Expanding
Horizons
With the addition of the Cabrini Campus,
Villanova continues to build for its future
Expanding Horizons
With the addition of the Cabrini Campus,
Villanova continues to build for its future
It’s fall 2026. You’re a Villanova sophomore, waking up in a sunny room in Josephine Hall, overlooking a leafy hillside in Radnor. You grab a coffee in Cascia Hall before engaging in a lively discussion in your Ethics class in Bellesini Hall. After a study break in Tagaste Hall, it’s time to meet with your professor for a research project update in Iadarola Hall. Then you hop on the shuttle for an afternoon class at the St. Augustine Center.
In the evening, you take a fitness class in the Dixon Center, and then wrap up the day catching up with friends over dinner in Bellesini in the newly imagined student restaurant, before returning to your residence hall as the sun sets.
If the vast majority of these locations are not familiar to Villanovans now, they will be in just over a year—on the Villanova University Cabrini Campus.
The University has embarked on its most monumental transformation to date: a two-year process that will fully integrate the 112 acres that were once the home of Cabrini University into Villanova University. Adding an entirely new campus to the University, with the two separated by just about two miles, is a significant undertaking and a tremendous leap forward.
“The Cabrini Campus will be an extension of our existing campus in every way—offering academic, residential, recreational and community-building spaces that will enrich the Villanova experience for all students, faculty and staff,” says University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, ’75 CLAS. “The campus also allows us to further advance Catholic education in the Greater Philadelphia region and beyond—carrying on the legacy of Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini and the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”
The Cabrini Campus is a bucolic hamlet, studded with groves of mature trees and with paved pathways weaving amid lush landscaping. It’s an atmosphere that is reminiscent of the campus landscape that generations have known and loved at Villanova, with all of the elements in place to create an amenity-rich, student-focused environment in a second location.
“We are repurposing and reimagining the existing spaces at Cabrini to seamlessly integrate into the Villanova experience,” says Executive Vice President Roger Demareski ’91 COE.
Making plans for the new campus has been a community effort. Faculty, staff, students and alumni were surveyed and invited to submit input and ideas for how the location should be used, and a leadership team of representatives from across the University visited other colleges and universities with multiple campuses.
One of the team’s key takeaways from other universities’ experiences was the importance of a sophisticated shuttle bus system. Villanova has partnered with a leading transportation operator to provide a convenient, frequently running shuttle system to transport students between the Cabrini Campus and the existing campus.
A Legacy to Be Celebrated
Many existing buildings on the Villanova Cabrini Campus are being renamed to honor the heritage of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini and St. Augustine, the patron saints of the two institutions whose legacies are at the heart of this project. Among the new names are Tagaste Hall, named for St. Augustine’s North African birthplace, and Francesca Hall, in honor of Mother Cabrini’s birth name.
Villanova and Cabrini universities long shared a common foundation with their faith-based academic missions. Powerful symbols of this connection adorn each campus, including a statue of St. Augustine on Cabrini’s grounds and a stained glass window depicting Mother Cabrini in Villanova’s Corr Chapel.
As the Augustinians were in the early years of establishing Villanova College in Pennsylvania, Maria Francesca Cabrini was growing up in a small Italian village near Milan in the 1850s. Along with seven other women, Mother Cabrini, as she came to be known, founded the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The sisters established schools and orphanages in Italy and were then sent to New York City by Pope Leo XIII in 1889 to minister to thousands of newly arrived Italian immigrants.
In her lifetime, Mother Cabrini established 67 institutions—schools, hospitals and orphanages—worldwide. Her name is now synonymous with faithfulness and dedication to education, as well as strength, leadership and compassion. Mother Cabrini, who died in 1917, was canonized in 1946 and was named the patron saint of immigrants in 1950.
Mother Cabrini’s namesake institution was founded in Radnor in 1957. While Cabrini University closed its doors in 2024, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus continue to work as educators, nurses, social workers and administrators around the world.
A Thriving Academic Community
With the addition of the Cabrini Campus, Villanova is able to address a critical need for classrooms and collaborative spaces. The campus will have nearly 30 classrooms, as well as nursing simulation spaces, research labs and study areas.
Several academic programs will be based on the Cabrini Campus:
- The Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, with a state-of-the-art vivarium—an area housing animals for observation and research
- The Department of Education and Counseling, connecting to Cabrini University’s history of teacher education
- The Ethics Program, a component of the core liberal arts curriculum typically taken in the sophomore year
- Graduate programs in the M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing, with dedicated educational and clinical simulation space
- Select programs within the Communication Department, including media labs
“The Cabrini Campus enables Villanova to further our efforts in innovative teaching and learning, research and academic programming,” says University Provost Patrick G. Maggitti, PhD. “Our entire intellectual community stands to benefit enormously as we embark on this next chapter.”
“ This is a transformational moment in Villanova’s history, and I look forward to opening such a vibrant setting for our community to live, work, gather and learn. ”
- The Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD, '75 CLAS
A Lively Campus Experience
The Villanova experience wouldn’t be complete without its vibrant campus life, which the Cabrini Campus will offer in abundance. In addition to seven residential buildings with space for 900 students, primarily sophomores, the campus will offer enhanced recreational facilities, meeting spaces for clubs and unique dining concepts.
“After their first year at Villanova, undergraduates will have a special opportunity to live on the Cabrini Campus, which is being developed to cater to their unique needs and interests,” says Kathleen J. Byrnes, JD, ’82 CLAS, ’06 MA, vice president for Student Life. “The amenities will be top-notch, and I know our students will be thrilled to see what we have created just for them.”
The Dixon Center and Nerney Pavilion is a centerpiece—a 100,000-square-foot complex, complete with an indoor pool, multiple basketball courts, a turf playing field and a suspended indoor jogging track. These spaces will be primarily reserved for recreational use by students, faculty and staff, as well as for club and intramural teams.
Cascia Hall is being renovated into a dynamic student center, where Villanova chefs will prepare dining options that can’t be found elsewhere at the University, giving Cabrini Campus residents a first taste of new offerings.
“This is a transformational moment in Villanova’s history, and I look forward to opening such a vibrant setting for our community to live, work, gather and learn,” says Father Peter.■
DID YOU KNOW?
The Cabrini Campus is not only scenic—it’s also historic. The grounds include a Tudor-style, 51-room mansion built in 1901 and designed by famed architect Horace Trumbauer. The mansion, which will now be known as Montefalco Hall and will house administrative offices, event space and other operations, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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