Iona University

In 1919, the administrators and board members of the Iona School—a grade school founded three years earlier by the Irish Christian Brothers—negotiated the purchase of an 18-acre parcel of land in New Rochelle's Beechmont neighborhood for $85,000 from the land owner, retired Presbyterian minister Thomas Hall. In 1940, the idea of the college's founding community of Brothers was to start a small, affordable college for the sons of New York's working class. At the time, the Christian Brothers taught in seven high schools in the Archdiocese of New York, including Iona Prep, All Hallows, Rice High School, and Power Memorial. They recognized that many of their graduates could not afford the cost of local universities, and so began to form Iona College. In June 1940, members of the Iona School community, along with members of the school's Mothers' Club, gathered to dedicate a new science building on the school's campus—the building that the Mothers' Club has raised $100,000 to build. It was there that they learned that just one day prior, not only had permission been granted to form Iona College on the same campus as the Iona School, but that the college would be commandeering the new science building for its own. The building was named Cornelia Hall after the first president of the new Iona College. On September 19, 1940, Iona College opened its doors with nine Christian Brothers and six lay faculty greeting the first class. The Christian Brothers named the college after Iona, the island monastery of St. Columba [Irish: St. Colmcille; Scottish Gaelic: Calum Cille; Manx: Colum Keeilley] located on the west coast of Scotland. Columba founded the monastery in 563 AD. The Congregation of Christian Brothers was itself founded in 1802 by Edmund Ignatius Rice in Waterford, Ireland. Previous to opening in New York, the brothers taught at Saint Mary's College in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They had been brought in from St Bonaventure College in St John's, Newfoundland. They operated the Halifax institution until 1940 when they were given a tearful sendoff after a run-in with the new archbishop, John T McNally. In fall 1941, Iona College began its academic year with 121 freshmen and sophomores, but America's entry into World War II caused Iona's small enrollment to decline by the year's end. Only three members of the entering class went on to receive BA degrees in August 1944. When World War II concluded, returning veterans, helped by the GI Bill and attracted by Iona's practical majors, soon stretched the college to capacity. In 1948, 71 men graduated; by 1950, the number was up to 300. In June 1966, Iona College issued diplomas to its first graduate students—which included two clergymen who earned their master's in pastoral counseling. By 1968, the college conferred its first MBA degrees. Three years later, the college, which was traditionally male, welcomed its first freshmen class that included women, officially making the college fully co-educational. Approximately 200 women, one-quarter of the freshmen class, registered that semester. Prior to this point, female students had been part of campus in graduate programs, summer classes, and cross-registration agreements with neighboring traditionally female institutions. In 1989, Elizabeth Seton College of Yonkers, New York, a two-year junior college, merged with Iona College, becoming the Elizabeth Seton School of Associate Degree Studies within the college. The program existed until 1995, when Iona College reevaluated and reaffirmed its mission to be a four-year institution, and the Seton School of Associate Degree Studies was closed. In 2011, Iona College admitted that it had reported inflated figures from 2002–2011 about "acceptance rates, SAT scores, graduation rates, and alumni who give annually" in a bid to influence college rankings. Afterward, an internal audit office was established to ensure data integrity. On January 28, 2021, the presidents of Concordia College and Iona announced that the Concordia campus would be acquired by Iona College forming part of a new Bronxville campus. Iona and Concordia made a teach-through agreement allowing most Concordia students to finish their degrees at Iona. On July 12, 2022, the current president of Iona, Seamus Carey, announced through a YouTube livestream that the school will be known as Iona University. Presidents • William B. Cornelia (1940–1946) • Arthur A. Loftus (1946–1953) • William H. Barnes (1953–1959) • Richard B. Power (1959–1965) • Joseph G. McKenna (1965–1971) • John G. Driscoll (1971–1994) • James A. Liguori (1994–2011) • Joseph E. Nyre (2011–2019); Jon Strauss (Spring 2017 - acting) • Seamus Carey (2019–Present) ==Academics==