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La Salle University La Salle University Digital Commons La Salle Magazine University Publications Fall 1983 La Salle Magazine Fall 1983 La Salle University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/lasalle_magazine Recommended Citation La Salle University, "La Salle Magazine Fall 1983" (1983). La Salle Magazine. 101. https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/lasalle_magazine/101 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the University Publications at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in La Salle Magazine by an authorized administrator of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FALL 1983 A QUARTERLY LA SALLE COLLEGE MAGAZINE The State Of The College Robert S. Lyons, Jr., ’61, Editor Volume 27 Fall 1983 Number 4 James J. McDonald, '58, Alumni Director ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Philip E. Hughes, Jr., Esq., '71, President Paul J. Kelly, III, '78, Executive Vice President Nicholas M. Rongione, '76, Vice President Mary Beth Bryers, '76, Secretary A QUARTERLY LA SALLE COLLEGE MAGAZINE Mariannes. Gauss, '75, Treasurer (USPS 299-940) Contents 1 PRESIDENTIAL REFLECTIONS Strategic planning looms even larger as the college de­ vises means to meet tomorrow’s needs while maintaining its traditional goals. 5 THE FINANCIAL REPORT Fiscal 1982-83 was a busy and challenging year for the business and financial affairs of the college, according to the annual report prepared by David C. Fleming, ’67, vice president for business affairs. President’s Message, Page 1 2 0 THE DEVELOPMENT REPORT The record-setting results achieved by the Alumni Annual Fund component of the “ Campaign For The ’80’s” high­ lighted the college’s 1982-83 development program. 41 ALUMNI NEWS A chronicle of some significant events in the lives of the college’s alumni. The Balance Sheet, Page 5 The Annual Fund, Page 20 CREDITS—All photography by Lewis Tanner; artwork by Omni­ graphic Design. La Salle Magazine is published quarterly by La Salle College, Philadelphia, Penna. 19141, for the alumni, students, faculty and friends of the college, Editorial and business offices located at the News Bureau, La Salle College, Philadelphia, Penna. 19141. Second class postage paid at Philadelphia, Penna, Changes of address should be sent at least 30 days prior to publication of the issue with which it is to take effect, to the Alumni Office, La Salle College, Philadelphia, Penna. 19141. Member of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). The State of the College CONTINUING THE QUEST FOR WISDOM AND MARKETABLE SKILLS By Brother President Patrick Ellis, F.S.C., Ph.D. Students arriving at the college’s newest dormitory, St. Katharine Hall, which opened this September. T his year’s impressionistic summary of the college’s to bring in resources, and the judgment employed in using condition has to suffer from an attack of prudence. Several them. This is no place to single out departments or individ­ pending but positive developments have not reached the uals—for fear of omitting some— but it is evident that many point where they can be committed to print in 31,000 people have had to perform far beyond the minimum for copies for—we believe—80,000 readers. Thus, if the read­ such results to be logged in such a year. er has heard of vital topics being discussed on campus Competition for students is now and will be our chief but not in this article, let me assure him or her that full environmental reality, I think. This aggressive recruitment details will be forthcoming at the earliest possible moment. has to go on in a climate of strict professionalism, if the For the quantitative basis of this article, let me refer you La Salle degree is to continue to merit respect. We enjoyed to the finance and development reports elsewhere in this the fifth-highest undergraduate applicant pool in our his­ issue. In the ecomony of the 1982-83 fiscal year, the tory in ’82-’83; and you may be sure that we were tempted achievements recorded in both reports seem to me re­ to dip deeper, in the name of solvency, than we had in markable, reflecting on the energy and imagination used the past. Five hundred rejections occurred, based on the La Salle, Fall 1983 1 C O LLE G E —continued conviction that acceptance into the wrong program would majors. One of the first things to emerge in the college’s bring only frustration, kindly though it might initially seem. strategic planning sessions was that the goals of the institu­ Coupled with the self-selection out of those who refrained tion seem to be drifting farther and farther from the goals from applying at all, these figures have allowed us to of the students. Broadly put, the differences center around enhance both the numbers and the profile of the class of those of liberal arts formation and long-range personal ’87. Still, after the bulge represented by the classes of '83, growth, over against career goals and immediate return on '84, and ’85, we are returning to a more normal size, one’s short-term investment. The parallel between this per­ historically speaking, and trying to adjust accordingly. ception and the one on distribution of strengths is perhaps At this writing, incoming full-time freshmen will be up obvious. 8% over last year, transfers 10%. Even so, depending on It is my understanding that, as the curriculum reaches attrition (non-returning prior students), we could be down its relatively final form, the appropriate academic officers 5% overall because 910 day students graduated in May. will describe it for the readers of this magazine. I am able All in all, we are doing better than we had expected at only to say that the thrust of it is to assure solid develop­ budget time. It is too soon to tell how the array of part- ment in analytical thinking, a comprehensive grasp rather time enrollments will compare with last year. These pro­ than a smattering in any area, a full exposure to Catholic grams do appear to respond very quickly to economic thought—all this while not impeding the acquisition of change, so we can reasonably hope to stay at least even. command over a major for immediate employment or What is different from the 60’s and 70’s, however, is the further study or both. For example, the days of a senior’s configuration of majors. Computer science and com­ fulfilling a requirement by swooping into a 100-level munications, for example, didn’t exist back then as majors. course may well be over. Today’s 120-credit graduation The same holds true for nursing in the Evening Division. minimum (compared to yesteryear’s 132 and beyond) al­ Thus, as we level off with roughly a seventies-size student lows for very little breathing room and no empty air. body, the demand for some subjects is stabilizing at a As you may have noticed in recent advertising, the fac­ greatly reduced level while that for booming subjects ulty have had an especially good year in winning national sends us into the marketplace for faculty talent. awards and grants. (See box.) These honors translate into The temptation, valiantly spurned by our faculty, is to the enhancement of the classroom experience, still and make the students sign up for courses where we have always the basic collegiate encounter upon whose consis­ existing strengths. That tactic, in addition to reversing ends tent and broadly-based quality everything else depends. and means, is generally thought not to work anyway, as I continue to hold that, for any one student, La Salle is it drives people away to freer choices elsewhere. But it has the twenty-or-so teachers he or she has met, plus the inescapably hovered in the background all year as faculty, advisor or coach who has filled the bill at just the needed in six subgroups, have worked on a thorough revision of time. the core and distribution curriculum: everything but the At the graduate level, the part-time MBA continues to 2 do well, with the added side effect of adding well-placed activities, with the result that the famous quonset hut be­ alumni in significant numbers, already well launched. tween the soccer and baseball fields may go. Should the Graduate religion, now year-round for some, experienced space allow, that is clearly the place for tennis courts, nothing less than a wonderful summer, with its 200-plus which we’ve lacked since about 1951. With Good students and a fine spirit of community. With their dis­ Shepherd property answering our parking needs (for tinguished international faculty, these students form our those willing to walk that far) and to some extent providing farthest-flung cadre of ambassadors to schools and par­ for slanting outdoor intramurals, the addition of those ishes. courts would almost bring our outdoor resources up to the The degree programs in pastoral counseling, in bilingual needs of over 1,000 young people living here. We aren’t cultures, in education, and the increasingly international speaking of luxuries, by any means, though such outlays full-time MBA are all in reasonable health, in terms of do have a tough time in any list of priorities. numbers, and are proving to be very solid educationally. As in most American enterprises today, the process of A new graduate council under Brother James Muldoon is strategic planning looms ever larger, as I indicated in this addressing common concerns of the various programs. space last year. In the nature of things, the academic area Our greatest challenge in all aspects of graduate educa­ had to take the lead, tying in with curriculum revision, tion is that we must charge an appropriate tuition even to preparation for the ’85-’86 reaffirmation visit of the Middle persons who aren’t subsidized by their employers.

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