The College (Brooklyn Campus)

Mission and Goals of St. Joseph’s College

The mission of St. Joseph’s College is to provide a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, rooted in a liberal arts tradition that supports provision for career preparation and enhancement. The College aims in this way to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service-a life that is worthy of the College’s motto, Esse non videri: “To be, not to seem.”

Independent and coeducational, St. Joseph’s College provides affordable private education that serves a diverse population of academically eligible students.

St. Joseph’s College affirms the dignity, freedom, and inherent value of each person. This affirmation is realized through a student-centered environment wherein the faculty’s primary commitment is to excellence in teaching. In this open, supportive atmosphere, students are challenged to develop their full potential and are encouraged to acquire a spirit of inquiry and a joy in learning.

To accomplish this mission, St. Joseph’s College has established the following goals:

• to offer curricula that foster the knowledge and intellectual skills associated with the liberally educated person;
• to encourage students to develop personal value systems and responsible self-direction;
• to foster committed participation in the local and global communities;
• to help students develop as whole persons by providing individual attention, interactive teaching, and opportunities for active participation in academic and extracurricular programs;
• to prepare students for their careers by offering the necessary professional and pre-professional education;
• to provide for the needs of a diversified student population with varied educational and professional experiences;
• to foster an environment of openness to the exploration and understanding of diverse ideas, traditions and cultures;
• to support educational programs and services that will contribute to the vitality of the communities served by the Brooklyn and Suffolk Campuses.

History

St. Joseph’s College for Women, as it was then known, was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood, in response to the need for a day college for young women. The College received its provisional charter from the Regents of the University of the State of New York on February 24, 1916. From its earliest days, the College articulated its mission in terms of academic quality, value orientation, and career preparation. These values, coupled with the financial support and leadership of the Sisters of St. Joseph, brought early success and the College quickly outgrew its original facilities at 286 Washington Avenue. In 1918 the College moved to its present site at 245 Clinton Avenue, and the first baccalaureate degrees were conferred on twelve graduates on June 17, 1920. The College was accredited in 1928 by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. The Regents granted St. Joseph’s College an Absolute Charter in 1929. Reverend William T. Dillon, J.D., Professor of Philosophy, who served as Dean of the College and later its President, guided its growth during the significant years that followed.

Under the visionary leadership of Msgr. Dillon, the College placed great emphasis on the holistic development of each student, encouraging personal independence and integrity. This student-centered culture has continued to characterize the College. Academically, the College pioneered in the study of child development, and in 1934 opened a laboratory pre-school, now the renowned Dillon Child Study Center.

With a reputation for strong academic programs and a faculty dedicated to excellence in teaching, the College undertook its first extensive building program during the presidency of Sister Vincent Therese Tuohy. McEntegart Hall Library opened in 1965 and the Dillon Child Study Center in 1968.

Sister George Aquin O’Connor’s presidency, 1969-1997, coincided with a period of radical change in higher education. To meet new societal needs, the College admitted men to full matriculation, developed the Suffolk Campus in Patchogue, Long Island, created the School of Professional and Graduate Studies for adult students, introduced undergraduate programs in Accounting, Business, Nursing, health professions, and a Master’s program in Child Study. In support of these academic programs, Callahan Library was constructed on the Patchogue Campus in 1988. For the enrichment of student life, the Danzi Athletic Center opened on the Suffolk Campus in 1997.

Sister Elizabeth A. Hill, MA, JD, elected President in 1997, has emphasized the importance of both continuity and change. Undergraduate programs continue to grow even as the College has introduced new Master’s programs in Management, Executive MBA, Literacy, Nursing, Special Education, Human Resource Management, Hospitality and Tourism Management and MFA in Writing. Reflecting the technological world in which we live, all college classrooms are now smart classrooms, equipped with the latest technological support. All buildings are wired, and the two campuses are connected with video-conferencing, enabling a number of courses to be taught simultaneously on both campuses. The Business and Technology Center opened on the Suffolk Campus in 2001 and a 25 acre Athletic Complex was added to the campus in 2012. The purchase of the St. Angela Hall property in 2001 made possible major renovations in the landmark-status buildings on the Brooklyn Campus. A 44,000 square foot multipurpose building holding athletic facilities as well as space for academic programs and parking will open in 2014.

At ninety-eight years, the College looks back on a history of innovation and adaptability to changing circumstances and needs. The College has grown from its roots in Brooklyn, with its first graduating class of twelve students to two campuses and an enrollment of over 5000 students and thirty thousand alumni. The College looks forward to celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of its founding with renewed dedication to transforming lives, one student at a time.

Location

St. Joseph’s College has two campuses: the main campus is located in the residential, historic  Clinton Hill section of Brooklyn, and the Suffolk branch campus is located in Patchogue, Long Island.

The Brooklyn Campus is spread over four city blocks and offers easy access to all transit lines, to the Long Island Expressway, to all bridges in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, as well as to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Staten Island. This convenient location brings students from every part of the Greater New York Metropolitan area to the College each day, where they enjoy the freedom of campus life while profiting from the many cultural advantages of New York City. Within the space of one half hour, students leaving St. Joseph’s College may find themselves in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the 42nd Street Library, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, the Broadway theatre district, Madison Square Garden, Citi Field or Barclay’s Center.

The College itself stands in the center of one of the nation’s most diversified academic communities, consisting of six colleges and universities within a two-mile radius of each other. St. Joseph’s College offers its students easy access to the other colleges and such cultural facilities as the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

The Long Island Campus is located in Patchogue. The thirty-two acre campus is bounded on the south by West Roe Boulevard and on the north by Sunrise Highway. It is easily accessible from the south shore locations via Southern State, Sunrise Highway (Exit 52), and from central and northern Long Island via Veterans Highway, Patchogue-Holbrook Road, Nicolls Road or Route 112.

Facilities-Brooklyn Campus

Sister Vincent Therese Tuohy Hall

Named in memory of a late President of the College, the Administration Building contains classrooms, an auditorium, computer facilities, student government offices, student lounges, a gymnasium, fitness center, and administrative offices. The chemistry and physics laboratories, and the art studio are on the third floor. The college nurse and the Office of Career Development and Engagement are also housed here.

Burns Hall

This beautiful Federal-style building contains formal parlors, a formal dining room, a chapel, the Admissions Offices, student lounge and kitchen, and the biology instructional and research laboratories.

St. Joseph’s Hall

This five story building houses the Office of Institutional Advancement, the Alumni Office and the Director of Security. The beautiful Bloodgood garden, located behind St. Joseph’s Hall, provides space for alumni reunions, student gatherings, and receptions.

Lorenzo Hall

Lorenzo Hall, located at 265 Clinton Avenue, houses the administrative offices of the Executive Dean, Academic Advisement, Council for the Arts, Office of Graduate Management Studies and several academic department offices.

McEntegart Hall

McEntegart Hall, a fully air-conditioned five-story structure, houses the college library and archive.

The first floor of McEntegart Hall houses the Library with a large reading area, student lounge area and numerous study carrels that provide an excellent research environment.  There are three private Group Study Rooms where students and faculty can connect a laptop to the flat screen televisions for easier viewing.  In addition, each Group Study Room is equipped with a white board wall to facilitate learning.  Laptops, cables for audio-visual connection to the televisions and white board supplies are all available to borrow from the Library.

The first floor of the Library features a Faculty Resource Center where faculty enjoy the use of computers and private work space.  There are twenty-four PC desktop computers available for use in the Library in the main Reading Room as well as ten Macintosh desktop computers available for use at the “Computer Bar.”  The Library Information Technology Center (LITC) is also located on the first floor of the Library, this classroom provides students access to twenty-four PC desktop computers and also one PC desktop computer for instructor use.  The Library’s Reference Collection is located in the central stacks on the first floor of the Library.

The Library’s collection contains over 161,132 items, including books, serial back files, e-books and other paper materials (including government documents).  The library also has 368 microforms within its collection.

The Library’s Collection also includes two special collections:  The Local History and Rare Book Collections are both located on the first floor of the Library.  In addition to these resources, the Library offers the use of 11 laptops, 2 netbooks and 4 iPods.

Patrons have access to numerous full-text electronic databases.  A fully automated and integrated library system, Voyager 7.0 by the ExLibris Group, ensures efficient retrieval and management of library resources.

McEntegart Hall Library is a member of Academic Libraries of Brooklyn (ALB) and Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), which grants students access to libraries throughout the city and provides resource sharing on a regional basis.  Full membership in OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), allows limitless access to all types of resources.  In addition, the Library is a member of the Catholic Research Resources Alliance (CRRA) which allows our patrons to borrow materials from other member libraries in the area.  The Library provides reference and instruction services to all patrons via chat, email, telephone and in-person.  In addition the Library provides one-to-one research consultations for all library patrons, available upon request.

The Curriculum Library, located on the third floor of McEntegart Hall, includes centralized children’s books and textbooks, provides support to the Child Study curriculum.  Adjacent to the Curriculum Library there is a seminar room available for private study.

McEntegart Hall also houses the College Archive, located on the second floor.  The Archive contain more than 3,200 images, Footprints (the Brooklyn campus yearbook) and Horizons (the Patchogue campus yearbook), newspaper clippings from 1916-present, and the original College charters.  Other Archive collections include the Board of Trustee meeting minutes, college publications such as Loria, 245, SJC College Magazine, Alumnagram, and the course catalogs.

The Library’s website (http://mcentegart.sjcny.edu) provides constantly updated information to Library patrons.

St. Angela Hall

This former elementary and high school was acquired in 2001 and contains sixteen classrooms, the ACES Center, the Office of Campus Ministry, some faculty offices, an auditorium, video conference room and lounge.

Computer Facilities

A high-speed, fiber optic intra-campus and inter-campus network connects all offices, classrooms, computer labs and libraries on both the Brooklyn and Long Island campuses. The network provides both wired and wireless internet access to all students, faculty and staff. All classrooms are equipped with projectors, computers, speakers, and DVD/VCR players that provide our faculty with an easy tool to display content to their students. Several of our classrooms are outfitted with SMART’s interactive whiteboards that allow professors to save their whiteboard notes and distribute to students easily.

Two real telepresence video conference classrooms, connect the two campuses, allowing for a real-time distant learning experience. The rooms are equipped with SMART interactive whiteboards, high definition video cameras, televisions, document camera, and computers.

MySJC Portal, is a single sign-on portal that gives students a convenient way to access their personal records including billing, grades, financial aid, class schedules, Google Apps email, Blackboard and more.

Students are provided with a Google Apps account for communication and collaboration. Included is over 25GB of storage and the power of Gmail, Google Chat, Google Calendar, and Google Drive.

An integrated online library system enables students to search for and check out books at either campus. Online databases and other electronic resources are available to students from either campus, or from their home computers.

Dillon Child Study Center

This Center, an enduring memorial to Monsignor William T. Dillon, late President of the College and founder of the Child Study Department and its Laboratory Preschool, opened in 1968.

The first floor of the Dillon Center contains the offices of the Director, school nurse, staff offices and a conference room. The Center’s preschool inclusion class and three-year old class, with a joined observation booth, and a multi-purpose room are also located on the first floor. Two preschool classrooms and a Kindergarten room, each with its own observation booth, are located on the second floor, as well as staff offices with additional rooms for therapy, and library resources. These facilities make possible increased service to the community.

The Center provides for an enrollment of approximately 100 preschool children. The Center also facilitates the growth of auxiliary programs and inter-institutional cooperation with early childhood and elementary schools, colleges, and other educational agencies.

The Outdoor Theatre

Overlooking the Mall is the Molloy Memorial Outdoor Theatre.

The Hill Center

Located on Vanderbilt Avenue, between Willoughby and DeKalb avenues, the new 43,623 square-foot Brooklyn gym will feature a 270-seat NCAA regulation basketball and volleyball court, a fully equipped fitness center, locker rooms, an athletic training room and a multipurpose room. The Brooklyn Bears’ new home is slated to open in September 2014.

Long Island Branch Campus, Patchogue, Long Island

For full description of Long Island Campus facilities, see Long Island Branch Campus .

Accreditation and Memberships

Accreditation

The College is accredited by the following:

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.

The College’s Nursing programs are accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN)

The College’s teacher education programs (Early Childhood, Childhood, Early Childhood: Disabilities: and Adolescence Education: Biology, Chemistry, English, Mathematics, Social Studies and Spanish) are accredited by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)

The College’s Recreation and Leisure Studies program is accredited by the Council on Accreditation of Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Related Professions (COAPRT).

The College’s programs are registered with the

The College’s programs are approved by the New York State Education Department for the training of veterans.

Membership

The College is a member of many associations, including the following:

Association of American Colleges and Universities
College Entrance Examination Board
Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, State of New York
Council for Adult and Experiential Learning
Council for Higher Education Accreditation
Council of Independent Colleges
Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities
Long Island Association
Long Island Regional Advisory Council on Higher Education
National Association of College and University Business Officers
National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities
National League for Nursing
Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges
The College Board