Bay Path University is a private university in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Bay Path offers both all-women bachelor's degree programs (both on-campus and online), co-educational master's degree programs (both on-campus and online), an occupational therapy doctorate program, and an EdD in Higher Education Leadership & Organizational Studies program for men and women. The university also has The American Women's College on-ground and online offering bachelor's degree programs to adult women.
Founded in 1897 as the Bay Path Institute, the college has gone through several name changes. From 1988 to 2014 it was known as Bay Path College. Bay Path University is a member of the Cooperating Colleges of Greater Springfield, an eight-college consortium.
History
Bay Path was founded in 1897 as Bay Path Institute in Springfield, Massachusetts. Bay Path started as an urban, coeducational institute offering business teacher training, secretarial science, business administration and accounting degrees. The name Bay Path was derived from its location on the old Bay Path (a part of Boston Post Road), which united the western part of the state with what was once the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The first class in 1897 was 30 students, but Bay Path grew rapidly in its first few decades. In 1920, Bay Path bought the Clawson-Hamilton Business School of Brattleboro, Vermont, and renamed it the Brattleboro Business Institute. In the same year the competitor Griffin Business School was also purchased and integrated into Bay Path. Bay Path was one of the largest and most successful business schools in the highly competitive Northeast during this time, with a peak enrollment of 1,200 students taking classes in innovative, accelerated format. The institution struggled heavily, however, during the Great Depression and World War II, and by 1944 the institute was nearly bankrupt.
In 1945, the college moved to Longmeadow, Massachusetts, was renamed Bay Path Secretarial School, and became a women's only college. Four years later, the institution became Bay Path Junior College. In order to further expand its offerings, in 1988 Bay Path became a four-year degree-granting institution, and its name was changed to Bay Path College.
In 1999, Bay Path established an accelerated program for women to earn their bachelor's degree through a Saturday only program. In 2000, Bay Path began offering Master of Science degrees. After 14 years of offering master's degree programs, reaching 20 master's degree offerings in 2014, Bay Path changed its name to Bay Path University to reflect its status as both a bachelors' and masters' granting institution.
Academics
Bay Path University offers bachelor's, master's degrees, the Occupational Therapy doctorate, and the EdD. Degree programs are balanced between those with an arts and science focus and those with professional focus. The university has 30 major programs for bachelor's degrees and 30+ degree and certification programs at the graduate level. Bay Path has a student to faculty ratio of 12:1 in its undergraduate programs, and its freshmen retention rate is 74.3%.
While the master's degree programs are co-educational, the bachelor's degree programs are women-focused. Bay Path's focus on women is demonstrated through its WELL (Women as Empowered Learners and Leaders) program with all undergraduate students required to take three qualifying courses in their first, third, and fourth year (with an optional class in their second year). These courses focus on developing skills in learning (research, writing, speaking, analysis, and technology) and leading (identify strengths, setting of personal, academic and professional goals) while researching local and global issues that affect women.
Bay Path University is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Campuses
Longmeadow Campus
The primary campus for Bay Path University is in the suburban town of Longmeadow, Massachusetts, located in Pioneer Valley along the Connecticut River in New England. The campus is adjacent to the Longmeadow Historic District, notable for having over 100 homes built before the 1900s, and the college owns a number of historic homes in town. The heart of the Longmeadow campus started with the 1945 purchase of the Wallace estate. The 18-acre estate had three buildings in 1945: a Georgian American colonial mansion (now Leary Hall), a large garage with turntable for parking cars (Glen Hall), and a cottage (Annex). After decades of growth and expansion, the campus now holds 14 academic and administrative buildings and six homes principally used for faculty offices.