University Overview
Marywood University Institutional Student Learning Outcomes
Adopted 2026
Marywood University conducts consistent assessment of its success in achieving its mission and its mission to educate students. These learning outcomes guide the institution’s mission to foster social responsibility, sustainable solutions and ethical leadership, emphasizing commitment to the common good, human dignity, and holistic education. The assessment of institution-wide student learning outcomes is an enduring activity across the University including all academic programs and co-curricular programs.
CATHOLIC IDENTITY
Marywood University values reflection on the process of respectful engagement with people of diverse faiths and worldviews through thoughtful dialogue or collaboration. It is the articulation of the connection between the work of the discipline and the pursuit of truth, goodness, beauty, justice, and the common good.
RESPECT
In the spirit of Marywood University’s commitment to community, the demonstration of behaviors that honor the dignity, worth, and unique identity of every individual through the application of ethical and just decision-making in academic, social, and professional contexts. Evaluate how choices and actions impact environmental stewardship, impact, and sustainability.
EMPOWERMENT
Through the use of academic knowledge and skills, Marywood University values the pursuit of real-world goals with confidence and with the ability to analyze complex problems and create informed responses, to support accessibility, and to demonstrate self-advocacy, initiative, and leadership in academic and community settings.
SERVICE
Marywood University’s community members identify and analyze real community needs or larger systemic inequities through research, dialogue, and observation. The goal is to prepare students to integrate academic learning with professional development.
EXCELLENCE
Our institutional values demonstrate mastery of discipline-specific knowledge and skills in pursuit of high academic and professional standards. The focus is on high-level cognitive skill building, including critical thinking and communication skills. Marywood University assesses these outcomes through both direct and indirect measures, including the review of student work, exams, projects, surveys, and other feedback mechanisms including evaluations and surveys.
Faculty
Marywood University has developed a three-fold faculty system to bring teaching and instruction to the highest level possible, involving faculty, community professional practitioners in the applied disciplines, and field site/practicum supervisors.
Each of the three groups works in concert to deliver the curricula. This approach integrates and balances practice and theory in the professions, keeps the curriculum current to practice, and is reflective of the creative ideas generated in the various disciplines.
The majority of Marywood’s faculty who teach graduate courses are experienced teachers and scholars. Their experience and the University’s long history in adult professional and aesthetic education are factors which have led, over the years, to an open and engaging faculty-student relationship. At Marywood, the quality of faculty-student relationships, both within and outside the classroom, has become the standard by which educational excellence is measured.
Role and Practice of Scholarship
Scholarship at Marywood supports and builds upon our teaching and service activities. Faculty scholarship is closely linked to teaching and is integrated into coursework on an ongoing basis. Graduate programs, because of their curricular focus on the human services and the professions, stress the concrete application of theoretical and empirical findings to local, regional, national, and international needs. Faculty work with students to improve their research skills; a scholarly orientation within the professional degree programs is our hallmark. Joint publishing of student-faculty is an aspiration of programs in all Colleges. The role of scholarship continues to grow at Marywood with the development of annual opportunities for faculty and students to present their research findings both on campus via the Graduate Research Forum and off campus at professional meetings.
Governance
Each of the Colleges are led by a dean, aided by the faculty, and provide specific structures and opportunities for student and community input. The standards and policies of graduate education evolve from the values of open discussion, self-criticism, and critical thinking. The process of information gathering, judgment, and decision-making occurs through various committees and organizations, including: the Policy and Operations Committees, the Graduate Curriculum Committee, various department-based advisory groups, and the Graduate Student Council.
Enrollment
Marywood University has an enrollment of 2,700 students; enrollment at the graduate level is approximately 870 students. Graduate students, both full-time and part-time, represent a diversity of backgrounds. Actively working to increase the diversity of the student body in Marywood’s graduate programs is a high priority. Marywood’s size permits a closeness in faculty-student relationships, which is uncommon in larger research-oriented graduate schools.
Location and Campus
Marywood University is located on a scenic property of 115 acres in an attractive, historic residential area of the city of Scranton in northeastern Pennsylvania. With a population of approximately 76,000, Scranton is the seventh-largest city in Pennsylvania and is the county seat of Lackawanna County. Marywood provides access and self-sufficiency to its students, with the advantage of being close to major cities of the northeast.
Scranton is within driving distance of the following cities:
2½ hours to New York City
2½ hours to Philadelphia
4 hours to Washington, D.C.
5 hours to Pittsburgh
5½ hours to Boston
Several airlines serve the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, which is 20 minutes from campus. The city of Scranton is located in the Pocono Mountains region, an area renowned for the beauty of its lakes and forests, as well as the access it offers for all kinds of winter and summer sports and other outdoor activities.
The region is home to two minor league sports teams, the Scranton Wilkes-Barre Rail Riders (minor league baseball team of the New York Yankees) and the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins (minor league hockey team of the Pittsburgh Penguins). Scranton provides an array of cultural opportunities–concerts, theatre, ballet, lectures, and art shows. It celebrates its distinguished history as a labor center in museums and Steamtown National Park.
At Marywood University, students enjoy a beautiful campus with a blend of classic academic architecture, modern facilities, and an array of athletic fields and spaces. Marywood’s Liberal Arts Center features the iconic Rotunda, classrooms, the University Admissions Office, and a variety of administrative offices, and also is home to NativityMiguel School of Scranton. The Shields Center for Visual Arts, with its two outstanding galleries, the Suraci and the Contemporary, provides exhibits throughout the year. Marywood’s strong heritage in the performing arts continues at the Sette LaVerghetta Center for Performing Arts, which features a rich repertoire of music, theatre, and dance events. The Center for Architectural Studies is a spectacular and spacious adaptation of Marywood’s former gymnasium and a state-of-the-art example of sustainable design, featuring a two-story commons that is an ideal place for group discussions, debates, displays, and project critiques. The Center for Natural and Health Sciences houses science laboratories, computer labs, the 100-seat Comerford Theatre, and classrooms.
Dynamic learning environments, clinics, labs, studios, and equipment are featured in The William G. McGowan Center for Graduate and Professional Studies, the Insalaco Center for Studio Arts, and the O’Neill Center for Healthy Families. The O’Neill Center now includes the new Pascucci Pavilion for Health Sciences, an exciting space where health professions students learn and grow together, sharing simulation labs, exam rooms, and the latest equipment and technology.
The Center for Athletics and Wellness supports both athletic and academic programs. The building includes a 5,000 square foot fitness center, a 1,500-seat arena, an indoor jogging track, dance and aerobics studio, locker rooms, athletic training room, hydrotherapy room, student lounge, and a climbing wall. Open-air tennis courts are nearby. The Aquatics Center is an extension of the Center for Athletics and Wellness and includes an eight-lane pool, team locker rooms, and spectator seating for 190.
The Marywood University Gear Shop, main dining hall, and Esports Center, along with meeting, lounge, and recreation, and event spaces, are located housed in Nazareth Student Center. The Swartz Center for Spiritual Life is home to the beautiful Marian Chapel, where Masses are held regularly during the Fall and Spring semesters. With its Peragallo pipe organ and 7-foot Steinway grand piano, the Marian Chapel also offers the Music, Theatre, and Dance Department an intimate 180-seat performing space. Additionally, the Swartz Center has a Conference Center that offers multiple rooms for meetings and events.
Marywood’s newest facility, the Learning Commons, is a flexible and open physical space, which serves as the intellectual and social heart of campus. In addition to housing Library Services, this facility also serves as the home of The Hub, consisting of the Offices of Academic Success, Career Services, and Military and Veteran Services, providing a centralized and comprehensive location to students geared towards helpful support services. The Learning Commons also features the Center for Multimedia Communication, Center for Law, Justice & Policy, Mother Theresa Maxis Center, Center for Urban Studies, Center for Global Education, Center for Transformational Teaching and Learning, and the Entrepreneur Launch Pad. Surrounded by the Learning Commons, the Center for Architectural Studies and the Insalaco Center for Studio Arts, the Calabro Delfino Amphitheatre, with its natural tiered lawn, is the ideal open-air setting for academics, staged art, outdoor exhibitions, and recreation. The beautiful Motherhouse and Seminary Morgan Memorial Garden, situated in front of the Learning Commons, celebrates the history of Marywood and the IHM Congregation.