Manhattanville College

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Manhattanville College

Manhattanville College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college

Liberal arts college

Liberal arts colleges are primarily colleges with an emphasis upon undergraduate study in the liberal arts. The Encyclop?dia Britannica Concise defines "liberal arts" as a "college or university curriculum aimed at imparting general knowledge and developing general intellectual capacities, in contrast to a professional, vocational educati...
offering undergraduate and graduate degrees, located in Purchase

Purchase, New York

Purchase, New York is a hamlet of the town of Harrison, New York, in Westchester County, New York. Its ZIP code is 10577.Purchase is home to Purchase College, which is part of the State University of New York system, Manhattanville College, a private liberal arts college, and the headquarters of PepsiCo, Inc, MasterCard Worldwide and Atlas...
, New York

New York

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Encyclopedia

Manhattanville College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college

Liberal arts college

Purchase, New York

New York

The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
, USA. Founded in 1841 it was known in initially as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. Manhattanville's mission is to "educate students to become ethically and socially responsible leaders for the global community."

Approximately 1700 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate students attend Manhattanville. Renowned for its commitment to diversity, Manhattanville students come from 70 countries and 43 states. In accordance with the college's Portfolio System, which is the nation's oldest such system, undergraduate candidates must present a freshman year assessment essay; a study plan outlining all course work counted toward the degree; a program evaluation essay, which gives a rationale for the student's choice of courses, as well as a personal evaluation of the course; and specific examples of work in writing and research.

Current president Richard Berman has served for nearly 14 years. During his tenure as president, Manhattanville has undergone a renaissance that has gained the college much acclaim.

History

In 1841 in a three-story house on Houston Street on Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is one of the five borough of New York City, located primarily on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River.With a United States Census of 1,620,867 living in a land area of 22.96 square miles , Manhattan, coextensive with New York County, is the most population density county in the United States, w...
's Lower East Side, the Academy of the Sacred Heart, a Catholic boarding school for girls, was founded. The Academy relocated in 1847 to an area in the north western part of Manhattan Island on a hill overlooking the village of Manhattanville

Manhattanville

Manhattanville is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan bordered on the south by Morningside Heights, Manhattan on the west by the Hudson River, on the east by Harlem and on the north by Hamilton Heights, Manhattan....
. Destroyed by a fire in 1888, the Academy was rebuilt on the same foundation and continued to grow, both in curriculum and physical environment.

In March 1917, 76 years after its founding as an academy, Manhattanville was chartered as a college by the New York State Board of Regents, empowering it to grant both undergraduate and graduate degrees. In 1952, the college moved to Purchase

Purchase, New York

Whitelaw Reid

Whitelaw Reid was a United States politician and newspaper editor, as well as the author of a popular history of Ohio in the Civil War.Born on a farm near Xenia, Ohio, Reid attended Xenia Academy and went on to graduate from Miami University with honors in 1856....
. Long heralded as the most prestigious Catholic woman's college, after becoming co-educational and nondenominational Manhattanville began to experience difficult financial problems. Since the mid 1990's however, the college has been successfully raising its capital funds which has enabled it to build new facilities and increase its endowment. Today, Manhattanville's "Castle" looks out over the green of the quadrangle to the renovated residence halls, academic buildings and the housing complex for faculty and staff from around the globe.

Co-educational since 1969 and non-denominational in its governance since 1971, Manhattanville's original vision lives on in the tradition of service begun by the Society of the Sacred Heart

Society of the Sacred Heart

The Society of the Sacred Heart is a Roman Catholic Roman Catholic religious order established in France by St. Madeleine Sophie Barat in 1800. It has presence in 45 countries....
, extending from the students to the global community. During the Depression and World War II, President Grace Cowardin Dammann, RSCJ, instilled in Manhattanville's students a keen awareness of social problems by encouraging them to spend one day a week working with children at the Barat Settlement in the Bowery and at Casita Maria in East Harlem. Mother Dammann's widely published speech, "Principles vs. Prejudice," inspired other colleges to break down racial barriers.

Campus

Manhattanville is located on a wooded campus in Purchase, New York, on the former estate of Ben Holladay

Ben Holladay

Benjamin "Ben" Holladay was an United States transportation businessman known as the "Stagecoach King" until his routes were taken over by Wells Fargo in 1866....
. The college originally purchased a much larger tract of land, but when the school began having financial problems much of it was sold or leased to the Keio Academy and Mastercard

MasterCard

MasterCard Worldwide is a multinational corporation based in Purchase, New York, New York, United States. Throughout the world, its principal business is to process payments between the banks of merchants and the banks of purchasers that use its "MasterCard" brand Debit card and credit cards to make purchases....
in order to raise funds. The centerpiece of the campus is a quadrangle designed in part by Frederick Law Olmstead, who was hired by Reid to landscape his entire estate. The quad is flanked on its north end by Reid Hall, a massive granite crenellated

Crenellation

Crenellation is the name for the distinctive pattern that frames the tops of the walls of many medieval castles, often called battlements. Crenellation most commonly takes the form of multiple, regular, rectangular spaces cut out of the top of the wall to allow defenders spaces to shoot arrows from and other spaces to hide behind full c...
mansion, built in 1895 to designs by McKim, Mead & White and now fondly known simply as "the castle." Reid Hall which was a potential site for the United Nations, and its grounds were listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. On the north west end of the quad is the Manhattanville library, a 24 hour facility with a full time cafe. There is also a graveyard on campus which contains the remains of nearly 50 nuns, a relic of the days of when it was a Catholic school known as Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart. Additionally, the Lady Chapel and biology classroom in the Ohnell Environmental Park were designed by Maya Lin who designed the Vietnam War Memorial.

At the end of the 1964 World's Fair the Japan Pavilion was given as a gift from the Japanese government to the college. The original intent was to construct a new building to house a growing language program, including courses in Japanese which began in 1965. However, some of the stones were damaged during demolition and the building proved impossible to reconstruct in its original form. In addition to this the school was already experiencing funding problems and construction of a new building would have required large amounts of money that they did not have at the time. Presently stones from the Japan Pavilion's sculpture garden are now scattered around the campus including a number in front of the President's Cottage. The remaining volcanic stones from the walls designed by Masayuki Nagare

Masayuki Nagare

Masayuki Nagare is a modernist Japanese sculptor who has the nickname Samurai Artist. In 1923, he was born in Nagasaki, Nagasaki to Kojuro Nakagawa who established Ritsumeikan University....
are currently located at the back of campus near Anderson Hill Road.

Academics

Manhattanville, ranked as a "Top Tier" college by US News & World Report, is a liberal arts institution, offers both a four-year Bachelor of Arts degree to undergraduate students and M.A. and EdD. for graduate students. There are 36 academic programs, although students are free to design special majors or engage in dual majors. In 2008, the most popular majors were business, history, psychology and sociology.

In order to graduate, a student must complete 120 total courses, eight to twelve of which are typically part of a chosen major program although dance and theater majors and education majors have special guidelines they must follow. Other requirements for graduation include the completion of a "Portfolio Program" which requires four of five distribution specifications in a variety of academic fields enabling the students to achieve a well rounded liberal arts education, and the completion of a writing class or first-year seminar in writing. Many departments offer honors programs requiring students seeking that distinction to engage in "independent, sustained work," culminating in the production of a thesis. In addition to the courses offered on campus, Manhattanville offers a New York City study program whereby students live and study in New York, and Foreign Study Programs.

Manhattanville Library Rare Book and Manuscripts Room

The Rare Book and Manuscripts Room preserves both manuscripts and printed materials from the Manhattanville College Library. The book collection consists of approximately 2,400 titles that span the history of the book in the United States and Europe. Subject fields represented include history, religion, literature, biography, and philosophy. The collection also includes other formats such as periodicals, Jewish pamphlets, government documents, maps, and manuscripts. Particularly noteworthy are five incunabula, and several bound manuscript volumes, also from the like a hundred years ago. The latter include individual collections of psalms and prayers intended as an aid to private devotion, known as Books of Hours. The most notable of these is the Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis, Cum Calendario -- also known as the Manhattanville Book of Hours.

Student Life

200 Nights Halloween Party,100 Nights Theme party, 25 Nights Toga Party in honor of remaining nights until graduation.
Fall and Spring Formals in the Castle
"Fall Fest" Music Festival
United Nations Ambassador Lecture Series
Quad Jam
West Point Football Saturday
International Bazaar
Annual Holiday Concert (formerly the Christmas Concert)
Shakespeare in the Castle
Homecoming Weekend
History Department Annual BBQ

Publications

Now in its 62nd year, the Touchstone remains the only newspaper serving the Manhattanville community. Two other student-run publications also exist: The Right World View a conservative publication funded by The Leadership Institute; and The Link, a progressive publication created with the help of the Connie Hogarth Center for Social Action. The national literary magazine Inkwell

Inkwell (journal)

Inkwell is a literary journal published by Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York. As of 2007, poet Linda Simone was advisor to the editorial board....
is also published at Manhattanville.

Athletics

Manhattanville teams compete in the ECAC West, ECAC East, and the Freedom Conference within the Middle Atlantic Corporation

Middle Atlantic Corporation

Founded in 1912, the Middle Atlantic Corporation is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA Division III. The sixteen member teams are located in the Mid-Atlantic States....
. Recently, the college has received much media attention through the success of the men's ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey, is a team sport played on ice. It is a fast paced and physical sport. Ice hockey is most popular in areas that are sufficiently cold for natural reliable seasonal ice cover such as Canada, the northern United States, Scandinavia and Russia, though with the advent of indoor artificial ice r...
team coached by Keith Levinthal. The team spent most of the 2006-07 season ranked #1 in the nation.

Manhattanville in Popular Culture

Film, television and art productions that feature Manhattanville:

Thomas Crown Affair(1999) which utilized the interior of Reid Hall and featured a character who is from Manhattanville
Law and Order SVU which used the interior of the President's Cottage
The Funeral(1996) in which a main character says she graduated from Manhattanville.
Richard Rodgers
Richard Rodgers

Richard Charles Rodgers was an United States Musical compositionr of the music for more than 900 songs and 40 Broadway theatre musicals. He also composed music for films and television....
visited Manhattanville's Pius X School of Liturgical Music (1918-1969) in 1959 to conduct research for The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music is a musical theater with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse....
and according to college documents Rodgers was inspired to write the song, The Hills are Alive With the Sound of Music while on campus.

Recent Projects and News

Manhattanville Creative Arts and Student Center (Opened April 2008)
The Ohnell Environmental Park, featuring the restored "Lady Chapel" and "Living Classroom" designed by Maya Lin (dedicated Fall 2006).
The college search committee has named Molly Easo Smith as the next president of the college after Richard Berman's contract ends in June 2009.