The recent announcement that Mount Ida College would close and become an outpost for UMass Amherst has prompted criticism from students at the Newton private school, from Governor Charlie Baker, and from students and faculty at UMass Boston, who feel snubbed by the university system.

Here are some key things to know about Mount Ida:

 History: Mount Ida was founded in 1899 as a girls finishing school by George Franklin Jewett and Abigail Faye Jewett. The Jewetts’ three daughters made up half of the first class. The school briefly shuttered during the Great Depression then reopened in 1939 on the site of the former Newton estate of Gilded Age landowner and socialite Robert Gould Shaw II, whose fortune collapsed during the Depression. Mount Ida became a junior college in 1961, began admitting men in 1976, and transitioned to full four-year institution in 1998. The college has expanded over the years through mergers with Chamberlayne Junior College in 1987 and the New England Institute of Applied Arts and Sciences in 1989.

■  How Mount Ida got its name: The school was originally located on Mount Ida Hill in Newton Centre. (In Greek mythology, Mount Ida in Crete was thought to be the birthplace of the god Zeus.) When the campus moved to its present location, the name stuck.

■ Fun facts: Mount Ida was ranked the 26th best regional college in the North this year by US News and World Report. In 1991, the Globe reported that the school was among the first in Massachusetts to implement a program that bridges the gap from associate to bachelor degrees.

Among the college’s majors and course offerings over the years: laundry classes when it was a finishing school; an air stewardess program that included a flight simulator; a major in funeral services as a junior college; and more recently an undergraduate major in dental hygiene.

■ Notable alumni: Thomas Menino, former mayor of Boston (Chamberlayne Junior College); Enid A. Haupt, philanthropist and publisher of Seventeen magazine; Marlene M. DeChane, former New Hampshire state representative; Gary Vaynerchuk, Belarusian-American entrepreneur; Tony Frias, retired professional soccer player.

Sources: Mount Ida College, news reports, and Wikipedia

Margeaux Sippell can be reached at margeaux.sippell@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargeauxSippell