Beginning of Story: Interview with President Kunkel

Since President Kunkel's arrival to our community at the beginning of July, and even months prior to that, many have wondered what might some of the goals of the new president be and what will he do during the first 100 days in office. In this issue, we are brining you an interview that might shine some light on the first steps, impressions and his vision for St. Norbert College.

President Kunkel, last year, many students complained that the administration failed to provide a vision behind changes on campus. What is your vision for SNC?

Mostly what I am trying to do for the first three or four months is just listen to people. I have been trying to connect with people and to hear what they think about St. Norbert and what else we could be doing. I want to get a sense of what people's expectations are so that I can shape and articulate my vision for the institution. I am pointing towards the inaugural speech on October 10 to be the first real effort to articulate that. Having said that, there is some things we know are going to be priorities. Everybody said from the first day I was on campus that building the endowment is important. The more financial flexibility we have to pursue our priorities, the better. We also have to make sure that St. Norbert remains affordable for students. I don't want anybody who is eligible to come to St. Norbert and who wants to come to St. Norbert not to be able to come because they can't afford it. So, access and affordability are huge and that's part of the fundraising. Then there is enrollment management; we have done a good job but I think continuing to improve the whole composition of the student body would be good. I would like to see it be a little more diverse.

More diverse and perhaps also competitive?

Yes, there is all sorts of diversity. There is geographic diversity, and there is also intellectual diversity. I'd like to see us get 15 or 20 more of the very top-tear students every year; the valedictorians, the 4.0-kids. We do get a fair number here but I think some of them don't see St. Norbert as their first choice - I want St. Norbert to be a first choice for them. And I think some more geographical diversity would be good. We get 95 to 98 % of our student population from a 250-300 mile radius of Green Bay. And that's fine, we will always be a home-grown school, I don't want to change that. But I do think it would be healthy if we had more students from further away because they bring an intellectual and a social perspective that is healthy.

We might have a more diverse range of international students than we have with US-American students.

That would be an interesting statistic to look at. Another component of the vision is the Mission & Heritage pursuit of the college. That is going to continue to be a very important part of what we are doing. This is a college; it stands for something. Its values are important and we want to live them. Making sure that's clear and part of the fabric of the community is going to be important. The last piece, which overrides all this, is the notion of excellence. When we are hiring faculty and administrators, when we are recruiting students, when we are putting out graduates, I want to make sure that we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that they are the absolute best people we can get for this institution. We are an institution of human beings, so ultimately we are dependant on the caliber of human beings that we bring to the college. President Manion used to say that he wants to be St. Norbert to be to the catholic colleges what Notre Dame is to the catholic universities. I hadn't heard that before but as far as mission statements go, it is pretty succinct, and ambitious, and it is something that people can move their arms around. I would agree that our aspiration is going in that direction.

You spoke about endowment a little. There was this infamous $ 200 million goal. Is it still accurate?

This institution has raised 40-45 % of that money, I think. I have looked at how that campaign came to be derived and I think there were things that I would have done differently and some aspects of it were not especially realistic. Part of the problem is that our fundraising efforts consequently didn't have natural focus. Phil Oswald, the new vice president of Development, starts in September and we have to sit down with the trustees on our advancement committee and say, we are about halfway through but do we continue it, do we extend it, do we revise it? Whatever we do, we are going to reexamine it and readdress it. There is no question that the priorities in the SFI are going to continue to be general institutional priorities, but we may look at things differently. We may say, ok, we are doing the Mulva Library, we are starting a Res Hall, now we are raising money for the Athletic Complex and then the next priority is going to be the Science Building. We have a very clear order of priorities as far as capital goes. No matter what we do, we will reorder the priorities. We may even reestablish the goals. There is no question that we are going to end up raising $ 200 million; the question is whether it is going to take four or five more years, or whether it is going to take 20 more years. We want to make sure that we have ambitious, and aggressive, but realistic goals.

And Phil Oswald is one of these excellent people you want for St. Norbert?

Phil is really, really good at what he does, and he has been doing it at some of the best public universities in America. I think he is hungry for a campus where you actually know the students that you are working for and that is more of a community operation.

Is that your favorite part about St. Norbert as well?

It was a huge part. That was also part of the journalism school where I was the dean in Maryland. We had about 500 undergrads, 75 grad students, and 28 full-time faculty. We knew who our students were. We knew who was underachieving; we knew who was a star. It brought it down on a much more human level. At an institution like St. Norbert, it feels comfortable. You can throw an ice-cream social and meet half the students in an afternoon. I have met at least half the faculty, and I am working on names. That was definitely one of the great points about the institution.