(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) Marymount University President Irma Becerra isn’t slowing down.
With the 2019-20 school year underway and 455 students moved into the new upscale apartments at the newly-acquired “Rixey” building in Ballston, part of a $250 million investment in Marymount’s expanded Ballston presence, Becerra is continuing to push her Strategic Plan to double the Catholic university’s in size by 2024.
Becerra and Marymount are in the beginning planning phases of a project to repurpose buildings on the main campus to add capacity for an additional 3,000 students. She is also working on a capital investment plan to increase the university’s endowment nearly sixfold — from $43 million to $250 million.
Eventually, Becerra said, Marymount will have to build additional buildings for student housing if the university wants to reach its eventual goal of 10,000 enrolled students. As of last fall, there were 3,418 students in both graduate and undergraduate programs.
“Some of the growth will be fully online, and others will be through hybrid programs that will require less physical time on campus,” Becerra said. “We don’t anticipate an issue, but more buildings will probably come in the latter part of the next five years.”
As for the cost that comes with doubling a university size, Becerra said funding “would come through a combination of initiatives from corporations and private foundations and the launch of a new capital campaign and government funding.”
Within the next few years, she hopes the school will establish itself as a top producer of highly-competitive talent for all Arlington businesses, from Amazon to local startups.
With Amazon’s HQ2 being staffed up, there is a particular focus on technology at Marymount. Earlier this year Marymount recently hired tech-oriented entrepreneur Jonathan Aberman as interim dean of its business school. And a new artificial intelligence curriculum is being incorporated into every major “from arts to biology.”
Marymount will have competition in that regard: George Mason University and Virginia Tech also working on major local expansion plans with a tech focus.
In addition to doubling the university’s size, Becerra is seeking to raise its national profile. That effort is bearing some fruit, particularly with Marymount jumping more than 20 spots in its U.S. News and World Report rankings. At the same time, she wants to maintain the school’s local feel and connection.
“We’re Arlington’s only headquartered university, and we’d like to think of ourselves as ‘Arlington’s University,'” Becerra said. “There’s a significance to be headquartered here, and between [being] instrumental to changing the Ballston experience, we have a number of proposals of how we’re going to work with local employers in the area and how we can help support the workforce needs in the community.”