About Dominican

Mission Statement

Dominican transforms lives. We are an independent, international, learner-centered university of Catholic heritage which interweaves Dominican values, the liberal arts and sciences, and the skills and knowledge necessary to live and work in an interdependent world.

Fast Facts

• Dominican is an independent, international, learner-centered university of Catholic heritage located in San Rafael, California
• The pristine campus is nestled on 80 wooded acres just 12 miles north of San Francisco
• Dominican was founded in 1890 as a Catholic liberal arts college. Dominican is now independent in financial matters and governance, and has students and faculty from a wide range of cultural and religious backgrounds.
• The president of Dominican University of California is Joseph R. Fink, AB Rider University; PhD, American History, Rutgers University
• The university's total student enrollment is 1,937, of which 1,391 are undergraduates and 546 are graduates
• The student to faculty ratio is 11:1
• Approximately 40 percent of undergraduate students are of ALANA heritage (African American, Latino, Asian American, or Native American); of the total student body, 23 percent are men and 77 percent are women. Students come from across the United States, although primarily from the Bay Area and Northern California, and from 21 countries, including Brazil, China, Ireland, Japan, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey.
• The university offers undergraduate BA, BFA, BS, and BSN degrees and graduate MA, MBA, MSED, MSN, and MSOT degrees
• Popular majors include nursing, psychology, biology, business, humanities, and curriculum and instruction
• More than 75 percent of Dominican students benefit from generous financial aid. Dominican offers hundreds of privately funded merit, athletic, and need-based scholarships and grants each year.
• Popular athletic programs include soccer, basketball, volleyball, golf, tennis, softball, and lacrosse
  
  

Economic Impact

The academic and cultural events held on campus continue to enhance Dominican’s visibility in the community and increase its prominence as Marin’s university.  Certainly the impact of our graduates on local education is well established (more than 350 of Marin’s teachers are Dominican alumni), as well as those who graduate in the fields of nursing and counseling psychology.  Lesser known, perhaps, is the importance that our student population has on the social and economic fabric of Marin County. 

In 2005, more than 150 students participated in our growing Service Learning Program, which fulfills an ethics/moral philosophy general education requirement and also is a required course in the Honors curriculum.  Students in the Service Learning Program work as volunteers in a wide spectrum of fields ranging from Marin Abused Women’s Services to the Huckleberry Teen Health Program to the Marine Mammal Center to Legal Aid of Marin. 

Our Career Services Department also provides internships in the community for all majors.  Our students participate in environmental cleanups of Marin’s beaches and open spaces, and those involved in the Campus Ministry program volunteer to provide outreach to the poor and disadvantaged.  Students in the study of business provide tax assistance; those in education provide tutoring; while those in the areas of nursing, psychology, and occupational therapy serve as interns in hospitals and other health care venues.  Specifically, in the past five years the number of community services hours provided by occupational therapy students totaled 64,000 or 12,800 hours each year.  When you consider that the average wage for a new occupational therapist is $40 per hour, the economic value of Dominican’s OT students alone totals more than $2.5 million in five years, or more than $500,000 each year.