The story
20th century
The university was founded in 1932 by Harry A. B. Shapiro, an accountant, and his wife, Gertrude Gittle Crockett Shapiro, under the name New Hampshire School of Accounting and Secretarial Science. H.A.B. Shapiro died in 1952; 25 students were enrolled at that time, and his widow ran the school until 1971, continuing as president emerita until 1986.
In 1961, the school was incorporated and renamed the New Hampshire College of Accounting and Commerce. The state of New Hampshire granted the college its charter in 1963, which gave it degree-granting authority. The first associate degrees were awarded that year, and the first bachelor's degrees were conferred in 1966. The college became a nonprofit institution under a board of trustees in 1968, and its name was shortened to New Hampshire College in 1969.
The 1970s were a time of growth and change. The college moved from its downtown Manchester site to the now 300-acre (120 ha) campus along the Merrimack River, at the northern border of Manchester with the town of Hooksett, in 1971. Academic offerings expanded with the Master of Business Administration program in 1974, as well as the human services programs adopted from Franconia College, which closed in 1978.
In 1981, New Hampshire College received authorization from the New Hampshire legislature to offer Master of Science degrees in business-related subjects, as well as Master of Human Services degrees. (All human services programs were transferred to Springfield College in Massachusetts by the end of the decade.) That same year, the college opened its North Campus on the site of the former Mount Saint Mary College, which had closed three years earlier. The North Campus became the home of the culinary arts program, which was established in 1983.
Ultimately, the North Campus was sold, and its academic programs were consolidated on the main campus. This spurred several major construction projects on the main campus in the mid-1990s: Washington Hall, a residence hall; Webster Hall, home to the School of Business; the Hospitality Center; and Belknap Hall. In 1995, New Hampshire College began offering distance learning programs through the Internet. In 1998, the school expanded academic degrees to include a Ph.D. in community economic development and the Doctor of Business Administration.
21st century
New Hampshire College became Southern New Hampshire University on July 1, 2001. The same year, the university completed a new residence hall, New Castle Hall, followed by a new academic facility, Robert Frost Hall, containing the McIninch Art Gallery, in 2002. When nearby Notre Dame College closed, three of Notre Dame's graduate education programs and two undergraduate education programs transferred to SNHU.
When President Paul LeBlanc took over in 2003, the early 2000s recession had affected SNHU with rising tuition and shrinking enrollment. LeBlanc addressed this in 2009 with an increased focus on the College of Online and Continuing Education. Rapid revenue growth from the division helped save the struggling main campus, where enrollment had slumped. SNHU focused on increasing graduation rates and adjusting the online college to meet the needs of working adults who comprise most of its student body.
Student housing continued to grow with Conway and Lincoln Halls opening in 2004, and Hampton and Windsor Halls in 2006. The Academic Center and the Dining Center were completed by 2009.
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A new 152-room residence hall, Tuckerman Hall, opened in 2013. A 50,000-square-foot (4,600 m2) Learning Commons opened in 2014, housing the library, the information technology help desk, a café, and media production services. The former Shapiro Library reopened as the William S. and Joan Green Center for Student Success, a student center.
The university purchased naming rights to the downtown Manchester Civic Arena in 2016, naming it SNHU Arena for at least 10 years in a deal that included internships for students and use of the facility for graduation and athletic events.
SNHU absorbed the faculty and staff at Daniel Webster College along with the engineering and aviation programs, operating the college's campus in Nashua for the rest of the 2016–17 academic year after its parent company, ITT Technical Institute, filed for bankruptcy. SNHU purchased the college's aviation facilities (including a flight center, tower building, and hangar) at Nashua Airport for $410,000 and enrolled up to 30 students in its Aviation Operations and Management bachelor's degree program. An undisclosed Chinese university, which plans to open a satellite campus, outbid SNHU for the former campus. To accommodate the new students, SNHU converted an unused warehouse on campus into space for classrooms, laboratories, and a machine shop. A dedicated engineering and technology building was completed in 2020.
Three major construction projects were completed in 2017: the Gustafson Center, a new welcome center named for the former university president Richard A. Gustafson; Penmen Stadium, a 1,500-seat outdoor stadium; and Monadnock Hall, an apartment-style residence hall. In November 2017, the university announced a $100 million project including a 1,700 space parking garage and an additional 500 jobs at its downtown Manchester offices supporting the online college.
In 2017, a fire burned down Greely Hall, one of the original residence halls on campus. The fire forced 50 students to evacuate to a nearby hotel (provided by the university) until new accommodations could be made. Nobody was injured, and the students returned to on-campus housing within two days of the fire to select dormitories with extra space. No longer salvageable, the building was demolished to make additional space for a new dormitory, Kingston Hall, which opened in August 2018. In addition to Greely Hall, Kingston Hall replaced three other original dormitories on campus (Chocorua, Kearsarge, and Winnisquam halls).
In 2020, President LeBlanc reported that the school was on its way to reduce student tuition to $10,000 a year, which required a close look at inefficiencies in labor and programming.
In 2023, SNHU cut its staff by 180 workers. An additional 52 positions were eliminated in 2024.
From Wikipedia’s article on Southern New Hampshire University, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5