Today marks the halfway point in the year, day 183. Also, using my previous two predecessors as models, I am at the halfway point in my presidency. That perspective is loaded with presumptions, but it is helpful from a planning perspective. What have we accomplished over the past eight years, and what should we want the second half to look like?

There is a quote attributed to President Eisenhower, two quotes, actually: “Plans are nothing; planning is everything,” or “Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

In recent years, we have encountered so many dynamic shifts that long-term plans across all sectors have been significantly adapted, diverted, or abandoned.

At Susquehanna, we adopted a seven-year strategic plan in the fall of 2019; then, life happened. As we near the end of that planning cycle, most of the initiatives have been implemented and many of the goals were achieved, but in significantly different ways and sequences from what we had outlined.

One way to interpret the Eisenhower dictum above is Louis Pasteur’s quote, “Fortune favors the prepared mind.” We kept our long-range goals in sight, and pivoted numerous times to get there as the terrain shifted.

At the end of this post, I am appending an abbreviated list of accomplishments and challenges from the past eight years. These are a good illustration for why planning needs to be made more inherently nimble, while remaining focused on mission and long-term goals.

In On Grand Strategy, John Lewis Gaddis cites a scene in the movie Lincoln in which the president notes the importance of a compass in setting and maintaining one’s direction, but the importance of wending around swamps and chasms to reach the intended destination.

There are five forms of planning that help organizations reach their goals, which when properly balanced will also prevent them from being swallowed up by the swamps along the way.

Organizational Planning: Structuring the roles and interrelationships within an organization to best align with its needs and mission and to enhance efficiencies, outcomes, and student/ employee experience.

Facilities Planning: Maintaining a schedule of capital improvements and additions to support the institutional mission, improve user experience, address deferred maintenance and operational inefficiencies, and in higher education, to enhance appeal for prospective students and their families.

Operational Planning: Establishing tactics and systems as steps toward short-term and long-term goals and implementing specific initiatives.

Contingency Planning: Tactical responses to unforeseen forces or events, or responses created in anticipation of multiple event horizons.

Strategic Planning: Integrating all of the above in support of the mission and long-term goals.

To effectively implement long-term strategy, it is critical to use an iterative approach. We are beginning a transition to an annual planning model, which allows an organization to identify next steps in the journey toward its long-term destination. “Given where we are now, what will we do to reach the next signpost? When that leg is completed, we will evaluate our progress and changes in the terrain to draft a map for the next stage.”

At Susquehanna that process will look like this:

In consultation with University Council and the Board of Trustees, the Senior Leadership Team and the president will develop a framework that includes an annual plan for each new academic year that is aligned with annually updated 3-year and 5-year strategic-planning matrices and selected longer-term goals.

These annual targets will be assessed and updated with newly updated goals each year. This will also provide the framework for our performance management program, which will be cascaded throughout the administration as we set individual and divisional goals each year. Additional new initiatives will be introduced through our Innovation Center process.

Each year we will set goals and identify strategies to achieve them in these areas:

• Future Ready
  • Innovation, academic excellence, outcomes, etc.
• People and Culture
  • Climate, professional development, well-being, etc.
• Stewardship and Growth
  • Financial sustainability, endowment, fundraising, etc.
• Enrollment
  • Recruitment and persistence

The path ahead is surely filled with an endless supply of swamps and chasms. In many ways this shift in our approach aligns with what we have had to do over these past few topsy-turvy years, but it regularizes the method and keeps long-range goals in our sights even when the obstacles are monumental.

The Tao Te Ching reminds us that “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” These efforts will help assure that each new step is the right one.

Highlights from the Past Eight Years

2017-2018

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • We piloted our Mentoring Program
  • Transitioned to a new president
• New Programs
  • Business Data Science major
• Capital Projects
  • Admission House
  • Constructed the Solar Array (The largest on any campus in PA)
  • Selinsgrove Hall renovation
  • Pine Lawn renovation

2018-2019

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • Strategic Planning Process
  • Master Planning to evaluate facilities as part of overall planning
  • Launched One SU – our day of giving
• Capital Projects
  • Renovation and reconfiguration of the bottom floor of Hassinger and the Sassafras apartments
  • Renovation of Heilman Rehearsal Hall
  • Caruso Innovation Center
  • Old Admissions Building Renovation

2019-2020

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • Pandemic began: campus went fully remote
  • Strategic Plan was adopted in October
  • National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC) rules were declared illegal by the DOJ allowing schools to continue recruiting students who had committed elsewhere.
  • We joined the American Talent Initiative
  • We reëstablished a Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer
• New Programs
  • BFA in Graphic Design
  • Legal Studies major
  • International Business major
  • Management major

2020-2021

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • Pandemic
    • Classes were hybrid throughout the year
    • Testing, isolation, quarantine, etc.
  • Great Resignation
  • SU 2.0 was launched to evaluate processes across campus and guide us to make the user experience easier to navigate and the organization of the campus more efficient.
  • We established a TRiO program
  • HEERF Funds were received and distributed
• Capital Projects
  • Reed and Aikens Halls were refreshed

2021-2022

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • The Board adopted a New Statement on Ethical and Inclusive Living
  • Hawk Hub (a one-stop resource for student questions) opened
  • Launched 4-school structure
  • Launched Innovation Center
  • Launched the public phase of the capital campaign
• Capital Projects
  • Martin Retreat Center
  • Expansion of Freshwater Research InstituteIsaacs’ Auditorium
  • Graphic Design Studio

2022-2023

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • Finished the capital campaign $25M above goal
  • We began the Financial Sustainability Plan to close a post-pandemic structural deficit
  • Implemented the Capital Planning Committee
  • Branding exercise
  • We were featured in an episode of The College Tour
  • We established a new MOU with the Chesapeake Conservancy
  • Build Collaborative launched
  • Degenstein Foundation grant for Campus Center
  • We undertook a reduction in force
• Capital Projects
  • ADA restrooms in Weber Chapel Auditorium
  • Renovation of Houts Gymnasium

2023-2024

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • Act 101 Grant
  • We hosted the winter term for the Vermont College of Fine Arts
  • The Reiss LGBTQ+ Center opened
  • We successfully complete reaccreditation
  • We navigated the FAFSA debacle
  • FEMA and PEMA Awards
• New Programs
  • Majors
    • Criminal Justice
    • Real Estate
    • Data Science
    • Entrepreneurship & Corporate Innovation
  • Minors
    • Arts Management
    • Chemistry Management
    • Watershed Management
• Capital Projects
  • Downtown Center
  • Degenstein theater lighting upgrade
  • New turf on the football field

2024-2025

• Major Issues / Initiatives
  • We commissioned a pricing and market positioning study
  • We launched our new website
  • We received a Title III grant to enhance support of students
  • We established an AI Taskforce to establish policies and planning for the use of artificial intelligence on campus
• New Program
  • BFA in Theatre
• Capital Projects
  • Garrett Athletic Center locker rooms were remodeled
  • Degenstein Center begun

Over the past week, I have had numerous conversations with colleagues, marketing experts, government officials, and at least one member of the higher-ed press.

These are a few statements from the higher-ed Jeremiad these conversations produced:

• “American’s faith in higher education is at an all-time low, but then again, their faith in all institutions has hit rock bottom.” [At least they trust us more than the government.]
• “More and more students and their families are questioning the value of a higher education.”
• “The cost of a degree has gotten out of control.”
• “Colleges are stuck in the 19^th century and no longer teach students what they need to know.”
• “Students prefer the opportunities that come from a large university over the limitations of a small liberal arts college.”
• “There is no viewpoint diversity on your campuses, and you continue to indoctrinate students with a ‘woke’ agendas.”
• “They hate you.” [Meaning the American people hate college presidents.]

One observer noted that higher education and liberal arts colleges in particular have been on the defensive for too long. It’s time to be proactive and positive. The problem is: good news doesn’t sell. Here is some of that good news, which you will surely not see in your local (or national) paper.

First of all, I don’t think “They hate us.” They hate some of us, and, frankly, some of us have earned their spleen.

One friend noted that public opinion about higher-education institutions is a lot like that of congress. People who hate congress are happy to reëlect their representative :: People who have grave concerns about higher education love their local college and/or alma mater.

The truth is that the return on investment (ROI) of a four-year degree is at an all-time high. Each year, the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, using IRS data, calculates the earnings of graduates from 4,600 colleges and universities early on, mid-career, and over a lifetime. They compare those numbers against the American population that didn’t complete a four-year degree, they subtract the average cost of attendance at that school to determine the ROI. They also compare kinds of institutions, and they post individual institution outcomes.

The earnings advantage of a bachelor’s degree (factoring cost of attendance) has never been greater, and liberal-arts colleges outperform all higher-ed sectors in lifetime earnings.

The cost of tuition and fees has not outpaced inflation. Among the many Pennsylvania independent colleges and universities, the out-of-pocket cost has decreased slightly over the past ten years without adjusting for inflation. The sticker price continues to rise, and we absorb the difference.

Susquehanna offers the only undergraduate major in Luxury Brand Management, and our students will corroborate that consumers equate quality with price. To remain competitive from a perception perspective, we need to be priced similarly to our independent peers, but we need to provide aid that makes our cost competitive with our public cross-applicant schools.

It is true that the nation’s total student debt is at an all-time high, but now nearly half of that debt is for graduate school. Undergraduate student borrowing has decreased over the past decade.

More and more, students and their families equate a major with a job. The problem with that perspective is that today’s college graduates will have many jobs and probably more than one career. Graduates of liberal arts colleges are well prepared for the world of work, but they are also prepared to be adaptable and to become leaders in their organizations, which explains why although they trail pre-professional programs in average earnings during the first five years after graduation, they outstrip them over a life-time.

Liberal arts colleges represent only 3% of American college students, yet “a third of all Fortune 500 CEOs have liberal arts degrees,”[1] (That’s an 1,100% advantage!) and still the value of what we do in liberal education is questioned in the media daily.

Diversity of thought has become a recurring topic in the general media. It is raised as a concern for two very different reasons: 1) Individuals espousing positions that have been broadly discredited by scientific evidence and rigorous scholarly review will use the “diversity of thought” argument to leverage giving their stance equal footing in the academy. 2) Some students and faculty have expressed being uncomfortable or feeling pressured for holding and expressing minority opinions.

The latter is a legitimate concern and one that needs consistent attention. Many campuses have fostered environments where those prohibitions are kept in check. A recent study by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup demonstrates that this is generally a false narrative. Among many of the findings, “74% of bachelor’s degree students say their university does an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ job of promoting free speech, including 73% of Republican students and 75% of Democrat students.”

Not only do we strive to create campuses where students feel free to express their opinions, we don’t tell them what to think. We give them the tools and resources to draw their own opinions.

The authors of, The Still Divided Academy: How Competing Visions of Power, Politics, and Diversity Complicate the Mission of Higher Education, which explores the impact of a college education on the political perspectives of students, found that students typically graduate with a political leaning very similar to when they enrolled. The authors offer a number of possible explanations including intellectual resilience among our students and a professoriate committed to providing a balanced experience in the classroom.

“Does College Turn People into Liberals?” a study published in The Conversation, surveyed over 7,000 students from more than 120 higher-education institutions in their first and second years. Forty-eight percent of the students reported that they viewed liberals more favorably after a year on campus and that 50% viewed conservatives more favorably. The same survey reported that 31% had a more negative view of conservatives, and 30% had a more negative view of liberals.

These are very balanced statistics, but the really important element is that the favorable numbers on both sides are significantly greater. The collegiate experience opens students up to a broader view of the world and the issues that affect us all, and it helps students become more sympathetic to those who hold contrary views.

As for the breadth of opportunity at big schools versus small: students at liberal arts colleges all have hands-on opportunities to develop leadership skills, and their classes are all taught by faculty members with class sizes that encourage customization and direct engagement for every student. STEM students at liberal arts institutions learn to use instrumentation in their labs that is reserved for graduate students at most R-1 institutions, which is one of the reasons that a much higher percentage of liberal arts college undergraduates complete science PhDs than any other higher-ed sector.

So, here is the truth. It’s proactive and positive, and you probably won’t see it in the media:

• American’s faith in higher education should be at an all-time high.
• The value of a higher education has never been greater.
• Undergraduates are borrowing less for college than a decade ago.
• Colleges have kept the actual cost of a degree under control.
• Liberal arts colleges prepare students for successful careers in the 21^st century.
• Students will find better opportunities at small liberal arts colleges.
• Our campuses equip students to form their own opinions.
• “They hate you.” [Maybe not…]

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[1] Ray, Edward J.: “The Value of a Liberal Arts Education in Today’s Marketplace,” Huffington Post, 24 July 2013.

These were my remarks at commencement 10 May 2025.

Commencement means beginning. Today we celebrate the beginning of what you will take from this place to shape our future. We celebrate the launch of your gifts into a world.

Members of the class of 2025, I typically focus these remarks on what you have accomplished and how proud I am of your achievements. You have grown tremendously in this special place, and I couldn’t be more proud, but we are in a critical moment that needs our collective attention.

For the first time in our nation’s history, higher education is under attack, and the siege is coming from our own government. These threats betray a profound lack of understanding of what we do, of what you have accomplished, and the role our colleges and universities play in fostering innovation, preparing graduates for meaningful careers and lives of leadership and purpose, addressing our greatest societal challenges, and strengthening democracy.

The hyperbolic refutations of those truths deny the value of what you did here, undermine what you have learned, and are a threat to democracy. I ask every person in this room whether you are student who experienced a transformative education on this campus, or a friend or family member who has witnessed the value of a Susquehanna education, who has seen what an American college education has done for the development and preparation of our graduates, to speak out for the value of what we do on this campus and on campuses across the nation.

We need to celebrate what you have done, and at this moment, we need to defend it too.

This is not a partisan plea. Whatever side of the aisle you call home, we need you to stand up for the principles of a democratic republic, which are the foundation of American higher education.

For all their flaws the Founding Fathers emerged from the intellectual flames of the Enlightenment. They were true intellectuals and scientific thinkers who knew that their fledgling republic would need a new generation of deeply educated leaders, which is why many of the founders cultivated institutions of higher education rooted in the liberal arts.

Franklin founded Penn and Jefferson founded the University of Virginia. Washington provided support for the creation of Washington College in Maryland, and he provided a transformative gift to the Augusta Academy, which is now known as Washington and Lee University. Patrick Henry and James Madison were critical to the founding of Hampden-Sydney College, and Madison succeeded Jefferson as Rector of UVA. Hamilton College was named for Alexander Hamilton, one of its first trustees, and Benjamin Rush founded Dickinson.

This is not a coincidence of history. Our liberal arts colleges have continued to produce a disproportionately high percentage of leaders in science, letters, business, and government. We develop informed citizen leaders in no small part to safeguard democracy from thuggery and mob rule.

And so, here we are 249 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in a nation so starved for citizen leadership that we find ourselves perilously divided not over competing social philosophies of left and right, but quite literally over issues of right and wrong.[1]

We have entered into an anti-intellectual climate in which a significant portion of our populous is willing to reject scientific facts in favor of convenience and self-interest, and yet an inconvenient truth is no less true.

In recent months, we have seen institutions of higher education threatened to have federal funding withheld for supporting DEI programming, for following standing federal law in regard to trans rights, and for allowing members of their campuses to question actions of the Israeli government.

Antisemitism is a deplorable reality in our nation and world, and its insidious head is raised on college campuses in ways that are sadly reflected across broader society, but socio-political arguments are not inherently uncivil, prejudicial, nor inhumane. They are ideas. They are questions whose asking should help us shape deeper understandings of pernicious problems, which in turn may allow us to find richer more successful solutions to challenges whose resolutions have eluded us for generations.

A question shouldn’t be precluded because it is controversial. Free inquiry, including examining positions we find uncomfortable helps us to develop a stronger worldview.

Academic freedom has recently become a recurring topic in the general media with claims from all corners of the political spectrum that free speech and expression are being suppressed on college campuses, but a new study, published by the Lumina Foundation and Gallup, suggests that this is a false narrative.

Among many of the findings, “74% of bachelor’s degree students say their university does an ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ job of promoting free speech, including 73% of Republican students and 75% of Democrat students.”

The principles and standards of academic freedom were established to protect free inquiry, and in turn to support a free and open democratic society that benefits from the fruits of rigorous scholarship and research in which all questions can be asked, and for which legitimate answers can be found and disseminated even when they are uncomfortable to those in power. Expertise matters.

Academic freedom protects scholars from interference or undue influence from politicians, donors, corporations, trustees, and administrators. Therefore, academic freedom is a critical safeguard of democracy and a foundational pillar of our democratic republic that we all should zealously defend and celebrate.

For generations, the United States has been the world leader in technology, innovation, medicine, the humanities, and scientific research and development, and we have been a leader in arts and culture. Our colleges and universities have welcomed millions of students from across the globe who have returned to their home countries as the newest ambassadors for our democratic values.

What could be more American than teaching a young person about democracy or making a moon-launch commitment to cure cancer. All of this has been wiped away or placed in imminent threat.

This is why we need to protect the academy. Colleges and universities are far from perfect places — thank goodness. We wrestle with ideas, we experiment, we make mistakes, we create, we debate, we often disagree, but at our core, we seek the truth.

Today, we are here to celebrate what you have accomplished and what has happened to you in this place. In the coming days, I hope you will join me in standing up to defend it. You know first-hand what it is worth and what is at stake.

I have seen what you can do, and having you join in the fight gives me courage and hope for our future.

Thank you.

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[1] JDG: Inauguration Address, October 2017.