Caldwell College - Origins and Accreditation

Origins and Accreditation

Caldwell College was founded as a Catholic liberal arts college for women (as Caldwell College for Women) by the Sisters of Saint Dominic under the leadership of Mother M. Joseph Dunn, O.P., with the approval of the Most Reverend Thomas Joseph Walsh, Archbishop of Newark, who became its first president. Sister Patrice Werner, O.P., became Caldwell’s seventh president in July 1994.

Caldwell College was incorporated on August 10, 1939, as an institution of higher learning for women under the laws of the State of New Jersey and empowered to grant degrees. In 1952, Caldwell College received full accreditation from the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. Caldwell has maintained this accreditation which was last reaffirmed in the Fall of 2005 when the Commission accepted the Periodic Review Report and commended the institution for the quality of the report.

In 1974, Caldwell College became the first institution in New Jersey to award the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In 1979, Caldwell became one of the few institutions in the state to offer a unique external degree program. In 1985, the Board of Trustees of the College voted to make Caldwell College fully co-educational, enabling men to enroll; Caldwell College welcomed the first full-time male students in the fall of 1986.

In November 1992, the New Jersey Board of Higher Education granted approval for the College to offer the M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction. During the summer of 1993, the first graduate students began classes.

The College now offers nine graduate programs or degrees, along with a number of Post Baccalaureate and Post Masters’ programs. Caldwell College was the first college in the state of New Jersey to offer a master's in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), an evidence-based approach to learning that is often used as a highly effective treatment for Autism. In 2009, Caldwell became the first and only college in New Jersey to offer a PhD in ABA. The ABA program is highly popular and the faculty is widely recognized. In 2000, the College was the first in New Jersey to offer a specialization in Art Therapy within the M.A. in Counseling Psychology; in 2001, the College initiated a Post Baccalaureate Teacher Certification Program in Special Education and a dual Certification Program in Early Childhood and Elementary Education and in 2003, the College began offering a M.B.A. program in the Business Department.