Lasell University

Lasell was founded in 1851 as the "Auburndale Female Seminary" by Williams College Professor of Chemistry, Edward Lasell, after he took a sabbatical from his job in Williamstown to teach at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley , [ 4 ] where the experience inspired him to invest more personally in women's education . He died of typhoid fever during the first semester, but his school proved highly successful as a first-rate educational institution and was soon renamed "Lasell Female Seminary" in his memory. [ 5 ] Its name later changed to "Lasell Seminary for Young Women", and in 1874, governance was given to a board of trustees and Principal Charles C. Bragdon. [ 6 ] Bragdon further expanded the faculty to make Lasell renowned as a more academically rigorous institution, a prestigious school with a highly scientific approach to domestic work , art , and music . [ 4 ] As an innovative institution, known for a radical approach to women's education at the time, Lasell also administered the Harvard exams and offered law courses for women. [ 4 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] Lasell seminary in 1903 Lasell also offered two years of standard collegiate instruction as early as 1852 and is cited as having been the "first successful and persistent" junior college in the United States. [ 9 ] In 1932, the college changed its name to "Lasell Junior College", and the school officially began offering associate degrees in 1943. [ 10 ] In 1989, Lasell adopted a charter to become a four-year institution (it no longer offers any two-year undergraduate degrees), and began admitting male students in 1997. [ 11 ] Lasell also began offering master's degrees in 2002. Lasell faced controversy in 2000 when seven former students sued and claimed that the nursing program, which had been discontinued in 1999, had been a "sham." [ 12 ] The following year, the college built Lasell Village, an elderly education facility in which residents paid to live and attend classes.

Although the college argued that the property was in line with its non-profit mission and exempt from property taxes, the city successfully sued the college for not paying property taxes for the property. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] In September 2010, a settlement was also filed in Suffolk Superior Court stipulating that Lasell would have to pay $191,314 to over 1,000 students over a conflict of interest in their Financial Aid Department. The investigation was done by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley . [ 15 ] The college explored merging with Mount Ida College , another liberal arts institution located in Newton, in February 2018. The reasons given for the proposed merger were to help keep tuition cost as low as possible and maintaining academic quality. [ 16 ] In 2019, the institution's application to become a university was approved by the state board of education and it changed its name to Lasell University. [ 17 ]

Lasell University campus Lasell has been accredited by multiple agencies, including the New England Commission of Higher Education , [ 18 ] and offers bachelor's degrees in the liberal arts and professional disciplines. [ 19 ] Through its "Connected Learning" program, students work on off-site projects and assignments. [ 20 ] Lasell also offers graduate degrees in education, communication, sport management, athletic training, criminal justice, human resources, marketing, management (MS and MBA), and rehabilitation science. [ 21 ] In 2018, U.S. News & World Report listed Lasell College among only five other colleges with having 100 percent of its graduating seniors participate in an internship experience. [ 22 ] Master of Science in Criminal Justice Program Recognition In February of 2024, U.S. News & World Report named Lasell University's Master of Science in Criminal Justice Program one of its 2024 Best Online Programs. [ 23 ]

In 2022, Lasell acquired the Solstice Low-Residency MFA Program [ 24 ] from Pine Manor College , where it had been hosted since 2006. [ 25 ] Solstice is four-semester Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing . In the low-residency format, students complete five 10-day, on-campus residencies and four semesters in which they work with their faculty mentors remotely from their homes. Residencies occur in January and July and start the spring and fall semesters, respectively. Solstice students may concentrate in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, comics & graphic narratives, or writing for children and young adults. [ 26 ]