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School of Education & Social Policy

Departments & Programs

School of Education & Social Policy

News and Events

  • Something’s Always Cooking at the Merrimack Friary
    Proudly displaying their home-cooked meals are, from left, Father Stephen Curry, Father Rick Piatt and Father Raymond Dlugos. Feb 5, 2018 —
    By day, Merrimack’s three full-time Augustinian priests serve God and their fellow man. By night, they serve one another … dinner.
  • STEM Community Like ‘Creating a Sisterhood’
    Oct 1, 2017 —
    About 60 female freshmen are participating in Merrimack’s new Women in STEM living-learning community this semester. The community is meant to provide much-needed support for women as they prepare to enter male-dominated occupations.
  • Coursework Earns Inmates Credits — and Credit
    Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Brittnie Aiello presents a diploma to an inmate during a ceremony ... Jan 30, 2018 —
    Eleven inmates at the Essex County Sheriff’s Department Middleton (Massachusetts) Jail earned four credits from Merrimack College as part of an innovative program in which they completed the new course “Institutions and Inequality” at the end of the fall semester.
  • Merrimack Takes Lead in Regional STEM Initiative
    Sep 28, 2017 —
    The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s STEM Advisory Council has awarded Merrimack College and Salem State University a $60,000 grant as the lead institutions of the new Northeast Regional STEM Network.
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Notable & Quotable

  • Russ Olwell, associate dean of the School of Education and Social Policy, published a column in the March 24, 2018, edition of the Eagle-Tribune about the benefits of early-college and dual-enrollment programs, which help students earn college credits while in high school and serve to make higher education more attractive and affordable to students. “The experience of taking a college class on a college campus with a professor gives students the experience of success in college, an experience that can give them and their families hope,” Olwell wrote.

  • Isabelle Cherney, dean of the School of Education and Social Policy, published a chapter, “Characteristics of Masculine and Feminine Toys and Gender-Differentiated Play,” in the book “Gender Typing of Children’s Toys: How Early Play Experiences Impact Development” (2018, American Psychological Association) by Erica S. Weisgram and Lisa M. Dinella.

  • Isabelle Cherney, dean of the School of Education and Social Policy, was quoted in a March 20, 2018, article in Fatherly, an online magazine for dads, about the relationship between gender and toy selection. Cherney said studies show it is fathers, not mothers, who tend to pigeonhole their sons into choosing stereotypical male toys. “Studies, over and over, show the mothers are really open. They don’t mind if their boys are playing dress-up,” she said. “One of the reasons it’s so hard for boys to play with more feminine toys is that the fathers are very reluctant to let their boys play with feminine toys. Some still believe that playing with feminine toys might turn a boy homosexual. There is a stigma. It’s very subtle. But kids pick that up.”

  • Thomas Nolan, associate professor of criminology and criminal justice, was quoted in a March 1, 2018, Worcester Magazine story on the impact SWAT operations can have on children who are at home when a raid is being conducted. Nolan, a former SWAT officer and 27-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, said police should think twice before carrying out such raids. “If I were the SWAT commander, I would be extremely reluctant to put my team through the door when I have reason to believe that there are innocent people, particularly children, on the other side,” he said.