The university has six schools and offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs.[10] The
U.S. Department of Defense and the
U.S. Department of Homeland Security designated Mercy University as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education.[11] The university had 8,615 students enrolled in fall 2022.
History
Mercy University was founded by the
Sisters of Mercy in 1950 as Mercy College. It became a four-year college offering programs leading to the baccalaureate degree in 1961. The college was
accredited by the
Middle States Commission on Higher Education in 1968. In the next half-decade, Mercy College became independent and co-educational. In addition, it doubled the size of the existing physical plant and initiated the first of many community outreach efforts. Mercy College in the 1970s broadened its outreach through the establishment of extension centers and branch campuses throughout communities in
Westchester County and New York City.
Mercy College was authorized to offer its first
graduate program, nursing, in 1981. Since then, over 30 diverse graduate programs have been introduced, and in 2006, the college was granted authorization to offer its first
doctoral program in
physical therapy.[12] The college expanded its offerings to include online programs in the 1990s, and was soon granted the ability to offer entire degree programs online. Thousands of Mercy University students take one or all of their courses online through the more than 40 undergraduate and graduate programs offered.[13]
In early 2019, Mercy College and the
College of New Rochelle announced that College of New Rochelle (CNR) would be absorbed into Mercy College starting fall 2019, including College of New Rochelle's students, faculty, programs, some facilities, as well as transcripts, history and legacy of CNR alumni. Mercy College became the repository of CNR documents.[14][15] On August 12, 2019, William Latimer, the 14th and final College of New Rochelle president, joined Mercy College as vice president of its New Rochelle and Bronx locations serving in that role until March 2022.[16]
On September 30, 2022, Mercy received the “Seal of Excelencia” from Excelencia in Education, honoring it as a national exemplar in advancing prospects for success in college for its Hispanic students. Mercy is the first private college in the country, as well as the first HSI in New York State, to receive this certification.[17]
On July 1, 2023, Susan L. Parish, the former dean of the College of Health Professions and Sentara Professor of Health Administration at
Virginia Commonwealth University, became the 13th president of Mercy College.[18] A few days later, the New York State Board of Regents approved a name change for Mercy College; its new name, Mercy University, became effective on August 22, 2023.[19]
Campuses
Students celebrate the launch of Mercy University in front of Main Hall in Dobbs Ferry, Westchester Campus.
Westchester
The main campus of Mercy University encompasses 66 acres (27 ha) in the village of
Dobbs Ferry in the town of
Greenburgh,
Westchester County,
New York, 25 miles (40 km) north of New York City.[A] In addition to academic and administrative buildings, it houses the two residence halls and athletics buildings, including state-of-the-art facilities such as the Clinical Health and Simulation Labs, design and animation studios, music and recording studios and a 5,000 square foot fitness center. The
Old Croton Aqueduct Trail runs through campus.
In 2011, Mercy College bought the
Our Lady of Victory Academy building after the school closed.[20] The building was renovated to include state-of-the-art classrooms, design and animation studios, music and recording studios, a trading room that replicates Wall Street with Bloomberg terminals and a stock ticker, and a new gymnasium with an NCAA regulation court for basketball and volleyball.
In December 2015, the college opened a new 350-bed, state-of-the-art residence hall complex, known as Hudson Hall, that includes a 5,000-square-foot fitness center facility and student commons with shops.[21]
Mercy hosted the Third Round and Quarterfinals of the 2017 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championships at Mercy Field on the Dobbs Ferry main campus.[22]
The Manhattan site is situated in the heart of Manhattan at
Herald Square and occupies three floors at 47 West 34th Street totalling 95,370 square feet.[24] The Manhattan campus, which was expanded and renovated in 2019,[25] includes a dorm for international students, known as Dorm 34, a 70-seat Bove Media Center, 28 classrooms, offices and breakout spaces, a cybersecurity and computer science lab, an analytics and financial lab equipped with Bloomberg Terminals, and a library with tutoring services. It also includes a common area featuring a 100-seat Herald Square Cafe, information and activities desks, dedicated space for students to meet with Mercy’s mentors, career coaches and financial aid advisors, and a large meeting space for events and campus life activities.
Bronx
Mercy University Bronx site
The Bronx site occupies 125,522 square feet (11,661.4 m2) at the Hutchinson Metro Center, a rapidly developing complex of corporate and health care organizations and businesses. The Bronx Campus’s state-of-the-art facilities include fully equipped health and science labs and anatomage tables to provide maximized opportunities for learning and student-centered spaces such as the Veterans Lounge.[26]
Former locations
Yorktown Heights
In 1979, the Yorktown site of Mercy College moved to a permanent facility at the intersection of Route 202 and Strang Boulevard. This landscaped building was renovated for college use. The branch library at the Yorktown site was designated a
federal depository for government publications.[27] The site is close to
Franklin Delano Roosevelt State Park, which offers extensive outdoor recreational activities. This campus ceased operations in 2021.[28]
College of New Rochelle campus lease
In fall 2019, Mercy leased the
College of New Rochelle’s main campus in New Rochelle for up to two years, at $1.8 million a year, and nearly 1,700 students from CNR became Mercy students.[29] In addition to CNR's main campus, Mercy also negotiated leases for two of CNR's satellite campuses, Rosa Parks in Harlem and the Brooklyn Campus in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.[30] However this arrangement proved short-lived as the New Rochelle campus was sold in December 2019 to the
Grand Lodge of New York Freemasons in order to pay off the College of New Rochelle's debts. It has since been turned into a senior-living facility for aged and infirm Freemasons.[31]
The university offers more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs, including more than two dozen that can be completed online. The faculty comprises 210 full-time professors with a significant majority holding the highest degree in their respective fields, Fulbright Scholars, published and national best-selling authors, and experts.
28th in Top Performers on Social Mobility in Regional Universities North by U.S. News & World Report in 2023.[32]
Barron's ranks Mercy College a "best buy" and "competitive" in college education.[33]
Mercy College (now Mercy University) was featured on Washington Monthly’s 2015 Best Bang for the Buck Rankings.[34]
Admissions
Undergraduate acceptance rate was 86% in Fall 2022.
[1] The average high school GPA of incoming freshmen was 86.3/100 (3.28/4.0) in Fall 2022.
[2]
Demographics
Main Hall
As of 2022, Mercy University had 8,615 students enrolled. The undergraduate population includes 4,815 full-time and 1,564 part-time students with 30 percent of freshmen and 11 percent of all full-time undergraduates residing in campus-affiliated housing. While the majority of students are come from the tri-state area, students represent 40 states and 51 countries. Mercy University offers small class sizes with an average student/faculty ratio of 15:1. Around 89 percent of students are commuters; 11 percent live in campus housing. Mercy University has 72 percent female students and 28 percent male students.
[3]
Accreditation
All campuses of Mercy University are accredited by the
Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Among others, Mercy University colleges and programs holds professional accreditations with:[35]
Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education
Accreditation Review Commission for Physician Assistant
Accreditation Council for Business Schools & Programs
American Association for Paralegal Education
American Association of Colleges of Nursing Mercy College
American Physical Therapy Association
American Speech, Language and Hearing Association
American Veterinary Medical Association
Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education
Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education
Council on Social Work Education
Regents Accreditation of Teacher Education (In candidacy for NCATE accreditation, late 2013)
Libraries
Mercy University's flagship library is on the main Dobbs Ferry Campus.[36] Both the Bronx and Manhattan campuses also have branch libraries.[37]
Athletics
Mercy athletic teams are the Mavericks. The college is a member of the
Division II level of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the
East Coast Conference (ECC; formerly known as the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference (NYCAC) until after the 2005–06 academic year) since the 1989–90 academic year.
Mercy University sponsors an intramural sports program, as well as intercollegiate competition in 10 varsity sports: Men's sports include baseball, basketball, lacrosse and soccer; while women's sports include basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball and volleyball.
The baseball, lacrosse, soccer, and field hockey teams, in addition to numerous local community high school and youth groups, play on a new, eco-friendly turf field on the Dobbs Ferry campus.
Nickname
In 2007, the college changed its
athletic nickname from "Flyers" to "Mavericks" after the administration reviewed suggestions from students and faculty members.[4][38]
Student life
Student government
The Mercy College Student Government Association (SGA) is responsible for protecting students’ rights, advocating for students’ interests, and promoting student life.
Thomas J. Abinanti, American politician, lawyer, and member of the New York State Assembly from Greenburgh, New York.
Fernando Cabrera, American politician in the Bronx, New York. A Democrat, he currently represents the 14th District in the New York City Council. Formerly program director for the Mental Health and Counseling program at Mercy College
Rick Wolff, book editor, author, college coach, broadcaster, and former professional baseball player.
Daniel Callahan, professor of psychology at Mercy University. Played a leading role in developing the field of biomedical ethics as co-founder of
The Hastings Center, the world's first bioethics research institute.[50]
Mercy University had more than 70,000 alumni as of 2023.[3] Additionally, the now-defunct
College of New Rochelle's alumni, numbering more than 50,000, have been merged into the Mercy University Family.[51] Here follows a partial list of notable Mercy University alumni only.
Pasquale J. D'Amuro, American terrorism
authority, former intelligence agent and television analyst. In a career of 26 years he rose to the third position of the
FBI.