Hilbert College is a private

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

college in

Hamburg, New York Hamburg is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 56,936. It is named after the city of Hamburg, Germany. The town is on the western border of the county and is south of Buffalo. Ham ...

. The college is named after Mother Colette Hilbert of the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph, who founded the school in 1957 to train teachers. Hilbert College enrolls approximately 800 students and grants both undergraduate and master's degrees.

Academics

Hilbert College offers 17 bachelor's degree programs on a semester schedule with summer sessions available. The graduate program operates on five-week sessions and was begun in 2011. suburban campus that consists of 11 buildings and several athletic fields. Franciscan Hall, the main administrative building, was opened in 1997. Bogel Hall and McGrath Library were the first buildings to open when the college moved from the FSSJ Motherhouse to the new Hamburg campus in 1969. St. Joseph Residence Hall and the Campus Center opened the following year. The college later added four new apartment-style residence buildings (2003); Trinity Hall (2009), Paczesny Hall (2006), and the Swan Auditorium (2006).

History

Hilbert College is named after Mother Colette Hilbert, founder of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph, which became the college's founding congregation in 1897 In 1957, the community founded Immaculata Teacher Training School to prepare and educate its members for service. The name would be changed to Immaculata College in 1960. In 1964, the college charter was amended to admit laywomen. Three years later, a new campus was constructed beside the Motherhouse of the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1969, having broadened its curriculum to include degrees outside of teacher training and expanded its enrollment to include both men and women, the institution officially became known as ''Hilbert College''. In 1992, Hilbert joined the NCAA and began to offer four-year degrees for the first time. Hilbert added its first graduate programs in 2011 as well as adult and evening bachelor-level programs in 2012. In 2021, Hilbert launched a new division for online programs, Hilbert College Global, and announced the expansion of its athletics programs to include football, men and women's track & field, and women's ice hockey.

Student life

Hilbert's student body is 58 percent female, 42 percent male.Eighty-seven percent of students are from Western New York and 85 percent are full-time students. Approximately 40 percent are first-generation college students. The college has 30 student-run clubs and organizations. Hilbert also has nearly 300 housing spaces in two residence halls and four campus apartments. The campus dining hall is in the upper level of the Campus Center.

Athletics

Hilbert College's athletic teams compete in

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

and are collectively known as the Hawks. As of fall 2022, the Hilbert College athletic association chairs 18 intercollegiate teams. Men's sports include:

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, cross country, football,

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

, soccer,

track & field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

. Women's sports include: basketball,

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thou ...

, cross country,

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

, soccer,

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, track & field and volleyball. The college also chairs mixed golf. The baseball, basketball, women’s bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, softball and volleyball compete in the

Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states of New York and Pennsylvania. ...

. The men's and women's lacrosse teams compete in the

United East Conference The United East Conference (UEC), formerly known as the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Mid-Atlantic region of t ...

. The Hafner Recreation Center features a gymnasium that serves as the home court for the Hawks basketball and volleyball programs. The FSSJ Field Complex opened on Hilbert's campus in September 2021, encompassing a 330’/400’/330’ baseball diamond and a 200’/225/200’ softball diamond. The FSSJ Complex was named in recognition of the college's founding congregation, the Franciscan Sisters of St. Joseph. Hilbert College has sent two teams to the NCAA National Division III Championship Tournament. The women's basketball program earned league championships, with back-to-back titles in the 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 seasons.

Notable alumni

Joseph Giglio Joseph Giglio (born September 12, 1954) is an american politician, who is serving as a member of the New York State Assembly since 2005. He first represented the 149th district from 2005 until 2012, before being redistricted to the 148th distri ...

’75 – New York State assemblyman.

References

External links

Hilbert College website

Official athletics website
{{authority control Franciscan universities and colleges Catholic universities and colleges in New York (state) Universities and colleges in Erie County, New York Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities Educational institutions established in 1957 1957 establishments in New York (state) Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo