On Tuesday, February 26, Saint Xavier University President Christine Wiseman delivered her third annual “State of the University” address to a packed McGuire Hall from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Throughout her address, President Wiseman outlined a series of the challenges and goals awaiting SXU as it progresses along with the administration’s “Vision 2017” plan.
Early on President Wiseman’s “State of the University” agenda was a discussion of the success SXU has achieved in the areas of accreditation and the financial state of the university and how the decrease in enrollment applies to tuition revenue.
While SXU has managed to obtain an increase of accreditation, an unexpected decrease in student enrollment during the 2012-2013 school year has also led to difficulties in meeting or surpassing the estimated revenue from tuition.
“We’ve also misjudged some realities like our revenue potential from exponential enrollment growth,” said President Wiseman on tuition revenue, “And that is a transitional area that is a challenge.”
After a discussion of the changes in the average members of the college student population, President Wiseman then brought up a few of the University’s ideas on how to avoid relying mostly on revenue generated from tuitions.
Among these ideas were: the outsourcing of the bookstore in order to lower expenditures, providing health care to the local community through SXU’s innovative Nursing program, passing the basket at masses, a potential satellite campus in Gilbert, Arizona, increasing Grant funding, and a new capital campaign entitled “Reimagine Boldly.”
The “Reimagine Boldly” commercial was then shown to the audience.
“We cannot manage this institution, I cannot manage this institution , exclusively by cutting our budget,” said President Wiseman, “If all we do is cut, we’ll cut away the mediocrity or worse. Instead, we’ve got to manage this institution by a judicious combination of investing new moneys and pairing that on some of our expenses. And that remains our greatest transitional challenge: how do you navigate?”
After the capital campaign trailer, President Wiseman briefly discussed the plans for renovations to the SXU Chicago Campus in the hopefully near future.
These included the ongoing renovations to the Robert and Mary Rita Murphy Stump Library (which was paid for by an ICAP grant), the construction of a new science building (possibly connected to the Warde Center’s S-Wing), the creation of a student center for students to more easily congregate, renovations to both the Driehaus Center and the Bruce R. Deaton Memorial Field, and a relocation of the bookstore and Career Services to a renovated Driehaus.
In order to achieve the administration’s goals, President Wiseman said the University is working on building short-term scholarship funds and increasing the current endowment fund. $2.229 million has already been pledged towards these goals as part of the capital campaign.
Next, President Wiseman went over some of the successes SXU has had over the course of the past year. She focused in on the new MySXU web portal, a new Mercy Circle, the ongoing plans for the creation of a new logo for the University, and the recent successes of our Athletic programs on the national level.
President Wiseman closed her speech by addressing how the University is planning on dealing with the decreasing population of incoming and returning students. After she concluded, there was a question and answer session.
A recording of the third annual “State of the University” address will be made available on my.sxu.edu for those who were unable to attend but are interested in what was addressed in more detail.
Joshua Humphrey
News Correspondent