Champlain was founded in 1878 as Burlington Business School, opened by G.W. Thompson, to prepare young men for "the business cares and responsibilities of life." In 1884, when E. George Evans acquired the school, it became
coeducational and changed its name to Queen City Business College. In 1905, it moved to Bank Street, and in 1910 it moved again to Main Street. A. Gordon Tittemore acquired the college in 1920, and renamed it Burlington Business College. In 1958, the College took on its current name and moved to its present location in the Hill Section of Burlington. That year, it offered associate degree programs and enrolled about 60 students. Champlain College opened its first dormitories, Jensen and Sanders Halls, in 1965. It started new programs in social services in the 1970s, opened the Willett Foster Hall, home to the Engineering Technology Division, in 1982, and added the Hauke Family Campus Center in 1989. Champlain offered its first bachelor's degree programs in Business and Accounting in 1990; three years later it began its first online education programs. In 2002, Champlain launched its first master's degree program in Managing Innovation & Information Technology. The College's library, the Robert E. and Holly D. Miller Information Commons, opened in 1998 and in 2004 the school dedicated the S.D. Ireland Family Center for Global Business & Technology, home to the Stiller School of Business. The following year, the IDX Student Life Center opened. Also in 2005, David F. Finney was inaugurated as the Champlain's seventh president, and the College added a Master of Business Administration as its second master's degree. In 2006, President David F. Finney launched several initiatives, including the Emergent Media Center; the Champlain College Center for Digital Investigation, now called the Senator Patrick Leahy Center for Digital Investigations; and the Conference and Event Center. Champlain also introduced two scholarship programs: the New American Student Scholarship, for students with refugee or asylum status, and the Vermont First Scholarship for first-generation college students from Vermont, and the College launched its BYOBiz program, which promotes student entrepreneurship. In 2007, the College opened a study-abroad campus in
Montreal, Canada, followed by second study-abroad campus in
Dublin, Ireland in 2008. Later that year, Champlain established the Core Division, followed by the Life Experience & Action Dimension (LEAD) program in 2009. In 2010, Champlain began offering an MFA in Emergent Media and a BS in Environmental Policy, and introduced the Center for Financial Literacy and the Champlain College Publishing Initiative. That same year, Roger H. Perry Hall was renovated. Perry Hall received LEED Platinum certification in 2012, and houses the Advising and Registration Center, Admissions, Financial Aid, Public Relations, and serves as a general purpose Student Welcome Center. In October 2012, Champlain College received the largest gift in its history, a gift of $10 million from the Stiller Family Foundation that established the Stiller School of Business and funded the Perry Hall Welcome and Admission Center, as well as to begin work on the Center for Communications & Creative Media, which opened in the fall of 2015. In fall of 2013, Champlain was featured in an article in
The Atlantic, "What Would an Ideal College Look Like? A Lot Like This," as part of the magazine's "American Futures" series, which looked at American cities that are home to innovations and entrepreneurship. President David F. Finney retired in June 2014, and Donald J. Laackman, president of
Harold Washington College, became Champlain's eighth president in July 2014. ==Campus==