Georgian Court University (GCU or Georgian Court) is a

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Roman Catholic university in Lakewood Township, New Jersey. Founded in 1908 by the Sisters of Mercy, the university has more than 1,600 undergraduates and nearly 600 graduate students. The institution became a university in 2004 and began admitting male students in 1994 after more than 100 years as a women's college. The university is open to students of all faiths, while emphasizing its mission of Mercy, which incorporates respect, justice, integrity, compassion, and service. The Lakewood campus (main campus) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978Added on December 20, 1978: With and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985.

History

Location

The main campus was built in 1899 on the former summer estate of the millionaire

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, son of the railroad tycoon Jay Gould. The Goulds named their home ''Georgian Court'', probably after George or the

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-revival architecture. The estate was designed by Bruce Price, a New York architect, and was one of his most important residential works. He also designed three of the campus's gardens: the Italian Gardens, the Sunken Garden, and the Formal Garden.

Takeo Shiota was a Japanese-American landscape architect, best known for his design of the Japanese Hill-and-Pond Garden at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Biography Shiota was born about 40 miles (60 km) outside of Tokyo on July 13, 1881. He came to the ...

designed the Japanese Garden. In addition to the gardens, GCU has maintained much of the original architecture and the

Sister Mary Grace Burns Arboretum The Sister Mary Grace Burns Arboretum, on the campus of Georgian Court University, in Lakewood Township, New Jersey, United States, was once the landscaped park for the winter home of George Jay Gould, millionaire son of railroad tycoon Jay ...

. The estate was designated a National Historic Landmark for its architecture and its association with the Goulds. In March 2022, GCU announced that it had reached an agreement to sell 42 acres of mostly unused land at the edge of its campus and several administrative buildings along Lakewood Avenue to Beth Medrash Govoha for an undisclosed sum. The proceeds of the sale will be used to construct a new center for nursing and health sciences, to reimagine its Casino building (currently used as a multi-purpose office and event space) as a modern student center, to update its Mansion building (currently used for receptions) to be used as an administration hub, and to modernize its student housing/dorm facilities.

School

The Sisters of Mercy founded Mount Saint Mary College as a liberal arts school for women in 1908, in North Plainfield, New Jersey. In 1924, the sisters purchased Georgian Court estate and moved the college there, renaming it Georgian Court College. For more than a century, from 1908 to 2015, the institution was headed by Sisters of Mercy. The Sisters of Mercy organization continues to sponsor Georgian Court through the Conference for Mercy Higher Education. The full transition to a coeducational institution, admitting both women and men into all academic programs, became complete at the outset of the Fall 2013 semester. Georgian Court is the only Catholic college or university located in Central or South New Jersey. Most of its enrollment is drawn from these areas. In 2004, university status was granted by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education; the name was changed to Georgian Court University.

Administration and faculty

The first eight presidents (1908–2015) of the school were all Sisters of Mercy. The first male academic dean was appointed in 1967. In 2015, Joseph R. Marbach, Ph.D., became the first permanent

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president — and the first male — to take the helm of Georgian Court University.

Academics

Georgian Court offers more than 35 undergraduate majors and 10 graduate majors through the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Business and Digital Media, and the School of Education. In July 2021, the university formally created the Hackensack Meridian ''Health'' School of Nursing & Wellness at Georgian Court to house its undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. Georgian Court University is nondiscriminatory and welcomes people of all faiths. Beyond classes offered on the main campus in Lakewood, Georgian Court programs are also offered at GCU at Lincroft, New Jersey (at Brookdale Community College's Northern

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Campus), online and at other locations.

Athletics

The school colors are blue and gold, and the mascot is a lion. The Georgian Court University Lions have 14 sports teams that compete in the NCAA Division II. The university is a member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC). GCU features a 67,000-square-foot Wellness Center equipped for athletic training, physical education and sports competitions. In addition, a 1,200-seat arena, athletics fields which offer synthetic turf, a six-court outdoor tennis center, and an abundance of training space offer student-athletes modern facilities and on-campus resources for their sports and recreational activities. Women's sports include basketball, cross country, lacrosse, soccer, softball, track & field, and volleyball. As of fall of 2013, Georgian Court added men's sports when it became fully coeducational, adding men's basketball, cross country, soccer, and track & field. Men's lacrosse was added in the spring of 2016.

"Real tennis"

One of the many historic aspects of the campus is that it houses the only "

real tennis Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United Sta ...

" court, also called a "court tennis" court, at an American school. This indoor tennis court was built in the Casino building (which was a " casino" in the 19th-century sense of the term: a place for social gatherings). Approximately forty-five real tennis courts are still in use in the world today.

Gallery

File:Georgian Court, Lakewood, NJ - Sunken garden and marble stairway.jpg, Sunken Garden and marble stairway Image:Georgian Court University - Japanese Garden.JPG, Japanese Garden Image:Georgian Court University - Sculptural detail.JPG, Sculptural detail File:Georgian Court, Lakewood, NJ - Casino, eastern entrance.jpg, The Casino (unrelated to gambling) Image:Jeu_de_paume.jpg, '' Jeu de paume'' (

, 17th century)

References

External links

*
Official athletics website
{{authority control Educational institutions established in 1908 Real tennis venues National Historic Landmarks in New Jersey Former women's universities and colleges in the United States Catholic universities and colleges in New Jersey Sisters of Mercy colleges and universities Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey Lakewood Township, New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Ocean County, New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places 1908 establishments in New Jersey Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Universities and colleges in Ocean County, New Jersey Gilded Age mansions Georgian Revival architecture in New Jersey