|
Click on a link to be taken to the entry below.
It is the mission of Saint Michael’s College to contribute through higher education to the enhancement of the human person and to the advancement of human culture in the light of the Catholic faith.
Saint Michael’s Institute was founded in 1904 at Winooski Park, Vermont, by members of the Society of Saint Edmund. These priests and brothers, known as Edmundites, came to Vermont in the late nineteenth century after having experienced religious persecution in France. The decision to minister to the educational needs of God’s people in the Green Mountain State proved to be most fortunate; the Vermont location, on a plateau just outside the city of Burlington, with views of both the Green Mountains and the Adirondacks across Lake Champlain, has provided a beautiful setting for the development of an attractive campus that has become a distinguishing feature of Saint Michael’s College.
As the Institute developed into an American-style college, the farmland became a campus. Founders Hall (1904), the original building in which everything took place in the early years, was later supplemented by Jeanmarie Hall (1921). The College grew very slowly over its first forty years, reaching only about 250 students by the end of World War II. After the War, however, with the return of military veterans, Saint Michael’s expanded dramatically to 1,145 students. Barracks were acquired from nearby Fort Ethan Allen to serve as classroom buildings, the library and student residences. The College, almost resembling a temporary military installation, was setting the stage for its future development and place among American colleges and universities.
Since the 1950s, the temporary look of the campus has gradually been replaced by an array of fine permanent brick buildings of a consistent style. The integrated intellectual and religious character of the College is symbolized by a center green, anchored by the Chapel of Saint Michael the Archangel (1965) at one end and Durick Library (1968) at the other. The pattern of having the academic and activity buildings on the south side of the green continued with the construction of Cheray Science Hall (1949), Ross Sports Center (1973) and McCarthy Arts Center (1975). On the north side are the residential facilities, including Alliot Hall Student Center and dining room (1960), the “Quad” dorms (Ryan, Alumni, Joyce, and Lyons), townhouse residences, Cashman Hall (2002), and Pontigny and Canterbury Halls (2004).
Further development of its academic and student-life programs prompted Saint Michael’s to upgrade facilities to support excellence in all its activities. Saint Edmund’s Hall (1987) is an academic center for classrooms and faculty offices; the renovated and expanded Durick Library (1992) is a first-class, computerized college library; Cheray Science Hall (1993) was modernized and enlarged to provide improved instructional and research facilities; renovations of Alliot Student Center (1992 and 2004) created attractive dining and other spaces; the Tarrant Recreation Center (1995), Duffy Turf Field (2005) and athletic fields added impressive facilities to Ross Sports Center; and networking of the entire campus was done in 1996 for academic and administrative purposes. In 2002, wireless capability was installed in the library and is being extended into other academic buildings and the student center. In recent years, Saint Michael’s has created an exceptional campus environment to foster student learning and development.
Over the past century, Saint Michael’s has developed into a quality, Catholic, residential, liberal arts college, drawing undergraduate students primarily from the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. In the early 1970s, a very important step was taken when Saint Michael’s became fully coeducational. With a full-time undergraduate population of about 2,000 students, Saint Michael’s has reaffirmed its emphasis on the liberal arts and sciences for all students, while offering preprofessional programs in accounting, business, education and journalism as well.
Saint Michael’s College seeks to fulfill the institution’s mission through the pursuit of three interrelated goals:
- to be an academic community that promotes the pursuit of truth, the development of virtue and high levels of excellence in all its academic, social and religious programs with a view to bettering the human condition;
- to conduct its various programs in accordance with policies that are consistent with the principles of the Catholic faith, especially those of truth, justice and charity, and to promote these principles, in fulfillment of its mission throughout the world; and
- to enrich the knowledge of Catholicism in its various dimensions and in relationship to various disciplines and fields of knowledge and to promote the moral and spiritual development of the entire College community.
In the aggregate, Saint Michael’s website—www.smcvt.edu—presents a comprehensive vision of the institution as a superior, Catholic, liberal arts, undergraduate, residential college, excelling in the preparation of students for lifelong learning in a global society. |
