History of Hofstra

In September 1935, Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New York University opened its doors in a three-story, white-shingled home that still stands on our South Campus, with 19 faculty, 159 day students, and 621 evening students.

Today, Hofstra University is an institution of international reach and reputation with nearly 11,000 students, more than 144,000 alumni, 340 top-ranked undergraduate and graduate program options, and schools of law and medicine.

The history of Hofstra is defined by the pioneering spirit of those first professors and students, whose pride and purpose are the foundation upon which our university continues to grow and thrive.

But long before Hofstra was founded, indeed before there was “Long Island,” the Indigenous peoples called this region Sewanhacky, Wamponomon, and Paumanake – sacred territory inhabited by the Carnarsie, Rockaway, Matinecock, Merricks, Massapequa, Nissequoge, Secatoag, Seatauket, Patchoag, Corchaug, Shinnecock, Manhasset, and Montauk. Each tribe had its own territory, whose boundaries were respected by the others, and all inhabitants were united in their shared desire for peace.

When we think about the history of Hofstra, the land that surrounds us is part of that history, and we want to protect that legacy and honor the Indigenous peoples who have made untold contributions to our region.

Hofstra University owes its name to lumber magnate William Hofstra and his wife, Kate, who purchased 15 acres in Hempstead in 1903. There, they built the family home – now known as Hofstra Hall – amid the estates and farms along Fulton Avenue. The home was dubbed “The Netherlands” in recognition of William Hofstra’s Dutch ancestry. When William Hofstra died in 1932, he left his estate in his wife’s hands. Kate Hofstra died just over a year later, and she specified that the bulk of the estate and property was to be used for charitable, scientific, or humanitarian purposes, to be named in honor of William. This set the stage for a partnership with New York University and the launch of Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New York University, a coeducational commuter college with day and evening classes.

The affiliation with NYU didn’t last long. By 1939, Hofstra College had established itself as an independent institution of higher education.

From the mid-1940s to late-1960s, enrollment mushroomed and 13 new academic buildings, including the John Cranford Adams Playhouse, named for Hofstra’s president at the time, were constructed. It was during this period that the annual Shakespeare Festival – now in its 74th year and performed on Hofstra’s historically accurate replica of the Bard’s Globe Stage – began.

The University’s growth continued as divisions were reorganized into schools, groundbreaking programs were created, and historic milestones were reached.

Hofstra became one of the first universities to be fully accessible to individuals with physical disabilities – years before a federal law was enacted. And the University’s program to provide highly motivated and diverse students with access to higher education –called NOAH – became a model for a similar New York state program. Hofstra became Long Island’s first private university in 1963. Two years later, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the commencement address.

By 1970, when the School of Law welcomed its first class, Hofstra was a residential campus, with six towers, a student center, and the Unispan pedestrian bridge rising above Hempstead Turnpike.

By the 1980s, the University was hosting more than 500 cultural events annually, including art shows, film festivals, seminars, concerts, drama and dance programs, and national and international conferences. During this period, the campus grounds, blanketed with trees and blooming with thousands of tulips every spring, won official recognition as an arboretum from the prestigious American Public Gardens Association. Today, the campus is landscaped with more than 12,000 evergreen and deciduous trees representing more than 600 species and dotted with more than 70 outdoor sculptures that are part of the permanent collection of the Hofstra University Museum of Art.

In 1982, Hofstra’s distinction as a center for presidential study began with a conference that brought together government officials, journalists, and historians to examine the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The University has since hosted presidential conferences on every president from FDR to George W. Bush, with a three-day conference on President Barack Obama scheduled for April 2023. This scholarly tradition led directly to the establishment of the Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the American Presidency and, eventually, to Hofstra becoming the only university in the nation to host three consecutive U.S. presidential debates (2008, 2012, and 2016). Two Hofstra presidential debates rank among the top 10 most watched in television history.

The presidential debates drew thousands of international media to campus, provided extraordinary civic engagement opportunities for students, and solidified Hofstra’s reputation as a university dedicated to the study of the politics and policy of the presidency. In all, seven U.S. presidents have visited Hofstra’s campus: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump.

As the 20th century ended, the University opened Breslin Hall, a building dedicated to classrooms; established the School of Communication; named the School of Business for alumnus, trustee, and former NASDAQ Chairman and CEO Frank G. Zarb; and welcomed among its commencement speakers, Long Island native Billy Joel.

The young commuter school had grown into a global institution that drew students from 52 U.S. states and territories and nearly 100 countries. At the dawn of the new millennium, Hofstra was about to embark on the most transformative period in its history.

In 2011 and 2015, respectively, Hofstra and Northwell Health launched the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies – both dedicated to training the next generation of healthcare providers with a new model focused on community-based care.

The creation of the School of Health Professions and Human Services, the Fred DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the Peter S. Kalikow School of Government, Public Policy and International Affairs followed. Meanwhile, the School of Law was named for law alumnus, chair emeritus of the Hofstra Board of Trustees, and former Endo Laboratories executive Maurice A. Deane, and the School of Communication was named for Pantone Matching System inventor, Hofstra alumnus, and trustee emeritus Lawrence Herbert.

Modern buildings were constructed for the medical school and the Zarb School of Business, which turned 50 in 2016. The Leo A. Guthart Hall for Innovation and Discovery is a high-tech wonder that includes a behavioral research in business lab, an enhanced business incubator, and Hofstra’s Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art Cybersecurity Innovation and Research Center trains students to detect and defend against cybercrime and created partnerships among industry, government, and education to analyze threats and strengthen network security.

The University is now building a Science and Innovation Center, expected to be completed in 2023. This modern building will serve as the new home for our engineering, applied science, and nursing students.

In July 2021, Honors College was named for retiring Hofstra president Stuart Rabinowitz and his wife, Nancy, to recognize their decades of service to the University.

In August 2021, Hofstra welcomed Susan Poser as its ninth president and first woman to lead the University. President Poser immediately announced the launch of a yearlong campaign to engage the entire campus community in a conversation about Hofstra’s future – a future that articulates pathways for students from college to career, expands the University’s core commitment to diversity and inclusion, and builds on Hofstra’s strong foundation of faculty research and scholarship. A year later, in July 2022, Dr. Charles Riordan joined the University as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

Hofstra continues to invest heavily in growing the scholarly and research enterprise and national reputation of the University, as well as in programs that encourage civic engagement and community service, including The National Center for Suburban Studies at Hofstra University, Center for Civic Engagement, and Center for “Race,” Culture and Social Justice.

Our schools continue to innovate across the curriculum with new programs, including the nation’s first Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) that leads to a combined Acute Care Nurse Practitioner and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. We continue to offer award-winning programs such as our student-run radio station, WRHU-88.7 FM, which is a four-time Marconi Award winner. In 2021, WRHU became the first student-run radio station to receive the World Radio Day Award from the Academy of Radio Arts and Sciences of America.

A cornerstone of our curriculum is impactful experiential learning – leveraging our strong connections to industry to provide students with internships, co-ops, and successful career outcomes. These connections also provide research opportunities such as producing the Marcum-Hofstra CEO Survey and the Long Island Supply Chain Index. Our schools also enjoy national recognition, including the DeMatteis School, which was recently recognized for its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion by the American Society for Engineering Education.

Hofstra’s commitment to our community is evident in all we do – from programs such as Hempstead for Hofstra/Hofstra for Hempstead, which provides scholarships for local students, to our medical-legal partnership with the Deane School of Law, Northwell Health, and the New York State Bar Association, which provides much-needed legal services and medical care to community members across Long Island and New York City, regardless of the ability to pay.

In the years to come, Hofstra University will continue in its unwavering commitment to excellence in teaching and research, to public service and civic engagement, to the free expression of ideas in robust but respectful discourse, and to diversity and global understanding.

Much has changed since those first students and faculty arrived, but Hofstra’s core values are enduring. Eighty-three years ago, when Hofstra separated from New York University, members of the first graduating class were given a choice. They could receive their degrees from NYU, or from Hofstra.

They chose Hofstra.

Hofstra Pride and Purpose. Then, now, and forever.