Stonehill College is a private

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

liberal arts college in

Easton, Massachusetts Easton is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 25,058 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Greater Boston area. Easton is governed by an elected Select Board. Open Town Meeting acts as the legislative br ...

. It was founded in 1948 by the

Congregation of Holy Cross , image = Congregation of Holy Cross.svg , image_size = 150px , abbreviation = CSC , formation = , founder = Blessed Fr. Basile-Antoine Marie Moreau, C.S.C. , founding_location = L ...

and is located on the original estate of Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr., with 29 buildings that complement the original

Georgian-style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Geor ...

Ames mansion. Stonehill's engineering majors spend their last four semesters of undergraduate education at the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

, Stonehill's sister institution and another Holy Cross school.

History

In the autumn of 1934, the Holy Cross Fathers in North Dartmouth began to look for new quarters because of increasing seminary enrollment. The current Stonehill campus was purchased from Mrs. Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. on October 17, 1935. The initial purchase included and the original Ames mansion; the congregation purchased the remaining from Mrs. Cutler two years later. Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. was the great-grandson of Oliver Ames Sr., who came to Easton in 1803 and established the Ames Shovel Company. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts authorized the Congregation of Holy Cross to establish Stonehill College on the Frederick Lothrop Ames Jr. estate on June 30, 1948. In September of that year the college enrolled 134 men as the first class. Classes were held in the mansion and in the Ames Gym. The first building built by the college was the Science Building which opened in February 1949. In 1974 the building was renovated and renamed the Tracy Science Building in honor of David Tracy, a former Stonehill advisor and trustee. After the opening of the Shields Science Center in 2009, the building was converted to be used by university administration and was renamed Merkert-Tracy Hall. In June 2017 the college announced that

W.B. Mason W.B. Mason is an American business products company headquartered in Brockton, Massachusetts. They are widely known for their colorful fleet of delivery vehicles. The company was founded in 1898 and started out selling rubber stamps and stencil ...

would be donating $10 million to open the Leo J. Meehan School of Business. The school is named after alumnus and

CEO Leo Meehan, and accommodates programs in accounting, finance, international business, management, marketing, economics, and healthcare administration. The first issue of the college newspaper, ''The Summit'', was published on November 3, 1949. In the fall of 1951 the college decided to become a coeducational organization and enrolled 19 women. The first class graduated from Stonehill on the first Sunday of June 1952 and consisted of 73 men.

Academics

Through the May School of Arts and Sciences and the Meehan School of Business, Stonehill awards on the

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

level the

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

, and BSBA They have also added several master's degree programs. The Integrated Marketing Communications master's program was launched during the 2017–2018 school year, a Special Education (K-8) program was launched in May 2019, and a Data Analytics program launched in fall of 2020. Stonehill offers 47 major programs, the opportunity to double major or participate in one of the college's 51 minor programs. Stonehill College is

accredited Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...

by the

New England Commission of Higher Education The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in the United States and other ...

The MacPhaidin Library

The MacPhaidin Library, named in honor of Stonehill College's eighth president, Father Bartley MacPhaidin, C.S.C., was constructed in 1997 and opened in May 1998, at the college in North Easton, Massachusetts. The MacPhaidin Library is three stories high and covers 600,000 square feet. It houses a collection of 250,000 print volumes, including more than 100 full-text databases and indexes, and two computer labs. Various works of local art and history are on display at the library as well as a large collection of historical Irish documents and literature.

Student life

Campus media

* ''The Summit'': Bi-weekly newspaper (student-run). * ''Rolling Stonehill'': Culture magazine (student-run). * '' WSHL-FM'': Radio station (student-run). * ''Channel 70'': Stonehill's TV station.

Housing

Stonehill provides guaranteed 4 years of housing to students admitted as residential students. The housing is set up as freshman/sophomore and junior/senior. O'Hara Hall and The Holy Cross Center are designated freshman traditional-style dorms. Both freshmen and sophomores have the chance to live in Boland Hall, Corr Hall, and Villa Theresa Hall. The Pilgrim Heights, the O'Hara Village and the Pilgrim Heights Village suite-style housing is primarily for sophomores. Juniors and seniors all live in suite-style housing in the Colonial ("Junior") Courts, Commonwealth ("Senior") Courts, Pilgrim Heights (sophomores & juniors), Notre Dame du Lac, and New Hall.

Athletics

The Athletic Department fields 21 competitive

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I intercollegiate varsity sports. The College's combination of academic and athletic success has garnered Stonehill the #4 ranking in the country among NCAA Division II schools in the Collegiate Power Rankings that are published by the National College Scouting Association. Furthermore, Stonehill finished 65th in the overall NCSA Top 100 Power Rankings across all three NCAA divisions. On April 5, 2022, Stonehill announced a transition to Div. I sports, with most of the teams joining the

Northeast Conference The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...

, and men's ice hockey becoming a Div I independent for the 2022–2023 season.
Stonehill College official website. The Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex is home to the college staff that sponsors fourteen intercollegiate club teams featuring

Ultimate Frisbee Ultimate, originally known as ultimate Frisbee, is a non-contact team sport played with a frisbee flung by hand. Ultimate was developed in 1968 by AJ Gator in Maplewood, New Jersey. Although ultimate resembles many traditional sports in its ath ...

, Rugby, Lacrosse and

Golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

as well as an extensive intramural sports program offering

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, Soccer,

Floor Hockey Floor hockey is a broad term for several indoor floor game codes which involve two teams using a stick and type of ball or disk. Disks are either open or closed but both designs are usually referred to as "pucks". These games are played either o ...

and

Flag Football Flag football is a variant of American football where, instead of tackling players to the ground, the defensive team must remove a flag or flag belt from the ball carrier ("deflagging") to end a down. The sport has a strong amateur following ...

. W.B. Mason Stadium is a 2,400-seat, multipurpose sports stadium. Opened in 2005 at a cost of $4 million, it is the home of Skyhawk football, lacrosse, field hockey, and track & field.

, an office-supplies dealer based in nearby

Brockton, Massachusetts Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population is 105,643 as of the 2020 United States Census. Along with Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of Plymouth County. It is the sixth-largest city in Mas ...

, and its alumni employees contributed $1.5 million toward the project.W.B. Mason Stadium
Stonehill College official website.

Notable alumni

Politics and government

* Marjorie Clapprood, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1985 to 1991 * Daniel F. Conley, Suffolk County District Attorney * Claire D. Cronin, current

United States Ambassador to Ireland The United States Ambassador to Ireland is the ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from the United States of America to Ireland. It is considered a highly prestigious position within the United States Foreign Service. The current ambassa ...

, and former member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 2013- 2022, where she was the first woman to serve as House Majority Leader * David Finnegan, American attorney, talk show host, and politician * Thomas P. Kennedy, former State Senator and State Representative in the Massachusetts Legislature * Christopher Markey, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives for the 9th Bristol district *

Christy Mihos Christy Peter Mihos (June 13, 1949 – March 25, 2017) was an American politician and businessman from Massachusetts. He was an Independent candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2006. He ran for the Republican nomination for governor in 2010, ...

, Massachusetts businessman and politician * Stephen J. Murphy, former Boston city councillor, Suffolk County Register of Deeds * Michael Novak, philosopher, journalist, diplomat, and former US Ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights * David Simas, CEO of the

Obama Foundation The Barack Obama Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit organization founded in 2014. It oversees the creation of the Barack Obama Presidential Center, runs the My Brother's Keeper Alliance (a program Barack Obama began while he was president), ...

Business

* Michael DeSisto, founder of The DeSisto School *

Keith Gill Keith Patrick Gill (born 1986) is an American financial analyst and investor known for his posts on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets. His analyses of GameStop stock, and details of his resulting investment gains—posted on Reddit under the usernam ...

, security analyst * Judith A. Salerno, former president and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure * Scott Thompson, former CEO of

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

, former President of

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

Journalism and art

* Ryan Asselta, television sportscaster, Comcast Sports New England & Fox 5 in New York City *

Duke Castiglione Joseph "Duke" Castiglione Jr. (born June 21, 1973) is an American news anchor for WCVB-TV Boston’s ''NewsCenter 5'' weekend newscasts. He was the sports journalist, Sports Anchor for WNYW Fox 5 Good Day New York in New York City.Best, Neil (Ju ...

, former

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

SportsCenter host, current sports journalist for WNYW Fox 5 in New York City * Patrick McKay, screenwriter and showrunner of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power * Donna Denizé, American poet and award-winning teacher at St. Albans School * Garth Donovan, independent filmmaker * Dick Flavin, poet laureate of the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

* Doug McIntyre, radio talk host, television writer and documentary film maker * Gerard O'Neill, investigative reporter and editor for ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' * Butch Stearns, radio sportscaster

WEEI-FM WEEI-FM (93.7 MHz) – branded SportsRadio 93.7 WEEI-FM – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Lawrence, Massachusetts, serving Greater Boston and much of surrounding New England. Owned by Audacy, Inc., WEEI-FM is the Boston aff ...

Military

William P. Driscoll William Patrick "Willy Irish" Driscoll (born March 5, 1947) is a retired commander in the United States Navy and a flying ace. Driscoll, a Naval Flight Officer, and aircrewmate Duke Cunningham, a Naval Aviator, were their service's only aces o ...

, decorated

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...

flight officer The title flight officer was a military rank used by the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, and also an air force rank in several Commonwealth countries, where it was used for female officers and was equivalent to the rank of fligh ...

, one of four American

flying aces A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

Athletics

Ed Cooley Ed Cooley (born September 10, 1969) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Providence College Friars men's basketball team. Cooley held the same position at Fairfield University from 2006 to 2011. He received ...

, Providence College men's basketball coach * James "Lou" Gorman,

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

for the

(1984–1993) * Andrew Jamiel, former wide receiver for the Stonehill Skyhawks football team (2016-2019)

References

External links

*
Stonehill athletics website
{{authority control Universities and colleges in Bristol County, Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1948 Holy Cross universities and colleges Saint Edward's University 1948 establishments in Massachusetts