Marylhurst University was a private applied liberal arts and business university in Marylhurst, Oregon. It was among the oldest collegiate degree-granting institutions in Oregon, having awarded its first degree in 1897. Marylhurst was founded as St. Mary's College and run for many years by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. The former campus is located about nine miles south of Portland, Oregon on the Willamette River. Although Marylhurst University was a Roman Catholic school, it served students of all faiths and backgrounds.
The university offered bachelor's degree completion programs in diverse liberal arts and business fields, and graduate degrees in such fields as business and nonprofit administration, food systems and society, teaching, art therapy counseling, divinity and applied theology, and interdisciplinary studies. After its establishment in 1893, Marylhurst became the first women's liberal arts college in the Pacific Northwest. In 1974, Marylhurst College became a co-educational institution, and in 1998 it was reorganized as Marylhurst University through the addition of new academic programs.
The university closed at the end of the summer of 2018. Declining enrollment was given as the main reason, with enrollment having dropped from 1,409 to 743 in just four years, from fall 2013 to fall 2017. In recent years, the university's student population had peaked around 2,000 during the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Prior to the closure, however, Marylhurst's faculty challenged this narrative.
History
The Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, a Roman Catholic religious teaching congregation, arrived in Oregon in 1859. The Sisters came to Oregon from Montreal at the request of the people and clergy of the state to serve their educational needs, and established St. Mary's Academy in Portland that year.
St. Mary's College
In 1893, the group started St. Mary's Academy and College as the first liberal arts college to serve the educational needs of Pacific Northwest women. The school began in downtown Portland, where St. Mary's Academy is still located. The Sisters purchased between Lake Oswego and West Linn in 1908. The Sisters named the pastoral land Marylhurst, which means "Mary's Woods". In 1929 it became the only accredited standard four year college for women in the Pacific Northwest. The college was moved to the new property in 1930, and St. Mary's was renamed Marylhurst College. Starting in 1977 the school was accredited by the Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools.
Marylhurst College
In 1959, Marylhurst College became an independent institution and formed a Board of Trustees, separate from the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.
In 1974, the college transitioned to a co-educational institution and it became the first liberal arts college in the United States to be designated as a college for lifelong learning.
The American Art Therapy Association reviewed the program positively numerous times including 1991, 1996 and 2002.
Beginning in 1996, U.S. News & World Reports Guide to America's Best Colleges recognized Marylhurst. The university remained as "unranked" for the Western Region in the U.S. News & World Report college rankings since the mid-1990s.
Marylhurst University
In 1998, Marylhurst College became Marylhurst University, Clackamas County's first university. Several new academic programs were added including a Master of Arts in Applied Theology program, a Bachelor of Music Therapy program, and a cooperative Doctor of Ministry degree program with San Francisco Theological Seminary. Judith Johansen was named president of the university in 2008 and left in 2013. Melody Rose served as president from August 2014 until late 2018.
In May 2018, the university announced that it would be closing. The university's enrollment had declined significantly in just a few years, from over 1,400 students in 2013 to about half that many students in 2018. The university turned the campus over to the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, the religious order with which it is affiliated.
Saint Martin's University was selected to serve as the custodial institution for Marylhurst University. As of Dec. 3, 2018, Marylhurst alumni can access their records and transcripts through Saint Martin's University.