SJ President Gempesaw Named on People to Watch in Education

[SJHooper]

http://www.stjohns.edu/sites/default/fi ... 140922.pdf


Some of you may not know but this is our new president who took over on July 1st. He was considered instrumental in raising the profile of Miami University (Ohio) before coming here.

The article worries me though as he claims to want more international students and more efforts to target low-income students. This is the very reason SJ is ranked only #145 right now nationally IMO. I understand giving opportunities to poor inner-city youth, but at the same time these students tend to perform lower and are not as likely to graduate on time if at all. Located in Queens, I think there needs to be more of an effort to target upper-middle class students with strong academic backgrounds. We don't need to look in Haiti…we can look in Westchester and Long Island right next door with our own kids.

It scares me to see such emphasis on targeting these populations. There is a point I believe where you can become too diverse and interrupt the sense of community, unity, and academic standing in a university. I hope somehow he raises the profile of the school academically, but it sounds like he wants more of the same. Bring the poor students with poor academic records in, and keep out the upper-middle class kids from Long Island and Westchester with stronger academics.