The Sisters of St. Joseph and the Diocese of Springfield co-founded Elms College as a preparatory academy for women in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the Academy of Our Lady of the Elms, in 1897.[1] In 1899, Rev. John McCoy and Bishop Thomas Beaven of the Springfield diocese purchased property in Chicopee and it became St. Joseph's Normal College.
In 1927, the Sisters of Saint Joseph petitioned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to charter the school as a women's liberal arts college with a specialization in education, the charter was approved in 1928, and the name was changed to the College of Our Lady of the Elms with Rev. Thomas Michael O'Leary as the first president. Through the efforts of the Sisters of St. Joseph and the Springfield diocesan clergy, the curriculum was expanded through the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1953, an evening program was established.
To meet the needs of the surrounding community, Elms developed undergraduate programs in nursing, business management, and communication sciences and disorders during the 1960s and 1970s. In the late 1980s, Weekend College, paralegal studies and legal studies, and a Master of Arts degree program in teaching were instituted.
The Elms College board of trustees voted 23–5 to begin admitting men, starting with the 1998–1999 school year, on October 7, 1997.
Campus
Berchmans Hall
The campus is about two miles north of Metro CenterSpringfield, Massachusetts. It is focused on the Keating Quadrangle, which lies at its center, and has 14 buildings.[2] In 2014, Elms College completed construction on the Center for Natural and Health Sciences, its first academic building in more than 30 years.
Academically, the college is divided into the division of business, division of communication sciences and disorders, division of education, division of humanities and fine arts, division of natural sciences, mathematics and technology, and division of social sciences.
In 2013, the division of nursing became the school of nursing. On August 9 2023, Julie Beck was announced as the new dean of the School of Nursing (SON).[3]
Student body
In 2020 the school had about 1,100 students at the undergraduate level, with about 40% eligible for Pell grants. Fred Thys of WBUR wrote that year that "Elms caters to many students who are the first in their family to go to college."[4]
The majority of athletics at Elms College are based out of The Maguire Center, which features a physical therapy and training center, gym and weight room, six-lane swimming pool (Natatorium), 100-meter track, and the Picknelly Arena basketball court.[6] In June of 2007, the college announced an athletic fields renovation project involving the soccer specific Leary Field being transformed into a multi-use artificial surface field and the construction of a new NCAA-compliant softball field.[7] The baseball team travels to Mackenzie Stadium in Holyoke, Mass.
Cheryl R. Condon Field
The new softball field was built in for the 2008 season, it featured newly-added covered dugouts and a batting cage and extended the homerun wall a few feet. The field was dedicated to longtime winningest coach Cheryl R. Condon on April 23 2008.[8][9]
