The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) formerly known as North Adams State College (NASC) is a
public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...
liberal arts college in
North Adams, Massachusetts
North Adams is a city in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its population was 12,961 as of the 2020 census. Best known as the home of the largest contemporary ...
. It is part of the state university system of Massachusetts. It is a member of the
Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges The Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) is a consortium of 30 public colleges and universities in 27 states and one Canadian province. Established in 1987, COPLAC advances the aims of its member institutions and drives awareness of the ...
. Originally established as part of the state's
normal school
A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...
system for training teachers, it now offers a wide variety of programs leading to
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
and
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
degrees, as well as a
Master of Education
The Master of Education (MEd or M.Ed. or Ed.M.; Latin ''Magister Educationis'' or ''Educationis Magister'') is a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree in education often includes the following majors: curriculum a ...
track.
History
![MCLA-MurdockHall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/MCLA-MurdockHall.jpg)
MCLA was founded in 1894 as North Adams Normal School, and it offered first instruction at post-secondary level three years later. By 1897, the Normal School enrolled 32 students (29 women, 3 men) and employed 4 teachers. In 1932, North Adams Normal School became State Teachers College of North Adams, added an upper-division curriculum, and started awarding bachelor's degrees. In 1936, it instituted graduate program. In 1960, it changed its name to North Adams State College and, in 1997, to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, reflecting its position as the public liberal arts college within the Massachusetts state university system.
In 2004, President Mary Grant led in the creation of the Berkshire Compact for Higher Education and MCLA Gallery 51. MCLA also is the lead partner in the Berkshire STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Pipeline Network.
In 2008, the Massachusetts Higher Education Bond Bill included $54.5 million for a new Center for Science and Innovation at MCLA. It opened in 2013 as the Feigenbaum Center for Science and Innovation.
In 2014, Grant left the college and Cynthia F. Brown was appointed Interim President. Although Greg Summers was initially named the new president, he later withdrew his acceptance, citing family health concerns. On December 9, 2015, Jamie Birge was named as president.
Academics
MCLA has a
rolling admissions plan. It requires graduation from an accredited secondary school or a GED. MCLA uses SAT or ACT composite scores for entrance consideration. MCLA accepts transfer students with grade-point average requirements or with an associate degree. MCLA is
accredited
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
by the
New England Commission of Higher Education
The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE) is a voluntary, peer-based, non-profit membership organization that performs peer evaluation and accreditation of public and private universities and colleges in the United States and other ...
.
MCLA awards the
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
and a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
on the undergraduate level and also confers
master's degrees
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in both education and business administration, as well as a
Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS). MCLA offers 19 major programs of study and 35 minors. On average, MCLA offers 300 academic courses each semester.
Graduation from MCLA requires completing 120 credits of academic work. Of these, about 40 must in the college-wide core curriculum. Another 40 credits are required for a major. At least 40 upper-division credits are required. At least 45 credits must be earned while the student is in residence at the college. Students must earn at least a 2.0 grade point average overall and a 2.0 in their major.
Distinctive educational programs
MCLA offers internships for undergraduates through the Berkshire Hills Internship Program. It also offers undergraduates coursework in other countries through its travel abroad program. MCLA belongs to the Massachusetts Council for International Education (MaCIE), College Consortium for International Studies (CCIS), and the
National Student Exchange
The National Student Exchange (NSE) is a member-based, not-for-profit consortium of accredited colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands that provides study away opportunities among its ...
(NSE). Through these associations and connections, students are sent on semester- or year-long programs to colleges around the world.
The college
Honors Program
Honors colleges and honors programs are special accommodation constituent programs at public and private universities – and also public two-year institutions of higher learning – that include, among other things, supplemental or alternative ...
includes ten percent of the student body for whom it offers special interdisciplinary courses in such topics as "The Mathematics of Fairness," "Ethics and Animals" or "The Romantic Movement." The college is authorized by the state to grant the distinction "Commonwealth Scholar" to students who complete the honors program with a capstone thesis.
Athletics
MCLA has 13 varsity sports. The college's varsity teams compete in the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
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 ...
(NCAA) at the
NCAA Division III
NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their st ...
level in the
Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference
The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Full member institutions are all located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with some affiliate m ...
(MASCAC). Active intercollegiate female teams are
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 ...
,
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 ...
,
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...
,
cross country,
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 ...
, and
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 ...
; while active intercollegiate male teams are
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,
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...
, cross country, tennis and soccer. The college also has
NERFU
The New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) is a Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams in New England.
Prior to 2013, NERFU had been a local area union ("LAU"), and part of the Northeast Rugby Union (NRU), which is the governing body fo ...
club
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
which was re-activated in 2011.
From 1963, the college's athletic teams were known as the Mohawks, after the
Mohawk Trail
The Mohawk Trail began as a Native American trade route which connected Atlantic tribes with tribes in Upstate New York and beyond. It followed the Millers River, Deerfield River and crossed the Hoosac Range, in the area that is now northwester ...
which runs along
Massachusetts Route 2
Route 2 is a major east–west state highway in Massachusetts. Along with Route 9 and U.S. Route 20 to the south, these highways are the main alternatives to the Massachusetts Turnpike/I-90 toll highway. Route 2 runs the entire ...
. In response to concerns over using a Native American name (Francis Boots, cultural-preservation officer of the Mohawk tribe, has told college officials that his people were not honored by the name), the mascot was changed to the Trailblazers in 2002. In 2013, a new mascot, the Mountain Lion, was adopted while in April 2019, the Trailblazer community named the Mascot "Murdock" after a vote of the campus community, alumni, and community members.
The most successful team in the college's history was the men's
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 ...
team, which was cut in 2003. However, MCLA will have men's and women's hockey teams beginning to compete again in the 2023-24 academic year.
Organization and administration
![NorthAdamsMA MCLA SmithHouse](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/NorthAdamsMA_MCLA_SmithHouse.jpg)
MCLA is governed by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. Beyond that, MCLA has extra-institutional representation of 11 voting members and the Board of Trustees, whose members are appointed by the governor which has 11 voting members. A student representative to the board of trustees is elected every spring by the student body to sit for one academic year. Administration positions include 12 men and 24 women. Academic affairs is headed by the vice president for academic affairs. Business and finances is headed by the vice president for administration and finance. Student affairs is headed by the vice president of student affairs. The full-time instructional faculty has 52 men and 36 women. The academic governance body, All College Committee, meets an average of nine times each year.
Publications
The school has two student publications: ''The Beacon'', a weekly newspaper, and ''Spires'', a literary magazine published each year
Radio Station WJJWbroadcasts for 140 hours each week, and episodes of the student-run college TV news program, Beacon Web News, are produced once a week.
MCLA also has one faculty publication: The Mind's Eye, and one alumni publication, ''Beacons & Seeds'', which comes out twice a year.
Notable alumni
*
Daniel E. Bosley - member emeritus of the
Mass. House of Representatives (''served'' 1986 - 2011)
*
Thomas Calter- member emeritus of the
Mass. House of Representatives (''served'' 2007 - ''2018'')
*Mary Grant - former president of MCLA and the first alumna to serve as president.
*
Ken Hill - retired MLB player.
*
Anton Strout - urban fantasy novelist.
[Anton Strout]
Anton Strout
s official Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
page, accessed June 6, 2011.
*
John Barrett III
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second ...
- state legislator, mayor of North Adams for 26 years
"MCLA Announces Appointments to Board of Trustees"
MCLA, April 2016 (accessed 2018-03-08).
* Derek Lalonde - head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, two-time Stanley Cup champion as assistant coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play th ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Massachusetts College Of Liberal Arts
Liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts
Educational institutions established in 1894
Buildings and structures in North Adams, Massachusetts
Universities and colleges in Berkshire County, Massachusetts
1894 establishments in Massachusetts
Public universities and colleges in Massachusetts
Public liberal arts colleges in the United States