Carolyn Manuszak, the hard-driving former nun who turned Villa Julie College into a production line for business-ready graduates with solid grounding in the liberal arts, will retire June 30 after 33 years as president.

"It's just time," she said in an interview. The college likely will retain an interim president while it looks for a replacement.

When Manuszak arrived at what was then a junior college, it had fewer than 100 mostly secretarial students and an uncertain future.

The school began to expand its facilities and broaden its course offerings almost immediately. It recently completed a $26 million expansion that has almost doubled its campus. Today, it is a four-year school with a full-time enrollment of 2,086 students majoring in a wide variety of subjects.

News of her decision left members of the college board of directors stunned.

"I look around that campus," said retired District Court Chief Judge Robert F. Sweeney, "and I see what has happened here and I know it was the determination of this woman that did it."

Sweeney has been a board member or teacher at Villa Julie for 40 years.

In recent years, Manuszak and Dean Rose Dawson, who is also retiring, have gained a reputation for quickly adjusting courses to meet the needs of an economy. Any state or world event has been cause for Manuszak to reconsider her curriculum.

"The joke was that when the Berlin Wall fell, Carolyn would be asking 'What does this mean for Villa Julie?' " said Timothy F. Maloney, a former House of Delegates and board member.

Among the state's business leaders, the approach gave her students the reputation of being extremely well-prepared and instant entree. "There's an air of professionalism on that campus you can't miss," said state School Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick.

Manuszak insisted on the basics -- another sign of competence apparent to the business community, according to Jerome W. Geckle, retired PHH Corp. chief executive officer.

Villa Julie's profile was raised in two recent incidents. One was when Manuszak was charged with violating state laws against smoking in her office bathroom -- for which she was fined. She also was forced to repay money that the college reimbursed her for campaign contributions she made to state officials. The board hardly gave either matter a second thought.

As a young nun, known then as Sister Mary Steven, she came to the attention of her superiors by offering criticism. Nuns were too isolated, she said. "If they're going to teach," she said she told them in a memorandum, "they ought to know what was going on in the world."

When the Villa Julie post opened, she wondered if she was being asked to preside over its demise. The order's response: See if we should close it.

Manuszak knew a member of her order, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, had been a doctor before she became a nun around the turn of the century.

"That was certainly pace-setting," she said. "I wanted to be like that. When I was a young woman, you got married or you were a secretary or you got a degree that made you more desirable as a wife. But these nuns, many of whom had Ph.D.s, blew my mind. They were brilliant women."

Manuszak left the order about 20 years ago. A lawyer, she says she may spend her retirement by returning to school or traveling.

Pub Date: 3/16/99