Iona College (New York)


Iona College is a private Catholic college in New Rochelle, New York. It was founded in 1940 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers and occupies a campus of.
Iona College offers more than 60 undergraduate programs and 45 graduate programs in the School of Arts & Science and the LaPenta School of Business. An honors program, with special courses, seminars, mentoring, advising, and off-campus opportunities, is available to top students. The college also offers graduate courses in Manhattan and has 14 study abroad programs.
As of academic year 2018-19, the institution enrolls approximately 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds representing 35 states and 47 countries of origin.

History

Founded in 1940 by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, Iona College is a private, coeducational institution of learning in the tradition of American Catholic higher education.
In 1919, the administrators and board members of the Iona School – a grade school founded three years earlier by the Irish Christian Brothers – negotiated the purchase of an 18-acre parcel of land in New Rochelle's Beechmont neighborhood for $85,000 from the land owner, retired Presbyterian minister Thomas Hall.
In 1940, the idea of the College's founding community of Brothers was to start a small, affordable college for the sons of New York's working class. At the time, the Christian Brothers taught in seven high schools in the Archdiocese of New York, including Iona Prep, All Hallows, Rice High School, and Power Memorial. They recognized that many of their graduates could not afford the cost of local universities, and so began to form Iona College.
In June 1940, members of the Iona School community, along with members of the school's Mothers’ Club, gathered to dedicate a new science building on the school's campus – the building that the Mothers’ Club has raised $100,000 to build. It was there that they learned that just one day prior, not only had permission been granted to form Iona College on the same campus as the Iona School, but that the College would be commandeering the new science building for its own. The building would be named Cornelia Hall after the first president of the new Iona College.
On September 19, 1940, Iona College opened its doors with nine Christian Brothers and six lay faculty greeting the first class. The Christian Brothers named the College after Iona, the island monastery of St. Columba located off the west coast of Scotland. Columba founded the monastery in 563 AD. The Congregation of Christian Brothers was itself founded in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice in Waterford, Ireland.
Previous to opening in New York, the brothers taught at Saint Mary's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They had been brought in from Bonaventure College in Saint John's, Newfoundland. They operated the Halifax institution until 1940 when they were given a tearful sendoff after a run-in with the new archbishop, John T McNally.
In fall 1941, Iona College began its academic year with 121 freshmen and sophomores, but America's entry into World War II caused Iona's small enrollment to decline by the year's end. Only three members of the entering class went on to receive BA degrees in August 1944. Despite this, the life of the College survived.
When World War II concluded, returning veterans, helped by the GI Bill and attracted by Iona's practical majors, soon stretched the College to capacity. In 1948, 71 men graduated; by 1950, the number was up to 300.
In June 1966, Iona College issued diplomas to its first graduate students – which included two clergymen who earned their master's in pastoral counseling. By 1968, the College conferred its first MBA degrees.
In 1969, Iona College, which was traditionally male, welcomed its first freshmen class that included women, officially making the College fully co-educational. Approximately 200 women, one-quarter of the freshmen class, registered that semester. Prior to this point, female students had been part of campus in graduate programs, summer classes and cross-registration agreements with neighboring traditionally female institutions.
In 1989, Elizabeth Seton College of Yonkers, New York, a two-year junior college, merged with Iona College, becoming the Elizabeth Seton School of associate degree Studies within the College. The program existed until 1995, when Iona College reevaluated and reaffirmed its mission to be a four-year institution, and the Seton School of associate degree Studies was closed.
In 2011, Iona College stated that it had reported inflated figures from 2002-2011 about "acceptance rates, SAT scores, graduation rates, and alumni who give annually" in a bid to influence college rankings. Afterward, an internal audit office was established to ensure data integrity.
On September 19, 2015, the College celebrated its 75th anniversary. Starting in spring 2015, Iona College embarked on a year's worth of celebration in honor of the anniversary. The observance of this occasion extended into spring 2016, in commemoration of the College's first year, 1940-1941.

Presidents

  1. Br. William B. Cornelia, CFC, PhD
  2. Br. Arthur A. Loftus, CFC, PhD
  3. Br. William H. Barnes, CFC, PhD
  4. Br. Richard B. Power, CFC, PhD
  5. Br. Joseph G. McKenna, CFC, PhD
  6. Br. John G. Driscoll, CFC, PhD
  7. Br. James A. Liguori, CFC, EdD
  8. Joseph E. Nyre, PhD
  9. Seamus Carey, PhD

    Academics

The college is divided into two main academic units: a school of arts and science and a business school.
Through it 22 academic departments, the School of Arts & Science offers more than 40 BA, BS and BPS degrees and more than 25 master's degrees, as well as several non-degree certificate programs.
Iona's School of Business offers degree programs leading to the Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting, business administration, finance, information systems, international business, management and marketing. The school also has a fast track MBA program, which is geared toward people who want to gain an edge in their chosen field. The Fast Track MBA shaves 10 months off the length of traditional MBA programs by offering courses in a sequence that guarantees a speedy graduation. On the school's website, its mission is stated as "The School’s commitment to Catholic Higher Education in the Christian Brothers’ Tradition coupled with our AACSB – International accreditation assures that the student is at the core of everything we do." In November 2015, Robert LaPenta, Iona alumnus, gave the college with a $15 million gift to add to and renovate the School of Business facility, Hagan Hall. Mr. LaPenta later added $2.5 million to the pledge as part of a .
The Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation was established in 2017, thanks to the $15 million gift to Iona from alumnus and Trustee Chairman James Hynes and his wife, Anne Marie.
Iona’s study abroad program offers 14 different cultural immersion opportunities:

Accreditations

Academic lecture halls at Iona College include Murphy Center, McSpedon Hall, Arrigoni Center, Doorley Hall, Cornelia Hall, Amend Hall, Ryan Library and Hagan Hall. More recent additions to the campus include the Robert V. LaPenta Student Union, the expanded Hynes Athletic Center, the Hynes Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the residence hall in the heart of campus, East Hall, and the North Avenue Residence Hall.
Hynes Athletic Center hosts training centers for the college's Division 1 teams in addition to the 2,611-seat multi-purpose arena which hosts year round activities.
The Iona College Libraries hold over 250,000 volumes and multimedia resources as well as 500 current print periodicals. In addition the libraries provide access to thousands of electronic resources and journals for both on and off-campus users.
Iona became the first metro-New York college with a completely wireless Internet campus in September 2001.

Residence Halls

Loftus Hall

Loftus Hall, designed to house first-year students only, is a 10-floor building. Each floor has six suites of two bedrooms, one handicapped room which houses two people, and the RA room. Loftus features a small computer lab, a kitchen, a laundry room, a quiet meditation room, a study lounge, and a vending lounge/game room.

Conese and Hales Halls

Conese Hall and Hales Hall were built in 2005. Both have six floors, with four rooms on each floor: one suite of seven and three suites of 10. Each suite has two bathrooms, a small kitchenette, and a common room/living room type arrangement. North Hall was renamed to Conese Hall at Homecoming 2008, October 4, 2008, to acknowledge a $5 million gift to the college from Anna May and Eugene P. Conese. In April 2017, South was renamed in recognition of Alice Marie and Thomas E. Hales ’58, ’04H for their leadership commitment to the Iona Forever campaign and a lifetime of generous support to the College.

Rice Hall

Rice Hall, nestled in the quiet back corner of Iona's campus, is primarily a single occupant dorm, though there are rooms for two, three or four persons. It is the oldest residence hall at Iona, and was originally used to house the Christian Brothers as well as the brothers in training. The building is four floors, with laundry services being provided in the basement. Amenities include a game room, TV lounge, kitchen, computer lab, and gym. Over the summer of 2017, air conditioning was added to Rice, making all of the College's residence halls climate controlled.

East Hall

East Hall, located in the very center of campus on the site of the previous Walsh Hall, is three stories and holds an estimated 112 residents, accommodating students in a traditional corridor-style setting. There is an elevator in the center lobby area and lounges on both the second and third floors. It has rooms for groups of three and four students with a common bathroom on each wing. Each floor is separated by gender. The first and third floors are designated for female students and the second for males. Among its amenities are wireless Internet, cable television, and telephone lines in each room. The main floor has a kitchen area, a mail room, and laundry facilities.

North Avenue Residence Hall

Iona added its sixth on-campus residence hall when the North Avenue Residence Hall opened in August 2016. The upper six floors house more than 300 upperclassman students. Each suite consists of either two double rooms or four single rooms, two bathrooms, a common room, and a kitchenette. The corner of the building, which located opposite the college's main entrance, features open spaces with glass windows that look onto campus and downtown New Rochelle. The ground floor of the building is designated commercial space.

Apartments at Eastchester

Iona also holds several apartments in the Eastchester Apartment Complex, which is located down the block from the campus.

Clubs and organizations

There are currently more than 80 active clubs, Greek fraternities and sororities, and media organizations on campus.

Greek life

Greek Life at Iona includes four local sororities, two national sororities, one international fraternity, two national fraternities, and one local fraternity.

Athletics

The Iona College Gaels are part of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and participate in NCAA Division I programs.
Other members of the MAAC include Canisius College, Fairfield University, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter's College, and Siena College.

Notable alumni

Arts and entertainment