Simmons College (Massachusetts)

Infobox_University
name = Simmons College


motto =
established = 1899
type = Private women's college
endowment = $193 million
president = Helen Drinan
undergrad = 2,072 women
postgrad = 2,840 men and women
staff = 236 fulltime faculty
city = Boston
state = Mass.
country = USA
campus = Urban
free_label = Athletics
free = 8 NCAA Division III varsity teams
nickname = Sharks
mascot =
affiliations = Colleges of the Fenway,Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization
website= [http://www.simmons.edu/ www.simmons.edu]

Simmons College is a liberal arts women's college in Boston, Massachusetts.

History and overview

Simmons was founded by John Simmons in 1899 to educate women in useful professions, so they could have an independent livelihood. Simmons is a member of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium which also includes Emmanuel College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Wheelock College, and Massachusetts College of Art. Simmons absorbed "Garland Junior College" in 1976. [ [http://www2.westminster-mo.edu/wc_users/homepages/staff/brownr/MassachusettsCC.htm Massachusetts Colleges That Have Closed] ]

Its undergraduate program is single-sex, with 1800 students enrolled in the 2004-2005 academic year. Male relatives of staff members may attend the undergraduate college up to a certain credit limit, although they cannot receive Simmons diplomas.

The graduate schools (Library and Information Science, Social Work, Health Studies, Management, and an Arts and Sciences program which provide degrees in Education, Communications, Gender and Cultural Studies and Liberal Arts) are mostly co-ed. The exception to the coed graduate programs is the School of Management, which provides the world's only MBA designed for women.

Simmons alumnae include Nnenna Freelon, Gwen Ifill, Denise DiNovi, Elinor Lipman, Ann Fudge, Rebecca Miller Sykes, Lonnie Barbach, Sage Vivant, Audra Mika, Bertha Reynolds, Suzyn Waldman and Srinagarindra, the late Princess Mother of Thailand .

Simmons faculty include Gregory Maguire, the author of the popular novels , 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, who taught at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979 to 2001.

In 2006, the college's Board of Trustees elected Dr. Susan C. Scrimshaw to be the college's next president, following an 11-month search. Scrimshaw officially took office on July 1, 2006. In a campus-wide email on April 24, 2008, she announced "I have the chance to take the first real sabbatical of my decades-long career and pursue some significant opportunities to engage in work that promotes public health on the international level and to undertake a specific consulting assignment. Therefore, I will be stepping down as your President at the end of this academic year."

She succeeded Daniel S. Cheever, Jr., who, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, [ Page B10, Nov.16, 2007] , he received a total compensation of $2,860,686 in his final year of service, the third highest of any college or university president in the United States.

Tuition costs at Simmons are average for college in the United States.

Overview of the campus

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

Main Campus

The Main 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:
* One Palace Road
* Main College Building
* Beatley Library
* Lefavour Hall
* Park Science Center
* School of Management (under construction)

A great deal of construction is in progress on the main campus. In 2006, a major overhaul of Beatley Library was completed, and a large project to replace a surface parking lot with a large underground garage has begun. Above the new garage the college is constructing a new building on the main campus to house the School of Management, currently located on Commonwealth Avenue, and has also begun work on remodeling the Fens Cafeteria.

Residence Campus

The Residence Campus is located several blocks 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 around a grassy quad:

* Simmons Hall
* Dix Hall
* Smith Hall (Quadside Cafe)
* Arnold Hall
* North Hall
* Health Center and Residence Life Offices
* Holmes Sports Center
* South Hall
* Alumnae Hall
* Bartol Dining Hall
* Evans Hall
* Mesick Hall
* Morse Hall

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.

chool of Management

The School of Management is in two buildings in Boston's Back Bay. These are:

* 409 Commonwealth Avenue
* 451 Marlborough Street

The School of Management is accessible from the Hynes Convention Center stop on the MBTA Green Line.

In 2006, Simmons announced plans to build a new home for the School of Management on the main academic campus. Construction is underway.

Academic structure

The principal academic units of Simmons College are:

*Undergraduate College
*College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Studies
*Graduate School of Library and Information Science
*School for Health Studies
*School of Management
*School of Social Work

The college also has a [http://my.simmons.edu/library library] with more than 250,000 volumes.

See also

*Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature

References

External links

* [http://www.simmons.edu/ Simmons College official website]