Jessica Nolan, Ph.D., professor of psychology and director of the Environmental Studies Concentration at The University of Scranton, received a 2021 Women in Conservation Award from PennFuture, an independent, nonpartisan environmental advocacy organization. Dr. Nolan received the award for Woman of Environmental Education.

Dr. Nolan joined the faculty at Scranton in 2008. She teaches Environmental and Conservation Psychology and Social Psychology, among other courses, and runs the Conservation Psychology Lab at the University. The Conservation Psychology Lab studies the human impact on the environment and uses the tools and methods of psychology to understand and solve environmental problems. Her research focuses on the application of psychological tools and principles to understand and solve environmental problems. She has studied the effects of normative social influence on various environmental behaviors, including energy conservation and household recycling. Dr. Nolan has published more than a dozen articles on environmental behavior in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has presented her research at numerous professional conferences.

In her role as director of the Environmental Studies Concentration, Dr. Nolan has partnered with local environmental groups such as Friends of Lackawanna, Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation and the Lackawanna River Conservation Association to sponsor more than a dozen co-curricular events for students and the local community.

In 2018, Dr. Nolan received the University’s Excellence in Integrating Sustainability into the Curriculum Award. This award is given to a faculty member who strives for excellence in teaching about sustainability and makes extraordinary efforts to introduce concepts of sustainability into the curriculum.

Dr. Nolan is also the founder of Green Drinks Scranton, an informal networking group that provides a forum for area residents interested in environmental issues to connect and learn from one another.

Dr. Nolan earned her bachelor’s degree at Cornell University, her master’s degree at California State University and her Ph.D. at the University of Arkansas.

The Ignatian mission of The University of Scranton will take a preeminent role in the Inauguration of Rev. Joseph G. Marina, S.J., as the 29th president of The University of Scranton. The Inauguration will occur as the Society of Jesus celebrates an Ignatian Year, commemorating the 500^th anniversary of the conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.

The Inauguration theme, “A Fire that Kindles Other Fires,” is quoted from Decree 2 of the 35^th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus.

The Decree reads: “Legend has it that Saint Ignatius, when he sent Saint Francis Xavier to the East, told him: ‘go, set the world alight.’ With the birth of the Society of Jesus, a new fire was lit in a changing world. A novel form of religious life came about, not through human enterprise but as a divine initiative. The fire that was set alight then continues to burn in our Jesuit life today, as was said about Saint Alberto Hurtado, ‘a fire that kindles other fires.’ With it, we are called to set all things alight with the love of God.”

The formal Inauguration Ceremony for Father Marina will take place on Friday, Sept. 24, at 11 a.m. on campus for members of the University community and invited guests. The University will livestream the event. A luncheon will immediately follow the ceremony.

In addition to the Inauguration Ceremony, an Inauguration Mass is planned for Saturday, Sept. 25, at 4 p.m. on campus. An Inauguration Concert, set for Sept. 25 at 7:30 p.m. in the Houlihan-McLean Center, will feature an original work composed for the Inauguration by David Lantz III, titled “To the Ends of the Earth.”

The events coincide with Family Weekend. Parents and family members visiting campus for the weekend are welcome to attend the Inauguration events.

Thomas MacKinnon, vice president for university advancement, and Gretchen Van Dyke, Ph.D., associate professor of political science, are serving as co-chairs for the Inauguration Celebration.

Additional information is available on The Inauguration of Rev. Joseph G. Marina, S.J., website.

The University of Scranton announced today that more than 96 percent of its students, faculty and staff who are on campus for the fall semester are fully vaccinated. The University implemented a vaccine requirement for the return of in-person classes and activities for the fall 2021 semester, which began on Monday, Aug. 30.

Vaccination rates above 90 percent were found to be an important for resuming normal campus activity, according to a recently released study in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Students attending classes on campus were required to submit vaccine information through the school’s Student Health Services and employees were required to attest to their vaccination status through the Office of Human Resources. In accordance with Pennsylvania law, students and employees could request a waiver to the vaccine requirement for religious or medical reasons.

Students attending fully-online graduate courses were not required to submit vaccine information.

According to University records, nearly 96 percent of students and more than 97 percent of staff are fully vaccinated. The University expects these percentages to increase in the coming weeks as individuals with one dose of the vaccine receive their second dose.

Unvaccinated members of the University community who were granted a waiver to be on campus during the fall semester must participate in weekly PCR testing and wear a mask when indoors and when outdoors when social distancing is not possible, among other health and safety requirements as outlined in the University’s Royals Back Together plan.

Vaccinated individuals do not need to participate in COVID-19 surveillance testing.

Following CDC guidelines, the University will adjust indoor masking requirements for vaccinated individuals based on community spread. A Mask Status tile on the Royals Back Together webpage will indicate if masks are required indoors for vaccinated individuals, as well as other health and safety requirements. (Currently, the University is requiring all individuals to wear masks indoors through Oct. 4, and the access to the campus is limited to University community members, invited guests and others as outlined in its Royals Back Together plan. The University will update information on or before Oct. 4).

U.S. News & World Report ranked Scranton No. 5 among the “Best Regional Universities in the North” in the 2022 edition of the “Best Colleges” guidebook, which became available online today. U.S. News has ranked Scranton among the top 10 universities in its category for 28 consecutive years.

U.S. News also ranked Scranton No. 14 in its category in its “Best Undergraduate Teaching” listing of the top colleges in the nation expressing “a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

In addition, Scranton was ranked No. 45 as a “Best Value Regional University in the North,” which compares academic quality of programs to cost of attendance. This is the ninth consecutive year U.S. News has recognized Scranton as a “Best Value” school. Scranton was ranked No. 138 in its category in “Top Performers on Social Mobility,” which looks at schools that enroll and graduate “large proportions of disadvantaged students awarded with Pell Grants.”

In national rankings, as opposed to listings by category, U.S. News included Scranton among America’s “Best Undergraduate Business Programs,” ranking Scranton at No. 166 in the U.S., “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs” at No. 185 (where doctorate is not offered); and among the nation’s “Best Undergraduate Nursing Programs,” ranking Scranton No. 148 in the nation.

U.S. News uses data on 17 measures of academic quality to rank 1,466 bachelor’s degree colleges in the America. For its rankings, U.S. News considers a range of quality indicators that include an “outcomes” measurement” (40 percent), which assesses graduation rates; freshman retention; a social mobility score; graduate indebtedness; and graduation performance rates, which compares a school’s actual graduation rates with predicted graduation rates based on characteristics of the incoming class. U.S. News ranking analysis also includes a peer assessment of academic excellence (20 percent); faculty resources (20 percent), which includes class size and regional cost-of-living adjustments to faculty pay and benefits; student excellence (7 percent), as measured by SAT or ACT scores and high school ranking of students in the top 25 percent of their class; financial resources (10 percent); and alumni giving (3 percent).

U.S. News categorizes colleges for their rankings based on the official Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification of universities.

The 2022 U.S. News “Best Colleges” rankings became available online Sept. 13. The printed edition of the guidebook will be available in bookstores Nov. 2.