From Marist College to Marist University

Credit: Emma Denes ‘25

In a historic change for the institution, Marist College will rename itself as Marist University in the new year, with the university status reflecting what Marist has already become. Following approval from the New York State Board of Regents on Dec. 10, the university designation will go into effect on Jan. 29. While the news indicates a major adjustment in the college’s public face and branding, the Marist experience — and the vision for its future, as laid out in the Marist 100 strategic plan — will largely stay the same, which encompasses Marist’s signature combination of academic and pre-professional experiences both on-campus and abroad. 

“The beautiful thing to me about this moment is that nothing changes about our strategic vision for the future,” said Marist President Kevin C. Weinman. “Regardless of whether we call ourselves Marist College or Marist University, we have no plans to revisit or engage again in a strategic planning exercise. We believe it’s timeless.”

Students finishing their degrees at Marist this December will be the first to graduate from Marist University, since their diplomas will be conferred officially on Jan. 31. According to Dr. Catherine Gunther Kodat, Provost and Dean of Faculty, the firm that prints Marist’s diplomas has indicated that they will be able to include “Marist University” on documents printed by that time. But the name change is not retroactive, meaning that all previous alumni will still be considered as having graduated from Marist College.

“I was a Class of ‘97 grad, as well as now coming back as an employee in my current role,” said Daryl Richard, Vice President of Communications and Marketing. “To me, it’s a really proud moment because it’s an affirmation of what I’ve always felt, which is: Why doesn’t everyone in the world know about this awesome place I went to school?”

Richard led efforts by Marist to collect data on the university designation from over 4,000 students, alumni, staff, faculty, high school students, parents of high school students and counselors via online surveys, town halls, market research, feedback sessions and in-depth interviews. In one survey, 74% of U.S. high school students said that they were equally interested in Marist whether it was a college or university, and another 23.1% said they would be more interested in Marist if it were a university. The Marist Board of Trustees was also interested, unanimously approving the decision on Sept. 14 — although according to Weinman, the idea for Marist becoming a university originated even before he arrived at the college. 

Still, the institution was limited in taking action until recent official state developments. Originally, New York State defined a university as a higher education institution that offered “degrees in two or more professional fields, and doctoral programs in at least three academic fields.” But two years ago, the New York State Board of Regents reworked its 1969 definition, eliminating those two requirements in favor of a broader description, defining a university as an institution that provides graduate programs in at least three discipline areas. 

Following the updated definition, several higher education institutions in the state acted quickly to change their names — former colleges became Dominican University (located in Orangeburg), Molloy University (located on Long Island) and Nazareth University (located in Rochester). This past August, Manhattan College in the Bronx became Manhattan University. But Marist took its time to carefully deliberate the decision. 

“Whereas some schools went right away as soon as they were allowed to, we didn’t want to do that because we wanted to do so for the right reasons and at the right time and after we really understood the views of the students, faculty, prospective students, their families, guidance counselors, alumni and so forth,” said Weinman.

According to Dr. Kodat, the Provost, Marist will be changing in name, not in experience — but it may allow the experience to feel more prominent. “We are going to continue the way we’ve always continued to see what comes up from the faculty and students themselves in terms of what new majors or programs they would like to see and just proceed as we always have,” she said. “I think what will happen is that the designation of university is going to make what we do here more visible to more people.”

In a previous Circle article considering the name change from a potential standpoint, some students cited concerns about Marist University bringing with it larger class sizes and housing availability issues. But in the words of Weinman, this will not be the case. “Our goal for next year’s class is the same size as last year’s and the same size as the year before that,” he said. “Marist may grow in the future, but that is not something we’re trying to signal at this moment in time, and we want to provide our students with a better experience and not become bigger for the sake of being bigger.”

Outside of New York, a precedent has already been set for universities with a smaller student population. For instance, before coming to Marist, Dr. Kodat worked for Lawrence University, a private liberal arts institution located in Wisconsin, which has 1,500 students in total. “From state to state, there’s a very different sense of what university means that doesn’t really match what people in New York State have assumed to be the case,” she said.

Although Americans casually refer to all universities as “college,” internationally the term college is often associated with a high school level of instruction or university preparatory school. This association may lead international students to consider Marist University of a higher caliber than Marist College. As of data from last October, only 92 international undergraduate students are enrolled at Marist, according to the 2023-24 Common Data Set published by the Marist Office of Institutional Research and Planning. In a survey commissioned by the Educational Advisory Board, a higher education consulting firm, approximately one third of 106 international counselors said that if Marist were a university, they would be more likely to recommend the institution to prospective students.

Furthermore, the Marist University name will result in an enhanced positive connotation when it comes to attracting student-athletes. “All of my career before I came here was in small liberal arts colleges that are Division III athletics, and I just know that there’s an assumption that if you call yourself a college, then you’re a D-III school,” said Dr. Kodat. “I also know this from talking to some of my colleagues over in athletics, that they are extremely excited about not having to go through that hurdle again, about having to explain, ‘No, actually, we’re really a D-I school.’”

As part of the university transition, a new Marist brand campaign is scheduled to launch at the end of January. Earlier this year, Daryl Richard taught 10 students in an “Elevating the Marist Brand” course, which gave him a better understanding of how to tell the college’s story. “That’s exactly the kind of work that the students helped me with in my class last spring semester, was to go through what a logo would look like for Marist moving forward, irrespective of university or not, just how we want to contemporize the look and feel of the institution to attract students from across the U.S. and around the world,” he said. 

The Office of Marketing and Communications will be unveiling a new logo, tagline and visual identity standards, complete with numerous advertising examples of how students combine their diverse interests within the singular Marist experience. “A campaign will typically run anywhere between three to five years, so over time, it’s to build that association with Marist and hopefully become more top of mind as students think about why they apply here,” said Richard.

To coincide with the change to university status, a celebration is planned for Jan. 29, after students come back to campus for the spring 2025 semester. Until then, Weinman remains confident that Marist University will usher in a new era for past, present and future Red Foxes the world over — one where the name of the game is sticking with all the things that have made Marist great for years to come.

“We think that’s the sweet spot for Marist: big enough to offer what you get at a 20,000-30,000 person institution, but small enough that we can act like a college in how we provide small class sizes, close contact with faculty and a deep care and concern, where I as president get to know many students by name,” he said. “We don’t want to lose that, even as we think that Marist University is a better descriptor of who we are.