August 31, 1999

University President welcomes faculty and staff at convocation, gives status of the university

The following is a reprint of University President Bernard P. Knoth's August 23 convocation remarks.

There are many points I want to review with you this afternoon, mostly informational; following my remarks, we will have an open forum for questions and discussion.

With undergraduate classes starting in one week and the Law School having started classes today, let me begin with a report on admissions activities. Acting Dean Debbie Stieffel and the undergraduate admissions staff have done extraordinary work in assembling the class of 2003. As of this morning, we expect 816 freshmen to arrive next weekend. Their academic quality mirrors the academic quality of the last three years. For the class of 2003, the average GPA is 3.62; the SAT combined score is 1166 which is comfortably above the average score of 1013 for the national college-bound population; the ACT combined score is 26 compared with a national average of 20.9. It is important to note that since 1996, the yield has grown on accepted students from 36% to over 45% which represents superb work by the admissions staff. The overall ethnic minority percentage of the new first-year class is 24.5% with African-American students and Hispanic-American representing 10.9% and 8.8% respectively. The class of 2003 represents 48 states and 11 countries; in a change from last year, 53% are from out of state, 47% are from Louisiana of whom 41% represent metropolitan New Orleans. This is the largest and most talented undergraduate class the university has seen in as many as 30 years; we actually had a waiting list for most of the summer months. It has also been a year when we have had more faculty, staff and alumni involvement than ever before in the recruitment process. My congratulations to Debbie and her staff for working in creative ways; my congratulations to all of you who have supported their efforts through the course of the year.

The Law School began its orientation activities last week with 223 first-year law students who confirmed and paid deposits. The average LSAT appears to be 152 and the average GPA 2.9. With classes starting today, the first-year final count and their complete statistics should be available within a few days. Also, the number of returning second and third year students should soon be clear.

With the large undergraduate freshman class we anticipate, I need to make a cautionary comment about revenue expectations and budgets. You may remember that we used the estimate of 710 traditional freshmen when we constructed this year's budget. With a larger class coming in, whatever the exact final number, no one should begin licking his or her chops. Freshmen tuition is the most highly discounted tuition revenue stream, and the full picture of supplemental expenses associated with the larger class, academic and residential, is not complete. We have had no indication that our retention of returning students will be either more or less than we projected which is positive news: the revenues brought by returning students are critical in the budget. The number of undergraduate transfer students stands at 170, a few more than we set as target. So we need to wait until the whole picture is visible. Once we have our official enrollment counts in September, I will review them and the associated revenue and expense projections with the University Budget Committee. We will decide on any appropriate budget adjustments in that forum.

I would make another cautionary comment connected to the freshmen class enrollment. As you may have heard already, to accommodate all the undergraduate students who desired to live on campus we needed to make some adaptation. Two floors of suites in the new residence hall and three floors of suites in Buddig Hall were modified to house five residents instead of four. Each resident in these modified units has his or her own bed, desk, chair and wardrobe. This should be a temporary arrangement. If there are any late cancellations by upperclass students who have decided not to return or if there are withdrawals during the semester, freshmen living in the modified arrangements will be moved. At worst case, some may remain in modified accommodations until January when our ordinary pattern would predict sufficient room for second semester housing. This has been one of the challenges associated with a larger than expected freshmen class. When I met with the resident advisors and with the student orientation leaders this past weekend, I emphasized with them the need to take a positive, constructive view of this unusual situation. I ask you to do the same as some of the freshmen you encounter may be sensitive about it.

I want to update you on projects underway on campus. To introduce this update, I return to the explanation I Clearly, our primary goal is to provide an excellent education rooted in the Jesuit, Catholic heritage, fostering scholarly development among faculty and intellectual, spiritual and personal growth among our students. Our educational process does not take place in a vacuum: instead, it involves interrelated variables one of which is providing an environment supportive of a contemporary liberal arts education. Here are some comments on our environment.

This will be our first full year with the Monroe Library. I believe the librarians did a masterful job last spring in introducing the library and its resources to the campus community. Before the semester was over, the librarians had held 247 workshops and tours which over 3,500 students attended. If you were not able to take advantage of any of these presentations last spring, I hope you will take the opportunity soon. I am anxious that we take fullest advantage of the resources the library offers. Incidentally, the main stairway was finished over the summer, and the cross blessed during the dedication ceremony was installed. The cross was a gift from the Jesuit Community at Thomas Hall; the dedication plaque should arrive soon. Another wonderful piece of art, a copy of the mosaic of the Madonna and Child in front of which St. Ignatius and his companions took their first vows arrived badly damaged two weeks ago. A gift of the Beggar fraternity on their seventy-fifth anniversary, a new copy is being made which will be hung in the courtyard between the library and Miller Hall when it arrives in November.

Biever Hall was taken out of service immediately after commencement week end last May and has been undergoing asbestos abatement work. The asbestos abatement is now complete. The construction fence should go up today or tomorrow; the contractor should begin the actual renovation work by September 1. As you perhaps saw already, we have changed the West Road to a one-way, one lane road for the duration of the Biever Hall project. This allows us to locate the construction staging area in a minimal space on the West Road and to restore the residential quad to as normal a situation a possible. Assimilating the change will take some time, but I appreciate your cooperation. In the new residence hall, some punch list items remain. I have asked the residential life office to arrange a time for a tour or open house sometime next month so you will have an opportunity to see the hall once the semester gets started.

At the end of the spring semester we finalized a contract with Lee Ledbetter Architects to provide the architectural service for the renovation of the old library. You may remember that the building will be renovated to accommodate new quarters for the Visual Arts Department and a new black box theater and support areas for Drama and Speech Department. Over the summer, Georgia Gresham and others from her department met to select the lighting and acoustical consultants who will advise us on the black box theater. Interviews and conversations with both departments will start soon to develop the program.

Within the next few weeks, a project will start in the Danna Center to convert the former Micro Center into a convenience store. Funded by Marriott as part of the new dining/catering contract and occasioned by the number of kitchens and kitchenettes in the new residence hall, this should prove to be a handy addition for everyone. It should be open for business by late October.

There are a number of other topics I want to touch on briefly this afternoon. After a number of conversations with the vice presidents, many faculty and staff members, I have decided we will try an experiment with our Spring Commencement exercises this year. Namely, we will move them to campus. After looking at several different models, what we will try in particular is to hold an All University Baccalaureate Mass on Thursday evening, May 11, on the horseshoe lawn. We will use the same site for the Law School commencement on Friday evening, College of Arts and Sciences on Saturday morning, Colleges of Business Administration and Music and City College on Saturday evening. The commencement exercises will be followed by a reception on the Palm Court. The rain site will be the RecPlex. There are a number of details that need to be worked out, but that is the basic paradigm. I also hope we will take this opportunity to review our honors ceremonies. But I want everyone to be aware of the experiment. It should help with the bonding of alumni to the university.

We had a number of conversations last Spring on the document Ex Corde Ecclesiae and some subsequent developments have occurred over the summer. The most recent newsletter of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities explained that after receiving the suggestions and ideas from bishops, presidents of universities and associations, boards of trustees of catholic institutions, sponsoring religious communities, the ACCU and other sources, the implementation committee has decided to write another draft. This new draft should be finished in September leaving the month of October for another round of consultation. The new draft may or may not be on the agenda for a discussion or vote of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops at their November meeting. When the new draft is available, I will be back in touch with the different groups I met with in the spring to get their reactions and ideas.

In the area of fund raising, I am pleased to report that private gifts to Loyola last year set a record for total giving. Almost $8.4 million was received in cash or cash equivalents for all purposes which, from everything we can tell, was a university record. To put the number in perspective, the same category in 1997-98 was around $6 million. I congratulate the Institutional Advancement staff, the deans who played an important role, and the many members of the faculty and staff for their good work in this accomplishment.

At the June meeting of the Board of Trustees, the trustees approved a total of $39 million in initiatives for the coming years. While not a formal capital campaign like the one just finished, the initiatives give us a solid direction to pursue. The initiatives include another $15 million in academic initiatives to enrich our academic programs over the next several years; these initiatives were chosen after extensive consultation with the deans. The initiatives include $8 million to further endow the operation of the Monroe Library and $5 million to endow additional scholarships. Under capital initiatives, we will seek $500,000 to complete the chemistry laboratory renovations, $5 million to complete the residence hall renovations, and $6 million for the renovation of the old library and the Drama and Speech Department areas. I ask for the continued cooperation of the Loyola community in assisting in our reaching these important targets.

I want to say a word of encouragement regarding the special event for faculty this coming Friday evening. Dr. John Bennett is a highly recognized authority, and we are fortunate to have him coming to campus. He will address the faculty in the Audubon Room at 7:00 p.m. on the collegial responsibilities of a university faculty for the common good and its implementation. Sponsored by the Faculty Senate and the Biever Lecture Committee, it should be a very worthwhile event. The arrival day confusion should definitely be over by 5:00 p.m., so there should be plenty of parking readily available. I hope you will attend.

So we have time for questions and discussion, let me say that I am excited about the coming academic year. At the June meeting, I presented the Board with a summary of what we have accomplished as an educational community over the last four years. The list included the academic program revisions that departments and colleges have made, the electronic advancements we have developed, the physical improvements we have made. Working togetherÑsometimes unanimously, other times notÑwe have accomplished an incredible number of positive, forward looking changes which will prepare Loyola to enter the next century. I doubt any institution of our size and complexity could have done what we have done. I take great pride in our accomplishment and hope you do also.

We have a great year ahead of us. We have a very full house of bright students, new faculty and staff members in place. We have the finest educational library in the South and a campus that begins to reflect the high quality liberal arts education we give. I hope and pray this will be a grace-filled, propitious and blest year for us all.