New 'senior' college opens in Salem in August

June 25, 2010
By Jillian Jorgensen
jjorgensen@eagletribune.com

SALEM — At the American College of History and Legal Studies, students won't ask one another, "What's your major?"

That's because there's only one: history. There's only one bachelor's degree, in history and legal studies, and the school serves only juniors and seniors.

"We are a completion college, so we are very unique," said Maureen Mooney, who will be the associate dean at the school.

Massachusetts School of Law at Andover funded the new college at 1 Stiles Road, but it will be independent, said Lawrence Velvel, the law school's dean.

"We will work together with them on a variety of things, but it is going to be an independent school," he said.

Velvel said there are plenty of colleges that focus on the first two years of undergraduate education — community or junior colleges.

"We have no similar follow-up college that could be called, and this is a senior college," he said. "It's a logical alternative method of getting an education."

It will cost a lot less than most, Velvel said, with tuition being $10,000 a year. Half-tuition scholarships will be available to qualifying students, he said.

"The idea is to give people a very rigorous education at an inexpensive price, to teach them the arts they need both for law school or graduate school and other parts of life," Velvel said.

Students who attend can follow two different tracks. After junior year, those with qualifying grade-point averages will be eligible to go directly to the Massachusetts School of Law for their senior year, Velvel said.

"For qualifying students, you're saving a year's worth of time and tuition that way," Mooney said.

Mooney, who has been recruiting students for the college, said they're hearing from some students at community colleges who want to transfer in once they have the 60 credits needed for admission.

"We're also getting inquiries and applications from people who started at four-year schools and, for one reason or another, had to discontinue either because of jobs, family or finances and are now looking to get back into academia and finish the bachelor's degree they once started," she said.

The curriculum was created and fine-tuned by Michael Chesson, an acclaimed author and Civil War expert who will be the founding professor and dean of the college. All first-year students will take an eight-credit course that covers United States history from start to present.

"It's going to be a lot of work for the students, and they're going to be meeting three nights a week," he said.

Students — Chesson said he expects between 15 and 20 — will meet from 6 to 10 p.m. for classes. In addition to the history course, the group will be split in two for writing courses that will complement the history curriculum.

"It was something new and completely different for me," Chesson said when asked what attracted him to the school. "Rather than 'chalk and talk' as the educators say, put stuff up on the blackboard and lecture about it, it's going to be entirely discussion based."

Chesson said they are still in the process of gathering all the books he has selected for the school library and refurbishing the building where classes will be held, but school will start in August.

"It's going to be bare-bones and we're going to kind of do it by the seat of our pants, but fortunately Dean Velvel has more than 20 years of experience," Chesson said. "That's exactly how he started his law school."

Chesson said the students recruited so far are self-starters, most of whom hope to go on to the law school for their second year. But those who choose not to can stay in Salem and earn their history degree in one of four concentrations: the history of civil rights, the history of urban growth and immigration, the history of American foreign relations, and lessons of American history.

Despite all that will need to go into launching a new school, Chesson said he's sure it will be a success. That's why he retired as a professor and chairman of the history department at the University of Massachusetts-Boston to take the new job.

"I'm giving up tenure there for what I think is a wonderful opportunity," Chesson said. "I wouldn't have done that if I didn't think this was going to work."

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