From college to Assumption University

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Assumption College is to be renamed Assumption University next August, the school has announced.

The final step in the college’s application process for university status came when the Secretary of State approved the amendment to the college’s charter, Francesco C. Cesareo, Assumption’s president, said in a Nov. 6 memorandum to the college community.

He said this followed the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education’s approval of the application.

“With this approval, it is left to the discretion of the institution to determine the effective date of the transition to a university,” he said, adding that the transition is expected to take place at the beginning of the next academic year.

The school also received a trademark, which says its name cannot be used by another institution in the United States, President Cesareo told The Catholic Free Press.

“Despite the challenges facing the higher education industry, through the devoted and energetic work of many throughout the campus community, we find ourselves at the cusp of yet another significant moment in the storied history of this institution that was founded in 1904 by the Augustinians of the Assumption,” the president said in the memorandum.

The transition to university status is a confirmation of the evolution of the college over time, he told The Catholic Free Press, adding, “We are a comprehensive institution.”

While the liberal arts are central, the institution also offers programs with a professional orientation, including human services and now nursing and cybersecurity, he noted. The opportunity to pursue a master of science in physician assistant studies is to begin in the spring of 2021.

The college resembles a university because of its diversity, the president said. It has seen the growth of graduate programs and expansion to include a campus in Rome. There are about 2,500 students, including those in graduate and continuing education programs, he said.

President Cesareo said the liberal arts and the institution’s Catholic identity and mission are to be infused into its five schools of study – the college of liberal arts and sciences, the school of nursing, school of health professions, school of business, and school of graduate and professional studies. This fall saw the restructuring of the college into those five schools. The hope is to address current needs and increase funding and enrollment while maintaining Assumption’s mission as a Catholic liberal arts institution.

Now work is being done to create a visual unity, so the university will have one united identity, President Cesareo said. The blue and white seal is to remain essentially the same, with the change of the word “college” to “university,” he said.

He said new campus signs also need to be created and the website restructured.