Company Profile
Bridgewater State University
Company Overview
Founded by American public education pioneer Horace Mann as Bridgewater Normal School 1840, Bridgewater State University (BSU) achieved university status in 2010 having moved far from a single room in the basement of Town Hall but retaining a core commitment to public higher education. In the last six years, the retention and graduation rates for all of our students has increased, and the persistence gap between first time full time students and students of color, first generation and students from low income families has been virtually eliminated.
A variety of factors contributed to our institutional ability to support the success of our students. These factors included: President Dana Mohler-Faria positioning student success, diversity, and social justice as key institutional strategic priorities; a long history as a teaching university with a demonstrated commitment to excellence in educating our students; a strong Academic Achievement Center that offers all students a range of academic support and first year advising services; a vibrant and successful Center for Multicultural Affairs that provides students of color a mentoring program, social support, and advocacy; an Office of Institutional Research and Assessment that had established a culture of inquiry and institutional data-driven decision-making; the establishment of the Office of Teaching and Learning and strong institutional support of faculty development focused on student success; a recent revision of the Core Curriculum with an emphasis on small class sizes as well as engaged and high-impact pedagogies; and the establishment of the Institute for Social Justice and the Office of Institutional Diversity charged with supporting the campus on issues of social justice, diversity and equity.
BSU also invests heavily in its faculty. From 2000 to 2010, the number of full-time faculty and librarians increased by 24 percent and direct expenditures on faculty development increased by 87 percent. The rapid extension of the student body, the faculty, and academic programming has been undergirded by significant investment in infrastructure. In the past five years seven major new buildings have been added to campus and, in the past decade, seventeen major renovation projects have resulted in improved academic, athletic, residential, dinning, and parking space and services. During this same ten-year period, BSU expanded its outreach mission to include international programs and a focus on sustainability and social justice.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
Bridgewater State University, located in the geographic heart of Southeastern Massachusetts in the Town of Bridgewater, is the teaching university that has served the region since 1840. The 270-acre campus is well within an hour’s drive from Boston, Providence and Cape Cod.
Founded by Horace Mann, Bridgewater is one of America’s first teacher preparation institutions. Today, the institution provides a broad range of graduate and undergraduate degree programs through its five schools – Graduate Studies, Business, Education and Allied Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Science and Mathematics – to approximately 11,000 students. Three hundred-plus fulltime faculty members lead more than 100 undergraduate and graduate programs.
Technology is an integral part of academic programs and campus life at Bridgewater, which offers unrivaled network resources to meet the demands of an increasingly mobile and connected college community. This commitment has earned national recognition for being among the top colleges and universities in the country for the use of technology and wireless connectivity.
Bridgewater is the largest state university in the Massachusetts Public Higher Education system and the fourth largest campus overall in the system, which comprises 15 community colleges, nine state universities and a university with five campuses. Bridgewater’s campus features 38 academic, residential and administrative buildings. The institution is in the midst of constructing a new $98.7 million Science and Mathematics Center, the single largest construction project undertaken by a state university.
Bridgewater State University seeks to educate its students to think critically, communicate effectively and act responsibly within a context of personal and professional ethics. Therefore, the university actively recruits faculty and staff who are, first and foremost, committed to the development of the individual student.