The school, initially named "Rivier College", was founded in 1933 as by the
Sisters of the Presentation of Mary in
Hudson, New Hampshire. The congregation named the college in honor of its founder,
Anne-Marie Rivier. The university was incorporated in 1935 and granted the authority to offer both graduate and undergraduate level programs. The university is dedicated to Anne Marie Rivier's mission of Catholic social teaching and serving the economically disadvantaged. shortly after leaving the City Hall Plaza in Nashua, where he held his first event for his candidacy for
president of the United States. In 1991, the college became
coeducational, admitting its first male undergraduate students. Rivier College was renamed Rivier University on July 1, 2012. In 1994, Rivier was sued in federal court by Mary Nedder, an assistant professor of religious studies at Rivier, under the Americans for Disabilities Act (ADA) after the university declined to renew her contract because of her weight. Sister Jeanne Perreault, the President of Rivier at the time, allegedly made her views about overweight faculty known and in a report circulated among the faculty stated that "fat teachers do not get much respect from students." Nedder won her lawsuit and was reinstated. == Campus ==