Bay Path College to become university July 1
Date: 6/18/2014
By Chris Mazachrism@thereminder.comLONGMEADOW – On July 1,
Bay Path College will become first women’s university in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
According to a letter addressed to
Reminder Publications from President Carol A. Leary, the college will officially become known as Bay Path University, a change that would be a “historical milestone that is as fitting as it is exciting,” she wrote.
“Our decision to become Bay Path University came after months of careful study. It is a recognition of who we already are and not an indication of great change in our future,”?Leary wrote. “In making this decision, our Board of Trustees reaffirmed out mission to the education of women at the undergraduate level, a commitment that is the very foundation of all we do.”
Bay Path College, whose main campus is located on Longmeadow Road, with satellite campuses in Sturbridge and Burlington, opened in 1897, as the Bay Path Institute and transitioned to a single-sex educational entity known as Bay Path Secretarial School in 1945 until it became Bay Path Junior College in 1949. The school was first granted the ability to offer four-year degrees by the Massachusetts Board of Regents of Higher Education in 1988.
“What began as a school for secretarial instruction is now a truly global enterprise with robust undergraduate and graduate degree offerings available on ground and online,” Leary wrote.
In addition to the name change, Bay Path has further expanded its physical footprint recently, breaking ground on a
new health sciences building at the corner of Denslow and Shaker roads in East Longmeadow.
Kathleen Wroblewski, director of Communications, declined to comment on the school’s transition, explaining that she was not at liberty to speak on it until the school completed the migration to university status on July 1.
