Yellen: 6,569 students
POUGHKEEPSIE – Marist President David Yellen gave the keynote address
to hundreds of members of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce
at their monthly contact breakfast on Wednesday.
President Yellen became the fourth president of Marist College in July
2016, having left the position of dean of Loyola University Chicago School
of Law where, while serving, he was recognized by National Jurist as one
of the 25 most influential people in legal education.
Yellen touted the geographic diversity of enrollment at the college that
has 75 buildings on 210 acres along the shores of the Hudson River. The
incoming freshman class represents enrollment from 30 different states.
For the class of 2020, the college received over 11,000 applications and
accepted 40 percent of them.
Long-term strategic planning, including construction of several new dormitories,
has resulted in over 95 percent of the student body residing on campus.
That does not include the students that study abroad at the Marist College
Florence, Italy campus. Yellen plans to improve the diversity of the campus
even further by addressing issues of race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic
class. Financial incentives will be used to help address the latter because,
according to Yellen, Marist is in a very healthy financial position to
do so. As of October 2016, Marist had 6,569 total students, 58 percent
of which are female.
The liberal arts college has plans to introduce its first doctoral program
next year in the field of physical therapy. This program will join the
47 Bachelor’s programs, 14 Master’s programs, and 14 Certificate programs.
The campus has also been named one of the “most wired” campuses
in the country as a result of partnerships with major technology giants
like IBM. The 25 million dollar “high-tech complex” overlooking
the campus green and the Hudson River has 312,000 electronic books, 104,000
electronic journals, and 27,000 streaming videos to help students learn
in today’s advanced environment.
