teams. The "Prep" supported varsity teams in swimming, tennis, crew, canoe and kayak, cross country and indoor/outdoor track, and of course, basketball and baseball as members of the Catholic High School Athletic Association. There were also junior varsity and intramural sports. The school newspaper, published monthly, was called The Prepster.

After admitting a small class of 1972, Manhattan Prep closed its doors in 1971 due to rising costs and a decline in Lasallian Brothers' vocations. The members of the class of 1972 either accelerated to graduate in 3 years with the class of 1971 or left for other area Catholic high schools. Despite the closure of the high school, the Brothers continue to maintain a presence on the college campus as members of the faculty and support staff.

Campus

The Quad
O'Malley Library

Manhattan College occupies a relatively compact campus. The college is divided into a north and south campus, in the residential Riverdale section of the Bronx. The North campus overlooks Van Cortlandt Park, and has as its focal point "the Quad", which sits at the center of the campus's four main buildings. Memorial Hall is the main entry onto campus and houses the office of the president as well as most of the other administrative offices on campus. Miguel Hall and De La Salle Hall are the main academic halls that border each side of the Quad. Miguel hosts the arts department and classes, while De La Salle is primarily used by the business school. The fourth side of the Quad is bordered by the chapel building, which houses Smith Auditorium (used to host receptions, speakers, and performances) on the first floor and the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers on the second floor, which features a painting of De La Salle and Brothers behind the altar, a large performing area where musical events and concerts take place on the altar, a grand piano, and a pipe organ in the balcony.

Thomas Hall, along with the new Kelly Commons is the college's current student life building. It houses the offices of the Dean of Students, the student government, the radio station, the newspaper, the TV station, the musical ensembles, and others. The college's three dining halls, Locke's Loft, Dante's Den and Cafe 1853 are also located in Thomas Hall.

The O'Malley Library is a new, six-story structure that was joined with the previous library, the Cardinal Hayes Pavilion. Built on a hill, the new library was built directly next to and above the old one, essentially combining the two and creating more floors, while enhancing technology and adding group study spaces. The Office of Admissions is on the sixth floor of O'Malley.

Hayden Hall is on the east side of campus and houses the sciences as well as the department of fine arts.

On the South campus, across 240th street, is the Leo Engineering Building and the Research and Learning Center (RLC). The two are home to all of the engineering departments: electrical, computer, civil, chemical, mechanical, and environmental, along with the math and computer science departments and all communication classrooms, computer labs, and broadcasting studios. Laboratories and classes for these disciplines take place in both buildings. Both biology and chemistry laboratories are also located in Leo. This building once contained a working nuclear reactor, which was decommissioned and stripped of its nuclear fuel and power generating capabilities in 1999.

Horan Hall
Kelly Student Commons

There are currently four on-campus residence halls at Manhattan College. Jasper Hall and Chrysostom Hall, named for John Chrysostom, are both traditional-style dorms, while Horan Hall and Lee Hall offer suite-style living. Overlook Manor is an off-campus residence hall that offers apartment style living.

In 2012, the college began to construct a new student commons named after alumnus Raymond Kelly. The new student commons, completed in Fall 2014, is the headquarters for student life; hosting numerous clubs, a state of the art wellness and fitness center, cafeterias, and a large ballroom.

Draddy Gymnasium is the home of the basketball and volleyball teams, and also features the largest indoor track in New York City. Gaelic Park, on 240th Street, has recently been renovated with an artificial turf and is where soccer, lacrosse, and softball teams play. The college also utilizes adjacent Van Cortlandt Park for baseball, outdoor track and field, golf, and cross country as well as intramural activities. Alumni Hall is the home of the college's workout facilities as well as the athletic administration.

The Broadway Garage is a five floor parking garage, approved in 2006[6] and completed soon afterward, located on Broadway. The garage offers parking to students and faculty, as well as visitors. The garage is also connected to Hayden hall via a pedestrian bridge that connects to one of Hayden's top floors, allowing pedestrians to bypass crossing Manhattan College Parkway.

Academics

Manhattan College offers degrees in five undergraduate schools: Arts, Business, Education and Health, Engineering and Science. The School for Arts is the largest school overall at the college, however the School of Engineering is the college's most well-known program. Manhattan currently hosts over 60 programs.

Students are required to take college-wide general education requirements (such as math, college writing, and religion) as well as core requirements in their respective school. For example, the School of Arts maintains a core curriculum called The Roots of Modern Learning which includes courses such as "Classical Origins of Western Culture."

Classes operate on a semester schedule. The first semester begins in late August and runs to December. The second semester begins in mid-January and runs to mid-May. Winter intersession and summer courses are also offered, but not required.

The college offers a number of Pre-Professional Programs such as Pre-Dental, Pre-Law, Pre-Medical, Pre-Physical Therapy, and Pre-veterinary; and graduate programs in education, engineering and business. The graduate School of Engineering allows students studying engineering as an undergraduate the opportunity to continue on to get their master's degree without having to switch colleges, as is the case at colleges with a 3 + 2 Engineering program. The B.S. Business / Masters of Business Administration Program offers students an option to complete a five-year multiple award program. The successful completion of the five-year program leads to two awards: a B.S. in Business (in one of six majors) and an MBA.

Manhattan College contains chapters of various honor societies as Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi. A newly established chapter of Lambda Pi Eta communication honorary has also been added. Manhattan participates in the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges and in the New York Cluster of seven colleges and universities supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts for undergraduate science education.

Athletics

Manhattan versus rival Fordham University during the annual Battle of the Bronx
Main article: Manhattan Jaspers

Manhattan College fields 19 Division–I athletic teams for men and women, including basketball, soccer, baseball and softball, lacrosse, volleyball and rowing. The school's men's sports teams are called the Jaspers; women are known as Manhattan Jaspers. Historically track and field has been the school's strongest sport.[7] Manhattan is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).

In the modern era, basketball is the most popular sport at the school. The current coach is Steve Masiello who has been with Manhattan since 2011 as head coach. During the 2013–2014 season, the Jaspers beat Iona in the MAAC Conference Final and went on to play the University of Louisville in the first round of the NCAA tournament in a controversial game where Masiello was set up to face his old mentor Rick Pitino. During the 2014-15 season, the Jaspers again defeated Iona in the MAAC Conference Final to earn their second straight trip to the NCAA tournament, where they lost to Hampton University in the play-in game, or first round.

The Manhattan College Track and Field program is the richest athletic tradition in the school, amassing a total of 31 out of a possible 32 MAAC Indoor/Outdoor Track titles. In 1973, Manhattan College won the Indoor NCAA Championship along with setting a new world record in the distance medley relay. Manhattan was also home to former American Record holder in the 5,000m Matthew Centrowitz Sr. The Program was run by legendary coach/runner Fred Dwyer who ran an astounding 4:00.3 mile while at his time at Manhattan. Manhattan still remains a power house on the east coast as one of the top programs around, under the direction of Dan Mecca.

The college annually played the New York Giants in the late 1880s and into the 1890s at the Polo Grounds and Manhattan is credited by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the practice of the "seventh inning stretch" spreading from there into major league baseball.[8] It is written in the Baseball Hall of Fame that "During one particularly warm and humid day when Manhattan College was playing a semi-pro baseball team called the Metropolitans, Brother Jasper noticed the Manhattan students were becoming restless and edgy as Manhattan came to bat in the seventh inning of a close game. To relieve the tension, Brother Jasper called time-out and told the students to stand up and stretch for a few minutes until the game resumed."

Luis Castro, a Manhattan College alumnus, was the first Latin American-born player to play in Major League Baseball in the United States, and the first Latin American since Cuban player Esteban Bellán in 1873 to play professional baseball.

Manhattan College had a football program from 1924 until 1942. The college team posted an all-time record of 194 wins, 198 losses and 22 ties.[9] The final coach for the school's football team was Herbert M. Kopf. After the 1942 season, the school suspended intercollegiate football competition for World War II and then did not reactivate the program after completion of the war. The team was invited to the first ever Miami Palm Festival Game, predecessor to the Orange Bowl, played on January 2, 1933, University of Miami defeated Manhattan College, 7–0. The team was revived in the 1965 in the form of a club team, and existed until 1987.

Manhattan College's rowing program holds much history, as well. The school is one of the original 8 founding members of the Aberdeen Dad Vail Regatta, the largest Collegiate Regatta in the United States. The race attracts over one hundred Colleges and Universities from the U.S. and Canada and thousands of Student-Athletes on the second Saturday of May. The team's coach, Allen Walz, along with the school's football coach at the time, Herbert M. Kopf, served as stewards to the regatta. In 1936 and 1938, Manhattan was one of two teams competing in the regatta, the other being Rutgers, on the Harlem River, where the team trains today. Both the men's and women's teams still compete in the Dad Vail Regatta today, as well as in the MAAC Championships, N.Y. State Championships, Knecht Cup and the C.R.A.S.H. B's World Indoor Rowing Championships.

Manhattan's men's lacrosse program became Division I in 1997. They have qualified for the MAAC tournament 7 times (2000, 2002, 2004, 2005 and 2008–2010). In 2002 the Jaspers went undefeated in the MAAC (9–0), and won the MAAC Championship. They finished with an 11–6 record.[10] The Jaspers earned a bid to the NCAA Playoffs in 2002, playing Georgetown. They fell to Georgetown 12–7 in the first round of the NCAAs.[11] They have produced many ALL-MAAC players throughout the 15 years of the program.

Performing arts

Pipe Band on Fifth Avenue

Manhattan College Pipes & Drums

Manhattan College Pipes & Drums was established in 1981 by Brother Kenneth Fitzgerald, FSC with the musical assistance of Captain Robert Hogan, of the New York City Police Department Emerald Society Pipes & Drums. The band's members are students, faculty, and alumni of the college.[12]

The band marches in many local parades including the famed New York City Saint Patricks Day Parade.

Pep band

Also known as the JasperBand, the Manhattan College Pep Band provides musical inspiration to get the Jasper crowds going at Men's and Women's basketball games. The Pep Band travels with teams to important away games to provide support away from home as well. In addition to performances at sporting events, the band also performs in concerts.[13]

Transportation

The college is located between two major New York City arteries: the Henry Hudson Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway. The Van Cortlandt Park – 242nd Street subway station (1 train) provides access to the rest of the city via transfers to other subway services. The nearby Riverdale Metro-North Railroad station provides transportation to and from the northern suburbs and connection to Amtrak service.

Alumni

Manhattan has approximately 50,000 living alumni worldwide. Manhattan alumni are distinguishing themselves in the fields of academics, arts, engineering, literature, business, entertainment, government, and law.

References

  1. As of June 30, 2014. "U.S. and Canadian Institutions Listed by Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 Endowment Market Value and Change in Endowment Market Value from FY 2013 to FY 2014" (PDF). National Association of College and University Business Officers and Commonfund Institute. 2015.
  2. 1 2 Facts & Figures
  3. Manhattan College Athletic Colors (PDF). Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  4. "Manhattan College | Best College | US News". Colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  5. "Full List of Schools - PayScale College Salary Report 2013-14". Payscale.com. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  6. "Manhattan College gets market/parking garage - CityLand CityLand". Citylandnyc.org. 2006-07-15. Retrieved 2016-04-16.
  7. 2009-10 Men's & Women's Cross Country/Track & Field Media Guide (PDF). New York: Manhattan College. 2010. p. 22.
  8. "What Is a Jasper?". Manhattan College. Retrieved 2007-12-16.
  9. Manhattan College all-time football records by opponent
  10. "Manhattan Lacrosse 2002 Roster, Schedule, and Stats". Lax.com. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
  11. NCAA Division I lacrosse results, schedule – College Sports – ESPN
  12. , Manhattan College (www.manhattan.edu)
  13. "", Manhattan College Performing Arts Webpage
  14. Iron Mountain-Management Team: Bob Brennan, accessed March 20, 2011.
  15. Vincent Draddy, accessed March 20, 2011.
  16. Reference for Business: Thomas D. O'Mally
  17. "Dan Mandarin". WPIX. Retrieved 2012-08-31.
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