Who Should be the new St . John's President?

[19854ever]

My guess Is Fr Levesque is keeping the seat warm while Fr Maher gets experience up in Niagara and in 2 years Fr Maher is the next SJU President. My feeling is that the internal investigation blames Wile for most of the corruption and spares FH who will have plausible deniability.

 

[beast of the east]

Looks like Rev. Levesque is 74, and is a solid interim choice, as he has just retired from Niagara, and has been involved with St. Johns. Without question he will not be a consideration for the permanent position, so they avoid the antipathy that could result if a competent interim is not hired as the permanent president.

The interim president will very likely not innovate at all, but just carry the torch for a year or until a suitable candidate is hired.

That's what people said about the last pope

Today, a university President is asked to do so much fund raising that it is almost imperative that the person hired be in his late 40s or early 50s, be charismatic, and willing to travel extensively in the first couple of years to meet with influential alumni and other potential benefactors.

It's a tall order for anyone to take over a university that is not "turnkey". Many of us have strong feelings about the academic stature of the university. However a strategy is firmly embedded where 40% of our student population comes from financially disadvantaged families and are thus Pell eligible. Will the new president desire to reduce that number and increase the number of academically qualified students? Will the new president embrace the purported Vincentian mission by holding the line or even reducing tuition to where SJU is an affordable private education? Will the new president attempt to reverse the tide of diminishing number of Catholic students attending this once predominantly Catholic university? Boy I'd like to be on the committee interviewing candidates.