As Loyola President Fr. Kevin Wm. Wildes stated recently in an email message to the campus community on April 8th, the Presidential Advisory Group to Develop a Long-term Financial Equilibrium Plan, with representatives from faculty, staff, the student body and our Board of Trustees, has for several weeks been meeting with our consultant Dr. Lucie Lapovsky in the effort to bring forward recommendations on how best to address and resolve the University’s budgetary challenges over the course of the next several years, while also fulfilling our mission of providing a transformative liberal arts education based on Jesuit ideals. I am sure that, like me, you are grateful for the collaborative nature of this process to date, and I want to stress that recommendations from the Advisory Group will be distributed to and considered by the entire University community before they are finalized and implemented.

I want to thank the Advisory Group and Dr. Lapovsky for engaging in this very important work. I also am grateful to the many other members of the Loyola community who are currently serving on the eight task forces that the Advisory Group has created. The task forces are now analyzing data and discussing numerous possible approaches to creating savings, promoting efficiencies, and producing additional revenue in areas and offices across our university. The work of the task forces includes, but is not limited to, focusing on how we can avoid replication of services, a review of all contracts issued by the University, analysis of faculty workload, proposals for revenue generation, and tuition pricing.

It is important to stress that the work of the Advisory Group and task forces is ongoing, and that to date no recommendations of any kind have been delivered to Fr. Wildes. Dozens of ideas on how to move Loyola toward long-term financial equilibrium continue to be generated and discussed within the Advisory Group and task forces. Once recommendations are issued by the Advisory Group and Dr. Lapovsky, the university administration will be transparent with the campus community and continue to consult our faculty, staff, and students regarding steps that will be taken to secure a sound financial future for our university. My thanks go to all of you who have contributed ideas so far, and I invite you to share more of your ideas and look forward to continuing collaboration.