[5] The mission of the school was to educate American women in housekeeping, business, law, civic responsibility, and public affairs to take care of the men returning from World War I.

[1][8] At that point, the school offered special courses in cooking, textiles, hatmaking, sanitation, gardening, bacteriology, nutrition,[9] nursing, home management, sewing, and household chemistry.

[10] In 1928, the college took over the management of University Hill School, as a laboratory to study child care and behavior.

[11] The Child Development Laboratory School began in the 1950s, and was later named for Bernice M. Wright who was the dean of the college of Human Ecology in the 1970s.

[12][13] The college has had many female deans so far:[14] Florence E. S. Knapp (1918), Annie Louise MacLeod (1928), Martha Eunice Hilton (1949), Bernice Huff Meredith (1964), Bernice Meredith Wright, Jane Brush Lillestol, Susan J. Crockett, and most recently Diane Lyden Murphy.

[23] While the university had offered undergraduate courses in social work through the department of sociology and College of Home Economics since the 1930s, it wasn't until 1952 that the American Association of Schools of Social Work noted a need for separate school at Syracuse.

[23] The program began as a joint venture between SU and University of Buffalo, but the tie was severed after a significant grant from Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corporation allowed Syracuse to absorb the program under the University College.

[24] After years of declining enrollment, the College of Human Development, College of Nursing, and School of Social Work were merged to establish the School of Human Services and Health Professions (HSPS) on July 1, 2001.

[23][16] As part of the merger, the College of Nursing changed its name back to the School of Nursing,[18] but the school was formally closed at the end of the 2005–06 academic year due to declining enrollment, poor student outcomes, and financial issues.

[37] The BSPH degree program is one of the first in New York state to be accredited by the Council on Education for Public Health.

[47] When the law school moved to the newly constructed Dineen Hall in 2014, the space was allocated to Falk College.