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- College to University 1.25.10
College to University 1.25.10
Welcome, I’m glad to see you all and grateful for the opportunity to meet with students, staff and administrators from Erie, North East and West today to talk about the future of Mercyhurst. In our day-to-day lives we have many opportunities to live out our Mercy values as well as our motto “seize the day,” Carpe Diem, usually in ways that are small and often seem to go unnoticed, but which collectively make a big difference. Your character, demonstrated in day-to-day acts of kindness, expressions of generosity and gracious acts of compassionate hospitality, constitutes the culture of Mercyhurst.
The commitment of each one of you to being the student or employee you are most proud to be, make Mercyhurst not just a place but a part of who we are – our “almost mother” our alma mater. We are Mercyhurst – you and I, together with our faculty, alumni and benefactors! In the life of every institution, every once in awhile, a grand opportunity presents itself that invites and challenges us to take the next step, to be more. This represents one of those moments for Mercyhurst. As Mother Catherine McAuley said “we take small careful steps and occasionally great strides.” Or as you have often heard me say, “If we’re not busy being born, we’re busy dying.”
As we meet we are in the second year of perhaps the most significant national economic downturns of our lifetimes – Mercyhurst weathered year one well ending last year with positive indicators in all the areas by which the financial health of college finances are measured. We entered this year with enrollment records in both Erie and in North East and at the midpoint of the year, see ourselves on-track to again meet the economic goals established by our Trustees.
Of course, I am well aware that these financial indicators arise largely because of the effort each of you exerts on behalf of Mercyhurst. More than you might know, your patient hearing of a student or parent concern, your sensitive handling of a financial question or a student conduct issue or an ill or emotionally distraught student, your encouraging guidance with students who are struggling academically or are unsure of their academic interests, your enthusiastic efforts to provide inclusive social events and meaningful worship opportunities, and your commitment to our student-athletics, your enthusiasm in recruiting new students or soliciting donors to invest in us create a constellation that indeed makes Mercyhurst a beacon on the hill. Students, your willingness to engage fully in the life of Mercyhurst, to engage your classes, your faculty and your friends, to ask the big questions, and your creative ways of relaxing and having fun (some of which we remain happily unaware of) serve to make Mercyhurst a place where others want to join you. We are also enriched by our alums, trustees and benefactors through their gifts of talent, time and treasure.
While things look good right now it is important to note that we did make use of an increase in financial aid to keep a Mercyhurst education affordable for both current and new students. Intuitively, one would reasonably expect that the increase in the number of new students would translate into increased revenue. However, the increased financial aid that we provided for students this year and will provide again next year, as our students and their families continue to be challenged by the economic downturn, means that the larger number of students does not result in as dramatic an increase in revenue as one would expect. Therefore we must continue to exercise some modest restraint on the expense side. To all of the budget directors in the audience I am very grateful for your responsible budget management, both last year and this year.
All-in-all though, the big picture is that we are doing very well, but, as I’ve indicated in previous addresses, I truly believe that a shake-out is coming in higher education and the sector that will be hit hardest is made up of private colleges, founded during the 20th century, located in the north east, with limited endowments. Mercyhurst is one such institution and we are called to take action to assure that Mercyhurst is best prepared to meet the emerging challenges.
As with the other schools like us, we are facing significant market challenges especially with regard to our traditional undergraduate population in Erie. These challenges result not only from the current economic downturn – which makes affordability and the private school premium an even more significant issue; but also from regional demographic trends which show about a 2% decline per year in the number of high school graduates over the next several years, as much as a 20% decline in some counties. This will add to our competitive challenges and exacerbate the pressure for market constriction deriving from the economic crisis.
Unlike older schools that are able to use their endowments to fund student scholarships, at schools like Mercyhurst, with limited endowments, the bulk of financial aid scholarships we offer take the form of a discount on tuition. In other words it does not consist of cash we receive from the interest off the endowment, instead it is revenue that we choose not to collect from students – it is money we never receive. This is why a healthy endowment is so important to the welfare of a private institution and it explains why those institutions with slim endowments are so vulnerable. There is no doubt, serious challenges await us and we, as this institution’s current stewards, must prepare Mercyhurst to meet them.
What Mercyhurst will need to do in the short-run is to stabilize both enrollment and financial aid for traditional undergraduates in Erie, because continuing to grow undergraduate enrollment will eventually undermine the culture of the college and because under current market circumstances it would be very difficult to do so in any case, and also because it is not in our Mercy character to try and reduce financial aid while unemployment rates continue to rise.
In my opinion our market challenges on both the traditional undergraduate side and with regard to less-traditional populations are further complicated by issues of institutional identity that have emerged over the most recent 15 or so years. For perfectly sound financial and often also mission reasons, Mercyhurst College has added several kinds of activities generally inconsistent with a traditional residential baccalaureate college. As you know Mercyhurst College is now home to over 1,000 associate degree students, the College includes on-line programs, hundreds of graduate students in six graduate programs, even off-site graduate certificate programs in Northern Virginia. As a result of this growth beyond traditional undergraduate offerings, both our Carnegie classification and our U.S.News classification have already been changed from “baccalaureate colleges” to “masters universities”- without consultation with us, but based purely on the numbers and types of degrees we offer and what they presume those numbers say about the nature of our institution.
The result is that all these other things confuse and dilute the identity of the traditional residential undergraduate college and being a part of a “college” weakens the identity of other academic initiatives, the graduate programs in particular, which in the face of the dynamics described above will have to grow to assure our future.
Make no mistake about it, there is no going back, these new academic initiatives are essential to the well-being of the institution generally and crucial to the financial well-being of the traditional four-year baccalaureate college here on the hill in Erie. Because we are committed to maintaining the current size of our traditional undergraduate student base, we must seek to expand graduate and adult offerings including on-line and off-site offerings while we continue to take advantage of the dramatic expansion of the two-year market. We have to make sure we are strategically positioned to accomplish this.
To repeat, the question facing us is: “How do we do all this while preserving and protecting the core institution that is in fact the sine qua non of the broader institutional initiatives?”
As a first step, on Thursday, at my request, the Board of Trustees passed the following resolution… “The Board of Trustees of Mercyhurst College directs the president and his staff to consult with the constituencies, do the necessary and appropriate research and return to the board with a recommendation as to whether Mercyhurst College should seek university status.”
In the United States, there is no hard and fast definitional difference between a college and a university. In general though, a college tends to do one thing (the one thing generally is offering four-year baccalaureate degrees), while a university does many things, including awarding graduate degrees. Also, in the wider world beyond the United States, “college” often means something more like high school, while “university” means true post-secondary education.
The model of Mercyhurst University we have in mind is one where Mercyhurst College will continue and will assume a central identity as a distinct entity within Mercyhurst University – much like Harvard College is a unique entity within Harvard University, Yale College within Yale University, Georgetown College within Georgetown University, Fordham College within Fordham University - ; Mercyhurst College will remain as an entity within Mercyhurst University with unique high quality programs and an approach to teaching and learning that combines a high quality liberal arts education with engagement in one’s discipline and the world. So, if this goes forward, Mercyhurst College students will be graduates of both Mercyhurst College and Mercyhurst University. Graduates of the other schools which are not part of the College per se will be graduates of Mercyhurst University and of their respective School. The key shift in attitude is that the goal of Mercyhurst College over time is not to grow in size, but to increase its reputation by becoming a more distinctive, higher quality institution to which more students will be attracted giving us the opportunity to be slightly more selective.
The benefits for all the other areas of Mercyhurst University is that they are no longer merely incongruous additions to what most people think of as a traditional 4-year baccalaureate college, but are seen instead as vital and essential components of an emerging university. They also remain connected to the name Mercyhurst and therefore the market value of their Associates’ degrees, Certificate, or Masters’ degrees increase in value proportionate to increases in the quality and reputation of Mercyhurst College and vice versa. The total number of students enrolled at Mercyhurst University would continue to rise, but as other student types increase, the enrollment at Mercyhurst College would intentionally not increase over the next several years except through improvements in retention. Students, in other words, the Mercyhurst College you know and love will not become bigger – we will just continue to become better! - while Mercyhurst University as a whole, will become both better and bigger.
Let’s consider for a moment how Mercyhurst University might be composed. It would include:
Mercyhurst College – the traditional 4-year, student-centered, largely residential, undergraduate college that we have today including all the undergraduate schools which are currently part of it. The College will continue its commitment to a strong liberal arts core, excellent undergraduate teaching, small class sizes and a focus on faculty-student relationship.
The Mercyhurst University School of Graduate Studies will encompass both current and future on-site graduate school programs in a traditional graduate school culture, as well as off-site Master’s Degree programs and graduate certificate programs at work site locations and in high density metropolitan settings which will allow students to complete course work with lower cost and without having to leave their jobs and homes to reside on the Mercyhurst campus.
The Mercyhurst University School of Associate Degree Programs, the heart of which will continue to be at Mercyhurst North East, but will also include other locations which currently exist or might be developed. These programs will realize our mission by offering opportunity education to traditional 18 year olds who seek a liberal arts setting at a reduced price and an open enrollment approach, in addition to offering high quality practical programs for non-traditional students seeking to upgrade their skill set or change careers.
The Mercyhurst University School of Professional and Continuing Studies, which will encompass our adult undergraduate and post-baccalaureate programs, as well as professional development programs and non-credit programs and offerings
All these programs will still allow students to receive a degree from a name that they can trust and which carries the highest quality reputation.
In summary, a movement to Mercyhurst University will facilitate strategic clarity in programs and infrastructure that will allow us to enhance the reputation of both Mercyhurst College and Mercyhurst University over the coming decades. For current students and alums, of course, as the reputation of Mercyhurst is elevated, the value of your degree is enhanced as well. Also with regard to our students who will be competing in the emerging global economy, the fact that the term “college” means something very different and much less impressive in Europe and Canada then it does here in the U.S. is another important reason to consider this change. It clarifies, in the international market, the true nature of your educational achievement.
For the both the College and the University, investment in excellence must continue to be the driving idea: excellence in opportunity education, excellence in the sciences and the social sciences, excellence in intelligence studies, excellence in nursing, excellence in the arts and humanities, excellence in the campus culture developed by Student Life programs, excellence in the delivery of first rate administrative services, and most importantly excellence in teaching and learning. Growth in quality alongside growth in educational opportunity will position Mercyhurst University and Mercyhurst College for a promising and worthy future.
I think we know the kind of institutional identity and culture we want to foster here at Mercyhurst. Among the goals we set for ourselves in our strategic plan is to “build a sense of common purpose and mutual respect among the College’s campuses.” All students and all employees will attend and work for Mercyhurst University, and all will also attend either the College or one of the Schools of the University. Strengthened by the whole, each part of the University will be more confidently free to strive to become its own best self. The College can be free to continue its role and grow in excellence as a traditional undergraduate residential college, and the university and its components can be diverse, vibrant, alive and growing- better-poised to adapt to future opportunities. As it is written, “there are many members, but only one body” and each member is owed its own due respect.
The provost, the dean, the vice presidents and I believe this transition is in the best long-term interest of Mercyhurst College. We have come to believe that we will be better able to grow and develop as an institution and as entities within the institution once we accept an organizational structure that both clarifies and is more consistent with what we already are. It is time to resolve this issue – to explore becoming the institution that in essence we already are – Mercyhurst University.
The new clarity of the college within the university will serve us well as it has served other fine institutions. It will reinvigorate us and position us for the future. But it will not happen unless enough of you come to believe in it as well, nor will it happen if we are unwilling to tolerate the uncertainty that is an essential element of any significant transition. I ask you to be part of the study and of the decision-making, but at the end of the day to be solution-focused and side with hope and with the future. We cannot afford to suffer what Martin Luther King Jr. coined, “the paralysis of analysis.” Remember, since the days of Mother Borgia, we are a carpe diem community.
There will be many questions that will arise and of course we do not have every answer to every question at this point, after all the study is just starting. But we want the entire Mercyhurst community, including students and alums to be part of the process as we go forward. If you have questions or concerns please email them to president@mercyhurst.edu, that way we can incorporate your concerns into the study process.
I can assure you that whatever complications and confusions arise, we will work together to create a culture that is committed to excellent teaching, to faith and reason flourishing together, to the faculty-student relationship, to a culture that respects the dignity of work, and the dignity of the human person, a culture that stipulates the goodness of creation and all that entails and a culture oriented around the core values of Mercyhurst. I know that at some universities undergraduate classes are taught by graduate assistants – I can assure you that will never happen at Mercyhurst. Questions have also been raised about whether a change to university status would necessitate a change in our academic calendar and the answer is no, the two issues are completely independent of one another. Also, while this change is very important strategically for the future of the institution, in terms of an employee’s or a student’s day-to-day activities and experiences very little will change.
The future and its challenges are coming ready or not, what we have to do is be good stewards who will do whatever we can in this present moment to assure the future well-being of Mercyhurst, its students and its alumni. I think this is an exciting and important time for Mercyhurst; I am eager to help guide us through this process and grateful to you for your open minded participation in it.
Thank you for your kind attention.
