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Former name | Pace Institute (1906–1947) Pace College (1947–1973) |
|---|---|
| Motto | Opportunitas (Latin) |
Motto in English | "Opportunity" |
| Type | Private university |
| Established | December 14, 1906; 118 years ago (1906-12-14) |
| Accreditation | MSCHE |
Academic affiliations | CUMU |
| Endowment | $193.8 million (2020)[1] |
| President | Marvin Krislov[2] |
Academic staff | 1,238 (484 full-time) |
Administrative staff | 1,527 |
| Students | 14,092 (fall 2023)[3] |
| Undergraduates | 8,176 (fall 2023) |
| Postgraduates | 5,916 (fall 2023) |
| Location | ,, United States |
| Campus | Large City, 950,000 square feet (88,000 m2)[4] |
| Other campuses | |
| Colors | Blue Gold |
| Nickname | Setters |
Sporting affiliations | |
| Mascot | Setter |
| Website | pace.edu |
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Pace University is aprivate university with campuses inNew York City andWestchester County, New York, United States. It was established in 1906 as a business school by the brothersHomer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace.[5] Pace enrolls about 13,000 students as of fall 2021 in bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs.
Pace University offers about 100 majors at its seven colleges and schools, including the College of Health Professions, the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, theElisabeth Haub School of Law, theLubin School of Business, the School of Education, the Sands College of Performing Arts, and the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.[6] It also offers aMaster of Fine Arts in acting throughThe Actors Studio Drama School[7][8] and is home to theInside the Actors Studio television show.[9] The university runs a women's justice center inYonkers,[10] a business incubator,[11] and is affiliated with the public schoolPace High School.[12]
Pace University originally operated out of theNew York Tribune Building in New York City, and spread as the Pace Institute, operating in several major U.S. cities. In the 1920s, the institution divested facilities outside New York, maintaining its Lower Manhattan location. It purchased its first permanent home in Manhattan's41 Park Row in 1951 and opened its first Westchester campus in 1963. Pace opened its largest building,1 Pace Plaza, in 1969. Four years later, it became a university.[5]
In 1906, brothersHomer Pace andCharles Ashford Pace founded the firm of Pace & Pace to operate their schools ofaccountancy and business. Taking a loan of $600, the Pace brothers rented a classroom on one of the floors of theNew York Tribune Building, today the site of theOne Pace Plaza complex. The Paces taught the first class of 13 men and women. The school grew rapidly, and moved several times aroundLower Manhattan.
The Pace brothers' school was soon incorporated asPace Institute, and expanded nationwide, offering courses in accountancy and business law in several U.S. cities. Some 4,000 students were taking the Pace brothers' courses inYMCAs in theNew York-New Jersey area.[when?] The Pace Standardized Course in Accounting was also offered inBoston,Baltimore,Washington, D.C.,Buffalo,Cleveland,Detroit,Milwaukee,Grand Rapids,Kansas City,St. Louis,Denver,San Francisco,Los Angeles,Portland, andSeattle. In the 1920s, concerned about quality control at distant locations, the Pace brothers divested their private schools outside New York and subsequently devoted their attention to the original school in Lower Manhattan, eventually to become one of the campuses of Pace University.[13] Pace Institute in Washington, D.C. later becameBenjamin Franklin University (now part ofThe George Washington University).[14][15] In 1927 the school moved to the newly completedTransportation Building at 225Broadway, and remained there until the 1950s.[16]
After Charles died in 1940 and Homer in 1942, Homer's son Robert S. Pace became the new president of Pace. In 1947, Pace Institute was approved for college status by the New York State Board of Regents. In 1951, the college purchased its first campus building:41 Park Row in Lower Manhattan. The building, aNew York City designated landmark, was the late-19th-century headquarters ofThe New York Times. In 1963, thePleasantville Campus was established using land and buildings donated by the then-president ofGeneral Foods and Pace alumnus and trustee Wayne Marks and his wife Helen.
In 1966,U.S. Vice PresidentHubert Humphrey andNew York City MayorJohn Lindsay broke ground for the One Pace PlazaCivic Center complex, with then Pace president Edward J. Mortola. The formerNew York Tribune Building at 154 Nassau Street, across from 41Park Row, was demolished to make way for the new building complex.[17]
The New York State Board of Regents approved Pace College's petition for university status in 1973. Shortly thereafter, in 1975, the College ofWhite Plains (formerly known as Good Counsel College) consolidated with Pace and became the White Plains campus which at the time was used to house both undergraduate courses and Pace's new law school created in that same year. In September 1976, Pace began offering courses inMidtown Manhattan in the Equitable Life Assurance Company building (nowAXA Equitable Life Insurance Company) onAvenue of the Americas, and moved once before moving to its current location in 1997.Briarcliff College was acquired in 1977 and became the Briarcliff campus. A graduate center was opened in 1982 inWhite Plains, New York, and in 1987 the Graduate Center moved to the newly built Westchester Financial Center complex in the downtown business district of White Plains; which at the time of its opening, Pace's graduate computer science program was the first nationally accredited graduate program in the state of New York.[citation needed]
In 1994, all undergraduate programs in White Plains were consolidated to the Pleasantville-Briarcliff campus, and the White Plains campus on North Broadway was given to the law school; resulting in the university's Westchester undergraduate programs in Pleasantville and its Westchester graduate programs in White Plains. Finally, in 1997, Pace purchased the World Trade Institute at1 World Trade Center from thePort Authority of New York and New Jersey.
On the day of theterrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Pace University, four blocks from Ground Zero, lost 4 students and over 40 alumni. Students were made to leave classes and evacuate to other locations inOne Pace Plaza at 10:00 a.m. FDNY Emergency Medical Services (EMS) cleared out the Admissions Lobby and made it atriage center for victims of the attack.[18] Many of the patients were New York City police officers, firefighters and other emergency workers. Debris and about three inches (7.5 cm) of dust and ashes lay over the Pace New York City campus area and local streets. None of Pace's buildings were damaged except in the World Trade Center; Pace lost the entire 55th floor, 45,943 square feet (4,268.2 m2)[19][20] in theNorth Tower of theWorld Trade Center, which housed Pace University's World Trade Institute and the Pace University World Trade Conference Center[21] (now the Downtown Conference Center). A memorial[21] to students and alumni who lost their lives on September 11 stands on all three campuses of Pace University.[22] A gift from theAmerican Kennel Club, a statue of aGerman Shepherd dog stands in front of One Pace Plaza (as of Fall 2007) to commemorate Pace's support as a triage center on September 11.[23]
On March 5, 2006, Pace students, alumni, faculty, and staff from all campuses convened on the Pleasantville Campus in a university-wide Centennial Kick-Off Celebration; there was a Pace Centennial train, provided free of charge by theMetropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), to take Pace's New York City students, alumni, faculty, and staff to Pace's Pleasantville campus. Former PresidentBill Clinton received anhonorary doctorate of humane letters from Pace during the ceremony, which was held at the Goldstein Health, Fitness and Recreation Center. Following the reception of the honorary degree, he addressed the students, faculty, alumni, and staff of Pace, officially kicking off the Centennial anniversary of the university.[24]
Since her last visit in celebration ofBlack History Month in 1989,Maya Angelou again visited the Pace community on October 4, 2006, in celebration of Pace's Centennial. Two days later, on October 6, 2006, (Pace's Founders Day) Pace University rang theNASDAQ stock market opening bell in Midtown Manhattan to mark the end of the 14-month centennial celebration.[25]
On May 15, 2007, Pace University PresidentDavid A. Caputo announced his early retirement on June 3, 2007. Pace'sBoard of Trustees appointedPace Law School deanStephen J. Friedman to the position ofinterim president. Friedman had been dean and professor of law at Pace since 2004. He also served as commissioner of theSecurities and Exchange Commission and as co-chairman ofDebevoise & Plimpton. Friedman retired as president of Pace University in July 2017. In 2015, in an effort to consolidate Pace University's Westchester campuses into a single location, Pace University sold the Briarcliff campus.[26]
The former president ofOberlin College,Marvin Krislov, was appointed president of Pace University in February 2017.[27]
In February 2017, Pace University embarked on a $190 million renovation process known as the 'Master Plan'.[28] Phase 1, which included theOne Pace Plaza and41 Park Row buildings, was completed by a ribbon-cutting event on January 28, 2019.[29] Additional future phases include a vertical expansion of One Pace Plaza to create an additional 67,000 square feet (6,200 m2) of academic space, relocating the Lubin School of Business, moving administrative offices from 41 Park Row, and modernizing thefacade of One Pace Plaza.[30]
Pace University campuses are located inNew York City andWestchester County, New York. The university's shuttle service provides transportation between the New York City and Pleasantville campuses. Furthermore, Pace University has a high school located just ten blocks away from the university's New York City campus (seePace University High School).
The New York City campus is in theCivic Center of Lower Manhattan, next to theFinancial District andNew York Downtown Hospital. The campus is within walking distance of well-known New York City sites includingWall Street, theWorld Trade Center,World Financial Center,South Street Seaport,Chinatown andLittle Italy.
Pace has about 950,000 square feet (88,000 m2) of space in Lower Manhattan. The main building,One Pace Plaza, is a two-square-block building bounded by Gold, Nassau, Spruce, and Frankfort Streets, directly adjacent to the Manhattan entrance ramp of theBrooklyn Bridge. Directly across fromCity Hall, the One Pace Plaza complex houses most of the classrooms, administrative offices, a 2,000-square-foot (190 m2)student union, a 750-seat community theater, and an 18-floor high-rise residence hall (known as "Maria's Tower"). 41 Park Row was the 19th-century headquarters ofThe New York Times, and today houses the student newspaperThe Pace Press, as well as student organization offices, the Pace University Press, faculty offices, the university's bookstore, and classrooms. About 2,700 square feet (250 m2) of 41 Park Row is the home of the Haskins Laboratories, set up at Pace bySeymour H. Hutner,[17] where medical experiments are held, like thegreen tea extract study covered in international media.[31]
The buildings of 157 William Street, 161 William Street, and 163 William Street were acquired by Pace following theSeptember 11 attacks to make up for loss of the entire 55th floor, 45,943 square feet (4,268.2 m2), in theNorth Tower of theWorld Trade Center, which housed Pace University's World Trade Institute and World Trade Conference Center. The William Street buildings house classrooms, offices of the Seidenberg School of Computer Science & Information Systems, the School of Education, the College of Health Professions, the university'sbusiness incubators, and Pace's Downtown Conference Center,[32] where thee.MBA residency sessions are held (Pace also has leased office space at 156 William Street). Pace has residence halls at 182 Broadway and 33 Beekman Street. The 33 Beekman Street building is the world's tallest student residential building.[citation needed] Pace also leases residence accommodations at the residence at 55 John Street, also in Lower Manhattan. Pace also offers classes inmidtown Manhattan in theart decoFred F. French Building on at 551Fifth Avenue.
In January 2019, Pace completed a $45 million renovation of One Pace Plaza and the adjoining 41 Park Row.[33]
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Classes began inPleasantville, New York in 1963.[34] The campus today consists of the former estate of then Vice Chairman ofGeneral Foods Corporation, Wayne Marks (Class of 1928)—previously belonging to the 18th-century physicianGeorge C. S. Choate (who gave his name to a pond and a house on the campus.) On the 180-acre (73 ha)[4] campus is the Environmental Center, constructed around the remnants of a 1779 farmhouse. The center, which is dedicated to the environmental studies program, provides office and classroom space; it houses the university's animals such as chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, andraptors. As part of the Pleasantville Master Plan, the Environmental Center was expanded and relocated to the back of campus. Two brand new residence halls, Elm Hall and Alumni Hall, were constructed in its place and the Kessel Student Center was remodeled.
TheElisabeth Haub School of Law is located inWhite Plains, New York.[35] Nestled between theCross-Westchester Expressway (I-287) andNY Route 22 (North Broadway), the Law School has a 13-acre (5.3 ha) landscaped suburban campus with a mix of historic and modern buildings. Founded in 1976, Pace Law School is the only law school between New York City and the state capital ofAlbany, New York, 136 miles (219 km) away.
Pace University established a public high school,Pace University High School, and opened its doors to its first class in September 2004. Pace High School is inNew York City school district Region 9 and shares a building withMiddle School 131 at 100 Hester Street in Lower Manhattan, 10 blocks away from the university's New York City campus.
In the fall of 2004, Pace University opened twobusiness incubators to help early-stage companies grow in New York City in Lower Manhattan andYonkers. SCI², (which stands for Second Century Innovation and Ideas, Corp.) maintains accelerator sites in Lower Manhattan and in the 116,000-square-foot (10,800 m2) NValley Technology Center complex inYonkers, New York.[36]
In 2001, the Women's Justice Center of Pace Law School opened a second site at the Westchester County Family Court in Yonkers. The Westchester County Family Court in Yonkers is one of three family courts in Westchester County.[37] The Yonkers office of the Women's Justice Center is located at the Westchester Family Court, 53 South Broadway in Yonkers.[38]
The International Disarmament Institute is a center for teaching and studying worldwide disarmament, arms control, and non-proliferation.[39] Matthew Bolton, the director of the institute, worked on The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.[40][41]
Pace University's 2019 undergraduate admission acceptance rate was 75.9%, with admitted students having an average high school GPA of 3.4, an averageSAT composite score of 1160 out of 1600 (570 Math, 590 Reading & Writing), and an average ACT composite score of 25 out of 36.[42]
| Academic rankings | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Forbes[43] | 345 |
| U.S. News & World Report[44] | 266 |
| Washington Monthly[45] | 305 |
| WSJ/College Pulse[46] | 257 |
The 2020 edition ofU.S. News & World Report ranked Pace as 202nd among universities in the United States.[47]
The university consists of the following schools, each with a graduate and undergraduate division:
Pace University was ranked tied for 202nd among national universities byU.S. News & World Report in 2020, and tied for 34th for "Top Performers on Social Mobility".[48] In 2015, Pace University was ranked #19 inNew York State by average professor salaries.[49]
In 2020,U.S. News & World Report ranked the law school'sAdvanced Certificate inEnvironmental Law program #3,[50] and gave the law school a general rank of #136.[51]
On the Law School's campus is the recognized Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic where adjunct professoremeritus of Environmental Law, and alumnus of Pace,Robert F. Kennedy Jr. served as co-director before retirement. Also on the campus is theNew York State Judicial Institute, the United States' first statewide center for training and research for all judges and justices of the New York State Unified Court System.[52][53] Frequent Pace shuttle service is provided between the Law School campus and theWhite Plains Station of theMetro-North Railroad for many law students who commute from New York City and throughout the state.Stephen J. Friedman, former commissioner of theSecurities and Exchange Commission and former co-chairman ofDebevoise & Plimpton, is the immediate past dean of Pace Law School.
The Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts is the principal theatre of Pace University and is located at the university's New York City campus in Lower Manhattan. The 750-seatMichael Schimmel Center for the Arts is home to the television showInside the Actors Studio hosted byJames Lipton and previously the home of theNational Actors Theatre, a theatre company founded by actorTony Randall who was in residence. TheNational Actors Theatre was the only professional theatre company housed in a university inNew York City. Theater productions at Pace have included such stars asTony Randall,Al Pacino,Steve Buscemi,Dominic Chianese,Billy Crudup,Charles Durning,Paul Giamatti,John Goodman,Chazz Palminteri,Linda Emond,Len Cariou,Roberta Maxwell, andJeff Goldblum. Pace is also one of the venues for theTribeca Film Festival, the Tribeca Theater Festival, theNew York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC),The River To River Festival[54] (New York City's largest free-to-the-public summer festival), and Grammy Career Day of Grammy in the Schools.[55] The Woodward Hall 135-seat theater at the campus atBriarcliff Manor inWestchester is home to the Hudson Stage Company.[56]
Pace's sports teams are called theSetters; the university's mascot is theSetter. Pace University sponsors fourteen intercollegiate varsity sports. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, lacrosse, and swimming & diving; while women's sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, dance, field hockey, soccer, softball, swimming & diving, and volleyball. Its affiliations include theNational Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)Division II and theNortheast-10 Conference (NE-10). The school's official colors are blue and gold.
As of 2025, Pace University has over 161,000 alumni worldwide.[57]
| Full members |  | |
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| International | |
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40°42′41″N74°0′18″W / 40.71139°N 74.00500°W /40.71139; -74.00500
