St. Joe’s president, with contract renewed, discusses first years

Donald R. Boomgaarden, PhD, who officially came on board as St. Joseph’s College eighth president on July 1, 2017, has had a busy initiation. The accomplished academian had already served as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Scranton. Previous positions included dean of the College of Music and Fine Arts at Loyola University New Orleans. A music lover, he’s a concert pianist, country fiddler. He’s performed concerts on both campuses, recitals on works of Chopin, both open to the public, and plays fiddle, banjo and sings folk music with students in his Roots Music. Boomgaarden is also a noted historian of 18^th century opera.

“The board was kind enough to renew my contract for five years last May,” he said. Boomgaarden discussed his first several years at St. Joe’s, ways of emphasizing spirituality and service, handling issues of diversity and the pandemic recently with the Long Island Advance.

What were the first initiatives you focused on?

DB: The first thing I focused on a lot on was returning the college to its mission, Living the Mission, which was set up by the Sisters of St. Joseph. Students understand they’re here to get a diploma but that’s just the beginning, it’s also to provide social responsibility and service. And we focused on critical areas to promote that. I host a TV show (Catholic Faith Network) Living our Mission and interview people from the college on all aspects. It’s in its second season. One of the fun things I get to do is talk about God. We do emphasize spirituality and spiritual growth with students and faculty. Service is important in that we have many service opportunities in travel and outreach for students. There’s a constant effort to get them off the campus and into the community.

Other goals?

DB: Another goal was also to bring both campuses closer together. In the president’s cabinet, the vice presidents hardly met and now we alternate every other week on the Brooklyn and Patchogue campuses. We also initiated a strategic plan and focused on critical areas including how do we maintain our enrollment. We had the highest enrollment in ten years last year. We have 1,193 students in Brooklyn, 3,819 in Patchogue. There are two programs pending to introduce this fall, a Masters of Social Work, and Teaching English As a Second Language. They’re both mission-oriented to improve quality of life. We installed a new air conditioning system in our main hall, completely renovated the Dillon Early Childhood Center in Brooklyn, and are hoping to build a new Student Center here. We also worked to improve advancement efforts. The endowment was raised from $29 million to $60 million over the last three years, that’s a 60 percent jump. We’re proud of that. One of my goals was to get the college on a firm financial basis. (But) even with COVID, we froze tuition for the kids this year and didn’t raise it. (Undergraduate Tuition is $29,190.) Because of the increase in giving, we can offer better scholarship packages. (With grants or scholarship aid, undergraduate tuition is $14,667.) That’s crucial, because some may not be able to attend without it.

How did you address Black Lives Matter and diversity?

DB: I wanted the faculty to incorporate racial inequity in their courses, especially with first-year students. So that became a topic. We had speakers who spoke on this and also a round table discussion with the Sisters talking about their experiences with voter registration in the South in the 1960s. If you walk on our campuses you see plenty of diversity and also in our staff and president’s cabinet. It gives students a chance to discuss these issues in a meaningful way. On the Long Island campus we have an External Diversity Committee, a cross section of community and religious leaders that includes African American, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender representation and different faiths to serve as a kind of advisory committee.

How did you handle COVID?

DB: We closed on March 10. We had a suspected case at the Dillon Child Study Center in Brooklyn and knew it could be easily transmitted. I’d hoped we could make it to spring break but we had to shift to virtual learning. We had 27 programs fully on line; we already had technology, equipment and faculty for online education but we enhanced and improved it. We probably spent about $2 million on extra equipment and training. You have no idea how expensive it is, teachers work far more hours. We got special monitors for temperature checks before students come in. Classes that are on remote meet at regular times, so there’s a lot more to the class than a regular online course. But we have 30 percent on the grounds of each campus, 70 remote or hybrid. When I was in New Orleans (at Loyola College) I noticed that the schools that continued to construct and move forward with new programs did well after Katrina. I watched that happen and it made me think in a way even more about the future and how we need to plan. Yes, we’re in a time of financial crisis but you don’t want to make hasty decisions on personnel. We furloughed or terminated virtually no one. I saw that as a key component for morale.