The Rev. Kevin Wildes, S.J., will take over as Loyola University’s 16th president. After a six-month presidential search and multiple meetings, the Board of Trustees unanimously elected Wildes Thursday evening, with 26 of the 33 members present to make the final decision.
“This is great news for the university,” said Donna Fraiche, chairwoman of the Board of Trustees.
Wildes is the associate dean for development for Georgetown College. The Rev. Robert Niehoff, S.J., associate provost and vice president for Planning and Budget at the University of San Francisco, was also considered as a potential candidate.
“There were two excellent, well-qualified candidates,” said Fraiche. “We ran with the current best interests of the university.”
The Rev. William Byron, S.J., said he was pleased with the final decision.
“With respect to Kevin Wildes, he has a very outward and dynamic presence, and he will be a very external leader,” Byron said. “It’s a new era for Loyola. He’ll fit in here very, very well.”
Fraiche also said that Wildes will make an excellent fundraiser.
“It’s important that a leader can inspire vision,” Fraiche said.
The Board of Trustees met Wednesday evening to decide on the new president, but after three hours of deliberation the trustees adjourned until further notice. Fraiche said that the decision would be made as soon as possible.
“We’d like to meet again as soon as possible. And I mean as soon as possible – we’d meet tomorrow morning if we could,” Fraiche said Wednesday evening.
The board reconvened Thursday afternoon and made their final decision around 6 p.m.
The Rev. James Bradley, S.J., chairman of the Presidential Search Committee and director of the Loyola Jesuit Community, said that the search committee members fulfilled their responsibility of submitting who they believe are the best candidates.
According to Bradley, Wildes’ selection was not influenced by his membership on the Board of Trustees, although there were board members on the selection committee.
“We put aside his qualifications as a trustee,” Fraiche said.
The Presidential Search committee met and interviewed Niehoff and Wildes in March during their Open House meetings with faculty, staff and students. The committee officially presented the Board of Trustees their recommendation of the two unranked presidential candidates on April 1.
“Both men are highly talented, in light of their different track records. They carry different strengths for the Board of Trustees to consider,” Bradley said earlier this week about the meetings.Bradley said that, although the committee’s position was not to decide what the university’s greatest needs are or which presidential candidate is better, they did seek certain qualities during their selections.
“We were interested in candidates who can have a good public presence for the university, someone who can participate in community endeavors at city, state or national levels,” Bradley said. “We wanted a candidate who can articulate the mission of the university.”
Wildes is also an associate professor of philosophy at Georgetown University and a six-year member of the Loyola’s Board of Trustees. His specialization is in bioethics. Wildes has been a member of the Society of Jesus since 1976 and was ordained a priest in 1986.
While Wildes does not have planning and budgeting experience like Niehoff, he has strong academic experience in teaching, writing and research. Wildes holds a degree in theology, has a PhD., and his dissertation was on the foundations of bioethics.
Loyola’s academic Strategic Agenda, a $120 million improvement plan that will span over a ten-year period, will likely be an important task for the new president. According to Bradley, both candidates said at the Open House meetings that the academic Strategic Agenda should be prioritized and incorporated into a larger plan that would include more than academics.
In addition to the academic Strategic Agenda, Bradley said he believes that the new president will likely focus on Loyola’s upcoming Southern Association of Colleges and Schools evaluation.
Wildes was chairman of the Middle States Association review at Georgetown University, which underwent accreditation in 2002.
Interim president the Rev. William Byron, S.J., will leave Loyola this summer and return to the Loyola College in Baltimore. He will finish serving this semester before Wildes assumes the role Aug. 1. Byron became interim president when Bernard Knoth resigned as the university president on Oct. 7, 2003 amid allegations of sexual misconduct during his time at Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School.
During his time at Loyola, Bryon made drastic changes to the school such as approving six full basketball scholarships, canceling the “Vagina Monologues,” and giving editorial control to student writers on The Maroon. Byron will remain on the Board of Trustees at Loyola.
With Wildes’ impressive credentials, the selection committee believes his best days are ahead of him.
“Georgetown is the flagship Jesuit university,” Fraiche said. “We are going to be better than Georgetown.”
