President Bobby

[quote="Sju grad 13" post=390711][quote="RedStormNC" post=390700]Presidential Search Committee announced

[URL]https://www.stjohns.edu/about/presidential-search[/URL][/quote]

I don’t think this is good news for Dean Simons which in turn maybe bad news for our law school.[/quote]

Yup, I think they've already decided that he won't be getting the nod. Interesting to see what's next for him, if anything. Hope he stays.
 
Oh goodness no, absolutely not Fr. Maher. I think I would stop donating if that were to happen. I spoke to him back when he was here and was fully in support of the Harrington model of zero academic standards and just pile in as many students as possible. That would be a major step backwards.

Dean Simons has done an outstanding job at the Law School. I would be very happy for him to be the University Dean.
 
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[quote="panther2" post=389564]Personally, I would love to see Father Maher return. He knows the school and cares about Athletics.[/quote]

Oh goodness no, absolutely not Fr. Maher. I think I would stop donating if that were to happen. I spoke to him back when he was here and was fully in support of the Harrington model of zero academic standards and just pile in as many students as possible. That would be a major step backwards.

Dean Simons has done an outstanding job at the Law School. I would be very happy for him to be the University Dean.
 
University President in this era is a very tall order.

1. must have an academic leadership background and a vision for the university going forward.
2. must recognize, respect, perpetuate, and grow our mission to fully form young adults in their Catholic faith.
3. must be incredibly charismatic and able to raise funds
4. must be energetic, warm and approachable to both students and alumni.
5. must be capable and cognizant of tight fiscal control, to restrict tuition increases, yet hire the highest quality administrators and faculty.
6. must be able to articulate and execute a vision for St. John's to the university at large and surrounding communities.
7. must sustain the renewal that Dr. Gempeshaw initiated to reinvigorate admissions of Catholic hs students to St. John;s
8. must continue our tradition of providing a lower cost education to the poor and providing a private Catholic college education to qualified disadvantaged students.

Tall order
 
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[quote="Proud Alumn" post=390944][quote="panther2" post=389564]Personally, I would love to see Father Maher return. He knows the school and cares about Athletics.[/quote]

Oh goodness no, absolutely not Fr. Maher..[/quote] goodbye 30 posts :)
 
[quote="Proud Alumn" post=390944][quote="panther2" post=389564]Personally, I would love to see Father Maher return. He knows the school and cares about Athletics.[/quote]

Oh goodness no, absolutely not Fr. Maher. I think I would stop donating if that were to happen. I spoke to him back when he was here and was fully in support of the Harrington model of zero academic standards and just pile in as many students as possible. That would be a major step backwards.

Dean Simons has done an outstanding job at the Law School. I would be very happy for him to be the University Dean.[/quote]

During the last weeks of the Norm Roberts Era, I remember father maher preaching at mass at st thomas more chapel defending norm which I found highly inappropriate in a church setting. Perhaps he was towing the company line but it irked me the wrong way.
 
With a dwindling number of Vincentian priests there may not a candidate among the clergy suitable for the more complex role than ever before of university president.

To my knowledge Bobby is a devout Catholic, and his outreach to area Catholic schools including guaranteed scholarship money reversed a decades long trend of lower percentage of Catholic students.

I believe the next president will be a layperson with a strong Catholic faith.
 
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I was paying $90 a credit in 1976 at SJU. 32 credits a year - $2,880.
Just Googled and saw 2019 endowment for SJU was $749 million.
 
The poor financial condition which St. John’s now finds itself, as well as the seeming slide in It’s academic status, and deteriorated men’s basketball program (see Harrington quote about scrapping the men’s b-ball program, the Lavin and Mullin hires et al.) are largely the result of mismanagement by its former President and Board of Trustees.

Take a moment to read the below article entitled May 3, 2013 entitled “St. John’s President Retires Amid Corruption Investigation“

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/05/st-johns-president-resigns-after-investigation.html
 
Old news, why rehash? There are more recent and contemporaneous reasons that the university has struggled.
 
[quote="redmanwest" post=392574]....... There are more recent and contemporaneous reasons that the university has struggled.[/quote]
———-
President “Suits” Harrington resigned just 7 years ago which is pretty darn “recent” in the history of the University.

West, let me ask you what are more the more recent and contemporaneous reasons that the university has struggled Which you reference in your above post. Thanks.


.
 
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Basketball: Revolving door coaches; Imbalanced and unproductive coach staff (prior to this one); Imbalanced recruiting; drop in fan interest; improved albeit lower end facilities; more

Non-Basketball: Lower academic quality; inability to attract best students; poor value proposition (sky high cost of attendance versus value of the education/diploma); lack of long-term vision (ie; most recent president was basically a place holder, no great strides taken during tenure); poor development/fundraising; weak board and leadership; other

These factors which could have been addressed since the Harrington years are far more detrimental to the university than that old scandal is at this point. Boils down to the lack of leadership and resources (or poor allocation of same)
 
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[quote="redmanwest" post=392585]Basketball: Revolving door coaches; Imbalanced and unproductive coach staff (prior to this one); Imbalanced recruiting; drop in fan interest; improved albeit lower end facilities; more

Non-Basketball: Lower academic quality; inability to attract best students; poor value proposition (sky high cost of attendance versus value of the education/diploma); lack of long-term vision (ie; most recent president was basically a place holder, no great strides taken during tenure); poor development/fundraising; weak board and leadership; other

These factors which could have been addressed since the Harrington years are far more detrimental to the university than that old scandal is at this point. Boils down to the lack of leadership and resources (or poor allocation of same)[/quote]

Adding to this, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center:

"Over the past eight years, college enrollment nationwide has fallen about 11%. Every sector — public state schools, community colleges, for-profits and private liberal arts schools — has felt the decline, though it has been especially painful for small private colleges, where, in some cases, institutions have been forced to close.

In addition the strong economy (pre-COVID-19), U.S. demographics are also shifting. The number of high school graduates is flat — and in some cases declining — because of lower birth rates about 20 years ago. Those numbers are also projected to decline, so the trend of fewer students coming from high school isn't going away anytime soon."
 
[quote="redmanwest" post=392585]Basketball: Revolving door coaches; Imbalanced and unproductive coach staff (prior to this one); Imbalanced recruiting; drop in fan interest; improved albeit lower end facilities; more

Non-Basketball: Lower academic quality; inability to attract best students; poor value proposition (sky high cost of attendance versus value of the education/diploma); lack of long-term vision (ie; most recent president was basically a place holder, no great strides taken during tenure); poor development/fundraising; weak board and leadership; other

These factors which could have been addressed since the Harrington years are far more detrimental to the university than that old scandal is at this point. Boils down to the lack of leadership and resources (or poor allocation of same)[/quote]

I don't think that the evidence supports your charge of lower academic quality and inability to attract better students. On Long Island alone, schools such as St.. Anthony's and Chaminade produce top notch students nearly top to bottom due to high acceptance standards and high academics. Together, during Bobby's tenure due to proactive programs, these school now send almost 50 new students annually to St. John's. The Pharmacy and Allied Health professions attract near Ivy students with average SAT scores well above 1400. Tobin Business school and Collins school of professional studies continues to improve and a lot of money has been infused in both, including a $10 million gift from Bill and Leslie Collins.
 
I am not deriding the university (or its students) as I am a proud 2X alum. I owe much to my ability to have been able to attend and graduate with my undergraduate and graduate degrees.

However, I am also intimately familiar with the LI Catholic high schools and the admission standards. While Chaminade and St. Anthony's have maintained a basically steady and healthy parade of their graduates to SJU, it is mostly due to having to throw very substantial merit aid in most cases, as well as enrolling middle and lower academic students from those schools. Not a bad thing for the school or the kids, just facts. The higher academic graduates for those schools eschew St. John's typically. Just facts. I agree that the graduate schools do better than the undergraduate school. (My comments were mainly directed to the undergraduate school).

One large gift does not change the fact that St. John's has a low endowment overall for the size of school and alumni network that it has, especially concentrated in the NYC area.

I am sorry that the facts are not great for the school, partly because the school intentionally adheres to a mission of allowing those who may not otherwise be able to go to college the opportunity to do so.

But, the school has and is struggling for those and other factors. My only point was that it has little to do with an old scandal that is almost a decade behind it. I did not intend (nor do I think I did) disparage the university or kids who attend. I have family members there now. Just stated facts.
 
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[quote="redmanwest" post=393174]I am not deriding the university (or its students) as I am a proud 2X alum. I owe much to my ability to have been able to attend and graduate with my undergraduate and graduate degrees.

However, I am also intimately familiar with the LI Catholic high schools and the admission standards. While Chaminade and St. Anthony's have maintained a basically steady and healthy parade of their graduates to SJU, it is mostly due to having to throw very substantial merit aid in most cases, as well as enrolling middle and lower academic students from those schools. Not a bad thing for the school or the kids, just facts. The higher academic graduates for those schools eschew St. John's typically. Just facts. I agree that the graduate schools do better than the undergraduate school. (My comments were mainly directed to the undergraduate school).

One large gift does not change the fact that St. John's has a low endowment overall for the size of school and alumni network that it has, especially concentrated in the NYC area.

I am sorry that the facts are not great for the school, partly because the school intentionally adheres to a mission of allowing those who may not otherwise be able to go to college the opportunity to do so.

But, the school has and is struggling for those and other factors. My only point was that it has little to do with an old scandal that is almost a decade behind it. I did not intend (nor do I think I did) disparage the university or kids who attend. I have family members there now. Just stated facts.[/quote]

Don't disagree with much of what you wrote, but prior to Bobby, St. Anthony's and Chaminade (which are the most selective Catholic HS on LI along with Sacred Heart) would send only a few students to St. John's annually.

Just so you are aware, our endowment is now #2 in the Big East, about the same as Villanova and below Georgetown. However, it isn't reflective of how much money is being raised, since VIllanova and Georgetown both raise far more annually than St. John's.
 
I think BOE and others have made some very good observations under the President Bobby topic . It’s true St John’s is getting more Chaminade and St Anthony graduates to enroll and that’s a plus all the way around . But , it’s also true that ND , Villanova , BC , etc get the majority of the higher grade students from these 2 LI high schools . I do think President Bobby did well to try and compete for the better HS students from Catholic High Schools and the next President should continue that focus . The Schools of Pharmacy and the Tobin School of Business should be the focal point of University efforts to raise Academic profiles . It appears both these Divisions are progressing in that direction . It’s good Marketing 101 to build a good Brand Identity in 1 or 2 Areas than try and do it for 8 or 10 .
 
IT would be nice if SJ established itself as a source of political polling and would have itself mentioned in the news .Perhaps the school of Pharmacy could be a noted source of info on vaccines during the pandemic . In general I think we need a higher profile .
 
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