Source: sxu.edu
Rebecca Sherrick, Ph. D. is serving as Saint Xavier University’s Interim President in the wake of former President Laurie M. Joyner, Ph. D.’s departure in July.
Sherrick states one of her hopes is that “we can make this year a year of transition and starting to move forward together”.
Arlene Silva, Vice President of the Student Government Association(SGA), voiced that SGA hopes “that Dr. Sherrick gets to have a more effective relationship with SGA so that we can have better communication and understanding throughout the year.”
Since starting her position at Saint Xavier, Sherrick has met with many members of the Saint Xavier community.
She added that it was “not so much to talk, but to just listen and absorb their stories”. She acknowledged that the university has been through a lot in the last few years, and that has caused both pain and trauma.
The university’s net revenue has fallen flat in recent years. While there has been growth in undergraduate revenue, the graduate revenue has declined. She voiced that “SXU had eight million dollars more to spend from graduate revenue at one point.”
Sherrick emphasized that moving forward, the university needs to build more revenue in order to properly take care of people and buildings.
“One of the things I see we do this year is we stop talking, maybe, we recognize and affirm the difficult decisions of the past, but we start talking about the future” expressed Sherrick.
In order to increase the revenue of the university, Sherrick emphasized that getting creative and working together is key.
Sherrick proposed that the university develop a curriculum in the future that has an interdisciplinary focus. Where “instead of a history class maybe it’s a class that is shaped by history, economics, sociology and political science, and all of a sudden we’re looking at a problem or an issue from four perspectives” she added.
During her time at Aurora University, Sherrick had a commitment to doing everything that could be done in order to keep college affordable.
She voiced that what she was proudest of from her time at Aurora was that the university “had the lowest private college tuition in the state of Illinois”.
Aurora University also spent ten years developing the state of Illinois’ first program for students on the Autism Spectrum under Sherrick. The program is currently in its fourth year.
Sherrick served as Aurora University’s President for 23 years before ultimately making the decision to retire.
Sherrick stated she had reached out in congratulations when Joyner had announced that she was departing from Saint Xavier. It was then that Joyner made Sherrick aware that the university would be looking for an interim president.
Instead of retiring, Sherrick moved on to Saint Xavier. She communicated that she was not ready to retire completely, but she knew that it was time for Aurora University to continue with a new president.
“You know, after 23 years I didn’t have a lot of new ideas, and so I wanted a chance to be somewhere else, still be with students and faculty. And this is a really fun job, because you get to look at it from way up here as opposed to from way down here. And I love that. I love looking for big ideas and broad themes,” Sherrick added.
Saint Xavier University has much to offer that Sherrick looks forward to taking advantage of during her time at the university.