Worcester State University
Worcester State University (WSU) is a public university in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1874 and enrolls nearly 5,500 undergraduates and over 900 graduate students. History. Founded in 1874 as the Massachusetts State Normal School at Worcester, WSU was the fifth of nine teacher training colleges in the state. Spurred by the success of a city-run normal school founded two years earlier, its school committee successfully petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for a state-sponsored institution in Worcester. The original campus was located in a Second Empire-style stone building on St. Ann's Hill , near the city's downtown. By 1900, the campus included a president's house, the "Stoddard Terrace" residence hall, and a turreted gymnasium annex. This site would serve WSU for nearly sixty years until the current Chandler Street campus opened in 1932. The first “principal” of WSU, Elias Harlow Russell (1874–1909), shaped the school's early curriculum. A pioneer in the Child Study Movement that emphasized childhood development and educational reform efforts, Russell partnered with colleague G. Stanley Hall, who later became President of Clark University, to develop a program that placed normal school students in city schools. Russell was  later succeeded by Francis Randsom Lane (1909-1912). In the 1920s, WSU followed national trends in teacher education by introducing a broader array of college courses and a Bachelor of Science in Education degree in 1921. The Great Depression threatened the newly-christened Teachers College as the state proposed cost-cutting measures that would eliminate many schools. Presidents Dr. William B. Aspinwall (1912–1940) and Clinton E. Carpenter (1940–1946) led the college through this crisis and set the stage for post-war development under the presidency of Eugene A. Sullivan (1947–1970). President Sullivan oversaw the expansion of the WSU curriculum. In  1952, the college introduced a Master of Science in Education, and in 1963, a Bachelor of Arts degree. In that same year, the school was renamed Worcester State College. Sullivan also oversaw the development of a collegiate athletic system, introducing varsity sports in 1950 and constructing a new gymnasium building in 1958. President Robert E. Leestamper (1970–1975), further expanded graduate programs and introduced professional programs such as nursing and business. In 1973, Chandler Village was created as the first residence halls on the Chandler Street campus. The tenure of Presidents Joseph J. Orze (1975–1982) and Phillip D. Vario (1982–1992) expanded  the campus with the addition of a student center and a new residence hall, named Dowden Hall, as well as continued support of varsity sports and degree offerings in speech and occupational therapy. Under the tenure of President Vario, the school joined the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities. The Worcester State Foundation was created in 1994, during the presidency of Kaylan K. Ghosh (1992–2002), to support school fundraising efforts. During the following decade, the campus grew to include the new Ghosh Science and Technology Center, as well as an additional residence hall and parking structure, which was built during  the tenure of President Janelle C. Ashley (2002–2011). In 2010, WSU reorganized into two schools: the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the School of Education, Health, and Natural Sciences. Later that year, the state granted Massachusetts State Colleges, including Worcester State, university status. In 2011, Worcester State installed its eleventh president, Barry M. Maloney. That same year, students and faculty relaunched the "Worcester Spy", a newspaper originally founded in 1775. At the end of the 2020-2021 academic year, nearby Becker College voted to shut its doors, and transferred ownership of their academic records to Worcester State. Campus . WSU is located on Chandler Street in the Tatnuck neighborhood of Worcester. The 58-acre campus includes woods and wetlands, and features an east-facing slope with buildings directly on its hillside. In the late nineteenth century, the campus was the site of "Willow Farm", home of William Sever Lincoln (1811–1889), who led the 34th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment during the American Civil War and was brevetted Brigadier General in 1865. He was the son of Levi Lincoln Jr., former Governor of Massachusetts. In 1930, the original site was acquired for WSU's new campus and, in 1942, an additional thirty -five acres were added, forming the current layout. Today, about thirty-percent of full-time students reside on campus. Athletics. WSU Athletics is a Division III member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), of which it is a charter member. The field hockey and women's tennis teams also compete within the Little East Conference (LEC). Formerly, the men's football team played in the Commonwealth Coast Football (CCC) between 1985 to 2013. Their main venue is the John F. Coughlin Memorial Field, a two-thousand seat capacity venue that is  located on Chandler Street. Teams also use the Wellness Center, Rockwood Park, and the Worcester Sports Center for games. Coughlin Field was the home soccer field of the Worcester Kings of the Premier Development League for their only two seasons before dissolving. The athletic department currently sponsors men's intercollegiate baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey, indoor and outdoor track and field, and soccer, and women's intercollegiate basketball, cheerleading, cross country, field hockey, indoor and outdoor track and field, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, and volleyball. Intramural sports include coed soccer, coed flag football, street hockey, dodgeball, wiffle  ball, floor hockey, stickball, indoor soccer, ultimate, and softball. The men's basketball team has reached the MASCAC Men's Basketball Tournament finals five times since the tournament's inception in 1990. They won the championship in 1994, under head coach Tom Moore. The women's team won the 1980 AIAW National Division III Basketball Championship. The men's hockey team notably won the first three ECAC Northeast Tournaments, namely in 1972, 1973, and 1974, and then again in 1977. However, the team has not won since. They also won the last WCHL Tournament in 1972. The team has also  competed in the MASCAC Men's Hockey Tournaments, which began in 2010, and the Codfish Bowl, founded in 1965, but have never won either tournament. The current coach is Shayne Toporowski. In 2000, Russ Watson of the men's football team set NCAA Division III records for most sacks in a season (24) and most sacks per game in a season (2.7), which still stand today. In 2003, Greg Wood of the men's football team, became the first and only Lancer to receive the Nils V. "Swede" Nelson Award. In 2016, WSU unveiled a new mascot, named Chandler H.  Lancer, at the Worcester Art Museum. The "H" is in honor of President Russell, the university's first leader. The sports teams simply go by the name of the Lancers for both male and female sports. The current Director of Athletics is Michael Mudd.