Mission and the Economic Challenges Facing Higher Education

October 17 & 18, 2013

The University of Scranton, Scranton, PA

On October 17 to 18, 2013, the Lilly Fellows Program presented the Fourteenth Annual Workshop for Senior Administrators at the University of Scranton, in Scranton, PA.  The speakers for this workshop were Christine M. Wiseman, president of Saint Xavier University, and R. Richard Ray, provost of Hope College.

Christine M. Wiseman
President
Saint Xavier University
Chicago, IL

Christine M. Wiseman, J.D., is the president of Saint Xavier University in Chicago and the immediate past provost of Loyola University Chicago, where she also held a tenured position as professor of law. Before joining Loyola in 2007, President Wiseman served as vice president for Academic Affairs at Creighton University and associate vice president for Academic Affairs at Marquette University, where she was also a professor of law.

R. Richard Ray
Provost
Hope College
Holland, MI

R. Richard Ray has served as provost at Hope College in Holland, Michigan since 2010.  Ray has been a long-time member of the Hope College community, serving as a member of the Hope faculty since 1982.  He chaired the department of kinesiology at Hope from 2003 until his appointment as dean for the social sciences in 2008.

Mission and the Economic Challenges Facing Higher Education examined how mission provides resources for church-related institutions of higher learning to address pressures to increase revenue and enrollment in unique and dynamic ways that are true to those schools’ intrinsic values. Stated differently, the workshop examined how mission-based ideas and practices enable church-related institutions to increase revenue, resources, and enrollment while staying true to their historic mission. Specifically, the workshop addressed such questions as: 

  
• How do demands to increase revenue, resources, and enrollment create pressures on the core mission and values of church-related colleges and universities, and how are these pressures experienced and interpreted by different constituencies, including boards, administrators, faculty, staff, and supporters?
   
• What resources does fresh attention to mission provide for finding a shared vision and common strategic ground among different constituencies?  Who can serve as translators among the divergent perspectives these groups often adopt?
   
• How should church-related mission help direct the allocation of resources among the competing internal constituencies exacerbated by these marketplace pressures, especially in the midst of institutional scarcity?
   
• How might mission help unify faculty and administration in liberal arts, professional schools, revenue-generating programs, and enrollment management more tightly together around common goals?

A schedule of the Workshop is available here.   More information is available on the Administrators Workshop speakers here.   

• Read a copy of Provost Ray's presentation here.  
   
• View videos of Provost Ray and President Wiseman's talks are available at the Lilly Fellows Program YouTube site.