Hofstra University

Coordinates: 40°42′52.58″N 73°36′1.65″W / 40.7146056°N 73.6004583°W / 40.7146056; -73.6004583

Hofstra University
Former names
 "Hofstra College" & "Nassau College-Hofstra Memorial of NYU at Hempstead, LI"
Motto Je maintiendrai[1]
French: "I stand steadfast" or "I shall maintain"
Type Private
Established 1935
Endowment $411.7 million[2]
Chairman Alan J. Bernon
President Stuart Rabinowitz
Provost Gail M. Simmons, PhD
Academic staff
 3,361
Students 10,870 (2015)[3]
Undergraduates 6,833
Postgraduates 4,037
Location Hempstead, New York, U.S.
Campus Suburban, 240 acres (97 ha)
Colors Blue, white, and gold[4]
              
Athletics NCAA Division I – CAA
Nickname The Pride (formerly Flying Dutchmen[5])
Website www.hofstra.edu

Hofstra University is a private, non-profit,[6] nonsectarian institution of higher learning. Its main campus is located in the village of Hempstead, New York, United States, approximately 7 miles (11 km) east of New York City. It originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) called "Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New York University at Hempstead, Long Island";[7] in 1939, the institution separated from NYU and gained independence as Hofstra College,[8] and in 1963, Hofstra College gained university status. Comprising ten schools, including a School of Medicine and a School of Law, Hofstra is noted for a series of prominent Presidential conferences, as well as being selected to host United States Presidential Debates in 2008 and 2012.

History

Presidents of Hofstra University
President Tenure
Truesdel Peck Calkins 1937–1942
Howard S. Brower 1942–1944
John Cranford Adams 1944–1964
Clifford Lee Lord 1964–1972
James H. Marshall 1972–1973
Robert L. Payton 1973–1976
James M. Shuart 1976–2001
Stuart Rabinowitz 2001–present

The college—established as an extension of New York University (NYU) — was founded on the estate of a recently deceased wealthy couple, a lumber entrepreneur of Dutch ancestry, William S. Hofstra (1861–1932) and his second wife, Kate Mason (1854–1933). The extension had been proposed by a Hempstead resident, Truesdel Peck Calkins, who had been superintendent of schools for Hempstead. In her will, Kate Mason provided the bulk of their property and estate to be used for a charitable, scientific or humanitarian purpose, to be named in honor of her husband. Two friends, Howard Brower and James Barnard, were asked to decide what to do with the estate. Another Hempstead resident, Truesdel Peck Calkins, remarked to Brower that he had been looking for a site to start an institution of higher education, and the three men agreed it would be an appropriate use of the estate. Calkins approached the administration at New York University, and they expressed interest.

The college was founded as a coeducational, commuter institution with day and evening classes. The first day of classes was September 23, 1935, and the first class of students was made up of 159 day and 621 evening students. The tuition fee for the year was $375. The college obtained a provisional charter, and its official name was changed to Hofstra College on January 16, 1937.

Hofstra College separated from New York University in 1939 and was granted an absolute charter on February 16, 1940.

Hofstra's logo flag

Hofstra’s original logo was a seal created by Professor of Art Constant van de Wall in 1937. The insignia was derived from the official seal of the reigning house of the Netherlands, the House of Orange-Nassau. Used with the permission of the monarch of the Netherlands, the seal also included the Dutch national motto Je Maintiendrai, meaning “I stand steadfast” (literally “I shall maintain”) in French.

In 1939, Hofstra celebrated its first four-year commencement, graduating a class of 83 students. The first graduates had strong feelings for the new institution. When they were allowed to choose whether they would receive degrees from New York University or Hofstra, they overwhelmingly chose Hofstra degrees. Academic recognition of Hofstra was affirmed when the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools accepted Hofstra for membership on November 22, 1940. Early in 1941 the college was elected to membership in the American Association of Colleges.

In 1950 Calkins Gymnasium was the site of the first Shakespeare Festival. It was performed on a five-sixths-sized replica of the Globe Theatre.

With the approval of the New York State Board of Regents, Hofstra became Long Island’s first private university on March 1, 1963. Also in that year, the Board of Trustees resolved to make Hofstra architecturally barrier-free for individuals with physical disabilities, stating that all students should have access to higher education. Although this later became federal law, and subsequently Hofstra was recognized as a pioneer. Other forward-thinking programs and events followed, including the New Opportunities at Hofstra (NOAH) program, which was established the following year. NOAH is Hofstra’s Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program.

In 1963, Mitchel Air Force Base was closed by the military and declared surplus property. The university asked for part of the area to be used for educational purposes, and was subsequently granted 110 acres (0.45 km2). Remnants of the concrete runways from the Air Force base are now parking lots for Hofstra's North Campus.

In 1963, the Hofstra University Museum was established.

The university reorganized its divisions into “schools” in the 1960s. Hofstra was authorized by the Board of Regents to offer its first doctoral degrees in 1966. In 1968, the Hofstra Stadium became the first to install Astroturf outdoors in the East, and the New York Jets began holding their summer training camp to the North Campus, until 2008, when the Jets moved to Florham Park, New Jersey.

Campus

The Arboretum and Bird Sanctuary at Hofstra University has collection of diverse trees and reflecting to its Dutch origin displays an array of rare and colorful tulips in the Spring.[9]

There are 3,361 faculty members (including more than 2200 in the school of medicine system),[10] 6,833 undergraduates, with a total of 10,870 students overall, including all full and part-time undergraduates, graduates, law and medical students.

The campus has approximately 113 buildings on 240 acres (97 ha). The part of the campus located south of Hempstead Turnpike (NY Route 24) and west of California Avenue is located in the Village of Hempstead. The part of the campus north of Hempstead Turnpike and east of California Avenue is located in Uniondale and East Garden City. Hofstra also offers an MBA program as well as other classes in New York City from a center in Manhattan.[11][12]

Academics

Academic and intellectual distinctions

University rankings
National
Forbes[13] 418[14]
U.S. News & World Report[15] 135[16]
Washington Monthly[17] 255[18]
Global

Hofstra is a national university, presently ranked at #135, according to the 2015 edition of U.S. News & World Report. It holds full accreditation in 19 academic areas. Nationally, fewer than 100 colleges and universities match this achievement.[19]

In 2015, Hofstra University was ranked #11 in New York State by average professor salaries.[20]

The school's acceptance rate is 58.8%.[21] Average SAT scores in the university range from 1200–1330.[22]

The Hofstra University Honors College, whose admissions policy is more selective than that of the university as a whole,[23] offers rigorous educational opportunities for high-achieving students. The School for University Studies provides a program for students whose abilities are not reflected in standardized test scores; while New Opportunities at Hofstra (NOAH) is designed for students whose educational progress to date has been restricted by limited educational opportunities or economic status.

According to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Hofstra is considered a large research university.[24]

In the fall of 2011, the university welcomed the first class of students in its new Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. In 2012, it established its School of Engineering and Applied Science, featuring programs that partner with regional industry leaders,[25] and its School of Health Sciences and Human Services, housing a new master of public health program.[26]

Hofstra University hosted the third and final 2008 presidential debate (between Barack Obama and John McCain) on October 15, 2008. The debate, the first presidential debate in New York since the 1960 debate between John F. Kennedy and then Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, focused on economic policy and domestic issues. It is remembered for McCain's introduction and frequent references to "Joe the Plumber". Hofstra's successful bid to host this presidential debate in 2008 provided the springboard for a broad, campuswide program called "Educate '08," featuring a year of free lectures, conferences and other events about politics and public policy. The program featured national media and political figures as guest speakers, including George Stephanopoulos, Maureen Dowd, Ari Fleischer, James Carville and Mary Matalin. "Educate '08" gave way to "Define '09", a program which brought to campus various speakers to examine the impact of the historic election of the nation's first African-American president and the policy challenges facing the Obama Administration. In September 2009, Hofstra University President Stuart Rabinowitz announced the appointment of two senior presidential fellows at the university's Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency: Republican strategist and former presidential advisor Edward J. Rollins and former Vermont governor, presidential candidate and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean. In October 2011, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that it had chosen Hofstra as the location for its second 2012 presidential debate on October 16, 2012, the "town hall" debate (between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney).[27]

Schools and colleges

Centers and institutes

Athletics and mascots

Main article: Hofstra Pride

Hofstra University teams had the unofficial nickname of the Flying Dutchmen.[5] The school's official team name became "The Pride" in 2004, referring to a pair of lions which became the school's athletic mascots in the late 1980s. The Pride nickname evolved from the Hofstra Pride on-and off-campus image campaign that began in 1987, during the university's dramatic recovery and growth. This followed a financial crisis in the 1970s that forced the layoff of more than 100 employees. The school's revival was credited in large part to the man who led the University from 1976 to 2001—educator, government official and former Hofstra football star Dr. James M. Shuart. Hofstra Stadium, the school's main outdoor athletic facility, has been named James M. Shuart Stadium since 2002.

Prior to 2008, the New York Jets held summer training camp at their on-campus headquarters before moving to their new headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey.

On December 3, 2009, the university announced it was terminating the football program. Under NCAA rules, any football players who chose to transfer to other schools were eligible to play immediately, and not subjected to normal residency waiting periods. Scholarship-holders who wished to stay at Hofstra were permitted to keep their scholarships.[30]

On February 26, 2011, Hofstra Senior Day, the university retired the basketball jersey number 22 to honor senior Charles Jenkins before the end of the season. Jenkins, the school's all-time leading scorer, ranked fifth in the nation at 23.3 points per game last season (as of February 22, 2011) and was the front-runner to win Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Year honors. "I think it's very rare," head coach Mo Cassara said by phone to reporter Jeff Eisenberg. "We have 25 other athletes that have had their numbers retired here at Hofstra, but none of them have ever been retired while they were still here at their last games. He's been such an integral part of this university on so many levels that we thought that was the highest honor we could give him." No other Hofstra athlete in any sport has received the same honor, though Wake Forest's Tim Duncan and Duke's Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Grant Hill all had their jerseys retired before their last home games.[31]

The Hofstra University Pride Wrestling team competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, as wrestling is not supported by the Colonial Athletic Association.

Student newspaper

The Hofstra Chronicle is the only student newspaper of Hofstra University, established in 1935. The paper is in tabloid format and publishes 12 times each semester and once a summer. The Chronicle is supported by the student activity fee and advertising.[32]

Student radio station

The university operates Long Island's oldest public radio station, WRHU-FM (88.7). The noncommercial broadcaster was founded in 1950 as WHCH, a campus-limited station, and received its broadcast license on June 9, 1959, using the call letters WVHC. The station became WRHU (for Radio Hofstra University) in 1983. WRHU currently serves as the radio home of the New York Islanders.

Greek life

The university has had a long history of Greek-Lettered organizations dating back to its founding. The local chapter that started Greek life on Hofstra's campus, Alpha Theta Beta (AΘB), is still active today. In the early 1990s, as Hofstra began to grow so did its social organizations. Many national chartered chapters were founded in 1989. One of the local chapters, the Wreath and Foil sorority, founded in 1937, became Phi Sigma Sigma. One of the more notable changes in the 1990s was the removal of many local chapters and growth of nationally chartered fraternities, such as Zeta Beta Tau, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Kappa Sigma, and a business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi (1989). Tau Epsilon Phi and Tau Kappa Epsilon are the oldest fraternities on campus, both arriving in 1969. The Alpha Phi sorority is the oldest nationally recognized sorority on campus, founded in 1872.

Overall Greek-lettered organizations contribute to much of the philanthropy on campus, well as much of the school spirit. During events like Homecoming parades, students and alumni notice a majority of Greek-lettered floats. And the Sinterklaas celebration, a fifteen-year-old tradition of a holiday village built and constructed annually by members of the Greek lettered community for local children to play in and around during the December holiday season. One of its largest events, Greek Week held in the Spring semester, is a week long series of events of competition. Mainly sports, well as toga skits, banner competitions, a can castle, for local homeless shelters, and a relay race the community generates a lot of attention. The Greek-Lettered community is often noted for maintaining many traditions, and loyalty towards their alma mater. In addition, these organizations are noted for creating much of the social life on and off campus.

Since 2001, when the newest President of the University took office three additional social organizations have colonized and chartered chapters on campus: the Delta Chi fraternity, the Delta Gamma fraternity, and the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. The Phi Delta Theta fraternity applied successfully for colonization in the Spring 2010 semester. The Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity applied successfully for re-colonization in the Spring 2010 Semester. The Phi Kappa Theta fraternity applied successfully for colonization in the Spring 2015 semester. The Alpha Phi Omega fraternity recognizes a petitioning group on campus that has not yet been formally installed as a chapter. Three social organizations, the Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity, and the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, remain inactive.

Greek societies
Category Activity Society Status
Fraternity Active Alpha Kappa Psi noncolony
Alpha Epsilon Pi
Alpha Phi Alpha
Alpha Phi Omega (petitioning group)
Delta Chi
Lambda Upsilon Lambda
Pershing Rifles
Phi Alpha Delta
Phi Iota Alpha
Pi Kappa Alpha
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Mu
Sigma Pi
Tau Epsilon Phi
Tau Kappa Epsilon
Theta Tau
Inactive Alpha Tau Omega Colony
Kappa Alpha Psi noncolony
Omega Psi Phi
Phi Beta Sigma
Zeta Beta Tau

Delta Sigma Phi

Sorority Active Alpha Kappa Alpha noncolony
Alpha Theta Beta
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Delta Sigma Theta
Lambda Theta Alpha
Omega Phi Beta
Omega Phi Chi
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Gamma Rho
Sigma Iota Alpha
Inactive Delta Chi Delta
Phi Epsilon
Sigma Sigma Sigma

Notable alumni

Honorary degree recipients

Notable faculty

Hofstra's faculty include:

References

  1. ↑ "The Gonfalons and Flag of Hofstra University - Office of the Provost - Hofstra University, New York". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  2. ↑ http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/hofstra-university-2732
  3. ↑ "Hofstra at a Glance". Hofstra University. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  4. ↑ http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/home/news/ur/licensing/licensing-standards-guide.pdf
  5. 1 2 The Flying Dutchmen, GoDutchmen.com, Lebanon Valley College Athletics. Accessed 26 June 2011.
  6. ↑ "Make a Gift Online - Hofstra University". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Official Online Home of Hofstra University Pride Athletics". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  8. ↑ Hofstra University – Capital Campaign – Dynamic Growth
  9. ↑ Hofstra University Arboretum and Bird Sanctuary
  10. ↑ http://medicine.hofstra.edu/faculty/
  11. ↑ "MBA in Manhattan - Zarb Business Graduate Programs - Hofstra University, New York". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  12. ↑ "Hofstra in NYC - January Session - Hofstra University, New York". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  13. ↑ "America's Top Colleges". Forbes. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  14. ↑ "America's Top Colleges". Forbes. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  15. ↑ "Best Colleges". U.S. News & World Report LP. Retrieved September 10, 2015.
  16. ↑ "National Universities Rankings". U.S. News and World Report. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  17. ↑ "2015 National Universities Rankings". Washington Monthly. n.d. Retrieved September 17, 2015.
  18. ↑ "2014 National Universities Rankings". Washington Monthly. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
  19. ↑ "Hofstra University – Capital Campaign – Dynamic Growth". Hofstra University. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  20. ↑ http://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2015/04/13/new-york-professor-pay/25683261/
  21. ↑ "Hofstra University". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  22. ↑ Hofstra University Guide
  23. ↑ "Special Enrollment Options - Admission - Hofstra University, New York". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  24. ↑ "ipug2005_ids"%3A""%2C"ipgrad2005_ids"%3A""%2C"enrprofile2005_ids"%3A""%2C"ugprfile2005_ids"%3A""%2C"sizeset2005_ids"%3A""%2C"basic2005_ids"%3A""%2C"eng2005_ids"%3A""%2C"search_string"%3A"hofstra+university"%2C"level"%3A""%2C"control"%3A""%2C"accred"%3A""%2C"state"%3A""%2C"region"%3A""%2C"urbanicity"%3A""%2C"womens"%3A""%2C"hbcu"%3A""%2C"hsi"%3A""%2C"tribal"%3A""%2C"msi"%3A""%2C"landgrant"%3A""%2C"coplac"%3A""%2C"urban"%3A""%7D "Carnegie Classifications - Institution Profile". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  25. ↑ "Simon Ben-Avi Named Founding Dean of Hofstra’s New School of Engineering and Applied Science". hofstra.edu. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
  26. ↑ "Hofstra University Launches New School of Health Sciences and Human Services". Hofstra.edu. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
  27. ↑ http://www.hofstra.edu/home/news/pressreleases/103111_debate.html
  28. ↑ "Colleges and Schools – Academics – Hofstra University". Hofstra.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-14.
  29. ↑ "Center for Civic Engagement". Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  30. ↑ "Hofstra Pride of Football Championship Subdivision dropping its football program". ESPN.com. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  31. ↑ "Hofstra retires Charles Jenkins' jersey before he's done wearing it". Yahoo Sports. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  32. ↑ "hofstrachronicle's Profile". Issuu. Retrieved 2011-11-26.

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