Sacred Heart University


Sacred Heart University is a private Roman Catholic university in Fairfield, Connecticut. Sacred Heart was founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut. Sacred Heart was the first Catholic university in the United States to be staffed by the laity.
Sacred Heart is the second-largest Catholic university in New England, behind Boston College, and offers more than 80 degree programs to over 8,500 students at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels.
Undergraduate students study at Sacred Heart's international campuses in Dingle, Ireland and Luxembourg, including freshmen participating in pre-fall and Freshman Fall Abroad programs. On the main campus, academic facilities include the Frank and Marisa Martire Business & Communications Center and the Center for Healthcare Education.

History

was founded in 1963 by the Most Reverend Walter W. Curtis, Bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport on the grounds of the former Notre Dame Catholic High School. The University was to be led and staffed by the laity independent and locally oriented. Former American ambassador and Diplomat Thomas Patrick Melady served as President of the University from 1976 to 1986.
Enrollment has risen from the original class of 173 to over 8,500 full and part-time undergraduate and graduate students, and the faculty has increased from 9 to 281 full-time professors and over 520 adjunct professors since 1963.
Sacred Heart has enhanced the undergraduate student experience in several notable ways. The first dorms, Scholars Commons, were built in 1991 giving the university the ability to accept students who wanted the residential experience. It now has 10 residential buildings with 50 percent of the full-time undergraduates residing in university housing.
The University offers Division I athletics with 32 varsity teams. The $17.5 million The William H. Pitt Health and Recreation Center is available to all students.
In the 1980s, former United States president George H.W. Bush received an honorary degree from Sacred Heart.
The University established a relationship with Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, and named its College of Business after him.

Recent history

On September 27, 2009, Sacred Heart University opened its new chapel, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit.
In 2012, the University opened a new student commons building dedicated as the Linda E. McMahon Student Commons after McMahon donated $5 million to the University. The new Commons includes dining facilities, lounge space, meeting rooms and several other amenities.
Also in 2012, the University approved construction of a new building for the Jack Welch College of Business and the School of Communication & Media Arts, called the Frank and Marisa Martire Center for Business & Communications. The building was designed by the Watertown, MA firm of Sasaki Associates.
In 2013, Sacred Heart opened its new Health and Wellness Center. The two-story, colonial-style, 5,800-square-foot building, situated on Park Avenue across from the main campus, serves as a place for acute health and medical needs and offers students counseling and therapeutic services.
In the summer of 2014, Sacred Heart broke ground for a new learning center, called the Student Success Center. The center provides educational support for students at the university and from the surrounding region. In the summer of 2015, the University started construction of the Center for Healthcare Education.
In 2015, Sacred Heart again broke ground on a new residence hall called Bergoglio Hall, named after Pope Francis, whose birth name is Jorge Bergoglio. The building includes a CrossFit fitness facility and a video game classroom for video game majors and members of the video game club.
In October 2016, Nikki Yovino reported to the police of being raped by two black Sacred Heart University football players at an off-campus party. Yovino has admitted, months later, that the sexual assault was a lie in an attempt to gain the attention of another man. She pled guilty to two counts of second-degree falsely reporting an incident and one count of interfering with police and was sentenced to three years in jail. The men, Malik St. Hilaire and Dhameer Bradley, were forced out of Sacred Heart University after losing their scholarships amid the false accusations. As of August 27, 2018, both men are no longer enrolled at Sacred Heart University and with no remediation for losing their scholarships.
In November 2016, Sacred Heart acquired the former GE corporate headquarters located near its main campus.

Academics

The university consists of five colleges: College of Arts & Sciences, which includes the School of Communication & Media Arts and the School of Computing; Jack Welch College of Business; College of Health Professions; College of Nursing and the Isabelle Farrington College of Education.
Sacred Heart University offers more than 80, bachelor's, master's, and doctorate programs. Sacred Heart also offers qualified undergraduates the opportunity to complete an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree with five to six years depending on the degree program.
Sacred Heart ranks extremely low in value for money since "you can receive a comparable education elsewhere at a better price" according to College Factual. In 2012, the university ranked as America's least affordable university in a Newsweek ranking.
According to the Princeton Review, "Sacred Heart University students are among the happiest and most engaged in community service compared to other U.S. colleges and universities"

Campus

The main campus is located in suburban Fairfield, northeast of New York City and southwest of Boston

Additional campuses

Theatre Arts Program

The Theatre Arts Program began in 2009 with the premiere of Sacred Heart University's first musical production: Rent. Other productions include Little Shop of Horrors in spring 2011, Spring Awakening in the spring of 2012, Nunsense in spring 2013, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee also in spring 2013, Boeing Boeing, Edges, and The Playboy of the Western World in the fall of 2013, Chicago and You're a Good Man Charlie Brown in spring 2014, Almost Maine" "Dogfight, and I Remember Mama in fall 2014, and Wait Until Dark, The Fantasticks, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in spring 2015. The Theatre Arts Program also features a student-produced, student-written, and student-performed festival called "Theatrefest", spanning through both the fall and spring semesters and is the home of Sacred Heart's own improv team: The Pioneer Players. In 2016, the program began its own rep program, Sacred Heart Rep. It is one of the largest student groups on campus. Sacred Heart recently expanded its Theatre Arts Program by launching its National Playwriting Competition & Intern Program.

Student government

The Student Government consists of nearly 75 student leaders from all four class years. All full-time undergraduate students have the opportunity to be elected or appointed to a position. There is a Student Government President, four Class Presidents, a Vice President of Finance, a Vice President of Student Events Team, a Vice President of Judicial Affairs, a Vice President of Senate, a Vice President of Campus Clubs & Organizations, a Vice President of Public Affairs, and an Executive Board Secretary. Each Class Board has a class president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, four senators, a community service chair, a fundraising chair, and an advertising chair. These students act as a direct liaison between the student body and the administration. They actively address student issues and concerns, promote campus and class unity and plan various campus wide events.

''The Spectrum''

The Spectrum is a student-run newspaper printed and distributed to students each Wednesday and made available online.

Community service

More than 1,200 students and members of the faculty and staff volunteer in excess of 31,000 hours each year largely within the City of Bridgeport, but also regionally, nationally, and internationally. The work of the Office of Volunteer Programs & Service Learning is at the heart of the overall mission of the University. The programs offered allow students to engage in the local community and in communities around the world. Nearly all of the programs are organized by student leaders who grow their leadership and professional skills as they work with community partners. There are weekly volunteer opportunities to local schools, soup kitchens and food banks, and senior centers. Students interested in a long-term weekly volunteer commitment can participate in a mentoring program, where SHU students work one-on-one with local Bridgeport students. The office also provides immersion programs and experiences.

Study abroad

SHU has the only American-accredited MBA program in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and a residential study-abroad program in the Irish-speaking community of Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland. International experiences are available to SHU students worldwide through study abroad programs located at The American University of Rome, in Italy, the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle, Australia, and the University of Granada, in Spain, as well as programs in Bermuda and the Bahamas.
SHU allows students to participate in CCIS programs, programs affiliated with other schools across the U.S. These programs include, but are not limited to: France, Argentina, Germany, Belgium, and Japan.

Athletics

The Pioneers compete in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the Northeast Conference, Atlantic Hockey, the New England Women's Hockey Alliance, Eastern College Athletic Conference, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, and the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. The NEC is the school's primary conference.
Nearly 800 students participate in the university's 32 athletic teams along with more than 500 students who participate in 23 Club Sports.
The football team plays at the Football Championship Subdivision level and claims an FCS title in 2001. Their biggest rivalry is with the oldest public university in Connecticut, Central Connecticut State University, in what has been dubbed the Constitution State Rivalry.
The men's basketball team won the Division II national title in 1986.
The women's basketball team won the Northeast Conference regular season title five times and the conference tournament three times and earned three trips to the NCAA Tournament.
The baseball team has won four NEC tournament titles and made four NCAA tournament appearances, led by Super Bowl XVII champion, Nick Giaquinto. The four conference titles are tied for the most in the conference.
The men's golf team won the Northeast Conference title in May 2008, 2009 and 2011.
The men's fencing team won the Northeast Conference title five years in a row and was ranked #9 in 2011.
On February 21, 2013, the Sacred Heart University athletics department hired longtime Major League Baseball player and manager Bobby Valentine as the athletic director.
The men's ice hockey program competes in the Atlantic Hockey conference.
The women's ice hockey program had competed as in independent from 2003 to 2019 at the National Collegiate level, with "National Collegiate" being the NCAA's official designation for championship events in sports in which members of Divisions I and II compete for a single national title. The Pioneers participate in the NEWHA, established in 2017–18 by Sacred Heart, fellow Division I member Holy Cross, and four Division II schools. Sacred Heart won the inaugural NEWHA tournament title in 2018. The NEWHA lost Holy Cross to Hockey East after that season, but returned to 6 members for 2019–20 with the arrival of LIU, a fellow NEC member that launched a new women's program. With the NEWHA soon to have the membership total required for an automatic bid to the NCAA women's tournament, the NEWHA formally organized as a conference in 2018, and received official NCAA recognition effective with LIU's arrival in 2019–20.
The wrestling team competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, the women's volleyball team competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association and the field hockey team competes in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Men's Varsity Athletic Teams:
Women's Varsity Athletic Teams:
Currently, there are thirty sports active on campus. The active clubs are:
Sacred Heart is home to eight national sororities, five national fraternities, one local fraternity, and two professional fraternities. Greek Life is one of the largest and fastest growing organizations on campus. Greek Life at SHU is home to a chapter of Order of Omega, a national Greek academic honor society.
Sororities:
8 National:
Fraternities:
5 National:
1 Local:
2 Professional:
Sacred Heart started out with several local Sororities and Fraternities; among them were Nu Epsilon Omega, Beta Delta Phi, Gamma Chi Zeta, Sigma Tau and Delta Phi Omega.

Notable alumni