President Greenfield Delivers Address Demonstrating Commitment to a Transformative Living, Learning, and Work Experience
During the 2023 State of the University Address, Father James Greenfield, OSFS '84, Ed.D., president, captivated the DeSales community with his plans for the University's future.
“This is to give you a big picture,” said Fr. Greenfield, regarding the event’s purpose, “I want you to feel good about the University you live and breathe and move in and 'have your being.'”
The optimistic tone of the address began with a recap of our University’s growth and ways we’ve incentivized students to attend DeSales.
According to Fr. Greenfield, 100% of first-year students receive institutional aid, which means individuals who otherwise might not be able to obtain higher education can. Additionally, he highlighted recent partnership agreements with Lehigh Valley Health Network and St. Luke’s University Health Network aimed at increasing adult graduate enrollment, and our new Allentown Learning Hub at 932 Hamilton Street.
Regarding our University’s financial health, he assured the campus community that we’re more cautious than other higher education institutions. We're in a strong financial position due to his belief in not spending what we don’t have. This belief combined with generous donations should allow us to move forward with exciting new projects.
Some of these projects will likely include the expansion of the Veterans Lounge in Dooling Hall, revamping fitness opportunities, and even constructing the new Breslin Welcome Center at the intersection of Landis Mill Road and Preston Lane.
“I want this to be the front porch of our campus. That’s why we’re calling it a welcome center. We want it to be fun and once we get a draft back, we will get some students together and ask them ‘what are some cool things we can do here?’”
Other projects mentioned, such as the expansion of the Labuda Center for Performing Arts, are almost complete.
Fr. Greenfield also touched upon ways we’re improving other critical facets of the student experience such as diversity, equity, and inclusion, safety, and the expansion of learning opportunities. Many of these improvements directly tie in with our 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, “Connecting to Our Future.”
“We have challenges ahead–we have the demographic cliff,” Fr. Greenfield acknowledged, “but we’re working on it. In order to ride into the future with hope and with optimism, we launched our strategic plan last July.”
Fr. Greenfield called for the addition of asynchronous online learning to programs, the potential move to a school system, and the need for an assistant director of admissions for multicultural students, among other efforts.
Anyone interested in more updates regarding our progress on the Strategic Plan should attend his upcoming address during the last week of June. A Zoom option will be available.
“If you heard one thing today, we’re in a good space,” Fr. Greenfield concluded. “We are DeSales University. Let’s be bulldog proud.”
