成人色导航

Presidents鈥� Report From The Board Of Visitors And Governors Meeting June 2025

The St. John’s College Board of Visitors and Governors met in Santa Fe June 12-14, 2025. At the meeting, Santa Fe President J. Walter Sterling (A93) was appointed interim St. John’s College president and Annapolis Dean Susan Paalman interim Annapolis president following the departure of President Nora Demleitner at the end of the academic year. President Demleitner was thanked for leading the college through a time of both challenge and growth, and her beneficial impact and improvements to the college under her leadership will long be felt.

As President Sterling said in the plenary session, “I thank her for the dedication, strength, dignity, care, and intelligence that she brought to the work. I couldn’t be more grateful for her service. She leaves a meaningful legacy in many areas, and, to look ahead, all the ways that she was trying to advance the college, we are going to pick up those threads and extend them. I’m confident, working closely with Suzy Paalman, that we’ll be able to do that together.”

“President Demleitner did some excellent advocacy at the state level to help preserve our Sellinger funding, and she has spearheaded countless relationships with other groups, other schools, and other programs that have made us much stronger. It’s given much more opportunity to our students, and I plan on continuing the excellent work that she has begun,” added President Paalman. “Our challenges are real going forward, but Annapolis is strong, and we have a vibrant campus. We have excellent staff, and excellent tutors and faculty, and I’m very confident that we’ll find our way through.”

In February, we heard about good progress in key areas—the Career Pathways initiative, the new master’s degree, and our continued work to improve the living and learning environment of our campus buildings and infrastructure. However, the financial forecasts were sobering. Although there is more work to be done, we have made enormous strides since that time to close budget shortfalls and develop strategies that will put the college on a stronger footing moving forward. The challenges facing St. John’s are, in many ways, generic to higher education, especially small private colleges: declining college-age populations, international enrollment challenges, increasing skepticism about the value of a college degree, rising operational costs, intensifying competition across the higher education landscape, and a volatile political and economic environment. But our strengths are truly singular and perhaps more relevant today than at any time since the founding of “the New Program” in 1937. We will build on those strengths—our distinctive Program of instruction and our core dedicated community—to meet the present moment. This work will be vital as we continue to enhance the visibility of the college and make the case for our educational philosophy. We continue to press forward to a place of healthy enrollment, sustaining philanthropy, prudent fiscal discipline, and long-term institutional resiliency and sustainability.

As Santa Fe Dean Sarah Davis reflected, “Human freedom is fundamentally connected to the practices of human thinking, reading, and writing, and as these practices diminish, it is clear that this freedom is at risk. The general public is increasingly concerned that we are raising a generation of young people without these essential human capacities and inclinations, and as such, it is a public that is more and more poised to hear and respond to the call of this unique education.”

“There was a tremendous spirit of positivity at this meeting, a belief that we can and will get it done,” according to Board Chair Warren Spector (A81). Spector stressed this spirit of optimism, but also the urgency and centrality of sustaining healthy enrollment. “Everything we do must ultimately lead to making this a more attractive place, one that will bring in great students, the right number of students, retain them, and, most of all, help them flourish.”

Please read the ensuing full report for important updates from the board meeting on the next steps of the strategic planning process, finances, enrollment, advancement, facilities, and the visiting committee, which focused on exciting new growth in the Graduate Institute and other programs for lifelong learners.

NEXT STEPS FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING 

The strategic vision and planning process initiated in 2024 generated many ideas aimed at increasing enrollment and improving the college’s financial standing. Some of these ideas are already moving forward through faculty-led efforts that will strengthen the Program for the decades ahead while increasing our applicant pool and making it easier for prospective students to find and enroll at St. John’s. Other ideas and strategies require ongoing study or development, and the board will now take up and advance this process.

A Strategic Planning Task Force has been created to move this work into the next stage with a focus on providing data-driven recommendations that will enhance the long-term financial sustainability of the college while building on our core strengths. The task force—comprising a cross-section of board members, including undergraduate and graduate alumni across generations, parents, and friends of the college—will conduct an ongoing study and review of proposals, with periodic recommendations to the presidents and board leadership, with updates expected at future Board meetings.  

Our sincere thanks to the members of the strategic vision and planning steering committee for their dedication and efforts through the first phases of the process: Ben Baum, Phelosha Collaros, Rebecca Goldner, Christine Guevara, Danielle Lico, Matt Linck, Heather Lopez, Sarah MacDonald, David McDonald, Maggie McGuinness, and Piér Quintana. We also want to thank the entire St. John’s College community that provided input during listening sessions and through submitted feedback. The task force has received a collation of the ideas, data, and recommendations that were received or developed and will use those in the planning moving forward.

FINANCE

The budget presented at the February board meeting was formulated with, appropriately, very cautious assumptions in which, for example, substantial state and federal aid may have been cut, enrollment would contract, and philanthropic support may underperform. This conservative modeling was responsible for our fiduciaries, as we face worrisome trends and a difficult and volatile external environment, and it spurred college leadership into immediate action.

Great strides were made to reduce our deficit. The college realized $500,000 in savings in the remainder of this fiscal year, eliminating a projected cash shortfall. More significantly, the budget for Fiscal Year 2026 is projected to be fully funded, or cash-flow neutral, without requiring any use of credit to fund operations. Budget managers identified substantial expense reductions, and the board approved an increased endowment draw within prudent limits. Additional deficit reduction measures included: adjustments by the deans to efficiently align class sections and teaching faculty with lower projected undergraduate enrollment, departmental budget cuts, and a reduction in staff positions comparable to adjustments in enrollment projections, and, as had already been projected, the use of remaining reserve funds carried forward.

We are thankful to our donors and funders that philanthropy remained strong this year. Gifts toward the Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Classics program in Santa Fe and a state grant and significant individual donor gift for an expanded solar project in Annapolis have made a substantial impact in supporting strategic priorities in those areas. Importantly, a successful lobbying effort during the Maryland legislative session preserved the college’s Sellinger funding for financial aid and other student supports. We want to sincerely thank the Maryland Independent College and University Association (which represents St. John’s and other independent colleges in the state) along with the students, alumni, faculty, staff, parents, and friends of the college who made their voices heard.  

Despite this progress, we continue to face fiscal challenges in our annual operating budget. Our balance sheet, endowment, and recent investments in capital infrastructure are increasing sources of strength, helping us navigate annual volatility. In recent years, we have drawn on added philanthropic support, government funding, and other onetime funding sources to close annual budgetary gaps, without compromising the integrity of the Program or the student experience. Today, we are more committed than ever to improving the balance, stability, and sustainability of our operating budget, in order to further strengthen both the short-term and long-term health of the institution. Such progress would allow us to reduce our endowment draw, direct additional philanthropy to needed capital projects and to the endowment, avoid accruing deferred maintenance, and have greater flexibility to invest more freely in strategic opportunities. This gives continued urgency to our strategic planning process. And our ongoing work on maintaining healthy enrollment will be critical to improved fiscal stability and forecasting and to energizing philanthropic support.

ENROLLMENT  

Graduate Institute enrollment continues at or near historic highs on both campuses over the past several semesters and is projected for this coming summer, with continued interest and growth in the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Master of Arts in Eastern Classics. The first cohort of the college’s new Master Arts in Middle Eastern Classics pilot will matriculate this fall in Santa Fe, continuing to expand the scale and breadth of our Graduate Institute, community, and programming.

Undergraduate applications are down, as projected, and the college will enroll somewhat smaller classes on both campuses this upcoming year, with 120-125 first-year students expected in Annapolis and 85-90 in Santa Fe, including the January freshman class. After graduating historically large senior classes (the post-COVID bounce-back year) this spring, the college is likely to have a student body five percent smaller overall than in previous years. These results are disappointing but not unexpected. Higher education is facing a national environment of fewer applicants and more competition for those applicants. Visa restrictions and other impacts on international students also affect our incoming classes. With the coming demographic cliff and shifts, and ongoing political and policy noise and uncertainty, we know that we must be nimble and multifaceted in our approach to improve enrollment and retention.

Although this fall’s incoming classes will be smaller, we expect an exceptionally strong group of freshmen, based on the faculty review of applications, and we are seeing the success of some of our targeted regional recruiting efforts to attract more Marylanders and New Mexicans and from other key states, such as Texas. We will continue our targeted strategies, enhancing key pipelines with Summer Academy, homeschooled and classical school students, United World Colleges, Southwest Scholars, the new Discussion-Based Application and Career Pathways projects, and through partnerships with schools in Korea, China, and beyond.

ADVANCEMENT

Despite post-campaign restructuring and some staff departures, the Advancement team has had a remarkably successful year of fundraising, with more than $15 million in new money raised compared to $14 million last year, and nearly $25 million in cash received, which goes to fund the endowment, capital projects, operations, and other special projects. This year’s Johnnie Day of Giving saw more participation than ever before, with a quarter of a million dollars raised from nearly 900 donors. The board discussed the team’s current staffing and structure, and there will be a focus on filling vacant positions this summer. Advancement, Communications, and the St. John’s College Alumni Association are developing a fundraising vision aimed at increasing our baseline annual fund support from its current goal of $2.7 million to, if feasible, as high as $5 million annually. This is conceptualized as a type of “mini campaign,” in a period between comprehensive campaigns. Even a fraction of that growth would have an outsized impact on our fiscal health and long-term budget projections. The focus of this effort would be on reoccurring gifts, enhancing Graduate Institute alumni participation, and capitalizing on the upcoming 200th anniversary of the alumni association in 2027 (making it one of the oldest associations in the country and the world.)  

FACILITIES

In Santa Fe, the Pritzker Student Center renovation project remains on schedule and on budget. A phased reopening will occur this fall, with interior spaces fully reopened by the end of the calendar year and final finishes to the interior, including the restoration of Girard features and exterior landscaping expected to continue through Spring 2026. Additional IT improvements are also being made to increase and harden connectivity around campus.  

In Annapolis, a new 12,000 square-foot arts and academic building is under consideration to provide much-needed ADA-accessible classroom spaces and upgraded facilities for arts programming, including studio spaces across a wide range of creative arts such as photography, woodworking, pottery, and more. The building would have the added benefit of freeing up additional space in Mellon Hall for new accessible lab classrooms. The board voted on a resolution to advance the college’s grant application to the State of Maryland for Fiscal Year 2027. The project now enters a design phase and will only move into the construction phase next year pending state funding, a secured donor gift, and a successful bond refunding to cover construction costs, estimated at $12 million. The same contractor would be utilized to make improvements to the Paca-Carroll residence hall, including elevator and bathroom improvements, realizing additional savings by working on both projects while on campus. This project would also bring us closer to completing the Pritzker Challenge, raising most of the remaining $10 million required to fully unlock the challenge grant and maximize our resources for capital projects. 

 VISITING 

 The Visiting Committee, which focuses its work on the student experience, took a deep look at the college’s offerings for adult learners and how these programs have evolved and grown since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Graduate Institute, which began offering a low-residency option allowing students to take classes online in 2020, has more than doubled enrollment over the past decade, with approximately half of students taking classes online and half in person on both campuses. The GI attracts a diverse cohort of students: about half under the age of 30, including many teachers; a quarter who are mid-career or going through career transitions; and another quarter who are retirement age, seeking the type of education they never had.

The GI is an area the college continues to expand. This fall, with the launch of the (in-person, in Santa Fe) Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Classics, students will have the choice of three different master's degree programs. New segments for the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts focused on computation and technology and the visual arts are also under faculty consideration for next year to meet growing demand and evolving faculty and student interests.  

The Office of Community and Lifelong Learning, which offers non-degree programs, is seeing continued growth in these programs—primarily our portfolio of classics seminars, in person and online—and is also continuing to develop new strategies to increase enrollment and revenue. Programming is now available for 10 months of the year, and classes are regularly at or near capacity. Efforts underway include a seminar retreat with the Modern Elder Academy and legal education partnerships with prominent local and national organizations such as the American Law Institute and the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke Law School.  

BOARD GOVERNANCE 

The board honored three dedicated long-serving leaders by elevating them to Trustee Emeriti status: Steve Bohlin (SF81), Leslie Jump (A84), and Delores Wolf (H17).  Trustees Tia Pausic (A86), Elizabeth Powers (A89), and Johanna Wilson (A90) were also thanked for their service as they complete their terms this month.

The work of the Polity Review Committee is complete with a vote on the final version of the college’s governing documents, which saw uncontroversial but important “cleanup amendments” to the version approved in February. 

 CONCLUSION

We believe in the value and importance of St. John’s College—perhaps now more than ever. In a moment when higher education is facing declining public trust, rising partisanship, and mounting pressure to serve rapidly changing technological and workforce needs, St. John’s stands for something enduring: the formation of free and thoughtful citizens through shared inquiry, timeless texts, and meaningful dialogue.

The work ahead will not be easy, but we are happily spared trying to reinvent ourselves. We are building on a foundation that has proven its worth across generations. The coming year will see us meeting the unique moment we are in, while standing firm on what makes this education not only rare but urgently needed. As we continue to make the case for St. John’s, we do so not only as stewards of a distinctive college, but as advocates for a broader vision of liberal education—one that meets the challenges of our time with clarity, courage, and conviction.

St. John’s Forever.

FEEDBACK 

If you have thoughts that you would like to share, please contact us at presidents(at)sjc.edu. 

Sincerely, 

J. Walter Sterling and Susan Paalman