Sidney Belleroche: Starting off, I saw that you did an interview about three days ago with the Philadelphia Business Journal. And you had one quote that said for me that you want to lead with transparency and candor, and that you don’t want to hide away from the challenges we, meaning Ursinus, face, and that you don’t want to sugarcoat the urgency for change. In the spirit of that, this interview will be covering some of the harder hitting topics. So let’s start with sort of the elephant in the room here. There’s been a lot of uncertainty within the student body and the faculty this year about Ursinus’s financial standing. On September 1st, Susan Snyder of the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article about the colleges near the Philadelphia area. And while enrollment was trending upwards for many of the schools, she marked Ursinus as having a particular and pronounced drop. I did an article last week where I talked to Ms.
Robyn Hannigan: Lauren Sciocchetti
SB: Thank you. Can never say that name. I’ll get there. And I published an article last week that was sort of in line with the previous article. And because of Ursinus’s status as a non-profit institution, correct me if I’m wrong, but the revenue that you get gets put back into the school. That leads to the first question, which is plainly, how is Ursinus doing financially as of right now?
RH: We did a lot of work last year to “right the ship” financially. So, we are doing better than we would have had we not done that work last year. The fact that our enrollment was lower than we wanted, we kind of knew that was going to be the case. We had art and science come in and do a market study, and they said, “you really have to boldly and visibly change what you’re doing at the college to match what students want. And when you do that, enrollment will recover.” But before that, it’s going to be low. This incoming class didn’t get to know Apex until it was already admitted. This Fall 2026 class that we’re recruiting right now are getting the full Apex recruitment approach. And that should bump enrollments back up to where we need them to be. With this low enrollment class and combined with typically our first-year retention rate is around 83%. Last year’s freshman, the Fall 2024 class, the retention rate was 77%. So that’s a loss of revenue. The lower enrollment is a loss of revenue. We kind of planned for the low enrollment in terms of our budget, but we did not plan for that lower retention rate. We have a structural deficit, which means that we’re not living within our means and our revenues are not enough to cover our expenses. So we have to fix that. We achieved cash flow neutral last year; we have to stay cash flow neutral. In other words, live within our means in terms of our cash expenditures. So the good news for Ursinus is that we have a path out and a path to financial sustainability. The difficulty is this year we’re going to have to launch probably what’s going to take about three years of effort to correct the expenses side of our budget so that we’re in line with our revenues.
SB: Perfect. And that leads to the next question. What would you say to current students that are concerned that Ursinus won’t be open during [the rest of their] tenure, particularly the underclassmen like the class of 2028 and the class of 2029. What would you say to them to sort of assuage some of their fears?
RH: I think it’s important that they understand that there is a path to not only our financial sustainability, but our success, right? And my goal here is to transform the institution and win. So, we are going to do everything we can to course correct where we are financially through APEX and through continuous innovation of the student experience. I would ask them to be patient, but to be confident, because I am confident that we will win.
SB: Okay. And going off of that, you already touched on the class of 2028 and the retention issues there. But beyond that, there’s also been various offices such as Res Life, the IIE [Institute for Inclusion and Equity], and others that have suffered some, or quite a bit of staff turnover, and justifiably or not, that sort of amplified some of the fears of panic. So what would you say to us, particularly about the staff turnover side?
RH: Well, I think that the important thing to remember in staff turnover [is that] if we take Residence Life, for example, there were a lot of young professionals who moved on to higher positions, and I applaud them for that. I wish they hadn’t gone when they went, but the good news is that we have under Will Atkins [Vice Provost/Chief Student Affairs Officer and Dean of Students], we’ve got a strong group of people running that organization. And I would be confident that residents’ experience is only going to improve with Will here. In terms of DEI, you know, the vice president for the Division of Inclusion and Community Engagement, Heather [Lobban-Viravong], retired. And that presented an opportunity for me to bring Todd McKinney directly into my office to work directly with him. The students probably don’t know this, but in 2022 and before that, all of the components like the Bonner leaders, Religious & Spiritual life, IIE, were all in Student Affairs. That division was only created in 2023, so it hasn’t been here that long. And it was really important for me to make sure that the students had a seamless experience and were able to work across the different offices. And so, it made logical sense with Heather’s retirement that we moved most of those things back into Student Affairs and then kept Todd kind of running the oversight of inclusion and belonging from my office.
SB: And we will definitely be touching on DEI a bit later. But staying with retention a bit, I want to ask you specifically about the athletes. I don’t have the official numbers, but it’s fair to say that athletes comprise a pretty substantial amount of the student body. So, what are some of the retention issues again? I’ve noticed that with the number of athletes, a lot of whom come here for a sport, because of the sheer number of athletes, not everybody can be on the pitch at the same time. So how do you plan on keeping them at Ursinus outside of just athletics?
RH: So that’s really the focal point of APEX: to provide students sort of the interactive and experiential learning outside of the athletics experience that build those bonds and those connections to the institution. I think [with the] athletes, you can get the data from our chief retention officer, which is Katie O’Brien, and she can kind of answer the retention questions in much more detail. But the athletics programs, you know, one of the great things about being a student athlete is that you’ve got your people. And what we found with retention issues, particularly for the class of 2024, is that it was the non-athlete students who felt that they didn’t find their people. They didn’t find a sense of belonging. And so, we’re really focusing on how we build inclusion and belonging for every student, whether they’re an athlete, whether they’re a performing arts student. And then looking at from the athletic side, how do we right-size our rosters so that we aren’t relying as heavily on the athletics for our enrollment?
SB: And going off that point, how would you balance the needs and the funding of the athletes versus the non-athletes? I know your presidency has overseen an increase in attention towards departments like the performing arts. Choirs are taking more trips; I know last spring they went to New Orleans and the theater department got a boost. But outside of that particular area, just in general, how do you plan on balancing the substantial non-athlete population and then the athlete population?
RH: That’s a great question. So it’s one of the things that we think about every year when we develop the budget is where are the investments going to be made and how do we make sure that all of the students are getting the very best opportunity that they can, which means making investments some years in theater and some years in the music program. [For] Athletics, a lot of their budget is actually fundraised by the coaches themselves. We work with the athletics program to say, “how much of the institution’s operating funds do you need as a baseline?” And then they fundraise the difference. The choir does, too. The trip to New Orleans last year, for example, was fundraised. So that’s something the college provides: the support for the fundraising. But we don’t necessarily provide all the funds for the activities. So it’s really relying on a combination of operating and then looking at philanthropy. [We are] working with our advancement office to make sure that every program that we offer is funded at a level that we need.
SB: And on the philanthropy side, I know you started in 2022, if I’m not mistaken. Since that was sort of exiting the pandemic, and until now, have you seen an increase in fundraising and alumni support?
RH: Absolutely. One of the great things about Ursinus and the alumni community is their willingness to give their time, their talent, and their treasure. Every year, we’ve had an increase in total gift commitments. Our advancement team has done a remarkable job of building up the philanthropic support, from small gifts to support an athletic team to large gifts to transform a building. So we’re doing very, very well philanthropically, which has been critical at a time when our budget needs all the supporting yet.
SB: So, I alluded to this earlier about DEI, and that goes to a larger conversation. In April 2025, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, as well as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, published what they called “A Call for Constructive Engagement.” It was an open letter discussing the state of higher education and academic freedom, particularly in the wake of the Trump administration’s recent rhetoric. As of today, September 22nd, the memo was signed by 662 leaders of colleges, including yourself. So first I just want to generally ask, why did you decide to sign this memo?
RH: I think it’s important that we continue to remember that we are an independent organization, an independent nonprofit. And we are grounded, when you think about Ursinus’ mission and values, in the values of free speech. And we’re also grounded in respect for academic freedom. I wanted to make sure that our commitment to those things was made public. And signing on to those letters allowed us to do that.
SB: And what is the college doing to ensure that academic freedom is maintained or will be maintained in the future?
RH: You really should talk to the provost who oversees that component, but we have many conversations at faculty meetings about if X were to happen, how would the institution respond? I think it’s really thinking about scenarios and what we are legally obligated to do, and what we would do because of our values and our commitment to our mission.
SB: And another talking point within higher education under this current administration is DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Initiatives. What, in your own words, is DEI, and how does that appear at Ursinus?
RH: So DEI for me is not just the diversity of thought; it’s the diversity of lived experience, it’s the diversity of color, religion, you name it. So [we are] making sure that every person who is at Ursinus as a student or an employee feels like they belong, have a sense of inclusion, are respected, are not fearful in expressing their opinions, and that we challenge each other intellectually. That’s really what higher ed is supposed to be all about: challenging our perceptions and shaping our understanding of the world around us. For me, as a scientist, it is core to how I do my work. You need different perspectives and different ideas to come to the table in order to solve problems. And so it’s always going to be core to what I care about.
SB: And how does this appear at Ursinus for you, in your own words?
RH: So, I mean, we do it different ways, right? So we have different affinity groups for students. We have some affinity groups for faculty and staff. We try to have as many different sorts of cross-organizational activities as we can to get different people in the room together. It comes down to how we talk to each other, just how we interact on a day-to-day basis. It manifests in small ways and in big ways across campus.
SB: And through my conversations with faculty and staff, I repeatedly heard a phrase that was attributed to you, something along the lines of how you will, quote-unquote, “die on the hill of DEI.” Are you committed to dying on this proverbial hill of DEI? And if Ursinus eventually faces repercussions for this, is the college equipped and prepared to handle the backlash?
RH: So let me start with, yes, I did say that. And what I meant by that was, if the institution is challenged in terms of what it’s doing around DEI, and legally we must comply with a law, the hill that I may die on is that I may not be able to serve as president because I wouldn’t be able to defend the institution. So, is the institution prepared to take on those issues? Absolutely. We have great legal counsel, constantly in touch both with our state representatives, our federal representatives, who are part of different organizations, whether it’s at the state level or at the federal level, to be prepared and supported through those conversations. But for me, it’s a hill I’ll die on because it’s the mission and the values of the institution that I’m sworn to steward. And if I’m not able to steward the values and the mission of the institution any longer, then I can’t be present.
SB: All right, that was a very good [thoughtful] answer. As you can see throughout this entire period, post-pandemic, even the two years that before you started at Ursinus, higher education is very variable and unpredictable. But as of right now, where do you see Ursinus in five to 10 years?
RH: Gosh, I’m excited about that question. I see Ursinus really being known nationally for an institution that’s grounded in the liberal arts, but that provides applied and professional experiential learning so that students not only emerge with a degree, but they emerge with a portfolio of skills that are in high demand by the workforce. Our alumni are continuing to succeed in med school [and] law school. Our students are recognized nationally as those that came from Ursinus and are distinctively different because they not only have that grounding in their discipline, but the ability to solve problems across disciplines.
SB: So, a few other topics that I want to briefly touch on: I want to touch on affordability and college. If I am not mistaken, Ursinus is a part of the American Talent Initiative, and it was recently named as one of the…most either affordable or accessible colleges. So I just wanted to ask you, in a time where the value and the cost of higher education is being questioned, Ursinus by all accounts, is extremely committed to keeping it affordable and accessible to lower and moderate income students. So just how important is that to you? And are you going to be able to continue this reputation that you’ve built for this school?
RH: Yeah, I mean, as a first-gen Pell [Grant] kid myself, I’m absolutely committed to making sure that Ursinus stays accessible, that not only are we accessible, but the return on investment, we’re also in the top 6% of institutions in the country. So that means that our students not only are able to afford to attend, but they also graduate, and they get great jobs that are well-paying. I want to keep that trajectory going. And there are more and more students, when they graduate high school, there’s fewer of them graduating high school for one, right? And then you’ve got fewer of them choosing to go to college at all, let alone choosing to come to Ursinus. And so for me, it’s making sure that those students who don’t see college as part of their future, that they see that it is attainable, that they see an institution like Ursinus that is doing everything that it can to keep the doors open and make sure that they are able to pursue higher education at an affordable rate and get a great job that they’re doing.
SB: So I want to also touch on the staff and the faculty, the backbone of Ursinus. And we already touched on how the financials of the college are just a little bit rocky at this point in time. How are they being taken care of? Can you assure [the staff, faculty] that they’re going to be taken care of? I know that when I looked at the audit from, I believe, 2024…the staff benefits or the employee benefits number actually decreased; not by a lot, but a little. And I know that Staff with the healthcare were recently switched from, I believe, Blue Cross Blue Shield to Aetna Maritime. Do you mind if you speak a little bit on that? Is staff going to be properly taken care of with the healthcare? Is that going to be, for lack of a better term, serviceable for them?
RH: I mean, we’re going to do everything we can to protect the benefits of our employees. The change from Blue Cross Blue Shield over to [Aetna] Maritime had to do with Blue Cross Blue Shield; they were going to increase us by a significant percent, which would have burdened our employees. They would have had to pay more for the coverage. And so, we were fortunate enough that our vice president for finance administration was able to find another broker and got us Aetna and gave us cost savings for our employees. So, it was both good for our finances, bottom line, but it was also better for our employees because it would have eaten more of their paycheck if we had stayed with the other one. We’re always looking at what’s going on with the benefits market, and how can we actually maintain quality coverage for our employees without gouging them and without gouging our budget at the same time.
SB: And staying with the employees, you mentioned earlier in this interview about how Ursinus had a lot of young professionals. And I was wondering, is there a professional or graduate track for these young professionals so they can advance in their careers, whether it be at Ursinus or at another institution?
RH: Love that question. One of the components of APEX is actually bringing graduate programs to the college. And the hope is that not only will our current undergraduates want to pursue like a 4+1. but that our current employees will also benefit from adding those programs. We have some partnerships in offering graduate programs to our students with other institutions. We don’t currently have a partnership to offer it to our employees. But that is one of the focal points because we know that young professionals want to move up. And one of the barriers to moving up is getting that master’s degree. Anything that we can do to help them to help our students get that leg up, because some disciplines, the master’s the point, not the undergraduate degree. We want to make sure they leave here with the degree they need to succeed.
SB: And staying with it, you mentioned that APEX, that you’re trying to bring graduate programs over to Ursinus. I know that you mentioned the 4+1 as well; I believe St. Joseph’s is a partner, at least for the MFA and Creative Writing. I don’t know if this is still in the works or if you’re allowed to say, but what are some, are you looking at colleges in the area? Are you looking at other liberal arts schools, bigger state schools? How do you plan on handling this and when do you believe that this could be put into practice if you have a timetable?
RH: So the goal is for us to offer our own master’s programs, right? That requires that we have accreditation approval from Middle States, and we have to submit a bunch of paperwork to do that. The goal is to get the paperwork submitted this year, and then Middle States will take up to six months, maybe a year, to have given approval, and then we’ll be able to launch those programs. So that’s the main focal point, but we always are looking for partnerships with different institutions. depending on what the discipline is and what our students are really interested in. And we typically want to look for an institution that’s got a strong reputation, that’s got evidence of a good return on investment so that if our students go there, they’re going to get a great degree. So [for example] St. Joe’s in creative writing, Case Western in engineering; we’re always looking for the right partnerships. We don’t really say, well, we’re only going to partner with this kind of institution. We really look at the reputation of the program first.
SB: And since this is still quite early in planning, I do want to ask if you have a little bit of insight as of now of can the current assigned facilities accommodate a potential graduate program or would it have to be more spending for housing or more academic buildings, if you have any idea as of yet.
RH: That’s a great question. I mean, I think it depends on the program, right? If we were going to add, let’s say, a doctorate degree in physical therapy, then no, we don’t have the space for that. We would actually have to either offer it online or we’d have to build a whole new building for it, right? So, we look at [if] there are some programs we could offer maybe in education that we would have the space for, right? It really just depends on the discipline and what the best modality of delivery is. Some programs are just fine to be offered online, and some really do require physical space.
SB: During my article last week about enrollment and analyzing that, I found out that Pennsylvania has the fifth most colleges in the U.S. and as well as the most liberal arts colleges in the U.S. So, essentially, my question is, why Ursinus when there are so many different options, not just in Pennsylvania, but in the surrounding area?
RH: Yeah, I mean, it is a very, very crowded market, right? And Pennsylvania also has few and fewer students graduating high school, right, because there’s just fewer kids born, you know, seventeen years ago. So, why Ursinus? Well, number one is what we do, right? [With] The combination of the strength in the liberal arts and the APEX program, what we offer students is unique in the market, and it’s also something that will get them positioned more successfully when they graduate. We have a strong retention rate. We have a strong graduation rate. You know, the average graduation rate across the country is only 50%. So coming to a school here where it’s substantially higher than that, you have a better chance of finishing your degree. We also have a commitment to keeping it accessible and affordable. Between the return on investment and the price point, this is one of the best deals that you can get and probably most important, the community that you have here. The student population, the faculty and the staff, just the sense of excitement and passion and commitment to each other, you don’t find that at every institution. And so, I always tell students that are looking for a college, choose the one that fits. You’re going to get a great education no matter where you go. Choose the institution that fits you.
SB: And because we are short on time, I wanted to leave space for this last very open-ended question, which is, do you have a message to the student body, the workers, staff, faculty, professors, anything? Do you just have a general message that you want to share before it’s yours?
RH: Yeah, I mean, I think recognizing that it’s going to be a difficult couple of years because we have such a small incoming class that we’re going to have to carry them for four years. They’re great though, so I want to carry them for four years. But the message I want everyone to understand is that there is a clear path forward. We just have to commit to that path, stay the course, and we’re going to win.
SB: Perfect. Thank you so much.
RH: Thank you. I appreciate it.