“Villanova has purchased all of Eastern’s grounds and buildings,” President Ronald Matthews exclusively confirmed to the WaltOnion this March. Starting in the fall of 2026, Eastern will secede all of the grounds and buildings of our campus to the Villanovans. “It’s a total take-over of the campus,” Matthews said. “We have pretty much nothing left.”
Eastern’s campus has been purchased mainly to host Villanova’s underwater basket weaving department. “It’s a new department,” Dr. Richard Wealthman of Villanova University divulged. “At Villanova, we really believe underwater basket weaving is going to take off.” Eastern’s campus perfectly fits the needs of an underwater basket weaving department. After thoroughly purifying the ponds around campus, to make them safe for scuba divers, the Arts and Crafts department at Villanova will use these bodies of water as the underwater base for basket weaving. “We really purchased Eastern for the ponds,” said Wealthman, admitting that, generally, he finds Eastern’s campus “sub-par” in comparison to Villanova’s.
But Villanova has something else in mind for the buildings at Eastern. “We’ll use most of the dorms to house our flock of vultures,” Wealthman said. The vultures will descend on Kea, Guffin, Gough, Hainer and Doane Hall. Villanova’s ornithology department has had difficulty over the years finding room to house their flock of 2,000 vultures. “We tried to house them at Cabrini, after we purchased that campus,” said Wealthman. However, the ornithology department, which has been conducting a study of vultures, “have admitted so much vultures to the program, that we’ve simply run out of housing,” according to Wealthman. “We tried to make the vulture housing co-ed… but they were mating left and right.”
Meanwhile, Villanova wants to completely deconstruct and rebuild the buildings on the other side of campus, in order to build an exhibition hall. The exhibition hall, which will hopefully open the fall of 2028, will feature exhibits on the death of small town America, with special emphasis on the closure of small institutions in the Philadelphia area, in favor for larger and wealthier establishments. “It’s a shame,” Matthews said. “Because the demolition includes Templeton Hall,” which, of course, was only built this past year. “But, afterall,” Matthews continued. “No one would get to use [the space] anyway, and I don’t think the vultures will mind.”
Eastern wants to continue looking out for its students during this major shift. For example, chaplain Joseph B. Modica expressed his concern for students who will be put in a tough position, now that all of Eastern’s housing has disappeared. “I recognize that, even when the classes have been moved online… some students may still need housing support,” said Modica. Because of this, Eastern will rent the third floor of Doane C from Villanova. If you pay an extra 15K a year, you can still live on Eastern’s campus. “It might be a bit snug,” Modica warned. “We predict that we will need to fit ten to twelve people per room.” Engineering students at Villanova are currently working on cleverly compact quadruple bunk beds for Doane Hall, that should sleep up to twelve people. Modica regrets that the Eastern students will be so squished, but explained, “we need to make room for the vultures.”
Just because almost the entirety of Eastern’s campus has been taken over by Villanova, however, does not mean Eastern University itself will cease to exist. Instead of closing down, Eastern has moved all of its classes online. The money from the sale of Eastern’s campus to Villanova has gone to ensuring that the newly digitized education is of the highest quality. For example, Eastern has bought a new digital program, which provides a virtual simulation of a real classroom, in which AI profiles created by Eastern students can interact with one another and the material in the classes. In Fall 2026, Eastern will also offer an accelerated online undergraduate degree, which you can complete in less than a year. In 40 eight hour courses, an Eastern student will be able to get a degree in either communication studies or business. Although the shift to totally online education may seem extreme, Matthews wants “to assure students that nothing substantial is going to change about the education we offer here.”
