Monmouth University

Early years The school that would become Monmouth University was founded in 1933 as Monmouth Junior College, a two-year junior college under Dean Edward G. Schlaefer. Created in New Jersey during the Great Depression , Monmouth Junior College was intended by Schlaefer to provide an opportunity for higher education to high school graduates in Monmouth County who could not afford to go away to college. [ 4 ] The junior college did not have its own campus at the time of its founding and was housed at Long Branch High School in Long Branch . [ 5 ] Due to sharing a building with a high school, classes were taught during evening hours after the high school students had departed. [ 4 ] Monmouth Junior College opened to students on November 21, 1933. The junior college's first student enrollment was reported at 325, all graduates from Monmouth County high schools, with a faculty of 12 instructors. Federal reemployment funds financed the junior college, with approximately $18,000 approved by New Jersey Director of Emergency Relief John Colt. [ 5 ] In 1947, the school received full college accreditation from the New Jersey Board of Education to award associate degrees to students. 100 students became the first recipients of associate degrees from Monmouth Junior College the following year. Support from students and the community is credited with helping the school continue to teach classes and become a privately funded institution . [ 6 ]

Monmouth Junior College acquired its own campus in 1955 when it relocated from Long Branch to the estate of Shadow Lawn in West Long Branch . The estate was purchased from Eugene H. Lehman for $350,000 (equivalent to $ 4.1 million in 2024 ). [ 7 ] In addition to the monetary cost, Lehman signed over the estate under the condition he would serve as the school's president for one year. [ 5 ] A year later, the school was renamed Monmouth College when it was accredited by the state to offer four-year programs that would award bachelor degrees to students. [ 6 ] Through the agreement that granted Shadow Lawn to the school, Lehman became the first president of Monmouth College from 1956 to 1957. Schlaefer resumed leadership after Lehman's tenure, serving as president from 1957 to 1962. Monmouth's first commencement was held at Shadow Lawn the same year that Schlaefer assumed the presidency and the first bachelor's degrees were awarded the year after, in 1958. [ 5 ] The 1960s saw further growth for Monmouth in campus size, athletics, student life, and academics. At the start of the decade, the Murry and Leonie Foundation transferred ownership of the Murry Guggenheim House to Monmouth, which became the school's library. [ 8 ] The transfer also included a stable and carriage house that would be converted into the Lauren K. Woods Theatre . [ 9 ] Elmwood and Pinewood, Monmouth's first campus residence halls, opened in 1963, while the William T. Boylan Gymnasium was built in 1965 as a new home for the basketball team . Additional property was acquired by the college in 1969 when Monmouth was granted ownership of Maurice Pollak's home, the site of what would become Pollak Theatre. Amid the campus expansion, Monmouth College received authorization from the state to offer graduate programs and award master degrees in 1967.

[ 5 ] Monmouth's 50th anniversary in 1983 was coincided by its athletics program being granted Division I status from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams representing Monmouth competed in the Northeast Conference for the next three decades. The 50th anniversary also saw the first Founders' Day at Monmouth, which would become an annual tradition. [ 10 ] Four years later, the school's Athletics Hall of Fame was established. [ 5 ] The school's athletic program was joined by a football team in 1993.

Rebecca Stafford Student Center A significant development occurred for Monmouth in 1995 when it was granted university status by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education , resulting in the school being renamed Monmouth University. The university status was obtained under the leadership of Rebecca Stafford, the school's first female president, who described Monmouth as being "on the move". [ 5 ] The College Center, constructed in the 1970s, would be renamed the Rebecca Stafford Student Center in her honor. [ 11 ] The 21st century saw the completion of a pedestrian underpass on campus in 2001. By the end of the decade, the Multipurpose Activity Center replaced the William T. Boylan Gymnasium as the home of the men's and women's basketball teams in 2009. The new facility, which cost $57 million, was described by then-Senior Associate Athletic Director Jeff Stapleton as "probably the biggest undertaking that the institution has done". [ 12 ] The facility was renamed OceanFirst Bank Center in 2016 after Monmouth University and OceanFirst Bank reached a $4 million agreement through 2036 that included the naming rights of the facility. [ 13 ] The athletic teams would continue to compete in the Northeast Conference until 2013 when they moved to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). As the MAAC did not sponsor collegiate football, Monmouth's football team became part of the Big South Conference as an associate member. [ 14 ] All teams except for women's bowling joined the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) in 2022. [ 15 ] In 2025, Monmouth was classified as a research college and university in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education . [ 16 ]