2009-2010 Catalogue
Western New England College
1215 Wilbraham Road
Springfield, Massachusetts 01119
Telephone 413-782-3111 800-325-1122
www.wnec.edu
In its annual "America's Best Colleges" rankings, U.S. News & World Report ranks Western New England College in the top tier of its "North" category among comprehensive colleges and universities.
In addition, the College is also featured in Colleges of Distinction, a college guide and website profiling institutions characterized as America's best values in higher education.
The official 2009-2010 Western New England College Catalogue is online at www.wnec.edu/catalogue.
The following sections can only be found online:
• Undergraduate course descriptions
• Graduate course descriptions
• Scholarship information
• Legal matters
• Directories
Western New England College retains the right to change and/or amend the academic requirements as set forth in this Catalogue as needs and circumstances require. Accommodations will be made for current students should they be adversely affected by amendments to or changes in the curricula or policies of the College.
Non-Discrimination Policy
Western New England College is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in education and employment. The College does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, creed, national origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities. The following person has been designated to handle inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policies: Executive Director of Human Resources, Western New England College, 1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA 01119-2684. Inquiries concerning the application of nondiscrimination policies may also be referred to the Regional Director, Office for Civil Rights, U. S. Department of Education, J. W. McCormack P.O.C.H., Room 222, Boston, MA 02109-4557.
About Western New England College
The College
Western New England College is a private, comprehensive, coeducational institution located on a 215-acre campus in a suburban neighborhood four miles from downtown Springfield. Originally founded in 1919 as the Springfield Division of Northeastern University, it became established with its own charter and identity as Western New England College in 1951. Building of the new and current campus began in 1958.
Programs, Schools, Faculty, and Students
Western New England College offers a wide range of undergraduate degree programs as well as graduate programs in Arts and Sciences, Business, Engineering, and Law. There are 177 full-time faculty members in the College's four schools. The College also offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs at four additional sites in Massachusetts.
The College enrolls approximately 4,000 students: 2,500 full-time undergraduates, 640 in full- and part-time programs in the School of Law, and approximately 560 in part-time undergraduate and graduate degree programs offered on campus and at the College's off-campus locations. The College attracts students from 38 states and three foreign countries. There are 39,000 alumni of the College.
Our Mission
The hallmark of the Western New England experience is an unwavering focus on and attention to each student's academic and personal development, including learning outside the classroom. Faculty, dedicated to excellence in teaching and research, and often nationally recognized in their fields, teach in an environment of warmth and personal concern where small classes predominate. Administrative and support staff work collaboratively with faculty in attending to student development so that each student's academic and personal potential can be realized and appreciated. Western New England develops leaders and problem-solvers from among our students, whether in academics, intercollegiate athletics, extracurricular and cocurricular programs, collaborative research projects with faculty, or in partnership with the local community.
At Western New England, excellence in student learning goes hand in hand with the development of personal values such as integrity, accountability, and citizenship. Students acquire the tools to support lifelong learning and the skills to succeed in the global workforce. Equally important, all members of our community are committed to guiding students in their development to become informed and responsible leaders in their local and global communities by promoting a campus culture of respect, tolerance, environmental awareness, and social responsibility. We are positioned well to accomplish these goals as a truly comprehensive institution whose faculty and staff have historically collaborated in offering an integrated program of liberal and professional learning in the diverse fields of arts and sciences, business, engineering, law, and pharmacy.
Our Core Values
• Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Scholarship
• Student-centered Learning
• A Sense of Community
• Cultivation of a Pluralistic Society
• Innovative Integrated Liberal and Professional Education
• Commitment to Academic, Professional, and Community Service
• Stewardship of our Campus
Our Vision for Approaching Our Second Century
In 2019 Western New England will celebrate its Centennial as an institution of higher education. Our focus will continue to be on the whole student, but in a twenty-first century context highlighting the demands of a diverse and global society, the accelerating pace of technology, and the necessity of attention to environmental sustainability. Our next decade will be marked by a continued dedication to excellence, visionary thinking, flexibility, and entrepreneurial spirit. We must continue to develop as a comprehensive institution offering an integrated program of liberal and professional undergraduate and graduate education while establishing ourselves in a position of regional leadership and national recognition.
History of the College
The Springfield Division of Northeastern College, known as Springfield-Northeastern, was established in 1919. Evening classes, held in the YMCA building on Chestnut Street in Springfield for students studying part-time, were offered in law, business, and accounting. The first 13 graduates were recognized in 1922 with the degree of Bachelor of Commercial Science. In 1923, the first seven law graduates were recognized.
In 1951, the Springfield Division of Northeastern University became Western New England College. The College was chartered on July 17, 1951. The demand for education, following the Second World War, compelled the College's officials to add academic programs at a new, larger site.
On April 26, 1956, 34 acres for the current Wilbraham Road campus were purchased. In that same year the first day program was started in engineering. The first building, originally known as East Building, and later renamed Emerson Hall in recognition of the College's first trustee chairman, Robert R. Emerson, opened in 1959. The College's charter was expanded in that same year to permit the College to grant the bachelor's degree in any field of business administration, science, engineering, education, and law, and certain master's degrees.
The School of Arts and Sciences was established in 1967, and the College received accreditation as a general purpose institution in 1972.
The College flourished on its new campus. The decades of the Sixties, Seventies, Eighties, and Nineties saw the College's academic programs expanding, its student body growing, and the addition of a number of buildings including the D'Amour Library, the S. Prestley Blake Law Center, the St. Germain Campus Center, the Alumni Healthful Living Center, and the LaRiviere Living and Learning Center. In 2001, The Evergreen Village townhouses opened for seniors. In 2002, the Kevin S. Delbridge Welcome Center opened, housing the admissions offices. Commonwealth Hall was added in 2003, providing housing for sophomore and freshman students. Golden Bear Stadium opened in 2003 and the George Trelease Memorial Baseball Park was completed in 2004. The campus originally consisted of 34 acres and has grown to 215 acres of contiguous property and 21 major buildings. Twenty-first century enhancements include a $1.9 million addition to the D'Amour Library in 2005 and a $5.5 million addition and renovation of the Blake Law Center in 2008.
In 2008, the College launched a Ph.D. program in Behavior Analysis. In spring 2009 it broke ground on a new residence hall. In fall 2009 the College welcomes its first class of pre-pharmacy students.
Educational Opportunities
The College provides students with an impressive range of educational options. Each program is unique in its integration of liberal arts and professional education, theory, and practice. Some programs prepare students for successful lives in business, industry, and for continued study in graduate school. In others, students receive hands-on, experiential learning through internships, work with faculty on their own research, and interact with organizations in the community. There is an emphasis on the integration of technology in all programs, and students are provided with an increased international perspective to prepare for work in today's global economy.
The faculty and staff are dedicated to personal interaction with students and to fostering an open environment conducive to personal growth. In addition to a wide range of academic programs, Western New England College also provides academic and other support services for students needing assistance in their studies and for those with disabilities.
The College provides opportunities for semester long and short seminar study abroad opportunities in England, China, France, Italy, Mexico, and many other countries. Furthermore, the College is located in an urban community with rich educational and cultural resources, and it participates in the Cooperating Colleges of Greater Springfield (CCGS), a consortium of colleges in which educational opportunities are enhanced through the sharing of resources.
Campus and Facilities
The campus is located in a residential section of Springfield at 1215 Wilbraham Road, about four miles east of downtown Springfield.
Classes are conducted in five major classroom-laboratory buildings that provide almost 70 classrooms and laboratories.
The St. Germain Campus Center serves as a focal point for student activities and services. Included within the center are the dining hall, a food court, the Java City Café, student lounges, convenience store, conference and student organization rooms, activity areas, and a bookstore. Law students enjoy eating and socializing in the Court Café in the Blake Law Center.
The College maintains several residence halls and apartment complexes that accommodate students in varied housing styles.
Facilities for intramural and intercollegiate athletics are available on the campus. Included are tennis courts, softball and baseball diamonds, and soccer fields. The College's multipurpose turf stadium serves varsity sports including football, field hockey, and lacrosse. The George E. Trelease Memorial Baseball Park provides an outstanding facility for the Golden Bears. A variety of athletic, recreational, and health-related activities are conducted in the Alumni Healthful Living Center, which serves the entire College community.
D'Amour Library
The D'Amour Library, which opened in 1983 and was expanded in 2005, offers users an inviting atmosphere for research and group and individual study. The library houses a collection of over 128,000 book, journal, and media volumes and provides access to over 40,000 periodical and monographic titles via electronic databases and subscriptions. In addition to its collection of materials that supports the curricula of the College, the library has 90 public computers located throughout the building's three floors that provide access to the Internet and to a variety of software applications. The campus wireless network is accessible within the library. Several individual study rooms are available for use as well as a number of group rooms for collaborative projects.
The library provides on-campus and off-campus access to its online catalog, WILDPAC, and to its numerous web-based resources through its webpage at http://libraries.wnec.edu. WILDPAC lists the holdings of both libraries on campus, the D'Amour Library and the Law Library, while also providing links to many of the other online library catalogs in the area. Other resources available from the library's webpage include JSTOR, Project Muse, MarketResearch Academic, Compendex, and several databases from FirstSearch, Gale Cengage, and EBSCOhost. Many of these online information resources provide the full text of indexed materials. Articles from the databases and from other online resources may be printed in the library at one of the five available network printers. Off-campus access to many of the online databases is limited to users affiliated with Western New England College.
The library's professional staff offers a full range of information services. Information literacy classes are offered by instruction librarians at the request of faculty to support research and writing assignments in their disciplines as well as to fulfill the general college information literacy requirement. In addition to formal instruction, librarians also provide reference assistance 61 hours per week, including weeknights and Sundays, during the academic year. Longer, individual reference appointments may be scheduled for more in-depth research.
The library is open seven days a week during the academic year. Holidays, summer hours, and exception days are posted in the library and on the library's webpage. Internet access to the library's online databases is available 24 hours a day for authorized users.
The Law Library
Renovated and expanded in 2008, the three-story School of Law library offers an extensive collection of print and electronic resources, as well as a highly trained and dedicated staff to assist students and faculty members in their research. The library's collection of approximately 400,000 volumes includes the newest research and reference volumes, reprints of important historical texts, electronic databases including LexisNexis and Westlaw, microforms, and selected CDs, DVDs and computer disks. The library is also a selective depository for federal government publications.
The library is open more than 100 hours per week. The only academic law library in western Massachusetts, this rich resource is valued by students, professors, and area legal professionals.
Technology Services
• All students, faculty, and staff have email accounts with privileges to forward campus mail to personal email accounts. Voicemail is available through a campus telephone system. Virus and SPAM Detection software is available to all at no charge.
• A campus-wide fiber network links all academic, dormitory, library, and administrative buildings.
• Administrative Systems Access Point (ASAP) permits student access to online course registration, degree audit, copies of their schedules, bills, and financial aid information.
• A student portal, MyWNEC, is available for all students (undergraduate, graduate, and law) permitting easy access to Web-mail and the Manhattan Virtual Classroom.
• Wireless networks are available in the Law School, School of Engineering, Campus Center, and D'Amour Library. Further expansion is being evaluated.
• More than 450 PCs are located in public access areas.
• Campus-wide, 52 classrooms have full multimedia capability with PCs connecting to the Internet, ceiling mounted projection systems, DVD/VCR players, and full sound features.
• Churchill Hall has 50 computers including a classroom and a computer lab.
• The Writing Center, located in Herman Hall, is equipped with 50 PCs in two computer rooms and includes printing services.
• The mathematics and computer science classroom/lab in Herman Hall 115 has 27 high-end PCs. A CS/IT Lab is available in Emerson Hall 101A.
• Specialized accounting and engineering labs are equipped with 24 and 63 PCs respectively.
• Sleith Hall has three classrooms, each equipped with 20 laptops for discipline related studies.
• D'Amour Library has access to numerous online catalogues and databases. It has a total of 90 public access PCs supported by five networked printers and four scanners. The Library houses a computer classroom (that faculty may reserve) with 38 PCs and dual multimedia projection technology. The Library is the home of the Digital Learning Center (DLC) where 33 of the PCs are located. The Collaboratory, or teamwork center, is where six of the PCs and three scanners are located.
• D'Amour Library has a state-of-the-art TV Studio and classroom with digital editing workstations for both audio and video content preparation.
• The Educational Technology Center, located on the ground level of the D'Amour Library, includes a training/conference room with ten PCs and multi-media projection technology.
• The LaRiviere Residential Living and Learning Center is home to a state-of-the-art computer classroom with 30 PCs. Multimedia projection technologies are also present in the four classrooms in this facility.
• The School of Law has eight classrooms with multimedia capabilities.
• The School of Law provides a wireless network that permits students with laptops to connect directly to the campus network and the Internet from the Law Library, classrooms, and lounges. The School also has dedicated networks connecting to external law research databases.
• The School of Law library houses two computer labs with 23 PCs and one MAC, which can be reserved by law school students. There are an additional 12 public access PCs with printing services.
• Loaner Laptops for special courses are available in D'Amour and Law School Libraries.
Professional and Regional Accreditation
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) regionally accredits Western New England College and all of its programs. Its professional programs are accredited by the following organizations:
In Arts and Sciences:
Programs in Education are approved by the Massachusetts Board of Education (MBE) and meet the standards of reciprocity of the Interstate Certification Compact. The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredits the Bachelor of Social Work program.
In Business:
The School of Business is accredited by AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Western New England College is the only private AACSB International accredited college in western Massachusetts. With accreditation, Western New England College is among an elite company of accredited business schools, which comprise 10 percent of business programs worldwide.
AACSB International accreditation represents the highest standard of achievement for business schools worldwide. Member institutions confirm their commitment to quality and continuous improvement through a rigorous and comprehensive multiyear review.
In Engineering:
The Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore MD, 21202-4012, 410-347-7700 has accredited the Bachelor of Science programs in Biomedical, Electrical, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering.
In Law:
The School of Law is accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA) and is a member of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS).
Membership
Western New England College is a member of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the College Entrance Examination Board, the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, the Council of Independent Colleges, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts. The School of Business is a member of AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.