1975

A Ceramics Studio is built to accommodate the nearly one hundred Art majors.  It is a compact, one-story structure pre-engineered of sculptured steel and contains two kilns, a variety of potters’ wheels, areas for welding and sculpture, and glass display cases. It opens, September.

1975

The Marywood Cinematography Club’s first musical, The Singing Sergeant, evokes the nostalgia of American movies of the World War II era with its depiction of a Savings Bond rally in the old Marywood gym and a lavish production number mounted and filmed in the Rotunda.

1975

Fifty Sisters are presented with a specially designed pin in recognition of twenty or more years of service to the College, April 5.  For most of the Sisters, the tribute is long overdue because earlier Congregational protocol did not encourage such recognition.  Now, however, a new perspective prevails, and fifty intentional omissions of the past are rectified.

1975

The first Office of Archives opens on the first floor of the Learning Resources Center so that Sister M. Cuthbert Donovan can begin the task of organizing the historical documents of the College.  Sister M. Cuthbert continues this work until her death in 1988.

1975

The first televised course of the Programs in Adult and Continuing Education (PACE) is offered, as is the first course utilizing weekly articles in The Scranton Times, demonstrating ways in which the College reaches out by non-traditional methods to non-traditional students.

1975

The Music Department sponsors its first summer outdoor concerts, a series of five Sunday evening performances held on the Memorial Commons, free of charge to the public.  One concert features the talents of students attending the Department’s annual music camp, a popular attraction for young area musicians.

1975

Marywood celebrates its sixtieth anniversary, commemorated by a Pontifical Liturgy of Thanksgiving celebrated by Bishop McCormick, October 4.  Later that day, the Memorial Commons is blessed and dedicated on the land where the Motherhouse had once dominated the campus.  The Commons is a ninety-foot concrete circle with walkways extending outward to major campus areas.  Sister Maria Laurence Maher, I.H.M., of the Biology Department, performs the symbolic planting of ivy in the large free-form granite monument taken in part from a shrine at St. Cecilia’s Academy, the first I.H.M. Motherhouse in Scranton, which was also destroyed by fire in 1876.  In this way, something from the far past is integrated into a new and very different focal point at the heart of the College campus.  The monument bears the inscription:  “The Memorial marks the site of the first building erected at Marywood.  It served both the general public and the Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  During the seven decades of its existence this remarkable structure served many missions.  This historical building was destroyed by fire February 22, 1971.” On it is carved a replica of the Motherhouse/Seminary Building that was destroyed by fire. An Anniversary Dinner is given afterward in Nazareth Hall, at which Sister Coleman awards Presidential Medals to Sister M. Cuthbert Donovan, Dean Emerita of the College; Sister M. St. Mary Orr, President Emerita; Mother M. Beata Wertz, I.H.M., former Superior General of the I.H.M. Congregation; and posthumously to John Murphy, Advisory Board member since 1960 and member of the Board of Trustees at the time of his death the preceding May.

Sister Maria Laurence
planting the Symbolic Ivy
at the Memorial Commons,
60th Anniversary of Marywood College, 1975

Memorial Commons

1975

One of the English Department’s graduating seniors, Marilyn Kralik, known as much for her haunting art work as for her exceptional literary talent, wins a major scholarship for graduate study at Pennsylvania State University.

1975

On its sixtieth anniversary, Marywood is an institution of imposing dimensions.  Its nineteen buildings plus the hockey field, tennis courts, and commons sprawl out on one hundred acres.  The physical plant has a value of $16 million with a total debt of only $2.7 million.  The annual operating budget is $5.6 million, with $768,000 in services contributed by the Sisters.  There are 210 faculty members, full- and part-time, forty-six administrators, 1,913 undergraduates, 892 graduate students, and 238 students in the Graduate School of Social Work.

1975

Marywood’s commitment to undergraduate education for nurses takes on new dimensions.  Begun through intensive non-degree courses during World War II in cooperation with area hospitals, the arrangement has developed into a comprehensive degree program.  Its first phase accepts registered nurses in a study sequence leading to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

1975

The Off-Campus Degree Program is established, providing an opportunity for adults to work toward a bachelor’s degree in Accounting or Business Administration while fulfilling their other responsibilities. 

1976

The Marywood Players perform Carousel and Romeo and Juliet.

1976

The Education Department receives Pennsylvania Department of Education program approval.

1976

The Reverend Robert Hochreiter, Chaplain, leaves Marywood to complete his doctorate at Pennsylvania State University, and the Reverend William Campbell becomes Chaplain and continues teaching in the Department of Religious Studies.

1976

A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities enables Marywood to hire an outside consultant to help redesign the humanities curricula.  Bates Lowrey, Art Department chairperson at the University of Massachusetts, is selected on the basis of his scholarly background and his experience in developing interdisciplinary programs.

1976

The Bachelor of Social Work program receives full accreditation, April.

1976

A graduate sequence in Special Education begins, leading to a Master of Science Degree and certification to teach the developmentally disabled.

Sister M. Coleman Nee, I.H.M., buries the Bicentennial Time Capsule in a shaft in the ground, thirteen feet behind the Memorial Commons monument, July 5.  The red, white, and blue canister contains historical documents and mementos of the year 1976, along with a letter from Sister Coleman to the future President of Marywood, who, it is hoped, will open the capsule in 2076.

1977

The temporary chapel in Regina Hall is converted into a more functional and streamlined chapel.  Ray Lorenzoni, a local artist whose father helped decorate the Rotunda, designs the mosaic behind the altar. Bishop McCormick blesses Regina Chapel and celebrates the first Mass there, April 23.

1977

The Marywood Players perform Long Day’s Journey into Night.

1977

The Board of Trustees approves the gradual closing of the graduate Department of Librarianship.  Higher professional requirements in this field have lowered the number of applicants, so the program no longer fills a vital area educational need.

1977

The first nineteen graduates of the new four-year coordinated Dietetics program receive their Bachelor of Science degrees at Commencement, and every one of them has already secured a position in the field.

1977

By this time, the new Communication Disorders Department has developed a six-course minor in Education for the Deaf, in cooperation with the staff of the nearby Pennsylvania State School for the Deaf and in compliance with directives from the Council on Education for the Deaf.

1977

The Department of Religious Studies develops two correspondence courses, with the study guide for one of them authored by three members of the Religious Studies faculty: Charles DeCelles, Rabbi Simon Shoop, and the Reverend William Campbell.

1977

The opening of the Montessori Childhood Center at the Generalate provides additional accessible observation experiences at the pre-school level for Education majors.

1977

Marywood sponsors an Award Dinner to honor fifty-one employees of the managerial, clerical, and service staffs who have served the College for ten or more years.  Specially noted are Helen Murray, who has been with the Housekeeping Department for forty-nine years, and William Reckless, Supervisor of Utilities, who has overseen the College’s heating, electrical, and plumbing complex for twenty years.

Bethany Hall, a North Washington Avenue house that Marywood College purchased in 1966, becomes home to six religious faculty members, September 3.

1978

The Marywood Players perform Mame and The Heiress.

1978

By this time nearly twelve hundred students have participated in Marywood and the International Correspondence Schools’ “college without walls” program, meeting the same standards that apply on campus and fulfilling residence requirements by means of two two-week sessions.  The Carnegie Foundation is funding similar programs at major universities throughout the Midwest, pursuing an educational direction that Marywood was the first to explore in 1972.

1978

The Marywood “Bubble” opens on the eastern border of the campus behind the Marian Convent and is blessed by Rev. William Campbell, Chaplain, June 14.  It is a vinyl structure, supported by air, encapsulating six tennis courts, permitting year-round play for both students and area subscribers. 

1978

The option of dual certification in both elementary and special education—a popular choice among students—comes to an end.  The latter becomes a separate department, providing certification in five areas of disability: emotional disturbance, mental retardation, physical handicaps, learning disabilities, and brain damage.  By this time liaisons exist between the College and Allied Services for the Handicapped, the United Cerebral Palsy Home, and the Allied Services and Viewmont Mall Group Homes, through which Marywood majors in Special Education gain practicum experiences in teaching functional reading and math skills to adults.  In addition, St. Joseph’s Center supplies opportunities for work with multi-handicapped pre-school children.

1978

Sister Patricia Ann Matthews, I.H.M., chairperson of the Department of Social Sciences from 1973 to 1978, leaves the Department to become the Dean of the Undergraduate School, and Sister Margaret Gannon, I.H.M., succeeds her.  Both Sisters, graduates of the Marywood Social Sciences Department, contribute much to the Department’s cross-curricular direction during the 1970s.  The Pennsylvania Department of Education notes this trend during an evaluation, citing the Department of History and Social Sciences for “developing a model of interdisciplinary experiences.  The structure of the faculty, the leadership and belief of the department chairperson—all contribute to this excellent situation.”

1978

The Business Department, chaired by Samir Dagher, utilizes a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to set up two simulated work environments in which students can experience, on campus, some of the realities of the business world. The Individualized Secretarial Center and Information Systems Center ease the transition between the classroom and the workplace.  To reflect its increased scope, the Department’s title is expanded to include Managerial Science.

1978

The initial class of twenty-two nurses from the first phase of Marywood’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program graduates, May.

1978

A major change takes place at the administrative level of the College when Sister Michel Keenan, Vice President for Academic Affairs, is elected Superior General of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Sister M. Espiritu Dempsey, I.H.M., assumes the Vice Presidency, and Sister Patricia Ann Matthews, I.H.M., succeeds Sister Espiritu as Dean of the Undergraduate School.

An elevator is installed in the Liberal Arts Building, September 6.

1979

The Marywood Players perform The Taming of the Shrew.

1979

English Department member Barbara Hoffman’s volume of poems, Cliffs of Fall, is welcomed into print at an autograph party.

1979

The second phase of Marywood’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, in which freshmen and licensed practical nurses are admitted to a program designed to produce registered nurses with a baccalaureate degree, begins.

1980

Marywood College embarks on an important long-range development program—Marywood Horizons—a carefully planned and organized effort to provide for the College’s continued academic and physical growth. Key areas of financial need are identified:  physical plant improvement and new construction, increased endowment, scholarship funds, and annual funds for operating support.

1980

Sister Dolores M. Filicko, I.H.M., is appointed Secretary of the College, June 7.

1980

The Board of Trustees establishes the Marywood Gillet School as a nonresidential, coeducational unit offering a baccalaureate degree, all off-campus undergraduate programs, certificate programs, and other nondegree education, October 4.  The title honors Rev. Louis Florent Gillet, C.S.S.R., cofounder of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

1980

The Religious Studies Department operates a three-track major which serves a diversity of students, from those preparing to enter some form of Church Ministry to those investigating religion as a phenomenon.  Field experience is arranged for department majors in local Catholic high schools, at the Fatima Center, and with the Scranton Team Ministry.

1980

Nearly five hundred students compose the freshman class, the largest entering group to date, and Marywood is once again the largest independent Catholic women’s college in the United States, Fall. 

1980

For its undergraduate enrollment of more than two thousand, Business Administration, Social Science, Human Ecology, Communications, and special Education rank as the five most popular major choices, Fall.

1980

The College launches another capital funds campaign, called “Marywood Horizons,” October.  Planned to span the decade in three three-year phases devoted to expansion, endowment, and scholarships, the financial goal of the drive is $9 million. 

1980

Sister M. Coleman Nee, I.H.M., is named a Distinguished Pennsylvanian.

1980

Dr. Barbara Burkhouse of the Education Department is named first Dean of the newly established Gillet School, December 22.

1980

The Winterim session is offered for the last time.

Ground is broken for the Clinic expansion. The building will be called the Human Services Center, March 8.

1981

“College for Kids” is introduced for elementary and junior high school students (nine to fifteen years of age), offering non-credit courses in Computer Science, Water Color Painting, Creative Weaving, Spanish, Electronic Music, and Swimming, Summer.  There is also a session for parents, analyzing television as an instructional tool.

1981

The Marywood Cinematography Club films The Woman in White using sound on set, an original musical score, thirty-eight different sets, original 1901 costumes, and a cast of thirty-three actors.

1981

Tuition is $75 per credit hour, and room and board $1,700 per year.

1981-
1982

With Sister M. Christella Duggan, I.H.M., of the English faculty as moderator, the campus newspaper enjoys a winning streak in the associated College Press competitions at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism, rating first class honors, Fall 1981, Spring 1982, and Fall 1982.

Bishop McCormick dedicates the expanded Center for Human Services, April 1. It is enlarged, doubled in size by the addition of 19,000 square feet of space.  Now the Center can provide offices for thirty faculty members and facilities for students in the fields that included speech pathology, audiology, education of the deaf, reading, psychological testing, counseling, remedial education, and child development.  Sister Ave Maria Foley, I.H.M., of the Art Department, embodies the mission of the Center in a wall sculpture for its glass-enclosed lobby.  Entitled “Christ the Teacher,” the work depicts in relief a spellbound child listening to and learning from the ideal educator, Jesus. 

Trustees approve the construction of ninety-six new Parking Spaces to adjoin the spaces in front of Nazareth Hall, May 1.

1982

The Middle States Association commends the excellence of a venture in Bicultural/Bilingual Studies with Immaculata College that grants the Marywood Master’s degree for course work done at Immaculata under the supervision of the faculties of both schools. 

1982

The Marywood chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa, the national honor society for Religious Studies and Theology, is established.

1982

The Bureau of Research and Evaluation of the Pennsylvania Department of Education cites the Graduate School of Social Work for the exceptional strength of its part-time program.

1982

By this time, the Gillet School is sponsoring non-credit enrichment courses as well as tuition-free classes for senior citizens, Fall.

1982

An Early Childhood Center, geared to pre-school children from two-and-a-half to five years of age, replaces the Montessori Center in the Generalate (the I.H.M. Center), September. 

1982

The Legal Assistant Program is added to the law education courses in the Social Sciences Department, preparing students for wok in areas of law that do not require a lawyer's degree.

1982

Quinta Judge Mahon, chairperson of the Human Ecology Department, presents a paper and curriculum recommendations at a conference sponsored by New York University and The Fashion Institute of Technology.

1982

Sister M. Coleman Nee, I.H.M., awards the College Presidential Medals to the co-chairpersons of the Marywood “Horizons” Development Campaign: Mrs. Edward Lynett and Robert Keating, president of Parodi Industries.

1982

The Graduate School of Social Work is instrumental in beginning Marywood’s affiliation with the Council of International Programs (CIP) for social workers and youth leaders.  Through this organization, participants are selected from foreign countries to visit the United States and—through Marywood’s arrangements—to live with host families and observe the dynamics of a variety of American social agencies.

McCarty Hall, formerly used as a Management House for the Department of Home Economics, is refitted as a residence for twenty-four students.

Ground is broken for the Art Center and Health and Physical Education Center, April 9.

1983

Marywood’s operations are so widespread that Sister Coleman initiates the Marywood Planning Advisory Council to monitor the College’s progress in the four major areas: academic affairs, business affairs, student affairs, and public relations.  Sister serves as chairperson of the entire Council, and each division is, in turn, chaired by the corresponding administrative officer.

1983

A major in Religious Studies is started for evening students via the Gillet School.

1983

By this time the registration process at the College is computerized, eliminating the day-long lines in Nazareth Hall.

1983

Sister M. Christella Duggan, I.H.M., shares her experiences of successfully moderating The Wood Word through a workshop that she presents at a conference of the National Council of College Publications Advisors.

1983

The Most Reverend John O’Connor serves as seventh Bishop of Scranton for a brief period following the retirement of the Most Reverend J. Carroll McCormick.

1983

A new Honors Program is inaugurated to encompass not only individual courses but an entire degree, Fall.  The seminar format is utilized in these classes, which are reduced in size to facilitate individual participation.  Also featured are colloquia, independent research, and tutorials, each format providing a slightly different learning experience.  An Honors degree requires the completion of twenty-four honors credits, fifteen of them in seminars, and includes a thesis in the student’s major field.  Honors courses and degrees function “to enhance the academic opportunities of promising and motivated undergraduates” and to permit “highly able students to pursue more effectively, more fully, and more creatively their individual academic aims”; all are identified on transcripts. 

1984

The Rosary Field House, built in the early 1950s, is incorporated into a dramatic modernization juxtaposing the disciplines of athletics and art.  The combined Visual Arts and Health and Physical Education Centers—a $5.2 million complex—are dedicated by Bishop McCormick, October 13. The new structure proves to be one of the most dazzling features of the campus.  The Visual Arts Center, built adjacent to the original Field House but with its own entrance, contains the Contemporary Gallery, featuring exhibits by visiting artists, faculty, and students, and the Suraci Gallery, with the permanent art collection of the College.  The outer east wall of the two galleries is concave and sheathed in sixteen mirrored panels which project multiple reflections of the campus and the nearby Shrine of St. Joseph.  Inside are classrooms, offices, and lecture halls, with all of the Art Department’s graduate and undergraduate facilities (except the Studio’s) assembled for the first time in a single location: printing, sculpture, graphic design, photography, jewelry, ceramics, computer graphics, and textile art.  The Health and Physical Education Center has been renovated and enlarged, with its gymnasium expanded to seat one thousand spectators.  Racquetball courts, an athletic training room, team rooms, classrooms, offices, and a dance studio are added.  A pedestrian arcade is designed for the fronts of both the Health and Art Centers, linking the two structures visually and physically.  This novel plan, joining a new building to an older one and making both more impressive by the merger, is the work of architects Leung, Hemmler, Camayd of Scranton.

1984

The Department of Mathematics begins to offer a major in Computer Science.

1984

The Marywood Players perform Camelot.

1984

The Education Department merges its undergraduate and graduate programs due to decreased enrollment, a move to be reversed when circumstances change later in the decade.

1984

When the Diocese of Scranton’s Bishop O’Connor is appointed to the Archdiocese of New York City, the Most Reverend James C. Timlin, Auxiliary Bishop of Scranton, succeeds to the local position.

1984

Sister Coleman receives an honorary doctorate at the commencement of The University of Scranton.

1984

A pre-summer session for undergraduates is implemented, similar to the Winterim, which ended in 1980.  It is a four-week intensive study period in which one course may be completed prior to the regular summer session.  Eventually the summer schedule evolves into two five-week sessions.

1984

The Art Department’s chairperson, Sister M. Cor Immaculatum Heffernan, I.H.M., directs a Humanities Program at the Lackawanna County Prison in Scranton.  Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, the effort arranges classes for inmates in literature, expressive writing, art, and music, all taught by Marywood faculty members.

1984

The campus newspaper wins a first place certificate in the Columbia Scholastic Press Association competition, Fall.

1984

The purpose of Marywood College is expressed in its Catalog for the first time under the three separate headings which persist up to the present: mission statement, goals, and objectives.

Art Gallery and Museum pieces are moved into the Suraci Gallery in the Visual Arts Center.

1980s

Numerous options are available for degree-seekers: the early admission program, permitting students to begin college work after completing the junior year of high school, provided that they fulfill all entry requirements; the accelerated sequence, enabling academically outstanding high school students to start earning Marywood credits through courses in summer and during their senior year; the modified program, easing qualified but tentative students into the college routine through a twelve-credit load which includes instruction in basic English, academic skills, and study habits; Project GREAT (Gradual Re-entry for Adults in Transition), in which the evaluation of mature students’ college records is deferred until fifteen credits are completed, affording them time to utilize campus support services in developing their capabilities.  For those whose SAT scores or high school class rank is not up to standard, there is the Act 101 Realization of Ability Potential Program.  It gives students whose potential is not yet matched by performance the chance to demonstrate their true ability at the college level through selected courses.

1980s

Many campus support services are offered at Marywood.  Pastoral counseling is available at all times for religious and spiritual problems, and non-Catholics are provided with references to local ministers and rabbis.  Diagnostic hearing and speech services are offered free to all.  The Counseling Center administers a variety of self-appraisal inventories on an optional basis, including intelligence, aptitude, and personality tests.  Resident counselors and advisors smooth the transition to dormitory life, and a flock of energetic peer tutors are available to coach students encountering difficulties in particular courses.  The aptly named group OARS (Organization of Adult Returning Students) helps non-traditional students maneuver past their particular problems, which range from handling stress to securing baby-sitters.

1980s

A cooperative program with Indiana University of Pennsylvania enables students in its doctoral program to earn almost half their required credits at Marywood.

1980s

The College faculty achieve two long-sought goals: establishing a Faculty Senate to represent its interests and its views, and securing a small room in the Liberal Arts Center to serve as a social lounge for professors.

1980s

As a graphic reminder of its identity, Marywood starts to display more conspicuously the College logo, developed during sessions of the Curriculum Committee nearly twenty years earlier.  This logo, symbolizing Marywood, consists of three stylized trees in a row, with the central, cross-embellished one partly overlapping the other two.  The logo begins to appear regularly on college stationery, brochures, and other printed material.  It has long been featured in the Catalog, which describes it as follows: “The symbol of Marywood College strikes a humanistic approach, the essence of which is science and literature fused with philosophy, truth, and beauty bound by goodness.  In the trunks of the trees (three for the Holy Trinity) we see an expression of constancy and growth.  The wood—the wood of the cross—reminds us of the salvation from which we should build our strength, our character.”

1980s

Marywood starts the 1980s with a five-year plan to improve the administrative computer system and, in accord with the long tradition of sharing knowledge while acquiring it, the College is soon training teachers and students of the Scranton Diocese in the Logo computer language.  This effort is made possible through a $34,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, one of only sixty awarded to nearly four hundred applicant institutions.

1980s

The Academic Computing Center is activated, with a Prime 400 computer and twenty terminals at various campus sites.  Drop-in facilities are provided for word processing, programming, and other course assignments requiring the use of software.  Eighty microcomputers are distributed among the residence halls, the library, and the academic offices.  Academic Computing also sponsors workshops to train Marywood faculty and students in introductory and advanced computer techniques.  To encourage machine proficiency, the Center maintains a collection of data sets for general use and supervises a computer-purchase program with discounts for members of the College community.

1980s

Visiting speakers include Jacques-Ives Cousteau, oceanologist; John F. Kennedy, Jr., campaigning for his uncle, Senator Edward Kennedy; Loren Hollander, pianist-lecturer; Father Avery Dulles, S.J., theologian; Donald Woods, anti-apartheid journalist from South Africa; Ralph Nader, consumer advocate; and Joyce Carol Oates, novelist and poet.

1980s

All campus structures are equipped for the handicapped by the installation of entrance ramps, elevators, curb cuts, special parking spaces, and lowered drinking fountains.

1980s

The Fine Arts building becomes the Performing Arts Center.

1980s

Nazareth hall becomes the Student Center.

1980s

Good Counsel Science Hall becomes the Science Center.

1980s

The Liberal Arts building becomes the Liberal Arts Center.

1980s

The Business Department is the largest in the College throughout the decade and one of the most cosmopolitan, as students in the International Business sequence complete part of their studies in Spain or France.

1980s

In the Department of Psychology Sister Gail Cabral, I.H.M., wins a grant for summer study from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

1980s

In the Department of Psychology Raymond Martinetti’s dream research attracts attention in both campus and professional circles.

1980s

The Department of Foreign Languages, under the leadership of chairperson Mary Elizabeth Mallow Kenny, acquires a satellite dish for the Learning Resources Center, through which students have access to worldwide television broadcasts in a variety of languages.

1980s

Sister Mary Reap, while still a member of the Department of Foreign Languages, participates in the English Language Exchange Program at the Huazhong Institute of Technology in Wuhan Hubei, China, teaching English to Chinese scientists.

1980s

The Human Ecology Department begins an extern program for majors in the Hotel Restaurant Administration Program.  In this six-credit course, students work a forty-hour week behind the scenes at the College cafeteria, supervised by John Osmun, veteran manager of the Marywood Dining Services, Sister Maureen Schrimpe, I.H.M., Director, and John Mellon of the Human Ecology faculty. 

1980s

Two Dietetics seniors are awarded stipends for graduate study: Kim Rokita receives a Truman Fellowship, and Colleen O’Rourke wins a Rotary Fellowship.

1980s

The Department of Mathematics, along with George Washington University in Washington, D.C., offers a dual degree program in Mathematics/Engineering.  The sequence balances studies in the liberal arts and science and requires three years at Marywood and two years at George Washington.  Participating students receive a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mathematics from Marywood College and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from George Washington University.  The program ends in 1987, when the Department decides to focus its energies on its major in Computer Science.

1980s

Sister Robert Ann von Ahnen coordinates the annual math contests sponsored by the Mathematics Department for area high school students.

1980s

Two members of the Philosophy faculty, William Mohan and Michael Foley, with Sister Dorothy Haney, I.H.M., win a total of five National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.

1980s

Every program offered by the Education Department undergoes review to ensure that students are prepared to pass the new certification examinations required by Pennsylvania as of June 1, 1987, for all entering the teaching profession.

1980s

A competitive state grant funds a microcomputer lab, and interactive video hardware and software are added to the Education Department’s resources.

1980s

Education Department member Sister Frances Russell, I.H.M., is elected president of the Keystone State Reading Association.

1980s

The area’s first chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America is formed at Marywood, giving students the opportunity to practice their public relations skills with local organizations while still attending college.  By working with professionals in the business community, students assimilate valuable practical experience and acquire a vital network of career contracts.  The group gets off to an energetic start, winning three awards during its first year: one for University Service and two District Director citations.

1980s

The Student Hotel and Restaurant Association begins in conjunction with the newest sequence in the Human Ecology Department, Hotel and Restaurant Administration.

1980s

The campus newspaper undergoes another change of name, from Genesis to The Wood Word. 

1980s

Most Marywood students volunteer time to support causes they believe in.  Many participate in seminars and workshops sponsored by L’Arche in behalf of better understanding the disabled.  Others join faculty, administration, and staff in the Renew program, a six-week session of small group faith sharing and larger organized activities geared to nurture the spiritual development of those involved.  The Theresa Maxis Center for Justice and Peace also attracts its share of concerned students.  Cosponsored by Marywood College and the Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the organization operates on two levels of social involvement: educating the public about contemporary issues related to peace and justice, and encouraging effective citizen response to government proposals regarding such issues.