Mission Statement
Marist is dedicated to helping students develop the intellect, character, and skills required for enlightened, ethical, and productive lives in the global community of the 21st century.
Values Statement
The College fulfills its mission by pursuing three ideals: excellence in education, a sense of community, and a commitment to service. These ideals were handed down to us by the Marist Brothers who founded the College. Now an independent institution governed by a lay board of trustees, Marist continues to embrace the three ideals as an integral part of the College mission.
Excellence in Education
Marist achieves its ideal of excellence in undergraduate, graduate, and professional education by actively engaging each student through exemplary teaching and distinctive learning opportunities.
At the undergraduate level, this begins with a firm foundation in the liberal arts and sciences. Through the core curriculum and major fields of study, students learn to think logically and creatively, to synthesize and integrate methods and insights from a variety of disciplines, and to express themselves effectively orally, in writing, and through media. Students consider the ethical dimensions of the subjects they study and become more aware of their own values, the values of others, and the implications of the choices they make in their public and private lives. They explore diverse cultures through coursework, extracurricular programs, international study, internships, and service opportunities. Students in all programs learn critical thinking and problem‑solving skills requisite for effective leadership in a complex and diverse society.
The Marist ideal of excellence in education finds distinctive expression in programs tailored for the graduate and adult learners the College has long served. Study at the graduate level emphasizes breadth and depth of knowledge for career development. In a climate of collegiality, students refine the intellectual and personal qualities they need to contribute to their fields. Graduate, undergraduate degree completion, and professional programs are designed to accommodate the needs of adult students to balance education with work and family responsibilities. Maintaining the high standards that characterize all educational offerings, Marist presents programs for adult students in alternate locations, formats, and methods of delivery.
A distinguishing feature of the Marist education is the manner in which information technology is used to support teaching, learning, and scholarship. The College, a leader in educational applications of information technology, offers students access to advanced technologies to help them develop as lifelong learners and productive members of their communities. Technology resources are combined with flexible and innovative program formats to expand access to higher education for all students.
A Sense of Community
The Marist ideal of community is based on the belief that we become a better institution through the active involvement of faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the life of the College. Seeking to create relationships that will last a lifetime, we nurture the well-being and development of all our community members and cultivate their bonds with the College and each other. Marist encourages students to collaborate with faculty and staff on research, creative, and service projects, and to share the results of their work with a wider community of scholars. We take particular care to ensure that student activities build a sense of community while supporting educational goals. We are a diverse community united by a shared commitment to the free exchange of ideas, consideration of the opinions of others, and civility in all our interactions. As members of the global community, we are committed to the collective stewardship of our environment.
A Commitment to Service
The Marist ideal of service is predicated on our belief in the dignity and value of every human being. The College sponsors and supports programs to meet a wide variety of community needs, and to offer broadened access to education. We encourage students, faculty, staff, and alumni to make service an important part of their lives. Both individual students and student organizations engage in service activities, including programs that assist those in need, projects throughout the Hudson River Valley, and other humanitarian initiatives around the world. By sharing their time and talents, students help make Marist a better place to live and learn while developing a sense of personal responsibility and civic engagement.
Introduction to Marist
What started as a school for training future Marist Brothers has developed into one of the leading comprehensive liberal arts colleges in the country. Marist College’s 210-acre main campus overlooks the Hudson River in the heart of the historic Hudson Valley, midway between New York City and the state capital of Albany, NY. In addition, the Raymond A. Rich Institute for Leadership Development is located on a 60-acre estate in the Ulster County, NY, town of Esopus. The College also has a branch campus in Florence, Italy. Marist’s campus is virtually global, with many degree programs offered 100 percent online.
Recognized for academic excellence by U.S. News & World Report, Forbes, The Princeton Review, and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Marist is noted for its leadership in the use of technology to enhance the teaching and learning process.
The College enrolls approximately 5,037 traditional undergraduate men and women, 412 nontraditional adult students, and 958 full- and part-time graduate students. Its first graduating class of 1947 consisted of four Marist Brothers. Today, more than 40,000 alumni and alumnae call Marist alma mater.
Marist offers 47 programs leading to bachelor’s degrees, 11 leading to master’s degrees, 1 doctoral program and 4 professional certificate programs. The College has a longstanding commitment to providing adults with educational opportunities that accommodate their work schedules. A variety of online programs offer opportunities to balance study with career and family responsibilities. Marist has seen tremendous growth in its graduate programs due in large part to its successful online MBA and MPA programs, the first to be accredited by New York State. Marist also offers other online programs at the graduate level including the MS in Education and MA in Marketing Communication.
Marist has received national attention and a number of awards for its advanced technology. The College is a member of Internet2, providing students and faculty direct access to digital education and research resources across all member institutions. All classrooms employ “smart technology,” and wireless access is available throughout the campus, both indoors and out. A joint study agreement with the IBM Corporation has allowed both partners to develop innovative uses for technology in learning and teaching.
History
Marist can trace its roots to 1905, when the Marist Brothers first purchased property in Poughkeepsie, NY, as the site of a house of studies. In 1930, the state of New York certified the Marist Training School to offer college-level courses. In 1946, the state granted a charter to Marian College as a four-year institution of higher learning under the leadership of founding president Brother Paul Ambrose Fontaine, FMS. In 1956, the College broadened its scope to include the wider community and in 1957 admitted lay male students to pursue undergraduate studies.
Dr. Linus Richard Foy was named president in 1958 and became, at age 28, the youngest college president in the United States. In 1959, the College introduced an evening division to serve the educational needs of the surrounding communities. Marian College was renamed Marist College in 1960, and by 1969 the Brothers transferred ownership to the Marist College Educational Corporation with an independent board of trustees.
The College admitted women to its evening division in 1966. In 1968, women entered the day division, making the College fully coeducational.
In 1979, Dr. Dennis J. Murray was named to the presidency of Marist College, ushering in a period of unprecedented growth in its student body, academic programs, applications for admission, and campus. The College now educates approximately 5,000 traditional-age undergraduate students and 1,200 adult and graduate students from 44 different states and 58 different countries. It offers 53 undergraduate majors and 14 graduate programs, and it has tripled its applicant pool over the past 20 years. Marist’s main campus has expanded to 225 acres and 75 buildings, with more than $600 million having been invested in recent decades. Dr. Murray retired in 2016 but returned three years later to lead the institution once again after the tenure of his successor, David N. Yellen. In October 2021, Dr. Kevin C. Weinman was appointed as the fifth President of Marist. President Weinman previously served as Chief Financial & Administrative Officer at Amherst College.
The Marist College Faculty
The Marist College faculty is comprised of highly experienced and credentialed educators who are dedicated to the intellectual and professional development of their students. Many of these faculty members are highly skilled professionals with practical hands-on experience in corporate, government, not-for-profit, and community settings. Faculty regularly take part in research, publishing, and consulting, and are frequently called upon by various organizations and institutions for their expertise in their given academic areas. Furthermore, the Marist College faculty is known for their longstanding commitment to excellence in teaching. Small average class sizes allow Marist’s faculty to actively involve students in the learning experience. In-class exercises, case studies, computer simulations, group projects, and presentations all play an integral role in the learning process. Through the use of this multi-dimensional teaching model, learning occurs not only from faculty, but also from fellow students who bring a wide range of relevant experiences to the classroom.
Marist College recognizes the competing needs of adult students who often balance their career and home life with their graduate studies. There are a number of options available to help students meet this challenge. Marist offers the convenience of evening classes and online classes, as well as a choice of campus locations, thus enabling working adults to pursue their graduate degree with minimal disruption to their personal lives. At the same time, part-time students can choose to accelerate their studies by taking more than one course per term. Fall, spring, and summer sessions allow students to complete their degree at a pace which suits their personal and professional goals.
The Marist/IBM Joint Study
Marist seeks to distinguish itself by the manner in which it uses information technology to support teaching, learning, and scholarship. The College has had a longstanding partnership with the IBM Corporation that has helped place Marist among the most technologically advanced liberal arts colleges in the country. A key component of the Marist/IBM partnership has been a 30+ year joint study collaboration that has benefited both the College and IBM in many ways. Through the Joint Study, IBM has been able to test concepts and technology applications that the company believes can be of value in the 21st century in education, business, communications, finance, security, software defined environments and other fields. The Joint Study has also provided Marist with the capacity to acquire and use cutting-edge technology to support instruction, faculty and student research, as well as key college initiatives.
The introduction of computers and computer science courses at Marist began in the mid-1960s, a time when few colleges the size of Marist had moved into this field. From the start, computers have been viewed as a functional tool for everyone at Marist as well as a scientific discipline to be mastered by those in the School of Computer Science and Mathematics.
The Marist/IBM Joint Study began with the installation of a $10 million IBM 3090 mainframe computer in Donnelly Hall to be used for production workloads. Over the past three plus decades, Marist has worked with IBM to carry out several major upgrades of its mainframe computer. In 2012, the College installed a new Z Systems mainframe in the Hancock Center for use in academics and research that provided a level of computing power ordinarily associated with large research universities and Fortune 500 companies. Since that time, Marist and IBM have collaborated on many projects, such as with two IBM Shared University Research grants that have helped to enhance Marist’s e-learning initiatives, building a test bed for software defined networks (SDN) which was used to demonstrate use cases such as disaster recovery within a software defined environment (SDE), implementing a Cyber Security curriculum in response to the growing need for those critical skills in the IT industry, and deploying cyber honeypots to track and gather information on cyber attacks to develop automated responses to thwart future attacks.
Most recently, Marist and IBM have embarked on emerging technology research projects with applications in both business and academic worlds. These projects include such technologies as data analytics, cloud computing, trusted identity, cyber security, cognitive computing, and quantum computing. Current and planned activities provide Marist students the opportunity to work closely with faculty and technical experts in the industry from many different disciplines. Marist’s work with IBM has created the infrastructure that is necessary for faculty, students, and staff to engage in leading-edge teaching and research using tomorrow’s technology.
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. These rights include:
- The right to inspect and review the student’s education records within 45 days of the day Marist College receives the request for access.
- The right to request the amendment of the student’s education records that the student believes are inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy rights under FERPA.
- The right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student’s education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent. The disclosure exceptions are defined below.
- The right to file with the U.S. Department of Education a complaint concerning alleged failures by Marist College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. Complaints may be filed with The Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-5901.
- The right to obtain a copy of Marist College’s education records policy.
Copies of this policy are available upon request at the Office of the Registrar.
Additionally, Section 99.7 of FERPA requires that schools annually notify students currently in attendance of their rights under FERPA. Students currently in attendance will be provided a statement of their FERPA rights in their registration materials.
FERPA Disclosure Exception: Marist College discloses education records without a student’s prior written consent under the FERPA exception for disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including law enforcement unit personnel and health staff); a person or company with whom the College has contracted as its agent to provide a service instead of using College employees or officials (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks.
A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibilities for the College. Marist College has designated the National Student Clearinghouse as a college official.
Under FERPA disclosure exceptions, Marist may release information from a student’s education record without prior consent to appropriate parties including:
- Federal officials in connection with federal program requirements;
- State and local officials legally entitled to the information;
- Appropriate authorities in connection with financial aid;
- Accrediting agencies, in connection with their accrediting functions;
- Courts or law enforcement in compliance with a lawfully issued judicial order, subpoena, or search warrant;
- Appropriate parties in a health or safety emergency, if necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other individuals;
- Testing agencies for the purpose of developing, validating, researching, and administering tests.
Directory Information: Under FERPA, Marist may release the following information at various times unless requested in writing not to do so by the student: student name, campus-wide identification number, address, college email address, telephone number, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, the most recent previous educational institution attended by the student, grade level (including number of credits earned), and enrollment status (e.g., undergraduate, graduate, full-time, part-time). Students must notify the Registrar in writing should they not want information made available by filling out a form at the Office of the Registrar.
Additional information about FERPA is available on the Marist website: www.marist.edu/registrar.
Membership and Accreditation
Marist is chartered by the Board of Regents of the State of New York, and its academic programs are registered by the New York State Education Department’s Office of Higher Education, Room 975 Education Building Annex, Albany, NY 12234 (518-474-1551) and Office of the Professions, State Education Building - 2nd Floor, Albany, NY 12234 (518-474-3817). Marist College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 1007 North Orange Street, 4th Floor, MB #166, Wilmington, DE 19801 (267-284-5026). The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accreditor recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. The College is also certified by the Department of Homeland Security for the training of foreign students. It is approved by the New York State Education Department for the training of veterans. The College is also approved for holders of New York State Scholarships, including Regents Scholarships, State War Service Scholarships, and Scholar Incentive Awards.
The College holds memberships in the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities, the Council on Undergraduate Research, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, the Middle Atlantic Association of Colleges of Business Administration, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, the Middle States Association of Collegiate Registrars and Officers of Admission, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the National Association of College and University Attorneys, and the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities. Marist is also affiliated with the American Association of University Women.
The School of Management has achieved the prestigious program accreditation of its undergraduate and graduate degree programs in business by AACSB International - The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. The Athletic Training program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, the Medical Technology program is accredited by the National Association for the Accreditation of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, and the B.S. in Chemistry curriculum is approved by the American Chemical Society. For the College’s Education programs leading to teacher certification, Marist is a member in good standing with the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation. The MA in School Psychology program is approved by the National Association of School Psychologists, and the Social Work program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education. Marist’s MPA program is accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration. The MS in Physician Assistant Studies is accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), and the Doctor of Physical Therapy program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy. Marist’s Paralegal Certificate program is approved by the American Bar Association (ABA).
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