Nazareth College joins other institutions in becoming universities

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Nazareth College is making the ultimate change.

After midnight on Wednesday, it will be officially rebranded as Nazareth University. The faculty, staff, and current and former students News10NBC spoke to are all excited about this change.

It’s something that Nazareth University President Beth Paul says has been a long time coming.

Nazareth College announced it was making the change to university status in November 2022, but the idea goes back even further.

“This was the culmination of a thoughtful process – talking with nearly every facet of our campus community: current staff, students and faculty and those who have been part of our campus in the past, such as our alumni,” Paul said.

Paul says the institution has already been operating as a university, providing university-like programming, training and degrees.

“We have been included in the Master’s category in the Carnegie classification of higher education institutions for many decades. This is a category in which 92% of institutions outside of New York are named university,” Paul said.

Paul explains the institution is hoping the new name will attract more international students, as well as show prospective students what Nazareth University is all about.

“At that point we knew this would be the opportunity for Nazareth to spread our wings and soar into the future as Nazareth University,” Paul said.

Nazareth University is not the only institution that made the switch this year. St. John Fisher and Roberts Wesleyan have also made the change.