"When I came to Marymount in 1992, I had thought that one of the goals should be to convert Marymount to a four-year institution. I didn't think that was something that should happen quickly. I thought we needed to improve our facilities significantly. But I always thought that was the thing to do. And perhaps that still will happen.

"But I'm less persuaded that that's the right way to go, now that I've been here. To see how we have such a distinctive niche in the higher education world --- which I really think does a service to a limited number of students --- I've come to believe that Marymount would be diminished if we became just another four-year liberal arts college."

So observes Thomas M. McFadden, who is retiring as president of Marymount College in Rancho Palos Verdes after being at the helm of the two-year, coed liberal arts institution for 14 years.

During that time, a master plan has been developed to enhance on-campus residences as well as to enlarge the library and recreational center. Nearly $10 million has been raised to carry out the plan, with $2 million going to support student scholarships. And 11.3 acres of Palos Verdes North property, which currently houses some 300 students, has been acquired from the U.S. Navy.

"The professionalism of the institution I would say has really improved significantly," McFadden points out. "We've been able to attract and retain some outstanding faculty and staff members over those 14 years."

'Wonderful gateway'
Yet he says the mission of the college --- founded in 1932 as an all-girls' school by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary Sisters --- has not changed.

"We're a unique institution," he stresses. "There are really no other liberal arts two-year colleges in the state of California. We have a distinctive mission, which I think is a very worthwhile one. We make a tremendous impact on the lives of the students.

"When you look at our kids and you see where they came from, and now after two years they're going on to UCLA, Berkeley and LMU [Loyola Marymount University], we've made a tremendous difference in their lives."

How the little college with the million-dollar view of the Pacific Ocean and Catalina Island does this is no mystery, according to McFadden, who has been an administrator at St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y., and St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

It takes small classes, ranging from seven to 25 students, and remedial courses for incoming freshmen who need academic help. Most of all, however, it requires a caring environment, where faculty members believe in the ability of students to achieve their potential and communicate this positive message to them.

"We let students who maybe haven't been real successful in high school know: 'Here's a wonderful gateway for you. It's a gateway to colleges that perhaps you thought you would never be able to gain entry to. But work for us these two years. Show us you can do it. Show the college you want to transfer to you can do it. And you'll be there.'"

In fact, more than 90 percent of Marymount's graduates go on to four-year colleges and universities --- many to highly selective California institutions of higher learning such as UCLA, UC Berkeley and USC as well as the University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, New York University and Cornell.

Joys and challenges
The challenges of running Marymount, like any small college, have been mostly financial, according to McFadden. He says the school, currently with 720 students, is "very, very tuition dependent."

Every year the goal is 400 freshmen, who during the 2005-06 academic year paid $18,600 (at the low end of what most private colleges in California charge). The president says his institution has made a strong effort to keep tuition affordable. Still, 40 to 45 percent of the student body receives financial aid.

But McFadden, who was a priest in the Archdiocese of Brooklyn for six years before he became an academician, believes that being an educator is also a vocation with it own rewards.

"The joys are really seeing these kids come here, gain confidence in themselves, enhance their skills and just blossom," he says. "Having lunch with the students or talking to them on campus is just a wonderful joy. And then to see them graduate every year and go on to top-notch colleges and universities, that's really special.

"Plus, to see the dedication of the faculty and staff here, to recognize how much they care about the students and how the students relate to that so well. That's wonderful, too."

When McFadden, who holds a doctorate in sacred theology from The Catholic University of America, retires this August, he wants to continue writing and editing. On the drawing board, he's already got two projects: a not-so-scholarly book on the gap between the official orthodox teachings of the church and the beliefs of many people in the pews. He would also like to do a historical work on Catholic attitudes in the 1930s.

"I don't mind sitting at a desk, and I don't mind the research," he says. "So I'm looking forward to doing that."

What Tom McFadden --- whose Catholic University classmate, Cardinal Roger Mahony, will speak at the school's graduation ceremony May 27 --- is not looking forward to is leaving Marymount College. "I'm going to miss it terribly," he almost whispers. "The word I keep on using is 'ambivalence.'"

And he half-laughs. "I turned 70 last November, and my wife, Monica, is of the same age. We had always said that that was the time to turn the reins over to somebody else."