University president, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., paid gratitude to delegation at the State of the University Address on March 23. Wildes began the forum, sponsored by Loyola Society for Civic Engagement, briefing students on the university’s condition regarding issues of retention, admission and finances during the forum,.
Approximately 35 students attended the address on March 23. University president, the Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., briefed students on the university’s condition regarding issues of retention, admission and finances during the forum, sponsored by Loyola Society for Civic Engagement.
Students posed questions after the briefing. Inquiries included various topics: academic investments, common curriculum, the Strategic Plan, a budget outline, residential hall mold, purchasing and the current misunderstanding between economics professor Walter Block and the University Task Force.
“Through the planning within that organization, we wanted to have an event that reflected the need for students to be engaged on a more localized level in the campus community and with the policies and some of the coming events – seeming to us, a leadership of LSCE, to be a very important watershed moment in the university,” said political science senior, LSCE chairman and Student Government Association president, Cade Cypriano.
Wildes shared good and bad news during the briefing.
Loyola’s freshman admissions and fundraising efforts stand in good condition, according to Wildes. He said Loyola’s application pool has increased more than 30% from a year ago and Loyola collected about $10 million through fundraising efforts.
Numbers concerning the endowment, a reflection of the current state of the economy, appear grim.
“We are down on paper a significant amount of money,” said Wildes.
According to Wildes, the endowment peaked just under $400 million.
The current endowment is well under a $100 million, he said.
Transparency is a concern legitimate concern, especially concerning the allocation of large amounts of money, said Cypriano.
The University Budgeting Committee and the University Planning Team planned to eliminate student representation as part of its projective restructuring to streamline the decision-making process, according to Cypriano.
“There were certain members of the administration that did not support retention of student representation on the committees, but Father Wildes actually made an executive decision from the top that it was imperative for students to be kept on the committees,” he said.
SGA felt the projective restructuring of these committees was unacceptable and a violation of student rights, according to Cypriano.
“If you don’t go ahead and make your presence known, you simply can’t expect to wait and be discovered,” said LSCE faculty advisor and vice provost for academic affairs, Roger White. “Cade has done an excellent job at making sure that there’s student representation on all the important committees.”
After attending the State of the University Address, general studies freshman Chris Codd said he noticed many students are oblivious to ongoing university affairs.
He heard about the forum from a friend and attended to learn about issues going in the university, he said.
Jessica Haines, psychology junior and treasury of LCSE, said the State of the University Address was successful.
“People’s questions were really heartfelt, and everyone had good reasoning behind asking their questions,” said Haines. “The answers – I felt – were complete as possible given the delegation that goes on which is understandable.”
White said he will encourage the new LSCE executive board and SGA to continue the State of the University Address for years following.
“In the future, we hope to have a greater attendance and a larger buy-in from the student body because I think that it is an opportunity for students to get information firsthand, where as sometimes, they don’t have that opportunity,” said Cypriano.
Allison Sickle can be reached at [email protected]
