Westfield State University is a reputable public institution in south west Massachusetts. Located in the small city of Westfield, it is 100 miles east of Boston, the state’s largest city, 15 miles from state capital Springfield and a similar distance from the Connecticut state line.
Westfield has around 40 courses in total, around three-quarters of which are for undergraduates.
Upon being founded in Barre, central Massachusetts in 1839, it was the first public coeducational teaching college in the country. Five years later, it moved to Westfield, where it has remained ever since. At the time, the city manufactured a considerable amount of bricks, whips and cigars. After spells as State Teachers College, State College at Westfield and Westfield State College, the university acquired its current name in 2010. Its tobacco-free campus, which spans more than 250 acres of land, is flanked by Westfield River and Little River.
Westfield’s most influential alumnus is Nettie Stevens, a 19th century geneticist who discovered that males have both X and Y chromosomes while women carry solely XX pairs. George B. Cortelyou, a former US secretary of the treasury and secretary of commerce, and Peter Laviolette, a past National Hockey League player and Stanley Cup-winning coach who also managed the US ice hockey team at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, also went to Westfield.
