College Profile:
Suffolk University

Boston's Suffolk University is a private, urban university committed to providing opportunities for motivated, capable students. The University places students at the center of its efforts and value structure.

Suffolk University has grown from humble beginnings in the Roxbury parlor of a lawyer who, in 1906, began offering law classes to working adults. Gleason L. Archer was determined to offer a "haven of opportunity" for those denied a legal education by virtue of social class, religion, or income.

In time, he decided to create "a great evening University" that working people could afford. The College of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1934 and the Sawyer School of Management — then known as the College of Business Administration — in 1937. Gleason Archer's commitment to offering opportunity to all continues to inspire the mission of the University to this day. Suffolk University seeks to build a community that includes all ages, races, and socioeconomic backgrounds by offering baccalaureate and graduate degree programs responsive to the needs of a wide spectrum of individuals.

The University is composed of three colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, the Frank Sawyer School of Management, and Suffolk University Law School.

In keeping with its historic mission of serving as many constituencies as possible, the University offers day and evening programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and is strongly committed to continuing education, with day-long and year-round scheduling flexibility and complete credit equivalency among day, evening and summer programs.

The University takes advantage of its location on Beacon Hill—near the state capital, government agencies, the courts, and medical, business and financial centers—to provide internships, cooperative education assignments, observation sites, and other forms of experiential learning and research. Throughout its history, the university has networked with the business, public administration, and legal communities to procure research opportunities, adjunct faculty, professional advice, and placement for graduates. Boston's varied cultural and historic attractions also are readily available to Suffolk students.

The College of Arts and Sciences provides a traditional liberal arts education with a professional component. It has 17 academic departments offering more than 50 programs of specialized study, including the University's first Ph.D. program in Psychology. In 1996, the New England School of Art and Design merged with the University to become a department known as New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University.

The Sawyer School of Management emphasizes pragmatic management education for pre-professional and working students. Its graduate and undergraduate programs develop competent, confident, and ethical students able to compete in a dynamic global economy by linking management concepts and practices.

The Sawyer School of Management began offering an MBA degree through the Internet in 1999. The eMBA makes business education accessible to students too busy to attend on-campus classes.

Satellite sites in Massachusetts are located on the campuses of Merrimack College in North Andover, which offers an MBA program, at Cape Cod Community College in Barnstable, where students may earn bachelor's degrees in Business Administration and in communications as well as MBA degrees, and at Dean College in Franklin, where BSBA and MBA degrees are offered.

Suffolk University also has a global presence, with a free-standing campus in Madrid, Spain, and a campus in Dakar, Senegal, where the Sawyer School of Management offers business education and intensive English-language training. A summer program at the Dakar campus is geared to American students interested in African culture, environmental issues, and politics.

Suffolk University has built a strong faculty in each of its three schools, based on solid academic credentials and a dedication to excellence in teaching, scholarship and service. Faculty members interact with students on a personal level, creating a motivating, exciting learning environment. The ratio of students to professors is 12:1, and classes are kept to an average size of 21 students. They are taught by faculty members, not by graduate student teaching assistants, in order to encourage stimulating student-faculty interaction. In this supportive community of scholars, motivation is stressed over competition. Professors have an open-door policy with students in order to keep the intellectual conversation going. Many students stay in touch with their professors long after graduation.

Acceptance into Suffolk University's freshman class is based on college preparatory curriculum, SAT I, and class rank. Extracurricular activities, recommendations, and a personal essay are factored into the evaluation of admission candidates.

In fall 2001, there were more than 7,000 students enrolled at Suffolk University, including 800 international students from 93 countries. They participate in intercollegiate sports, student government, service to the community, visual and performing arts, and an array of social groups. A University residence hall on Tremont Street houses more than 400 students, and a second residence hall is under construction, due to open in fall 2003.

Suffolk Universtiy students are frequently described as hard-working, responsible, career-oriented, and very practical in their approach to their education. The majority of students work a significant number of hours per week during their college career, facing multiple and often competing demands on their time. The overall size of the student body and the general emphasis on small classes and personal attention speaks to the institutional commitment to assist all students in maximizing their educational experience.

Editorial provided by Walter Caffey, Dean of Enrollement at Suffolk University.