Hilbert College

Coordinates: 42°45′17″N 78°49′14″W / 42.754741°N 78.820649°W / 42.754741; -78.820649

Hilbert College

Type	Private/Catholic
Established	1957
Affiliation	Franciscan
Endowment	$6.3 million
President	Cynthia Zane
Academic staff	126
Undergraduates	1,089
Location	Hamburg, New York, USA
Campus	2 Residence Halls and 4 on-campus apartments buildings.
Colors	Royal Blue and White
Athletics	NCAA Division III
Nickname	Hawks
Affiliations	Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference, North Eastern Athletic Conference, United Volleyball Conference
Sports	Baseball; Men's and Women's Basketball; M/W Cross Country; Golf; M/W Lacrosse; M/W Soccer; Softball;and M/W Volleyball
Mascot	Hawk
Website	www.hilbert.edu

Hilbert College is a private Franciscan college in Hamburg, New York. The college is named after Mother Colette 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.

Academics

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.^[1]

Campus

Hilbert College is 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 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.

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, home to the college's basketball and volleyball teams, 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 – New York State assemblyman.

References

External links

• Hilbert College website
• Hilbert College athletics website