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Clark University is a private
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
in
Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...
, United States. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the United States. Originally an all-graduate institution, Clark's first undergraduates entered in 1902 and women were first enrolled in 1942. The university offers 46 majors, minors, and concentrations in the
humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
,
social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s,
natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...
s, and
engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
and allows students to design specialized majors and engage in pre-professional programs. It is a member of the Higher Education Consortium of Central Massachusetts, which enables students to cross-register at other Worcester institutions including the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the College of the Holy Cross. Clark is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". It was a founding member of the
Association of American Universities The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of predominantly American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 69 public and private ...
, but departed in 1999. The university competes intercollegiately in 17
NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...
varsity sports as the Clark Cougars and is a part of the
New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut, Ma ...
. Clark faculty, alumni, and affiliates have included business executives and inventors of the
wind chill factor Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...
and the birth control pill.


History


Founding and early history

On January 17, 1887, successful American businessman Jonas Gilman Clark announced his intention to found and endow a university in the city of Worcester, filing a petition in the Massachusetts Legislature requesting a charter for Clark University. An Act of Incorporation was duly enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor on March 31 of that same year. Clark University was to incorporate the best features of universities in continental Europe and America, particularly
Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
and
Johns Hopkins Johns Hopkins (May 19, 1795 – December 24, 1873) was an American merchant, investor, and philanthropist. Born on a plantation, he left his home to start a career at the age of 17, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, where he remained for mos ...
. Clark was a friend of
Leland Stanford Amasa Leland Stanford (March 9, 1824June 21, 1893) was an American attorney, industrialist, philanthropist, and Republican Party (United States), Republican Party politician from Watervliet, New York. He served as the eighth governor of Calif ...
and was inspired by the plans for
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, as well as Cornell and Johns Hopkins. Clark founded the university with an endowment of one million dollars, and later added another million dollars because he feared the university might someday face a lack of funds. Opening on October 2, 1889, Clark was the first all-graduate university in the United States, with departments in mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology.
G. Stanley Hall Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 – April 24, 1924) was an American psychologist and educator who earned the first doctorate in psychology awarded in the United States of America at Harvard University in the nineteenth century. His ...
was appointed the first president of Clark University in 1888. He had been a professor of psychology and pedagogy at
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
, which had been founded just a few years prior and was quickly becoming a model of the modern
research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...
. Hall spent seven months in Europe visiting other universities and recruiting faculty. He became the founder of the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
and earned the first
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
in the United States at Harvard. Clark has played a prominent role in the development of psychology as a distinguished discipline in the United States ever since.
Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and ethnomusicologist. He was a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the mov ...
, founder of American
cultural anthropology Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The term ...
and adviser for the first PhD in
anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
which was granted at Clark in 1891, taught at Clark from 1888 until 1892 when he resigned in a dispute with President Hall over academic freedom and joined the faculty of
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
. Albert A. Michelson, the first American to receive a
Nobel Prize in Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the ...
, best known for his involvement in the
Michelson–Morley experiment The Michelson–Morley experiment was an attempt to measure the motion of the Earth relative to the luminiferous aether, a supposed medium permeating space that was thought to be the carrier of light waves. The experiment was performed between ...
, which measured the speed of light, was a professor from 1889 to 1892 before becoming head of the physics department at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. Jonas G. Clark died in 1900, leaving gifts to the university and campus library, but reserving half of his estate for the foundation of an undergraduate college. This had been strongly opposed by President Hall in years past, but Clark College opened in 1902, managed independently of Clark University. Clark College and Clark University had different presidents until Hall's retirement in 1920. Clark University began admitting women after Clark's death, and the first female PhD in psychology was awarded in 1908. Early PhD students in psychology were ethnically diverse, with several early graduates being Japanese. In 1920, Francis Sumner became the first African American to earn a PhD in psychology. Clark University, along with Stanford and Johns Hopkins, was one of the fourteen founding members of the
Association of American Universities The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of predominantly American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 69 public and private ...
, an organization of universities with the most prestigious profiles in research and graduate education, and was one of only three New England universities, along with
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
and
Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...
, to be a founding member. Clark withdrew its membership in 1999, citing a conflict with its mission.


Clark Lectures

In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Clark's opening, President Hall invited a number of leading thinkers to the university. Among them was
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
who, accompanied by
Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...
, delivered his five famous "Clark Lectures" there over the course of five days in September 1909, introducing
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
to an American audience. This was Freud's only visit to the United States. Clark granted Freud an honorary degree, which hangs in the Sigmund Freud House in Vienna, Austria. It was one of the few official distinctions Freud received during his lifetime.


Later history

In the 1920s Robert Goddard, a pioneer of rocketry, considered one of the founders of space and missile technology, was chairman of the Physics Department. The Robert H. Goddard Library is named for him. The Graduate School of Management (GSOM) was founded in 1982. In 1997, Clark announced the first PhD program in Holocaust Studies in the United States. This after the university convinced
Debórah Dwork Debórah Dwork is an American historian, specializing in the history of the Holocaust. She is the Founding Director of thCenter for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanityat the Graduate Center—City University of New Yo ...
to leave Yale University and become Clark's first professor of Holocaust studies in the prior year.


2000s

The Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise was established in fall 2007 due to a founding gift from two Clark alumni, William '76 and Jane '75 Mosakowski. U.S. Secretary of State and former senator and democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
spoke at Clark University on February 4, 2008, to an audience of approximately 3,500 in the Kneller Athletic Center. In March 2009, Clark University convened a first-of-its-kind National Conference on Liberal Education and Effective Practice, co-sponsored by Clark's Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise and the
Association of American Colleges and Universities The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is a global membership organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. It works to improve quality and equity in undergraduate education and advance liberal education. ...
. In April 2009, then-President John Bassett denied Clark University Students for Palestinian Rights, a student group, permission to bring Norman Finkelstein to speak about the " Gaza Massacre" (2008–2009 Gaza War) because Finkelstein "would invite controversy and not dialogue or understanding". He also cited a conflict in scheduling regarding a conference on Holocaust and Genocide Studies presented by the university in the same month. However, following protests, which included a public protest in the center of campus, a petition campaign and outreach by alumni, students and faculty, Basset reversed his decision and allowed Finkelstein to speak on April 27, the last day of classes for the semester. Finkelstein spoke to around 400 students, faculty and community members in Atwood Hall. In April 2010, Clark University received the largest gift in its 123-year history, a $14.2 million offering from the late head of
Hanover Insurance The Hanover Insurance Group, Inc. is an insurance company based in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was the original name of a property-liability insurance firm established in 1852, and it remained a publicly traded company under that name until the e ...
, one of the nation's biggest property and casualty insurers. The gift from John Adam is intended to strengthen Clark's graduate programs in education, promote college-readiness among minority students and bolster its research profile related to urban education. This donation created the Adams Education Fund, which will enhance Clark's nationally recognized model for urban secondary education and reform, teacher-training, and community education partnerships. On July 1, 2010, former provost David Angel became the ninth president of Clark, succeeding John Bassett, who went on to become president of Heritage University, located on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Toppenish, Washington. Clark University has an ongoing renovation project that will cover several buildings. In the summer of 2010, overhauls occurred in Bullock and Wright Hall dormitories. In summer 2012, Clark University underwent more renovations. The city of Worcester allowed the university to close Downing Street to unite the campus. The area was landscaped to become a pedestrian plaza. Johnson and Sanford halls were united to become the Johnson Sanford Center featuring new social, study, and multimedia spaces. The project included addition of an outdoor roof terrace and an elevator to all levels. The university has recently begun a project called LEEP to connect students and the world of academia to practical experience. Summer 2016 saw the completion of a new Alumni and Student Engagement Center building, extending the campus across Main Street. The facility is a mixed-use building containing administrative offices, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and some retail space, and features a modern architectural look and a rooftop solar array. In 2022, graduate students at the university organized as Clark University Graduate Workers United, a chapter of
Teamsters The International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) is a trade union, labor union in the United States and Canada. Formed in 1903 by the merger of the Team Drivers International Union and the Teamsters National Union, the union now represents a di ...
Local 170. An NLRB-overseen election resulted in a 100–7 vote in favor of unionization, after which the union and university entered into negotiations. On October 3, 2022, the graduate workers' union began an indefinite strike over wages, benefits, and working conditions that continued until that Friday, October 7, when the union and the university announced a tentative agreement on a contract. On the following Wednesday, October 13, the union unanimously ratified the contract, which took effect immediately.


Campus

The campus is located on Main Street in the Main South neighborhood about west of downtown Worcester and west of
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. The campus is compact, with most of the major buildings located within the space of a single city block. The center of campus is known as the Green. The Green is a hub for student activity, and is where most Clarkies spend their time during the warm months. It is the location of Spree Day, the welcome back BBQ, several clubs' events and graduation. The buildings surrounding The Green include Atwood Hall, Jefferson Academic Center, Higgins University Center, Jonas Clark Hall, and the Goddard Library. Administrative offices are housed in small buildings along Woodland Street, as is the president's house. The new Shaich Family Alumni and Student Engagement Center, named in honor of a $5 million gift from the family of alumnus Ron Shaich, is across Main Street and houses meeting spaces and offices.


Academic facilities

Jonas Clark Hall, built in 1887, was Clark University's first building. It occupies the center of campus and houses the economics, psychology and education departments. Located in the basement of Jonas Clark Hall is the university's
cogeneration Cogeneration or combined heat and power (CHP) is the use of a heat engine or power station to generate electricity and useful heat at the same time. Cogeneration is a more efficient use of fuel or heat, because otherwise- wasted heat from elec ...
plant which allows the university to recycle waste heat from electrical generation into hot water, heat, and steam. It was updated in 2013 to a more efficient 2.0 kWh natural gas engine. Estabrook Hall, located on Woodland Street, is the second oldest building on Clark's campus. Originally constructed as a dormitory, it now functions as the language center and the music center. The upper floors are primarily home to classrooms and offices for the Language, Literature, and Culture department, which includes Spanish, French, German, Latin, and Hebrew. The bottom floor and basement are practice rooms and music halls. The Jefferson Academic Center houses various social science departments including Women's Studies, Geography, History, Geographical Information Sciences, Political Science, and Sociology. Atwood Hall, attached to the Jefferson Academic Center, is the primary theater on campus and seats 658. Atwood Hall originally served as the chapel for the university, and in recent decades has been the scene for several notable concerts and speeches. The
Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...
(1967 and 1969),
the Jimi Hendrix Experience James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
(1968),
Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...
(1969), and
Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American Rock music, rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Nicknamed "the Boss", Springsteen has released 21 studio albums spanning six decades; most of his albums feature th ...
and the
E Street Band The E Street Band is an American rock band that has been the primary backing band for rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. In 2014, the E Street Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For the bulk of Springsteen's recordin ...
(1974) have all played here. A March 15, 1968, concert by
the Jimi Hendrix Experience James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
was professionally recorded and released in 1999 as '' Live at Clark University''. In 1963, student D'Army Bailey invited
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an African American revolutionary, Islam in the United States, Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figur ...
to speak here.
Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...
spoke here on the topic of the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing military and political conflict about Territory, land and self-determination within the territory of the former Mandatory Palestine. Key aspects of the conflict include the Israeli occupation ...
and the
Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...
April 12, 2011. It was the first-ever lecture given on a Spree Day at Clark. On October 16, 2014, President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
spoke in Atwood as a supporter of Martha Coakley's run for Governor of Massachusetts. The Lasry Center for Bioscience (named for hedge fund manager Marc Lasry and his wife Cathy, both alumni) houses the biology department. It received a LEED Gold certification for its energy efficiency. The Little Center is the alternate performing arts venue, with its largest room, the Michelson Theater seating 120. The Academic Commons, also known as the AC, acts as a study area and lounge for the students, and incorporates a
Sodexo Sodexo (formerly Sodexho Alliance) is a French food services and facilities management company headquartered in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux. It has 522,000 employees as of 2023, operates in 55 countries and serves 100 million custome ...
coffeehouse named Jazzmans, a quiet study area, a computer room, and the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprises. The Goddard Library is upstairs from the Academic Commons and houses more than 375,000 volumes.


Libraries

Clark University has 4 libraries. * The Goddard Library, the main library of the university * The Rose Library at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, which contains volumes concerning genocides * The Jeanne X. Kasperson Research Library, which focuses on environmental research * The Fuller Resource Library at the Traina Center for the Arts, with performing arts media in its collection


Athletic facilities

The Kneller Athletic Center houses the basketball courts, swimming pool, racquet ball courts, handball courts, and the James and Ada B. Bickman Fitness Center which was opened in 1995 and completely renovated in 2013. Major campus events, such as International Gala, the fall concert, and first year orientation are usually held in the Kneller as the basketball courts are the largest rooms on campus and can accommodate the entire student body. The Thomas M. '62 and Joan E. '60 Dolan Field House opened in May 2003 at which time the Russ Granger Athletic Fields and Corash Tennis Courts around it were reconfigured and renovated. The Boys and Girls Club Track and Field opened in October 2016.


Housing

Students entering Clark must live on campus for the first two years unless their primary address is within of campus. The residence halls at Clark are organized by those who live there: * First Year Experience halls (Dana, Hughes, Bullock, and Wright) * Mixed class halls (Johnson-Sanford Center) * Single sex hall (Dodd—female and non-binary only) * Suite-style and apartment-style halls (Maywood and Blackstone) Clark owns apartments that, while outside of the main campus area, exclusively house Clark students. The first Clark "residence halls" (Wright and Bullock) opened in 1959. Before that time, Estabrook Hall was the men's dormitory and small women's dorms stood in the current location of Little Center and Bullock Hall. Blackstone, the newest of the halls, opened in 2007. As of fall 2007, gender blind/neutral housing is an option at Clark, meaning that students of different genders can room together. Clark University released its Climate Action Plan December 15, 2009, detailing strategies for the university to reduce its carbon footprint while strengthening many of its existing sustainability practices. The plan sets two goals with respect to climate neutrality: First is an interim goal of reducing emissions to 20 percent below 2005-levels by 2015. The second goal is to achieve climate neutrality (net zero greenhouse gas emissions) by the year 2030.


Organization


Clark College

Clark College opened in 1902 as the fulfillment of founder Jonas Clark's desire for an undergraduate liberal arts college. The administration of Clark College and Clark University was formally united in 1920 and undergraduate programs continue today under the university.


School of Management

The School of Management (SOM) was founded in 1982. The school offers master's degrees as well as undergraduate courses in management, marketing, and innovation and entrepreneurship. Notable alumni of SOM include Libérat Mfumukeko, secretary-general of the East African Community, and Matt Goldman, co-founder of the
Blue Man Group Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in New York City in 1987. It is known for its stage productions that incorporate many kinds of music and art, both popular and obscure. Its performers, known as Blue Men, have their ...
.


Graduate School of Geography

The Graduate School of Geography (GSG), founded in 1921 by Wallace Walter Atwood, offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees. Under GSG is Clark Labs, founded in 1987, which developed the IDRISI GIS and image processing software and then the TerrSet geospatial monitoring and modeling software. Alumni of the school include Paul Siple, an Antarctic explorer and inventor of the
wind chill Wind chill (popularly wind chill factor) is the sensation of cold produced by the wind for a given ambient air temperature on exposed skin as the air motion accelerates the rate of heat transfer from the body to the surrounding atmosphere. Its va ...
factor who attended the school on the recommendation of Admiral Richard E. Byrd. Siple named the Clark Mountains in Antarctica after Clark and several of the peaks after Clark professors in the GSG.


School of Professional Studies

The School of Professional Studies (SPS) offers bachelor's degrees as well as a Master in Public Administration (MPA), Master of Science in Public Communication (MSPC), Master of Science in Information Technology (MSIT), Certificate in Community Human Services, and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS). It was the Evening College from its establishment in 1953 and then the College of Professional and Continuing Education (COPACE) from 1975 to 2016. It has branch campuses in
Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...
and
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, Poland, with the University of Social Sciences and in
Astrakhan Astrakhan (, ) is the largest city and administrative centre of Astrakhan Oblast in southern Russia. The city lies on two banks of the Volga, in the upper part of the Volga Delta, on eleven islands of the Caspian Depression, from the Caspian Se ...
, Russia with Astrakhan State University. There are also joint programs with Shandong University of Science and Technology and Hefei University of Technology. Alumni of SPS include Olta Xhaçka, Albanian Minister of Defense, and Keith R. Hall, former director of the National Reconnaissance Office.


Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology

The Hiatt School of Psychology offers undergraduate and doctoral degrees. Notable alumni include Francis Sumner, the father of black psychology, and
Arnold Gesell Arnold Lucius Gesell (21 June 1880 – 29 May 1961) was an American psychologist, pediatrician and professor at Yale University known for his research and contributions to the fields of child hygiene and child development.Harris, B. (2011). Arn ...
, noted child psychologist. The American Psychological Association was founded at Clark in 1892 by Clark's first president, psychologist G. Stanley
Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gre ...
who invited
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
for his first lecture in a US University. It was also at Clark that mazes were first used to study rat behavior by psychology professor Edmund Sanford in his laboratory.


Gustaf H. Carlson School of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Carlson School of Chemistry offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees, including a 3/2 engineering program with
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's
Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university ...
. What was then known as Clark's chemical laboratories was once directed by professor Charles A. Kraus, a noted chemist who was a consultant to the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service during World War I and the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...
during World War II. He also developed the anti-knock additive in gasoline.


Becker School of Design & Technology

Becker School of Design & Technology was founded in March 2021 after Becker College announced its closure at the end of the Spring 2021 semester. Becker School of Design & Technology offers a bachelor's degree in interactive media with multiple concentrations as well as a Design Your Own undergraduate major. A graduate MFA in interactive media is also offered. As of 2025, Clark University has been ranked #3 by The Princeton Review in the Top 50 Game Design 2025 undergraduate programs and #5 in the Top 25 Game Design 2025 graduate programs.


Academics

Clark offers 32 undergraduate and 34 graduate majors. It offers 57 study abroad and away programs in 34 countries. Its most popular undergraduate majors, based on 2021 graduates, were Psychology (85), Economics (48), Political Science and Government (47), Business Administration and Management (43), and Biology/Biological Sciences (37). Clark has 212 full-time faculty, representing a 10:1 student-faculty ratio. Ninety-four percent of Clark's faculty have doctoral or terminal degrees. Clark University is accredited 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 othe ...
. In recent years, Clark has received widespread media coverage for its "Fifth-Year Free" program. Under Clark's BA/MA program with the fifth year free, undergraduates who maintain a B+ average are eligible for tuition-free enrollment in its one-year graduate programs, meaning that they can get a Master of Arts degree for the price of a bachelor's degree. Students apply to master's degree programs in their junior year, begin meeting requirements in their senior year and typically complete those requirements in the fifth year. Bachelor's degrees are granted en route to the master's degree.


Undergraduate admissions

For Fall 2023, Clark received 10,735 freshmen applications; 4,498 were admitted (41.9%). The average high school GPA of the enrolled freshmen was 3.68, while the middle 50% range of
SAT The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and Test score, scoring have changed several times. For much of its history, it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test ...
scores was 1300–1440. The middle 50% range of the ACT Composite score was 29–33.


Rankings and recognition

Undergraduate admission to Clark is rated "more selective" by '' U.S. News & World Report''. Clark University was featured on
Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981, and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...
's 2021 list of best value colleges in the United States and in 2020 it was ranked No.3 of the Top 20 Best Schools for Making an Impact in the United States.


Student life


Student body

As of fall 2019, Clark's student body comprised 2,349 undergraduates and 1,149 graduate and professional students. International students make up 11.5% of undergraduates. In addition, 21% of the undergraduate student body is classified as ALANA (Asian-, Latino-, African-, and Native-American) and 61% of undergraduates are female.


Residential life

The majority of the undergraduate student body, 66%, lives on campus. Clark requires undergraduates to do so for their first two years, with first-years being assigned housing based on their responses to a Housing Preferences Form."Campus Life Questions and Answers"
, ''Clark University Office of Admissions''. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
Once first-years have been assigned housing, a seniority system, whereby seniors have the first choice of spaces left, juniors have the second, and sophomores the third, ensures that seniors and juniors are usually able to live on campus if they wish to. Nonetheless, some choose to live in off-campus apartments in the immediate neighborhood of Clark, along with the graduate students outside the 1% that live on campus.


Student organizations

There are more than 130 student clubs and organizations at Clark. All these are headed by the Clark Undergraduate Student Council which disseminates more than $750,000 in budgets to the various clubs and their events.


Media and publications

''The Scarlet'' is Clark University's student newspaper. It is published weekly and has four sections: News, Opinions, Living Arts, and Sports. Clark's literary magazine, ''Caesura'', is published annually and features artwork, poetry, prose, essays, and creative non-fiction submitted by undergraduate and graduate students. ''STIR Magazine'', Clark's life, culture, and style magazine was founded by Diana Levine as a student project in 2004. ''STIR'' began with a three-person staff and in black and white, and now has about 30 core students who contribute to its production in full color. The ''Scholarly Undergraduate Research Journal'' (''SURJ'') is Clark's student-run undergraduate research journal. It publishes undergraduate academic work and is intended to provide undergraduates with "experiences in the peer review and academic publication processes." Peer reviewers consist of undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. ''The Freudian Slip,'' is a satire/humor publication founded in 2015. It publishes semi-weekly satirical articles about local and worldwide events. It is also the first university publication published exclusively online. There is also a student-run internet radio station, Radio of Clark University (ROCU), with over 100 student DJs.


Events

Spree Day originated in 1903 to coincide with St. Patrick's Day. It is traditional to not tell first-year students about Spree Day. Instead, the Senior class awakens the first-years by running through the quads outside of the residence halls banging pots and pans. While Spree Day is a day of recreation, Clark University also holds the Academic Spree Day annually during Spring semester. This academic event is when Clark undergraduates present their research and creative work.


Clark and the community

In 1985, the university engaged in a partnership with community groups and business organizations to revitalize Clark neighborhoods. Its efforts in the University Park Partnership program include refurbishing dilapidated or abandoned homes, reselling them to area residents, and subsidizing mortgages for new home buyers. In 1997, Clark opened a secondary public school, the University Park Campus School (UPCS), that is also a professional development school for Clark's teacher education program. Because of its long hours and demanding curricula, UPCS has been lauded as a model for collaboration between a university and an urban district. Students are able to attend Clark University free of charge upon graduation, provided they meet certain residency and admissions requirements. In the May 16, 2005, issue of ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'', UPCS was named the 68th best high school in the nation. UPCS was featured in a page-one story entitled "Town-grown triumph: In poorest part of Worcester, Clark helps put children on path to college" of the November 22, 2007, edition of ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
''. The UPCS collaborative is one of several sponsored by Clark's Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education focused on urban teacher education and school reform.


Research

Clark has seven research institutes and centers. The William and Jane Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise seeks to improve through the successful mobilization of use-inspired research the effectiveness of government and other institutions in addressing social concerns. The institute focuses on important social issues, including focal areas such as education reform, environmental sustainability, access to healthcare, human development, well-being and global change. The
George Perkins Marsh George Perkins Marsh (March 15, 1801July 23, 1882), an American diplomat and philologist, is considered by some to be America's first environmentalist and by recognizing the irreversible impact of man's actions on the earth, a precursor to the s ...
Institute conducts collaborative, interdisciplinary research on human-environment relationships and the human dimensions of global environmental change. The Strassler Family Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies an interdisciplinary center, founded in 1998, which focuses on the causes and effects of Holocausts and Genocides around the world. It is housed in Lasry House, donated by investor Marc Lasry and his wife Cathy in honor of their fathers Irwin Cohen and Moise Lasry.
Debórah Dwork Debórah Dwork is an American historian, specializing in the history of the Holocaust. She is the Founding Director of thCenter for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanityat the Graduate Center—City University of New Yo ...
is the founding director and also Rose Professor of Holocaust History at Clark. The Jacob Hiatt Center for Urban Education develops models of urban schooling, teaching and teacher education through local partnership, in order to learn from these models and expand the knowledge-base of effective practice through research. The Center for Risk and Security (CRS) at the George Perkins Marsh Institute conducts in-depth studies of homeland security issues using a risk-analysis perspective. The center's broad range of security issues includes: terrorism; disaster management; law and human rights; resource availability; and public health. The Center for Technology, Environment and Development (CENTED), founded in 1987, is a center for the study of natural and technological hazards in the United States. Projects include theoretical work on hazard analysis, hazard taxonomies, vulnerability, environmental equity, corporate risk management, emergency planning and hazardous waste transportation. Clark Labs is engaged in the research and development on geospatial technologies including the development of computer software and analytical techniques for GIS and remote sensing with an emphasis on monitoring and modeling earth system dynamics. Clark Labs continues to develop and distribute TerrSet (formerly IDRISI), a geographic information system (GIS) software package that is in use at more than 40,000 sites in over 180 countries worldwide. Its chief is Dr. J. Ronald Eastman, creator of IDRISI.


Athletics

Clark University fields 17
NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...
varsity teams which compete intercollegiately as the Clark Cougars in the
New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference The New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of Connecticut, Ma ...
. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and diving, and tennis; women's sports include basketball, cross country, field hockey, crew, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, and volleyball. The university also offers a variety of club and intramural sports such as soccer, ice hockey, ultimate frisbee, quidditch, volleyball and basketball. This contributes to Clark's 65 percent student participation rate in athletics.


Notable people

The university's most famous alumnus was graduate student and professor Robert H. Goddard, a pioneering rocket scientist who conducted many experiments on campus. Clark's first president,
G. Stanley Hall Granville Stanley Hall (February 1, 1844 – April 24, 1924) was an American psychologist and educator who earned the first doctorate in psychology awarded in the United States of America at Harvard University in the nineteenth century. His ...
, founded the
American Psychological Association The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
in July 1892 at Clark. Grayson L. Kirk, a president of the
Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...
during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
and the president of
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
during the student protests of 1968 received his master's degree from the university, as did D'Army Bailey a prominent civil rights activist and the founder of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis,
Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. Clark is also notable for being the site of
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
's only lectures in the United States and for being the university where Chinese poet Xu Zhimo earned his BA.


In popular culture

Gus Van Sant Gus Green Van Sant Jr. (born July 24, 1952) is an American filmmaker, photographer, painter, and musician. He has earned acclaim as an independent film, independent auteur. His films typically deal with themes of marginalized subcultures. His ...
's '' The Sea of Trees'' was filmed in part on Clark University's campus. Leading actor
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He achieved his breakthrough with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first su ...
's character, Arthur Brennan, is a physics professor and scenes were filmed in and around Clark's Sackler Sciences Center. Clark was also a shooting location for the thriller ''Black Car'', an independent film about a law student out for revenge, with Clark as the law school. The novel ''Something for Nothing'', a semi-comic take on the struggles of a professor new to academia written by economist Michael W. Klein, is set at the fictional "Kester College," which like Clark University has a large main building that legend says was designed so that it could be converted into a factory should the college fail. Klein began his teaching career at Clark. '' Burning Annie'', an independent comedy, was written and produced by two Clark alumni and is a semi-autobiographical film based on the experiences of one at Clark. One of the main characters in Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning play ''
The Flick ''The Flick'' is a play by Annie Baker that received the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and won the 2013 Obie Award for Playwriting. ''The Flick'' premiered Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons in 2013. Productions ''The Flick'' debuted Off ...
'', an African American movie usher named Avery, is a Clarkie with a full-ride to attend the university.


Notes


References


Further reading

* Ryan, W. Carson. ''Studies in Early Graduate Education: The Johns Hopkins, Clark University, The University of Chicago''. New York: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1939. . * Koelsch, William A. ''Clark University, 1887–1987: A Narrative History''. Worcester: Clark University Press, 1987. . .


External links

*
Athletics website
* {{authority control 1887 establishments in Massachusetts Universities and colleges established in 1887 Liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Worcester, Massachusetts Private universities and colleges in Massachusetts Universities and colleges in Worcester, Massachusetts