History
MCLA was founded in 1894 as North Adams Normal School, and it offered first instruction at post-secondary level three years later. In 1932, North Adams Normal School became State Teachers College of North Adams. Along with the name change, it added an upper-division curriculum and awarded the first degree (baccalaureate). Four years later, the school instituted an upper-graduate program. In 1960, the college changed its name to North Adams State College and, later in 1997, to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, the latter name reflecting its position as the public liberal arts college within the Massachusetts state university system.
In 2004, President Mary Grant initiated collaborations with other institutions to strengthen MCLA's leadership position. The college launched the Berkshire Compact for Higher Education and MCLA Gallery 51. MCLA also is the lead partner in the Berkshire STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Pipeline Network.
In 2008, Governor Deval Patrick signed the Higher Education Bond Bill that includes $54.5 million for a new Center for Science and Innovation at MCLA.
Read more about this topic: Massachusetts College Of Liberal Arts
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)