Union College
807 Union St. Alumni Gymnasium
Schenectady, NY 12308
(518) 388-6284
Union College is an independent liberal arts college located in Schenectady and the first college chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York. Known as the “Mother of Fraternities”, Union spawned the first three Greek letter societies in America. It was officially chartered in 1795 and can trace it’s history all the way back until 1779. Its motto is ‘Sous les lois de Minerve nous devenons tous freres,’ or ‘We all become brothers under the laws of Minerva’.
During it’s first 75 years, it was regarded as one of the top colleges in the country. Union College would later suffer a decline in the early 19th century and went through a rebuilding period in efforts to revitalize the college, which it did. The revival of the College began in the late nineteenth-century under the leadership of Andrew Van Vranken Raymond who the established the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics. Today, Union College is regarded for its level of academic excellence and is rated among the top liberal arts colleges in the United States.
Union College is considered to be the “Mother of Fraternities” because many fraternities, including the first 3 in America, as well as three other national fraternities, were founded there. More fraternities have been founded at Union than at any other college or university. Union College has a well known Hockey program (Division I) and a football program (Division III) as well.
