A new ordinance seeks to give Tredyffrin officials more power to address unruly student tenants, after quality-of-life issues have plagued a Chester County neighborhood for years.
In a unanimous vote Monday, the municipality’s seven elected officials voted to approve a new ordinance regarding student housing that changes the enforcement mechanism, allowing them to go after the landlords who rent to students — rather than the students themselves.
“I hope this makes a difference, and I hope that we can hold the landlords or the companies, whoever own the property, responsible for this,” said board member Carlotta Johnston-Pugh.
Residents have said previously that they have walked out in the morning to find vomit on their cars, beer cans strewn across the streets and yards, and students passed out on the porch. They’ve been kept up by loud parties, rideshare cars speeding down the street, or a lost drunk student trying to kick in the door.
With Villanova’s new 112-acre Cabrini campus off Upper Gulph Road, putting it now within walking distance to the houses and the parties, residents worry that the problems could intensify.
At least seven houses are rented to students, several along Mount Pleasant, and a few on nearby Henry Avenue, township officials said previously. Another house where students live isn’t zoned properly, which the township has been trying to address, officials said previously.
Board member Hans van Mol said it bothered him, when he first joined the board less than a year ago, that the Mount Pleasant community felt that the township wasn’t responding to their concerns.
“Our ordinance wasn’t suited to keep up with the issues that were going on that needed to be remedied,” he said. “I’m very glad that we finally got to this point here, if not even just for the potential that the township can actually promote a safer, stronger community, but that people can actually feel we’re working on it.”
Tredyffrin first adopted a student housing ordinance more than a decade ago in response to concerns. The measure limited household occupancy to three students and prohibited the houses from being too close together, though the properties along Mount Pleasant were grandfathered in. But its power was somewhat limited.
The new ordinance — a much more robust measure — notes that the owner of the student house will be “directly responsible” for the behavior of student tenants and their guests. It gives the township the ability to inspect the home, if there are suspicions that there are more than three students living in the house. It allows the township to direct the landlord to evict students if three violations occur within the same year. Landlords can be fined up to $1,000 for violations of the ordinance.
Residents should keep calling the police when issues arise, “so that they can properly document it to be used against the landlord enforcement of this ordinance,” said board vice chair Sharon Humble.
For some of the residents, it was a promising effort.
“Yes, I have been one of those that have come and … voiced my concern about what has been going on,” said Mount Pleasant resident Shawn Jackson. “I read through the ordinance, and it’s very comprehensive, and I’m very happy about that.”
Kevin Stroman, a longtime resident of the neighborhood who now runs a mentoring program at the historic Carr School/Mount Pleasant Chapel across the street from one of the student houses, has long tried to offset negative relationships with the students and the residents.
“I think the climate in Mount Pleasant is so bad right now because of certain students getting out of control,” he said. “I like the idea [of the ordinance] because no doubt the owners have to have something that will make them look at who they rent to.”
Others wished it went further. G. Hayward Simpson, a Mount Pleasant resident who lives in the Montgomery County portion, said that the students “have no need, want, will to be part of any community.” He wanted to see student housing entirely excluded from the neighborhood.
“I’m not saying this with any kind of malice, or I don’t want these kids to have a good time. I just don’t want them to live on the block. I want to see single families,” he said.
Jeff Hilliard, a landlord with a student rental on Mount Pleasant, said he “lay[s] down the law” with his tenants.
When he first purchased the house for rentals, Hilliard said he gave his number to the neighbors so they could call him if they ever had a problem with the students. They’ve never contacted him, he said, but he knows the police have been called and “literally driven away because there was no issue whatsoever.”
“So unfortunately, I think it’s just a couple bad tenants and a couple bad landlords that are causing this for these nice people of Mount Pleasant,” he said.
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A Czechoslovakian-born cardinal who is based at the Vatican will receive Villanova University’s inaugural sustainability medal for his work “at the intersection of human dignity, social justice, care for vulnerable communities and care for creation,” the university announced Monday.
Pope Leo XIV, a Villanova alumnus,will present the medal named for him to Cardinal Michael Czerny on Oct. 13 at the university’s international sustainability conference in Italy.
Villanova established the award earlier this year to honor someone whose work shows “exceptional commitment to ecological responsibility, social justice, care for the most vulnerable and responsible stewardship of economic and human resources.”
The award is in part inspired by Pope Leo’s call to serve the poor and marginalized, said the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, Villanova’s president, who announced the winner at a news conference in Rome. Taking care of the environment and the poor are inextricably linked, Villanova said.
“The Medal reflects a deeply held belief at Villanova: care for our common home and care for one another are inseparable,” Donohue said in a statement. “Cardinal Czerny’s work has shown us that care for creation cannot be separated from care for people.”
The medal features Pope Leo on one side and Villanova University’s name on the other and is meant to highlight the pope’s commitment to sustainability, the school said. The winner can come from any field or discipline and is selected by a committee of members of the university’s Sustainability Leadership Council.
The medal carries a $25,000 award to be used toward continued work in sustainability, the university said.
Born in 1946 in the former Czechoslovakia, Czerny, 80, moved to Montreal with his family as a small child. His mother was Jewish and the family had converted to Catholicism, but several members of his family had died at the hands of Nazis, according to the National Catholic Reporter, which featured an article on Czerny in 2022.
“My mother’s family — both parents and two brothers — were also Catholic but shared the Jewish origins that the enemy abhorred,” Czerny said in a homily, quoted by the National Catholic Reporter. “My maternal grandmother Anna, my grandfather Hans and my uncles Georg and Carl Robert, were all interned in Terezín, where Hans died… My grandmother and uncles were transported to Auschwitz. From here my uncles were sent to labor camps and eventually murdered there.”
His mother and father were forced to work as farm laborers because of her Jewish ancestry and his unwillingness to divorce her.
Czerny became a Jesuit priest in 1973 and got a doctorate in human sciences, social thought and theology from the University of Chicago in 1978. He was named a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2019.
Over the last five decades, his work was focused on helping vulnerable people worldwide, the university said. In 1979, Czerny founded and led a center for faith and social justice in Toronto. He volunteered to be based in El Salvador during the country’s civil war, and from 2002 to 2010, he worked in Africa and founded the African Jesuit AIDS Network in Kenya.
“That organization he led brought in a lot of hope,” said the Rev. John Abubakar, Villanova’s chief sustainability officer, who is from Nigeria. “It made a massive, massive influence or difference in the lives of people.”
From 2022 until Sept. 1, Czerny headed the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development as Prefect, a role in which he led the Church’s work on justice, migration, health and care for creation. Pope Francis in 2022 sent him to Slovakia to greet refugees fleeing Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Czerny said he was grateful for the medal and the honor it brings.
“What’s most important I think is the commitment the university is making to include sustainability in how it is forming the future leaders of our church and in this case the United States,” he said in a video on the Vatican news site.
A 24-year-old Portuguese man was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison for stealing more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from unwitting victims, including a resident of Montgomery County — crimes prosecutors said the man committed while he was associated with an international cybercrime network.
Ruben Filipe Gabriel Martins pleaded guilty last year to wire fraud and identity-theft charges for using sophisticated phishing tactics to obtain victims’ cryptocurrency account information, then stealing their investments.
Prosecutors said Martins committed his fraud while he was part of a group called “the Com,” a global network of people who use technology to commit a variety of crimes across the world, including extortion, theft, and even incitements of violence.
Martins, meanwhile, was associated with a subset known as “CryptoChameleon,” a group that uses a variety of deceptive tactics to obtain account information from cryptocurrency holders. In Martin’s case, prosecutors said, he pretended to be a customer support representative for Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, and told his victims he could offer support for their compromised accounts — tactics he used to get into the accounts and steal the victims’ funds.
Martins then went on to transfer the proceeds into other cryptocurrencies, prosecutors said, and ultimately spent his ill-gotten gains on luxury goods, traveling, and gambling.
His scheme began to unravel in 2024, when prosecutors said a man from Towamencin Township told police that more than $60,000 had been stolen out of his cryptocurrency account after he’d replied to text messages and calls about its security. Authorities were ultimately able to link that activity to Martins, who was born in Portugal and went on to live in Scotland.
Martins’ lawyer said in court documents that Martins had never intended to become “a career criminal.” But after being raised in modest circumstances — including by working in a fish factory as a teenager — Martins was introduced to a host of wealthy benefactors due to his skill in online gaming, his lawyer said, and some of those people then flew him to Paris and recruited him to participate in their digital exploitation operation.
In court Monday, Martins apologized for his actions, saying he was in debt when he committed his crimes and viewed the scheme as a way to make “really easy money.”
“I made a mistake when I was really down,” he said, “and I’d just like to have another chance at life.”
But U.S. District Judge Gerald J. Pappert said it was a significant understatement to describe the crimes as a “mistake ” — saying Martins had used his computer skills and desire for money to turn himself into a “dangerous” person who stopped only when he got caught.
“Not one thing you did in two years was a mistake,” Pappert said. “You needed money. You saw what for you was an easy way to get a lot of money. … And I don’t know to what extent, if at all, you ever felt bad about it, because these people were all behind a computer, and you never had to look them in the eye.”
One of Martins’ victims has seven children, Pappert noted, and others were intelligent people who lost significant portions of their life’s savings.
Martins is expected to be deported to Portugal once he finishes his prison sentence. But Pappert said his victims may never get over the shame and financial hardship he caused them.
“These were horrible crimes,” Pappert said. “None of these people deserved this.”
Pennsylvania will not change its immunization guidelines in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order this week calling for states to reduce the number of recommended childhood vaccinations and separate a combination shot protecting against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR).
Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said his administration will “continue to give Pennsylvanians clear public health guidance based on science and facts.”
“President Donald Trump and [Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.] are screwing around with the childhood vaccine schedule — ignoring decades of science, sowing chaos and confusion, and spreading dangerous misinformation that put kids and families at risk,” Shapiro said.
States set vaccination mandates for schoolchildren, not the federal government.
And it gives Kennedy, a longtime anti-vaccine activist, 90 days to present Trump with a plan for a number of vaccine policy changes. Changes could include splitting the MMR vaccine into separate shots for each disease. There are currently no individual vaccines for measles, mumps, or rubella licensed in the United States.
“Splitting up combination immunizations, like the MMR vaccine, creates unnecessary hurdles for parents, needlessly extends the window of risk for our youngest residents, and doesn’t follow the results of the many studies that went into developing the previous vaccine schedules,” Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Debra Bogen said in a statement.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai did not comment directly on Pennsylvania officials’ decision to keep its original vaccine recommendations.
He said in a statement that Trump has pledged to reduce the vaccines recommended for all children, and the “administration is committed to delivering with Gold Standard Science and every lever of executive authority.”
“The countless parents whose questions and concerns about America’s vaccine schedule have been ignored if not mocked finally have a true champion in President Trump,” he said.
Vaccine politics under Trump
The new executive order is not binding, experts say, and states are free to ignore it.
Several states, including Pennsylvania, have already balked at Trump’s repeated attempts to upend longstanding childhood vaccination schedules.
And last year, when the Trump administration did not approve COVID-19 vaccinations for certain groups, Pennsylvania changed state policy to allow pharmacists to dispense vaccines based on recommendations from a number of professional medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Previously, pharmacists were asked to dispense vaccinations based solely on recommendations from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee. Kennedy fired the entire committee and replaced them with hand-picked appointees last year, some of whom included vaccination skeptics. That action is also the subject of a court battle.
“The way to handle this is to ignore it,” said Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a prominent Kennedy critic.
“It’s not science based, it doesn’t make vaccines safer or more effective,” he said. “All it does is put children in harm’s way.”
He noted that despite longstanding concerns by anti-vaccination activists that children receive too many vaccinations, breaking up combination vaccinations like MMR would result in children getting more shots. “Kids would need six shots instead of two,” he said.
Logistics uncertain
Changing the kinds of vaccines available in the United States would take years, said Ana Santos Rutschman, a professor specializing in health law at Villanova University.
Trump could ask the Food and Drug Administration to approve separate measles, mumps, and rubella vaccinations, which would require extensive clinical trials and a long approval process, she said. And vaccine manufacturers may not attempt to develop new shots if Republicans lose control of the White House in 2028, she added.
“Right now, it’s unlikely anyone will reshift their operations,” she said. “It’s feasible — it’s just expensive, and the payoff is very small.”
The FDA could revoke licensing for the current combination MMR vaccines, but that would likely invite court challenges, Santos Rutschman added.
In the short term, she’s concerned that Trump’s repeated attempts to change longstanding vaccine policy will only confuse parents and providers who have relied on consistent recommendations from the federal government.
“Suddenly, you have our top regulators saying there’s a reason to hop to a different set of products. This is inherently confusing,” she said.
A partial eclipse will occur Wednesday, along with a planetary alignment that doesn’t happen all that often.
For star power, however, the annual Perseids meteor shower, which will be peaking late Wednesday night and early Thursday, may outshine them both as the moon gets out of the way to prepare for its big night at the end of the month.
The Perseids should put on quite a decent show this year for those who have access to reasonably dark skies and do not mind staying up a little late.
These things can produce 50 to 100 meteors an hour underultra-dark sky conditions, but you won’t see that many above light-polluted Philly.
Above the darkness-challenged Philadelphia Museum of Art, you might be able to catch 10 an hour, said Bill Cook, NASA’s meteoroid guru at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.
The potential spoiler in all this would be the state of the skies, which are expected to be sunny Wednesday. But just how cloud-free they will be at night is not clear just yet, said Patrick O’Hara, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Mount Holly.
The weather service is calling for mostly clear skies late Wednesday night, but some clouds may roll in after midnight, and it says the forecast contains “a frustrating level of uncertainty.”
About the eclipse
The eclipse has been generating media attention, and it is going to be a spectacular show — if you happen to be in Greenland or Iceland or northern Spain, places that will experience the haunting magic of totality, which will occur around 1:45 p.m. Philly time.
Locally?
“Philly just isn’t in the right place for any good eclipse viewing this time around,” said Teddy Kareta, assistant professor of astrophysics and planetary science at Villanova University.
Only about 8% of the sun will be blocked out at Philly’s latitude, said Dwight Dulsky, with the Bucks-Mont Astronomical Association.
Said Kareta, “That’s a small enough change that … I don’t think I’d even notice.”
Dulsky said the Bucks-Mont group “will be doing some safe solar viewing” of the eclipse in the marina parking lot of Nockamixon State Park, in Upper Bucks County.
Early risers (or late stay-uppers) on Wednesday can admire a planet parade in the western sky, or at least some of its participants.
Four planets — Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Saturn — will be lined up and visible to the unaided eye, said Kareta, though Jupiter and Mercury may be elusive, since they will be close to the horizon.
The line may be slightly less orderly on the 13th, but may not look much different from the perspective of the average earthling, Kareta added.
If you miss the planet show, Kareta advises that these things may be special but are not exactly rare. A similar alignment occurred “about a year ago,” he said.
“As an astronomer,” he said, “I find these planetary alignments more fun and beautiful than I find them super interesting.”
The Perseids are about to peak
Several hours after the moon gets in the sun’s way Wednesday, it will be fortuitously out of the way for the annual Perseid meteor showers.
As many as 50 to 100 meteors per hour may appear at their absolute peak, which this year would be in the early morning hours of Thursday.
Elsewhere in the great Philadelphia city-state, French Creek State Park, bordering Chester and Berks Counties, is a favorite among local sky watchers, and the prime viewing area is open all night.
At least a few watch parties are planned, including one by the Bucks-Mont group from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Nockamixon park, Dulsky said.
The Perseids are so named because they appear to radiate from the constellation Perseus, but they show up all over the sky. They are the most popular among the 30 or so showers visible in the night sky annually.
The Geminids, in December, outnumber the Perseids, but people prefer warmth with their meteor-watching. Plus, NASA reports that the Perseids are by far number one for those spectacular fireballs.
The meteors are the result of debris from the comet Swift-Tuttle, one of the larger meteor-producing comets, having a diameter of about 15 miles.
The earth encounters Swift-Tuttle detritus every year around this time, and those cosmic pebbles become bright streaks as they enter Earth’s atmosphere at 130,000 mph. If they’re big enough, they explode into fireballs.
Cook says that while the moonless skies offer the ideal background, this will not be an especially prolific year for the Perseids. He said the 2028 harvest will be more abundant, when the earth passes through “a denser stream” of the comet’s sheddings.
That once-in-a-blue-moon event
The moon will be returning later in the month, on Aug. 31, as the second full moon of August, thus a “blue moon.” Like those planetary alignments, it is something to expect once in a blue moon.
The former Cabrini University campus has undergone a more than $100 million, Villanova-fueled rebirth, and students will begin attending classes and living there this month.
Large signature blue and white V’s for Villanova University are everywhere. “Ignite Change. Go Nova,” says a wall in the student recreation center. Beds in the residence halls now have navy blue sheets, and many of the buildings have been renamed to honor Villanova’s Augustinian heritage.
The Radnor campus once in dire need of maintenance sports a fresh look, including new light poles, landscaping, painting, furniture, boilers, roof repairs, a running fountain, pickleball courts, and restored architectural flourishes, in addition to upgraded educational technology for classrooms.
The university removed dead trees, installed firepits on the campus green, and connected the two campuses’ phone and internet systems.
Villanova President Rev. Peter M. Donohue walks down the stairs at the Dixon Center, which has been covered in Villanova signage and colors. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
It is all part of Villanova’s effort to make the 112-acre campus that it acquired from the shuttered Cabrini look and feel decidedly Villanovan. The campus has been closed for the last two years as the planning and upgrades took place.
“It’s always been a beautiful campus, but it looks very Villanova now,” said Kelly Tuzio, assistant director of Villanova’s graduate nursing program, who worked at Cabrini from 2005 to 2011.
“You can feel the change,” she said, helping to ready the Iadarola Center, the building she works in, for the opening. “Everything is just done to perfection.”
Some things remain largely untouched, like the signature statue of Mother Cabrini on the green and the Mansion, Cabrini’s former administrative building, which is on the National Historic Register. It was renamed Montefalco Hall. Masses will continue to be celebrated in the chapel: Cabrini was a Catholic university, as is Villanova.
Villanova University purchased the nearby campus of the now shuttered Cabrini University two years ago and has had the site closed for remodeling. But this fall, students will live and study there. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
And signs at the entrance to campus say: Villanova University, Cabrini Campus — a nod to Villanova’s larger promise to retain Cabrini’s legacy.
A new era of growth
The acquisition of the campus, which officially opens for fall classes Aug. 24, marks an era of new growth for Villanova.
As many other colleges have lost enrollment in recent years, Villanova plans to grow its undergraduate student body, now at about 7,000, to 8,000 over the next four years, said the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, Villanova’s president. That growth started this year with about 250 additional freshmen. And the school plans to maintain its selectivity; it admitted just 29% of applicants for this fall’s class and saw more than a 10% surge in applications over the last year.
Villanova, which has a 260-acre main campus, will expand 43% in size with the addition of Cabrini.The university’s acquisition of Rosemont College — which will be complete in 2028 — will add 58 acres, increasing Villanova’s total to 430 acres.
The Cabrini campus will house five academic departments: psychological and brain sciences, graduate nursing, education and counseling, ethics, and part of communication. About 75 faculty — 10% of the total — will be based there.
Villanova University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue left, and Timothy Hoffman, vice provost for finance and administration, stand in front of a newly installed fountain outside Cascia Hall, which received a lot of renovations inside and out. It houses the student center. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
About 900 sophomores — roughly half of those enrolled at Villanova — will live on the campus, expanding the percentage of undergraduates who live on Villanova’s campuses to more than 80%.
In addition, more than 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students — about a fifth of Villanova’s overall student population — will take classes at the Cabrini campus in the fall, said Timothy Hoffman, vice provost for finance and administration.
“I’m just excited to see life again on the campus,” said Michelle Filling-Brown, formerly dean of academic affairs at Cabrini and now associate vice provost for the integrated student experience at Villanova.
She has been designing themed living and learning communities for the new Cabrini campus.
Michelle Filling-Brown, a former top administrator at Cabrini, now works at Villanova.Tyger Williams / Staff Photographer
Started in 1957, Cabrini was the only college founded by Sister Francesca Cabrini’s Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. The university announced in 2023 it would shut the next year and Villanova would take it over, giving students and employees a year to find a new runway. The decision came as enrollment plummeted, finances tightened, and deferred campus maintenance mounted.
Donohue said Villanova has not yet made specific plans for Rosemont.
A classroom with new educational technology at the Iadorala CenterSteven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
Before beginning renovations, Villanova invited Cabrini alumni to collect memorabilia, Donohue said. The school also donated truckloads of old furniture and materials that it did not plan to use to nonprofits.
A $170 million-plus investment
The university has invested more than $170 million into the Cabrini purchase, including the $70 million it paid to close out Cabrini’s debt and acquire its land, buildings, and assets, and more than $100 million on renovations. Donohue said it will take just four years for the school to recover that money through the operation of the campus.
The university was able to keep $15 million of Cabrini’s $42 million endowment, the school said.
Though the campus has not officially opened yet, a few students have begun to move in. Last Tuesday, a group of young staff members huddled in a room, planning grand-opening activities. Others unpacked and organized nursing equipment.
Graduate student Curtis Wesley stops by the Iadarola Center where he will study this fall.Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
Curtis Wesley, 26, an incoming graduate student in the nurse anesthesia program, strolled out of the building where his classes will be.
“I just wanted to come and check it out,” said Wesley, who is from Kansas. “I was excited to see all the new technology.”
Timothy Hoffman, vice provost for finance and administration, emerges from the stone-walled turret leading to what will be a Villanova apparel shop. The turret was uncovered during remodeling at Cascia Hall. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
One of the buildings that received the most renovation was the former Grace Hall, now Cascia Hall, home to the student center. The building used to be a stable house for the Woodcrest Mansion. Over the years, Cabrini put up drywall and turned much of it into office space.
Villanova knocked those walls down and uncovered architectural flourishes including gargoyle-like stone carvings and a cavernous, stone-walled turret with a wooden-framed doorway, leading to what will be a Villanova apparel shop.
Renovations at Cascia Hall uncovered some architectural flourishes, including these stone carved gargoyles. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
The Dixon Center will remain an athletic facility, but now the basketball court has a large V in the center and the smoothie bar will offer treats such as the Brunson, named after Villanova Wildcats basketball star-turned-New York Knicks standout Jalen Brunson, and the Father Peter Power, honoring the university president.
Donohue couldn’t name the ingredients in his new signature drink.
“I didn’t know it existed,” he said.
The facility, which also got new cardio equipment and reupholstered weight benches, will be used for non-varsity sports recreation.
Villanova President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue overlooks the basketball court at the Dixon Center. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
“Our intramural basketball activity goes into the wee hours because we’re limited in our number of courts, so we are delighted to have this space,” Hoffman said.
The Iadarola Center, Cabrini’s former science building, includes a new nursing simulation facility that Cabrini had recently finished. But Villanova added upgrades, including a vivarium for psychology department research and more space for the brain science program. The former Cabrini library has been converted into student study space.
‘Many more dorm options’
Seven residence halls will house students, including two that had been closed amid Cabrini’s enrollment decline. One of them had a malfunctioning boiler — not anymore.
Sophomores were given the choice of living at Cabrini. Villanova ran tours of the campus for students last academic year. Those who chose Cabrini said they were attracted to the renovated dorms and larger room configurations that allow them to live with several roommates and share a bathroom. Options on main campus for sophomores are largely limited to doubles with a large bathroom shared by an entire floor or wing.
Villanova University sophomore Molly Dunphy-Culp has moved into her new apartment on the Cabrini campus.Courtesy of Molly Dunphy-Culp
“With Cabrini, there are so many more dorm options,” said Molly Dunphy-Culp, 19, a sophomore who was born in Boston and grew up in Abington.
She will be sharing an apartment in Lecceto Hall with three classmates.
She acknowledged that she will have to take the shuttle to main campus for classes, but said the short ride will be worth it. Dunphy-Culp also has a job on Cabrini as a recreation center supervisor — another plus for living there.
About half the students on campus will be allowed to have cars. Sophomores do not have that option on main campus.
“Two of my close friends are both going to have cars on campus,” said Ella Hayman, 19, a sophomore from just outside Boston. “This will give us a little more freedom we didn’t have last year. That was a big motivation.”
Shuttle buses including this one will transport students between Villanova’s main campus and the Cabrini campus 1.9 miles away. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
Thirteen shuttle buses will transport students between the two campuses, which are 1.9 miles apart — a seven- to 12-minute ride, Hoffman said. A team of Villanova employees over the last couple of years visited five universities with multiple campuses, including Lehigh and George Washington, to learn how best to integrate them. They looked closely at models for a shuttle system that would keep students informed of where and when buses would be arriving and departing, Hoffman said.
Among new dining options on the campus is the restaurant-style Table 1842, named for Villanova’s founding year, where students can order off a menu. It is located in the former Founder’s Hall, now Bellesini Hall, which also was heavily renovated, including the installation of a new entrance that leads directly into dining facilities so people do not have to climb as many steps.
Bellesini has become the third-largest classroom building at Villanova. Some of the nearly 30 classrooms on the Cabrini campus had to be expanded to accommodate slightly larger class sizes, Hoffman said. Cabrini’s classes were 12 to 14, and Villanova starts at 16, Hoffman said.
Villanova University President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue left, and Timothy Hoffman, vice provost for finance and administration, walk through the Dixon Center. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
Some improvements are still to come, including renovations to the former Mansion, which will be costly, and a nature trail, Donohue said.
Villanova named Francesca and Xavier Halls for Mother Cabrini and is continuing Cabrini’s Center for Immigration; Villanova converted it to the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration. Villanova also launched an elementary education major in honor of Cabrini’s former program.
Preserving a legacy
“They had a strong desire to make sure some of their legacy lasted, and we wanted to protect that,” Donohue said.
The game room at Cascia HallSteven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
Coincidentally, there is a stained glass window of St. Augustine — namesake of Villanova’s founding order — in Cabrini’s chapel and a stained glass window of Mother Cabrini in Villanova’s Corr Hall chapel.
Filling-Brown, the former Cabrini administrator now at Villanova, said it seems meant to be.
“It’s beyond my wildest dreams for the campus,” Filling-Brown said. “It’s the best outcome to see Catholic higher education continue on that campus.”
Villanova President the Rev. Peter M. Donohue discusses all it took to remodel the Cabrini campus. Steven M. Falk / For The Inquirer
Under pressure from its accreditor, the University of Valley Forge is offering students and families information on how to transfer to other colleges.
The move comes as the Phoenixville-based college — which enrolls 589 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics — faces the possible loss of its accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Colleges need accreditation to keep their students eligible for financial aid.
Middle States last month issued its most serious warning — “show cause” — to the small Christian college that prepares students for leadership in the church and the world. It cited concerns about finances, planning, and governance.
The university is among the latest institutions in the region to face the threat of closure amid a declining pool of high school students and increased competition. The University of the Arts and Cabrini University closed in 2024. Rosemont College’s campus has been purchased by Villanova University, and the college plans to conclude its operations in 2028. Peirce College has been merged into Lackawanna College, a process that has been approved by the U.S. Department of Education and was sanctioned by Middle States this month.
University of the Sciences and Philadelphia University were phased out in previous mergers with St. Joseph’s University and Thomas Jefferson University. Pennsylvania State University plans to close seven of its Commonwealth campuses next year.
On its website, the University of Valley Forge says that it is not closing, but that it has established several colleges as “teach-out partners” that would streamline admission of University of Valley Forge students in the event of a closure. The school was required under the Middle States process to develop “teach-out plans” that would provide students with options to complete their education if the school were to close.
“Although this process does not require the university to provide students with teach-out options at this time, we understand that students may wish to consider alternative pathways for completing their academic programs during this period of uncertainty,” the school wrote in an email to students.
The school, according to its website, plans to charge $41,020 in tuition, fees, and room and board for next academic school year, which is scheduled to start Aug. 30.
The school held an event on campus earlier this month with representatives from the partner institutions — Eastern University in St. Davids, Messiah University in Mechanicsburg, and Southeastern University in Florida — so that students could get information. All three schools are private, Christian universities.
But the University of Valley Forge on its website, which was updated as recently as Tuesday, said it is “actively pursuing strategies to strengthen enrollment, finances, partnerships, and operations.”
“While no institution can guarantee future outcomes,” the school said, “leadership remains committed to preserving and advancing the university’s mission.”
The challenges appear to be substantial.
Earlier this month, the school said that it planned to soon communicate decisions about staff furloughs and that it would have to delay payroll for up to one week, according to emails obtained by The Inquirer from a source close to the university who was not authorized to discuss the matter and requested anonymity.
“I am deeply sorry for the disruption and for the hardship this may cause,” university president David Kim wrote, according to the email.
Kim, board members, and several other administrators and faculty have not responded to a request for comment. The emails did not indicate if furloughs occurred, how many, or for what period.
The school employed 419 people in calendar year 2021, according to the school’s most recently filed Form 990. With expenses of $20.2 million, the school operated with a $1.9 million loss that year, the tax document shows.
The Rev. Don Immel, a member of the University of Valley Forge board, addressed the Middle States action in responding to a July 11 Facebook post asking why the college was requesting “urgent prayer.” The university held a day of prayer and fasting on July 8 following the Middle States’ action.
“The need is financial,” Immel wrote. “We have a donor who has the capacity and has expressed the willingness to step in. Please pray that the donations is released.”
In other public Facebook posts, parents of students, alumni, and others have expressed concern.
“I have a daughter enrolled at UVF right now, and is supposed to be starting her sophomore year come this fall,” one parent wrote. “I don’t know at this point what to do concerning her returning to campus in the fall, or do we need to look at transferring now.”
An alumnus also had questions.
“Should we be doing anything to secure duplicate degrees or official transcripts (in the event that we lost ours or anticipate needing copies in the future)?” the alum wrote.
The school has until Sept. 1 to “show cause” to justify why it should not lose accreditation, according to Middle States. The commission will review the university’s submission, the school said on its website, and take its next action — which could include up to revocation of accreditation — in November.
In issuing the show-cause decision, the commission cited “insufficient evidence that the institution is in compliance” with standards involving planning, resources, and institutional improvement, and governance, leadership, and administration.
The university must document in its show-cause report “financial resources, funding base, and plans for financial development to support its educational purposes and programs and to ensure financial stability,” the commission said. The school also must provide information on long-range financial planning that includes “realistic enrollment projections and the assumptions on which they are based,” the commission said.
The university started in 1939 as the Eastern Bible Institute, which was aimed at training pastors, evangelists, missionaries and Christian educators, and lay workers, according to the school’s website. It became a college in 1975 and the University of Valley Forge in 2014. The university is part of an international network of Assemblies of God colleges and universities and offers more than 60 degree programs, according to its website.
Pope Leo XIV will present a new Villanova University-created award in his name that recognizes outstanding leadership in sustainabilityat a conference in Italy in October, another sign of the school’s close ties to the pontiff.
It will be several weeks before Villanova and Notre Dame officially open their basketball seasons in Rome with a men’s and women’s doubleheader on Nov. 1.
While Villanova has had a longstanding relationship with the Vatican, including an internship program that sends students there every year, both events signify the Catholic university’s deepening relationship with the Vatican and Italy since Pope Leo, a Villanova graduate, became pope last year.
In 1977, Pope Leo, then known as Robert Prevost, earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Villanova and in 2014 received an honorary doctorate from the university.
The medal winner — an international honor — will be announced in September and then presented in October at the university’sInternational Sustainability Conference, Responding to the Cries of the Earth and the Poor,in Castel Gandolfo near Rome, the school said. The conference, which is expected to draw 300 participants including academics, church representatives, and leaders from the public and private sectors, will be held Oct. 12 to 15.
The front side of a new international medal recognizing leadership in sustainability that Villanova University will award in Italy in OctoberCourtesy of Villanova University
It is the university’s second sustainability conference, the first to be held in Italy. Its first conference in 2024 was on Villanova’s campus.
“The Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal reflects a deeply held belief at Villanova University: that care for our common home and care for one another are inseparable,” the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, Villanova University’s president, said in a statement. “By recognizing leaders whose work advances both environmental stewardship and the common good, we hope to inspire meaningful and lasting impact in communities around the world.”
The back of the new international medal that Villanova University will award for the first time in Italy in OctoberCourtesy of Villanova University
The award, which will be a biennial honor, will recognize those who have advanced “sustainability, ecological responsibility and integral human development,” the school said. It specifically will highlight those who excel at “integrating care for the environment, social justice, concern for vulnerable populations, and responsible stewardship of economic and natural resources.”
The winner can come from any field or discipline and will be selected by a committee of members of the university’s Sustainability Leadership Council. The award includes a monetary component, but details are still being determined, a university spokesperson said.
The medal will feature Pope Leo on one side and Villanova University’s name on the other and is meant to highlight the pope’s commitment to sustainability, the school said.
Gerry O’Reilly, 61, of Chester Springs, Hall of Fame middle distance track star at Villanova University, 1988 Irish Olympian in the 1,500-meter run, longtime executive at the Vanguard Group Inc., mentor, and role model, died Thursday, June 11, at Phoenixville Hospital after an earlier sudden cardiac event.
Born and reared in Dunboyne, County Meath, Ireland, Mr. O’Reilly earned a track scholarship to Villanova in 1983 and joined a dozen other Irish athletes in what became known as the school’s Irish Pipeline to the Main Line. He went on to run cross-country and indoor and outdoor track, win seven Big East Conference championships, and hold the Big East outdoor record in the 1,500 for 37 years.
He ran the 1,500- and 3,000-meter runs, the mile, and the distance medley relay at Villanova, and was named All-America four times. He won six national collegiate championships, was named outstanding performer at the 1986 Big East Indoor Championships, and was inducted into the Penn Relays Wall of Fame in 2007 and the Villanova Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 2009.
“Without exaggeration, those were four of the best years of my life,” Mr. O’Reilly told Dave Thomas on the Belmont Plateau Hall of Fame podcast. Villanova “kind of set me up both athletically and academically for the rest of my life.”
Marcus O’Sullivan, former Villanova teammate and countryman, now director of track and field and cross-country at Villanova, said Mr. O’Reilly “had a steadfast moral compass that guided him in his life, and in doing so it had an intoxicating influence on others. … We all need a person like Gerry O’Reilly in our lives.”
After college, Mr. O’Reilly competed in the international Millrose Games in New York, the 1987 World Championships, the 1989 World Indoor Championships, and for Ireland in what is now the World Athletics Championships. At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, he made it to the semifinals of the 1,500.
Irish Olympic team officials called him “an exceptional athlete” and praised his “genuine commitment to helping the next generation.” They said: “Once an Olympian, always an Olympian.”
Irish marathon Olympian John Treacy told the Irish Times: “Gerry was a smashing runner and just the nicest guy, great for staying in contact and communicating with other Irish runners over the years.”
Mr. O’Reilly ran miles at night after school in the rural Irish fields and lanes, and joined the Dunboyne Athletic Club when he was 9. Villanova University
Mr. O’Reilly was also inducted into the Belmont Plateau Hall of Fame in 2025 and recently honored by his hometown Dunboyne Athletic Club.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1987, joined Vanguard in 1992 and the trading desk in 1994, and worked as an investment leader and portfolio manager. He was a mentor, colleagues said in a tribute, “who made immeasurable contributions to several of Vanguard’s flagship index funds.”
He served on corporate panels and lectured at leadership development events. Colleagues called him “riveting and influential” and “a giant in every sense except ego.” One said: “You could tell he truly cared about the markets and about doing things right.”
This photo and a story about Mr. O’Reilly (left) appeared in The Inquirer in 1987.Newspapers.com
Gerard Christopher O’Reilly was born July 1, 1964. He was the oldest of six children and excelled at cross-country, track, soccer, and other sports.
He ran miles at night after school in the rural Irish fields and lanes, joined the Dunboyne Athletic Club when he was 9, and was inspired, he said later, by Irishman Eamonn Coghlan’s fourth-place finish in the 1,500 at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Mr. O’Reilly went on to win the 1983 Irish Junior 1,500 championship.
He met fellow track star Melody Sye, and they married in 1992 and had a daughter, Meghan, and sons Keelan, Jack, and Conor. They divorced later.
“Despite all his trophies and merits,” Mr. O’Reilly’s family said in a tribute, “he always remained humble and would say being a dad to his four kids was his proudest accomplishment.”
Villanova honored Mr. O’Reilly online.Villanova University
Mr. O’Reilly was an avid bicyclist, and he spent many weekends on long rides and at Eagles games on Sundays. He liked poker, hikes with his dog, Bear, and watching sports with his family.
“Most of all,” his family said, “he simply enjoyed cracking jokes, sharing stories, and spending time with his friends and family.”
In addition to his children and former wife, Mr. O’Reilly is survived by three sisters, two brothers, and other relatives. “His final gift,” his family said, “was saving multiple lives through organ donation.”
Jay Wright is headed to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
On Monday, it was announced that the longtime Villanova coach would be inducted as a part of the Hall’s 2026 class. Wright led Villanova for 21 seasons from 2001 to 2022. In that span, the Wildcats made four Final Four appearances and won NCAA titles in 2016 and 2018.
Wright, who had a career record of 642–282 (.695), including a seven-year stint at Hofstra (1994-2001), is widely considered to be the main force behind Villanova becoming a consistent national brand in college basketball. He is already a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, being inducted in 2021.
“The Class of 2026 represents the very best of college basketball — individuals whose performance, leadership, and impact helped shape the game at the highest level,” Hall of Fame CEO Kevin Henderson said in a statement. “Their legacies will forever be preserved as part of the sport’s rich history.”
Five other selectees make up the Hall’s incoming class: UCLA coach Walt Hazzard from Overbrook High School, Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, Kansas coach Ted Owens, Michigan star Glen Rice, and BYU standout Danny Ainge.
The induction will take place Oct. 22 in Kansas City, Mo., where the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is located.
