A Message from Dr. Nancy Kleniewski, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Whether you are a visitor or a member of our community, I welcome you to our campus and hope you will take time to discover the outstanding programs, excellent facilities, and special people who call Bridgewater State College their intellectual home.

Bridgewater was a pioneer in public higher education in the United States. In 1840, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, and Horace Mann founded the Bridgewater Normal School. In 1846, the college established its permanent home with the first building in America constructed for the purpose of training teachers, on the present-day campus.

Today, BSC is the comprehensive public college serving Southeastern Massachusetts. The largest of the Massachusetts state colleges, its enrollment numbers more than 9,500 students, with 255 full-time faculty and more than 100 undergraduate and graduate academic programs. The campus has grown to 240 acres and 30 buildings linked by a high-speed wireless voice, video, and data network.

While maintaining its historic focus on the preparation of teachers, Bridgewater today is a vibrant community of students and scholars and provides an outstanding range of degree programs through the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education and Allied Studies, and the School of Business. At the graduate level, the college offers master’s degree programs and certificates of advanced graduate study, as well as a joint doctoral program in educational leadership.

We are proud of Bridgewater’s leadership in the adoption of technology. Through its extensive information technology resources, including the unique John J. Moakley Center for Technological Applications, the college has made technology an integral component of teaching and learning on campus and serves as a regional resource on technology in higher education, K-12, and government and business settings.

At Bridgewater, we encourage students to work closely with faculty in a variety of ways. Learning communities on campus, internships in the workplace, the Honors Program, and undergraduate research help students develop new skills and apply their classroom learning with individual guidance from faculty. Special programs such as the Canadian Studies Program, the Institute for Regional Development, and International and Exchange Programs enrich academic life for students and faculty alike.

I invite you to look through our academic programs and our Catalog to see the broad array of our educational opportunities.

Last Modified: December 21, 2005