Hilbert College is a private Franciscan college located in the Town of Hamburg, about 20 minutes south of Buffalo, New York within the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. The college is named after Mother Collette Hilbert of the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph, who founded the school to train teachers in 1957. Hilbert College is a coeducational liberal arts college that currently enrolls approximately 1,100 students and grants both undergraduate and master's degrees.
History
Hilbert College, founded on the principles of the Catholic faith and the Franciscan philosophy of the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Joseph (FSSJ), was established under the vision and leadership of Sister Mary Edwina Bogel. Originally affiliated with the Catholic University of America, it was named the Immaculata Teacher Training School, and its first classes were offered to nine FSSJ sisters at the FSSJ Motherhouse in Hamburg.
Sister Edwina was named the first president and dean of the college. In 1960, the name of the institution was changed to Immaculata College; in 1969 it was renamed Hilbert College in memory of Mother Colette. Lay women were first admitted to the college in 1964. It became coeducational in 1969.
Fueled by the changes in admission policy, enrollment reached 407 by the fall of 1969, more than double the previous year’s enrollment, and topped 500 a year later. To make room for the growing student population, ground was broken in 1967 for a new campus adjacent to the Franciscan Sister Motherhouse. In the fall of 1969, the Academic Building and McGrath Library were opened, while the St. Joseph Residence Hall and Campus Center were formally dedicated in May 1970.
Sister Edwina retired as president in 1973, and the Academic Building was renamed Bogel Hall in her honor. Sister Edmunette Paczesny was named president in 1974 and would lead the college through more great changes over the next three decades.
The biggest transition came in 1992 as Hilbert moved to a four-year bachelor's degree-granting college. Hilbert also began partnerships with other educational providers, entering into agreements with St. Bonaventure University to offer a master's degree and certification at the Hamburg campus.
During her 32 years as president, Sister Edmunette oversaw several major capital improvements. Among the new construction projects: the Hafner Recreation Center (1979), four apartment-style residence buildings (2003), an administration building (Franciscan Hall, in 1997), the 430-seat Swan Auditorium (2006) and a new academic building named in her honor, Paczesny Hall (2006).
Enrollment continued to rise, though at a much slower rate. The student body topped 1,000 students for the first time in 2003.
Sister Edmunette retired from the presidency in 2006. Cynthia Zane, who previously served as the dean of the faculty at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, became Hilbert’s third president and its first lay president later that year.
In 2009, Hilbert opened Trinity Hall, the college’s first new residence hall in nearly 40 years. Hilbert added its first graduate programs - in public administration and criminal justice administration - in 2011, and began offering accelerated bachelor's degree programs in conflict studies & dispute resolution and organizational development for adult learners in 2012.
Academic Programs
Hilbert College offers 16 bachelor’s degree programs, including psychology, digital media and communication, criminal justice, forensic science, computer security and information assurance, and Western New York’s first undergraduate Rehabilitation Services program.
The college also offers two bachelor’s level accelerated degree programs (conflict studies and dispute resolution and organizational development), and programs leading to Associate in Applied Science and Associate in Arts degrees.
Hilbert operates on a semester schedule with summer sessions available. The accelerated degree programs feature seven-week sessions (offered six times per year) with a hybrid classroom/online class model. The graduate program operates on five-week sessions.
The undergraduate student-faculty ratio is 13:1. Hilbert helps students transition to college life with its First-Year Experience (FYE) program, which includes faculty/staff mentoring, seminars, guest lectures, and other tools to promote academic success and persistence to graduation.
Hilbert also offers an Honors Program for its top students across all majors.
In 2011, Hilbert College began offering Masters level degree programs in the fields of Criminal Justice Administration and Public Administration.
Majors
Minors
- Accounting
- Professional Communications
- Communication Studies
- Criminal Justice
- Economic Crime Investigation
- English
- Forensic Science/Crime Scene Investigation
- Human Services
- History (American)
- History (General)
- Leadership
- Marketing
- Philosophy
- Political Science
- Psychology
- Family Violence
- Sociology
Campus
Hilbert College is situated on a park-like 60-acre suburban campus that consists of 11 buildings and several athletic fields. Bogel Hall and McGrath Library were the first buildings to open when the college moved from the FSSJ Motherhouse to the new Hamburg campus. St. Joseph Residence Hall and the Campus Center opened the following year. In the past decade, the college added four new apartment-style residence buildings (2003); a new residence hall, Trinity Hall (2009); an academic building, Paczesny Hall (2006); a 430-seat theater, Swan Auditorium (2006); and made renovations to the Hafner Recreation Center (2005). Franciscan Hall, the main administrative building, was opened in 1997. In 2006, the Digital Media and Communications department opened up the Center for Creative Media. This center contains 4 digital film editing suites, a sound recording studio and mixing suite as well as a full range of multimedia equipment available to students.
Student Life
The college offers more than 30 student-run clubs and organizations plus intramural athletics. Students can take part in academic clubs, honor societies, club sports, literary and drama clubs, a student newspaper, military and criminal justice clubs, as well as student government.
Hilbert offers nearly 300 housing spaces in two residence halls and four campus apartments. Trinity Hall houses more than 150 students in doubles and six-person suites. It includes a 24-hour computer lab, a game room and free laundry facilities. St. Joseph Hall includes singles and doubles with two lounges, cooking and laundry facilities and recreational spaces. Hilbert’s safe suburban campus is patrolled around the clock by campus safety officers with support from Town of Hamburg police. The campus dining hall is located in the upper level of the Campus Center and is open for 19 meals per week.
The college has a Wellness Center for timely medical care and offers counseling and wellness workshops to students throughout the year.
Leadership is big at Hilbert College. There are numerous opportunities for students to be involved with leadership. A few examples are the Leadership Scholarship Program (A program that is run by Jim Sturm), Emerging Leaders Program (Eight-Session Seminar), Leadership Workshop Series (Opportunity for students to customize a program that best meet their needs) and Leadership Training Camp (A two-day event that happens in May).
Hilbert’s student body is 58 percent female, 42 percent male. Eighty-seven percent of students are from Western New York and 85 percent are full-time students. Approximately 40 percent are first-generation college students.
Athletics
The Hafner Recreation Center is the home for the basketball and volleyball teams and includes a 2,000-square-foot fitness center, four locker rooms and administrative offices. Hilbert also has two multipurpose fields for soccer and lacrosse as well as diamonds for baseball and softball on campus.
The Hilbert Hawks participate in NCAA Division III athletics and most of the college’s 13 intercollegiate teams compete in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC). The Hawks field teams in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, softball and men's and women’s volleyball. The men’s lacrosse team competes in the North Eastern Athletic Conference. The men’s volleyball team competes in the United Volleyball Conference through the 2014 season, but will join the North Eastern Athletic Conference beginning in 2015. The women's lacrosse team is currently competing as an independent. The college also offers nearly a dozen intramural sports plus club sports which are open to the entire college community.
The athletics programs have attained success in recent years, both on and off the field of competition.
Rob deGrandpre (men’s basketball), Amanda Logue (women’s volleyball) and Jeff Panik (men’s soccer) were recognized by their peers for their leadership and were named as the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) 2012-13 Coach of the Year in their respective sport. Also in 2012-13, Jerame Owens (men’s basketball) and Mario Williams (men’s soccer) were selected as AMCC Newcomers of the Year. Twenty-one athletes received All-Conference nods at the conclusion of the 2012-13 year based on their athletic performances.
Previous year’s successes include: Lindsey Bergman, 2005-06 Co-Newcomer of the Year, women’s basketball; CJ Hodge, 2010-11 Newcomer of the Year, men’s basketball; Dallas Reinard, 2006-07 Player of the Year, men’s basketball; James Ruggerio, 2006 Coach of the Year, women’s soccer; Nick Sherman, 2012 Pitcher of the Year, baseball.
The Hawk athletes have shown continued success in the classroom as well. Seven teams (of the eleven sports which compete for an AMCC championship) were awarded the AMCC Team Peak Performers plaque during the 2013-13 academic year. The women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, golf, women’s soccer, softball and men’s volleyball teams all earned the highest collective grade point average (in the term they competed) within the ten-team AMCC league. Ninety-one athletes earned a cumulative 3.2 grade point average by the mid-term break and twenty new athletes were inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma, New York Theta Chapter of the National College Athlete Honor Society.
Since the college joined the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference in 2004-05, three female athletes were named as the AMCC Scholar-Athletes of the Year: Katy Dorsheimer, women’s cross country, 2005; Maggie Fage, women’s soccer, 2009.
Clubs and Organizations on Campus
Notable Alumni
- Joseph Giglio ’75 â€" New York State assemblyman.
References
External links
- Hilbert College website
- Hilbert College athletics website