The three finalists for the presidency at Marywood want to boost enrollment, strengthen programs and create new opportunities for students – and none of the candidates are IHM sisters.
In a historic presidential appointing process, all three finalists are lay individuals, meaning they did not take a vow to the religious life that all of the IHM sisters who have led the university thus far. The finalists visited campus last month and participated in forums.
In an effort to maintain confidentiality for the candidates, The Wood Word agreed to not publish the names of the three finalists. Instead, the Wood Word will focus on highlights from the candidates’ presentations and answers to questions from the Marywood Community.
The external search firm, Hyatt Fennell, instructed candidates to prepare a 10-minute presentation centered around the following question: “What is the role of a Catholic University, touching on mission, culture, DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] and finances?”
After brief presentations, the candidates took questions from members of the Marywood community. Below are summaries of the presentations and some highlights from the question-and-answer segment of the forums.
Candidate 1:
In response to the prompt from Hyatt Fennell, Candidate 1 emphasized upholding Marywood’s mission, continuing to invest in DEI efforts and in terms of finances. Candidate 1 explained that they would prioritize strategic investment. The candidate focused on enrollment growth and expanding Marywood’s brand awareness to regions beyond the local community.
Questions from Marywood community members :
Q: How would you prioritize different initiatives on campus?
A: The candidate would prioritize initiatives that focus on boosting enrollment and revenue and would prioritize events that are based on Marywood’s mission and core values.
Q: What are some of the biggest challenges in higher education and how would you address them?
A: Some of the biggest challenges facing higher education currently are the impending enrollment cliff, competition amongst colleges and universities, and the belief that the value of a college degree is on the decline. The candidate however expressed a strong disagreement with the opinion that the value of a college degree is diminishing. Candidate says that to address these issues, Marywood needs to focus on building on our existing strengths and work on getting the Marywood name out there.
Q: How can Marywood improve their brand and public perception?
A: We need to improve brand identity and build on marketing strategies to expand to neighboring states and gain more exposure.
Q: How will you invest in recruiting efforts?
A:Marywood needs to focus on boosting graduate enrollment. Some possible ways to improve graduate enrollment are increasing online program availability to reach non-traditional students, possibly incentivizing senior students to stay for graduate programs after undergraduate programs and expanding marketing beyond the local region.
Q: As president, will you fill the currently vacant positions of provost and vice president of academic affairs ?
A: “Absolutely,” and went on to say that they hope Marywood will have both positions filled sooner rather than later, hopefully before July 1..
Q: How do you plan on forming relationships with students?
A: Candidate plans on attending athletic and recreational events on campus and emphasizes a desire to connect with and have fun with students.
Candidate 2:
Candidate 2 mentioned Catholic identity several times and said that it is “our faith that inspires” Marywood as an institution. Candidate 2 expressed the importance of humanities and that the purpose of Catholic education is the pursuit of truth.
Questions from Marywood community members:
Q: How important do you regard humanities/liberal arts courses? What would you do to support liberal arts faculty and to grow liberal arts programs?
A: Candidate 2 expressed support for liberal arts programs, but suggested that to support these programs, a boost in enrollment is needed and suggested liberal arts faculty members should act in mentoring roles to recruit students in core curriculum required classes into liberal arts majors.
Q: How will you address the financial realities of higher education and how do you plan to generate revenue?
A: Candidate 2 listed some ideas for generating more revenue, the first being to look at other schools and case studies to familiarize themselves with other strategies within this industry. Another idea was to create and market more online programs to attract students outside of the Scranton area and to create and promote more graduate programs.
Q: How will you support the arts here at Marywood, specifically the music facilities?
A: Candidate 2 expressed great interest in the music programs, having a background in music themselves. To generate revenue to renovate music facilities, Candidate 2 pitched an idea that suggested boosting community involvement to showcase the value of the music facilities and then acquiring donors and support from the community to make necessary upgrades.
Q: If the focus is on boosting enrollment, how would you expand the housing situation on campus?
A: Candidate explained that raising funds for residence halls is typically difficult. Candidate then asked if students needed assistance finding off-campus housing as upperclassmen. Candidate then referred the question to Vice President of Student Success Jeff Kegolis who assured that there are housing options available on campus and organized a meeting with the individual who asked the question to discuss the matter further.
Q: What would you do to help boost enrollment?
A: Further emphasis was placed on marketing strategies, creating new programs that would attract more students and thus more revenue. Candidate explained the only way for Catholic universities to break through the noise amongst other universities is to find new and attractive programs.
Q: There has been a lot of faculty turn-over in recent years, how do you intend to boost retention efforts for staff on campus?
A: Candidate focused on student retention, suggesting more support for students from faculty, early alert programs and properly staffed resources. Candidate did not offer suggestions for faculty retention.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Originally, the forum with Candidate 3 was supposed to take place on Wednesday, March 21 after Candidates 1 and 2, however, the Marywood community was informed the forum with a third candidate was postponed to Monday, March 25.
Candidate 3:
Candidate 3 mentioned Marywood’s mission statement in their presentation and emphasized the importance of diversity and new, flexible learning options for students. As president, Candidate 3 would work to address issues in higher education and lead from a place of faith and rooted in social justice.
Questions from Marywood community members:
Q: As the first lay president, how would you uphold Marywood’s Catholic Identity?
A: Candidate said they would work with the IHM sisters to navigate being the first lay president.
Q: What do you think the role of tenure is and what is your opinion of tenure evaluations?
A: Candidate explained the changing nature of this moment in time in higher education, and stated that sometimes tenure gets a bad reputation. Candidate explained that they have worked at institutions where there is post tenure review, and somewhere there is not, and that to determine what would work best for Marywood, they would have to take a closer look at Marywood’s practices.
Q: How do we face the enrollment cliff of 2026, post-COVID challenges and financial problems?
A: Candidate 3 explained that in addition to making more people see the value in a college education, putting certain programs online and coming up with ways to spread narratives about what makes Marywood unique could start to address these concerns.
Q:What value do you see in reaching out to the local community?
A: Candidate 3 emphasized the beauty of Marywood and the necessity to show it off to the community more. Ideas for this included programming for community members and different kinds of events for younger children.
Q: What attracted you to Marywood and why now?
A: Candidate expressed that they were looking for a change in their life and enjoys a good challenge.
Contact the writer: [email protected]
Julie Potter contributed to this piece. [email protected]
