Bridgewater State College
 |
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| Motto | "Not to be Ministered Unto but to Minister." |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1840 |
| Endowment | $34.202 million (2014) |
| President | Frederick W. Clark |
| Students | 11,089 |
| Undergraduates | 9,628 |
| Postgraduates | 1,461 |
| Location |
Bridgewater, MA, United States 41°59′19.04″N 70°57′57.62″W / 41.9886222°N 70.9660056°W |
| Campus | Suburban |
| Campus type | Resident and Commuter |
| Colors | Crimson, White & Black |
| Athletics | NCAA D-III (ECAC, MASCAC, LEC, NEWLA,) |
| Nickname |
Bears 
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| Website | http://www.bridgew.edu/ |
 Seal of Bridgewater State University |
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Bears
Bridgewater State University is a public liberal-arts college located in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, United States. It is the largest college in the Massachusetts state university system outside the University of Massachusetts system. The university consists of the main campus located in Bridgewater, and two satellite campuses; one in Attleboro, and one on Cape Cod, which opened in January 2015. The school's sports teams are the Bears, and the school colors are crimson red, black and white.
Bridgewater State University was founded by Horace Mann as a normal school styled Bridgewater Normal School. It opened on September 9, 1840, making it the oldest permanently located institution of public higher education in Massachusetts. As one of the first normal schools in the nation, its initial mission was to train school teachers. Today Bridgewater, which is regarded as the "home of teacher education in America", has the largest enrollment of teacher education students in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Since the 1960s, the school has also expanded its program to include liberal arts, business, and aviation science. It became a university and took on its present name in 2010. During its history, it has also been known as Bridgewater State College, Bridgewater Teachers College, Bridgewater State Teachers College, and State Teachers College at Bridgewater.
The normal school opened in the basement of the Old Bridgewater Town Hall, in a 40-foot by 50-foot space, divided into three rooms: an ante-room for students, an apparatus room, and a classroom. The first class consisted of 21 women and seven men. Nicholas Tillinghast, the first principal (1840–53) was initially the only instructor. The school year consisted of two 14-week terms. Students were not required to attend consecutively.
In 1845, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts finally agreed to construct a building for Bridgewater State Normal School, the first building ever erected in America for the preparation of teachers. This two-story wooden building, 64 feet by 42 feet, accommodating 84 students, was to be the institution's educational plant for almost half a century. There were small and large classrooms, with blackboards in each. Since changes were made to the school, the board of education required people to attend three terms for fourteen consecutive weeks, establishing a year’s course. The building was dedicated on August 19, 1846, with Horace Mann saying on the occasion: "Among all the lights and shadows that ever crossed my path, this day’s radiance is the brightest...I consider this event as marking an era in the progress of education—which as we all know is the progress of civilization-on this western continent, and throughout the world. It is the completion of the first normal schoolhouse ever erected in Massachusetts,—in the Union,—in this hemisphere. It belongs to that class of events which may happen once, but are not capable of being repeated. Coiled up in this institution, as in a spring, there is a vigor whose uncoiling may wheel the spheres." This first normal school established a professional standard for the preparation of teachers, breaking away from traditional academics for attendance. It was the next step toward establishing educational institutions for specific purposes.
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