Marygrove College

Marygrove College is an independent, Catholic, liberal arts college located in Detroit, Michigan. The college is sponsored by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

History

Liberal Arts Building

The College grew out of a postgraduate tutorial offered to one young woman graduate of St. Mary's Academy in Monroe, Michigan, in 1899. By 1905 it had grown to a two-year college for women, and in 1910 it was a four-year college chartered to grant degrees.^[1] It was then known as St. Mary's College. The College moved to its current location in Detroit in 1927, and at that time became known as Marygrove College.^[1] When it moved to Detroit its president was George Hermann Derry, who was the first lay person to serve as a president of a Catholic women's college in the United States.^[2]

In the decades after World War I, Marygrove College was an important local center of Catholic social action. Faculty members were chosen for their education, character, and faith, and President Derry encouraged each student to look beyond the prospect of eventual marriage and to become capable of "doing her part in the world's work in whatever sphere of life she may be placed". By 1936, the college catalog spoke in far more emphatic terms of female independence. In 1937, Sister Honora Jack became the College's first woman president.^[3] The College accepted its first black student in 1938.^[4]

Marygrove College was originally a women's college. It became co-educational in about 1970 during the presidency of Arthur Brown. The current President is Dr. David J. Fike.

Setting

Madame Cadillac Hall

The current College encompasses a 53-acre (214,000 m²) campus. There are large lawns and mature trees. The Madame Cadillac and Liberal Arts buildings, by architect D.A. Bohlen & Son, are Tudor Gothic structures with stained glass windows, wrought iron gates, carved wood decorations, high ceilings, arched doorways, and carved stonework.

Population and degrees offered

Currently, the college has approximately 1,300 undergraduate and graduate students, more than 1,600 students in its distance-learning programs and over 1,200 enrolled in its Professional Development for Teachers program. Marygrove has 31 bachelor degree programs, 7 master degree programs, and 20 certification programs. The distance-learning Master in the Art of Teaching (MAT) program has recently been changed from Canter Course content to Teachscape content, although individual Canter Courses are still available for graduate credit.

With its historical commitment to the City of Detroit where it was founded over 80 years ago, Marygrove College has embarked upon a bold plan to leverage its educational resources in strategically focused ways that transform the College and its surrounding community.

This unique step-- called the Urban Leadership Vision-- commits the College to integrate the work of its senior leadership, academic divisions and departments, faculty, staff and students to prepare leaders of urban communities and to lead positive urban change.

Athletics

Marygrove athletic teams are known as the Mustangs. The college is a dual member of both, the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). The Mustangs compete in the NAIA through the Association of Independent Institutions (AII); the college will join the Wolverine–Hoosier Athletic Conference starting in the 2012-13 academic year.^[5]

Marygrove has the following intercollegiate athletic programs: men's and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, men's and women's golf, men's track and field, women’s volleyball.

The college added golf to its list of athletic programs with the installation of a new golf practice facility in the fall of 2010. Marygrove’s golf practice facility, designed by world renowned golf course architect Tom Doak, offers a leading urban land use plan, incorporating golf practice and other athletic facilities on a small urban land track.^[6] The practice facility will include four different activity areas, including a large practice putting green, a large sand bunker, two practice tee areas to accommodate up to 26 hitting bays, and a 4-hole short course.^[7] In addition to a unique use of urban land, the Golf Practice Facility will incorporate environment-friendly land use and techniques, including minimal disruption to the current trees, using recycled water for irrigation and natural pesticides.^[6]

Accreditation history

Marygrove was first accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1926.^[8]

Marygrove is accredited by NCA's (North Central Association) Higher Learning Commission,^[9] the Michigan State Department of Education and the Council of Social Work and Education.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Tentler, Leslie Woodcock (1990). Seasons of Grace: A History of the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, p. 253. Wayne State University Press.
2. ^ Marygrove College history website
3. ^ Tentler 1990, p. 462.
4. ^ Tentler 1990, p. 512.
5. ^ "Marygrove Joins the WHAC". Marygrove College. October 18, 2011. http://www.marygrove.edu/home/news/press-releases/1090.html. Retrieved October 24, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} Lang, Tom. Marygrove College in Detroit Debuts Golf Practice Facility. Detroit's Premier Business Journal. http://www.dbusiness.com/Blogs/Annual-2011/Marygrove-College-in-Detroit-Debuts-Golf-Practice-Facility/. Retrieved October 24, 2011. 
7. ^ http://www.modeldmedia.com/devnews/marygrovegolffacility100411.aspx
8. ^ Tentler 1990, p. 569.
9. ^ "NCA Accreditation Status of Marygrove College". 2007-09-10. http://www.ncahlc.org/index.php?option=com_directory&Itemid=192&Action=ShowBasic&instid=1343. Retrieved 2008-04-22. 

External links

	Detroit portal
	University portal

• Marygrove College
• Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

Coordinates: 42°24′56.2″N 83°9′20.5″W / 42.415611°N 83.155694°W / 42.415611; -83.155694