RADNOR, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Villanova University has expanded its footprint on the Main Line as it opens a new 112-acre campus in Radnor — and a shuttered institution is getting a new lease on life.
It was in 2024 when Cabrini University closed its doors for good. “They contacted us and asked us if we would be willing to take on this place,” said Father Peter Donohue, Villanova’s president.
Donohue said they answered that call. After two years, those doors are open again as part of Villanova’s new Cabrini campus.
“In 184 years, this is the first time Villanova is expanding in any significant way,” he said. “We came in, we had to brand it to look like Villanova. It was very important for us to make it look like Villanova as much as possible.”
The new look of the campus boasts a number of updated, modernized and new-use buildings — and it did not come cheap, with renovations costing more than $100 million.
The campus is now home to several programs, including ethics and education.
“Cabrini had a well known elementary [education] program, and it was important for them that it continued, so Villanova took it on,” said Donohue, “so now we not only have secondary education but elementary as well.”
At the start of the fall semester, 900 students — half the sophomore class, according to Donohue — will be able to call the new campus home. Officials said there are 13 shuttle buses ready to carry people from the satellite to the main campus 1 1/2 miles away.
