Daily News

Bay Path Is Now Officially a University

LONGMEADOW — Bay Path faculty, staff, and students celebrated July 1 as the official first day as a university — and the first women’s university in the Commonwealth.

Before a crowd of more than 250 members from the Bay Path community, President Carol Leary said, “we are enthusiastic about becoming Bay Path University, as it more appropriately reflects the complexity, drive, and bold dreams of this institution. Our three campuses have been expanded by a location in downtown Springfield, bringing us back to our roots, that boasts the first online college in the country exclusively for women. Soon, we will have a new location in East Longmeadow with a 57,000-square-foot building to house our programs in health science.”

She noted that 19 graduate degrees, online learning communities, and athletic fields round out the picture of “today’s Bay Path.” This spring, the college secured approvals for the transition to university status from the Mass. Department of Higher Education and the New England Assoc. of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). With this approval, the board of trustees also reaffirmed the university’s mission to the education of women at the undergraduate level.

Bay Path is a four-year, private university with an enrollment of more than 2,400 students at its Longmeadow campus and satellite campuses in Sturbridge and Burlington. The university offers undergraduate degrees for women, graduate degrees for men and women on campus and online, and the American Women’s College, offering accelerated degree programs for adult women online or on campus through its One-Day-a-Week program.