Manhattan College
History
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Manhattan University was founded as the Academy of the Holy Infancy in 1853 by five French De La Salle Christian Brothers in a small building on Canal Street. When the need to expand forced them from Lower Manhattan, the college moved to 131st Street and Broadway, in the Manhattanville section of Harlem. The school's name was changed to Manhattan College when it received its state charter in 1863 from the Board of Regents, and moved to its present location in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in 1922 as it outgrew its facilities in Manhattanville. This is often the cause of some confusion as the college is located outside of Manhattan but still within the city limits of New York City. In 2024, the school changed its name to Manhattan University.
Originally exclusive to men, Manhattan University established a cooperative program with the College of Mount Saint Vincent after the pair became coeducational in 1973 and 1974, respectively. This partnership lasted until 2007. Since then, Manhattan University and the College of Mount Saint Vincent have operated as completely separate institutions.
In 2018, Thomas O'Malley (Class of 1963) donated $25 million, the largest donation in the institution's history. The institution's business school has since been renamed the O'Malley School of Business.
Declining enrollment and growing deficits (2023–present)
In late 2023 and early 2024, Manhattan College eliminated more than twenty major and minor programs and terminated over 25% of faculty due to persistent declining enrollment and increasing structural deficits. In late January 2024, faculty voted "no confidence" in the college's president. From 2020 to 2024, enrollment at Manhattan College decreased by over 30%. Manhattan merged three of the college's six schools, creating three new schools. The bond-rating agency Fitch Ratings downgraded the college’s outlook to negative in March 2024.
In August 2024, Manhattan College officials announced that the college would be renamed Manhattan University; the renaming was intended to attract students.
Campus
 | This section relies largely or entirely on a single source. (May 2022) |
Manhattan University occupies a relatively compact campus divided into a north and south campus in the residential Riverdale section of the Bronx. The North campus overlooks Van Cortlandt Park, and has as its focal point "the Quad", which sits at the center of the campus's four main buildings. Memorial Hall is the main entry onto campus and houses the office of the president as well as most of the other administrative offices on campus. Miguel Hall and De La Salle Hall are the main academic halls that border each side of the Quad. Miguel hosts the liberal arts department and classes, while De La Salle is primarily used by the O'Malley School of Business. The fourth side of the Quad is bordered by the Squeri Hall, which houses Smith Auditorium (used to host receptions, speakers, and performances) on the first floor and the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers on the second floor, which features a painting of De La Salle and Brothers behind the altar, a large performing area where musical events and concerts take place on the altar, a grand piano, and a pipe organ in the balcony.
Thomas Hall, one of the institution's student life buildings, houses the offices of the dean of students, the student government, the musical ensembles, and others. Two of the institution's dining halls, Locke's Loft and Cafe 1853 are also located in Thomas Hall.
Kelly Commons, named after notable alumnus Raymond Kelly, is another student life building that was completed in 2014. It holds a Starbucks, a Marketplace, multiple different dining options, a state-of-the-art gym for student and faculty use, the Multicultural Center, halls for lectures and events, the student bookstore and the office for the student-run newspaper, The Quadrangle.
The O'Malley Library is a six-story structure that was joined with the previous library, the Cardinal Hayes Pavilion. Built on a hill, the new library was built directly next to and above the old one, essentially combining the two and creating more floors, while enhancing technology and adding group study spaces. The Office of Admissions is on the sixth floor of O'Malley.
Hayden Hall is on the east side of campus and houses the Kakos School of Science as well as the department of fine arts. The Kakos Center for Scientific Computing may also be found here, which contains a cluster of high performance workstations used for a wide variety of scientific and economic projects.
On the South campus, across 240th street, is the Higgins '62 Engineering and Science Center, which is connected to Leo Hall and the Research and Learning Center (RLC). The buildings are home to all of the engineering departments: electrical, computer, civil, chemical, mechanical, and environmental, along with the math and computer science departments and all communication classrooms, computer labs, and broadcasting studios. Laboratories and classes for these disciplines take place in both buildings. Both biology and chemistry laboratories are also located on the south campus. This building once contained a working nuclear reactor, which was decommissioned and stripped of its nuclear fuel and power generating capabilities in 1999.
In September 2021, the Leo Engineering Building was refurbished with a new 30,000 square foot building with 14 engineering and science labs. The new laboratory building is named the Higgins Engineering & Science Center, thanks to a $5 million gift from Cornelius Higgins (Class of 1962) and his wife, Patricia.
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