Simmons University (previously Simmons College) is a private university in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established in 1899 by clothing manufacturer John Simmons. In 2018, it reorganized its structure and changed its name to a university. Its undergraduate program is women-focused while its graduate programs are co-educational.
Simmons is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2020, 83percent of applicants to undergraduate programs were accepted. The university is divided into two campuses in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood totaling , one of which has five academic buildings and the other of which has nine Georgian-style residential buildings.
The university enrolls approximately 1,736 undergraduates and 4,527 graduate students. Its athletics teams compete in NCAA Division III as the Sharks.
History
Simmons was founded in 1899 with a bequest by John Simmons, a wealthy clothing manufacturer in Boston. Simmons founded the college based on the belief that women ought to live independently by offering a liberal arts education for undergraduate women to integrate into professional work experience. Sarah Louise Arnold was the school's first dean; she also served as national president of the Girl Scouts.
Simmons is a member of the Colleges of the Fenway consortium, which also includes Emmanuel College, Wentworth Institute of Technology, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Simmons absorbed Garland Junior College in 1976. Wheelock College, a former member, merged with Boston University to become the Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development.
Simmons graduated its first African American student in 1914. Furthermore, Simmons was one of the few private colleges not to impose admission quotas on Jewish students for the first half of the 1900s.
The school's MBA program was the first in the world designed specifically for women. Today, the undergraduate program is women-centered, while the graduate schools are coed.
In 2014, Simmons College teamed up with for-profit online program manager 2U, a deal that would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues for the school.
In November 2014, the institution released an explicit policy on the acceptance of transgender students, claiming a strong tradition of empowering women and challenging traditional gender roles and a "rich history of inclusion." Its undergraduate program accepts applicants who are assigned female at birth as well as those who self-identify as women, making Simmons the third women-centered college in the United States to accept transgender women. Government documentation of gender is not required. Graduate programs are co-educational, so gender identity is not of concern.
In 2016, the MBA program went online as MBA@Simmons, and began admitting men.
In 2018, Simmons College changed its name to Simmons University after reorganizing the structure of the school.
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Simmons extended its Spring 2020 break to March 23 and then resumed instruction on a remote online-only basis. The campus and residence halls were closed and all summer programs were cancelled. The 2020–2021 academic year featured online instruction for a majority of programs. For the Spring 2021 semester, the residence halls opened at 50% capacity.
Campus
Simmons University is divided into currently two campuses located in the Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. One campus is home to five academic buildings referred to as the Academic Campus. The other campus, referred to as the Residential Campus, is home to nine residential buildings for undergraduate students. The original site of the Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work is featured on the Boston Women's Heritage Trail.
In November 2020, a plan for a single campus was launched by the university called One Simmons. This plan aims to combine the two campuses into a single campus and create a 21-story "Living and Learning Center." This will include 1,100 dorm rooms, classrooms, and athletic facilities. Additionally, the plan outlines renovations to the Main College Building and Lefavour Hall. Lefavour Hall specifically will be outfitted with a new library and a new state of the art science center. Following the completion of these renovations in spring of 2022, the Park Science Center has been closed. It is going to be taken down to build the new Living and Learning Center. The project is scheduled to break ground in Fall 2022 and open in 2025.