Strategic Vision and Planning

St. John’s has embarked on a strategic vision and planning process to realistically assess our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in a changing higher education environment and establish an implementation plan to get us into a long-term viable position where the college can truly flourish. We must be creative and open to making changes to our operations in order to preserve the core of what we do—our Great Books, discussion-based academic Program—in the best possible way.

The process will be internally driven, led by President Demleitner and an executive committee composed of senior leaders from both campuses. An outside facilitator, paid for with donor support, has been retained to help analyze internal data, provide market intelligence, and ensure the process keeps to an aggressive timeline, with the goal of a developed plan in place for the June 2025 board meeting.

A website will be posted in early November with additional information about the process including a comment form to elicit ideas from faculty, staff, students, alumni, and other community members and friends of the college.

Finance

This strategic planning will be key as we move toward sustainability. Incredible progress has been made, but the college continues to face harsh headwinds that have resulted in structural deficits and current cash flow issues. Extraordinary income, including more than $20 million in federal relief funding and other COVID-related payments received over the past few years, has been crucial in filling the gap. Gifts from the Hodson Trust, added to the endowment last year, and the Winiarski estate, which is being received over the course of this fiscal year, also provide some budgetary relief. However, inflation and cost increases related to health insurance, property insurance, utilities, contracts, and minimum wage, are putting additional pressures on the budget. Student-derived tuition revenue has remained flat for several years and has not kept pace with inflation. A large graduating senior class and incoming classes that are at or below enrollment goals only add to this challenge, and an expected $13.5M in structural deficits are projected for FY26 and FY27. Roughly $7M of these deficits will be funded by extraordinary measures, including a slightly increased endowment draw, bequests, and insurance funds, which will still leave $6.4M left to be covered by other means.

The board approved a one-time increase to the endowment draw, in accordance with federal Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act guidelines, to help address cash-flow issues. Future increases to the endowment draw will be considered on a year-by-year basis as the college continues to look at ways to manage the structural deficit.

Despite these challenges, the college’s S&P bond rating was upgraded from BBB+ to A-/Stable, thanks to continued increases to the endowment, federal Employee Retention Tax Credits received in FY24, and giving toward capital projects—which has resulted in transformative improvements on both campuses.

Enrollment

National trends continue to pose a threat to the future of institutions of higher education across the country, and St. John’s has not been immune. The demand for a four-year college education in general, and liberal arts colleges and the humanities specifically, continues to decline. With next year’s onset of the so-called “demographic cliff” the national population of college-age students will shrink over about a decade by an estimated 15 percent. The government’s rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which left colleges nationwide scrambling this spring, is once again delayed this fall. Although St. John’s was able to pivot and make financial aid awards through the use of an alternative application, other colleges responded by admitting more students and providing deep discounts, leading to increased competition for students over the summer. These challenges have led to a downward trend in the number of undergraduate applicants to the college, and this fall the Annapolis campus did not meet its headcount goal, while Santa Fe just met goal—collegewide enrolling 220 fall freshmen rather than the goal of 230-250.

Despite these concerning results, the college continues to yield admitted students at a higher rate than our peers, and this year’s class is academically strong and economically and gender diverse. The committee discussed strategies and tactics to expand the applicant pool, such as growing Summer Academy, which continues to provide an increasingly strong enrollment pipeline, the innovative Discussion-Based Application, which has been highly utilized and effective, and the soon-to-come Johnnie Career Pathways website, which will help prospective students visualize a St. John’s-supported career path. The committee also reviewed data on freshman-to-sophomore retention—which show continued improvement—and graduation rates on both campuses and discussed ways the college will continue to track reasons for student withdrawals. Positively, Graduate Institute enrollment on both campuses, particularly in the MALA program, continues to grow.

Advancement

The Advancement Office is refining its strategy coming out of the campaign—with a specific focus on fundraising for annual budgeted collegewide priorities such as scholarships and student supports, while also continuing to raise money for the Pritzker Challenge (now at $28.9M toward the $50M matching goal) and growing the endowment. The college has made increasing efforts to apply for government and foundation funds, and recently secured grants for mental health initiatives in Santa Fe and campus security enhancements in Annapolis.

The Community and Lifelong Learning team is working on creative ways to increase revenue and draw new audiences that may not know about St. John’s, including partnerships with the Modern Elder Academy and the American Law Institute. A “Day of Classics” program was piloted in Annapolis this fall to give attendees a taste of the college’s nondegree offerings in a short and easy-to-commit-to format, leading to new registrations and interest in Year of Classics, Winter Classics and Summer Classics.

Alumni Engagement reported on the 2024 Homecoming events that attracted nearly 400 Johnnies back to campus this fall, the first all-call in-person event since 2019. The report outlined respective event objectives, costs, fundraising potential, and post-survey feedback, which had a high response rate. Based on the generally positive feedback, a similar model open to all alumni is proposed for next year during the same weekends in September. This includes a one-fee ticket cost that offers a seminar with one reading per campus, drop-in return-to-campus activities, one night of evening activities for each campus, and two meals: Homecoming lunch on Saturday and the Alumni Association Brunch on Sunday.

Facilities

In Santa Fe, the Pritzker Student Center renovation project is 20 percent complete, and the college expects to celebrate its ribbon cutting in early 2026. All solar panels and EV chargers are fully operational, leading to future utility savings for the campus, and the Annapolis campus is now exploring grant funding for its own solar project. Both campuses have had major improvements to IT infrastructure and increased bandwidth. In Annapolis, Edensword Hall was completed on budget and substantially on time, with students moved in by the beginning of the academic year and a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating the new bookstore and café held during Homecoming weekend. Improvements to Pinkney are planned for summer 2025, and the college will be applying for a State of Maryland capital grant in FY27, with the project likely to be much-needed renovations to the Barr-Buchanan Center. The committee held an open and civil discussion—with outstanding student participation—on the proposed City of Annapolis bike path, which continues to remain in the early planning phase.

The College History Task Force will release its report on the institution’s history and association with slavery in early November. The task force is requesting comments from the community and will consider these comments as they look to make recommendations on how to acknowledge this aspect of the college’s history to the board at the February meeting.

Visiting

The Visiting Committee is focusing its work on supporting and understanding how the Program is being lived by students on each campus every day. The committee heard presentations from the deans and vice presidents overseeing student affairs on both campuses. In Santa Fe, the tensions from the spring have eased and efforts have been made to help students engage on social and political issues through seminars and workshops. Dean Sarah Davis has created an advisory committee of students and tutors who meet regularly on these issues. The 60th anniversary of the campus has provided an opportunity for programming to connect current students to the intellectual traditions of past generations. Annapolis Dean Suzy Paalman shared reflections on the types of faith and trust the Program engenders among our students—trust in the books, their classmates, their tutors and themselves. Additionally, efforts have been made to improve lab safety with signage and new training among a growing trend of students increasingly not having ever participated in lab practica before coming to the college. Over the past five years the number of students seeking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has increased significantly. Both campuses will continue to work with these students, and with tutors, to broaden the understanding of how accommodations are implemented at the college to best support students.

Mission Engagement and Board Governance

Board members participated in two mission engagement sessions focused on the work of the staff. Chief Michael Boston and Captain Duane Gottschalk provided an overview of the responsibilities of the campus’ public safety team, while athletic coordinator Rachel Fleming (A11) offered tours of the Hodson Boathouse and Temple Iglehart—the centers of the intramural and athletics program in student life. New board members were welcomed, including President Emeritus of Hamilton College David Wippman, Ambassador Marc Wall (AGI17, EC21) and alumni-elected representative Ginger Kenney (Class of 1967). The board also voted on two resolutions to honor retiring Maryland legislators Senator Ben Cardin and Congressman John Sarbanes who were supportive of St. John’s College initiatives in their time in office.

The board’s vote on Polity amendments brought forth by the Polity Review Committee will occur at the February meeting to allow additional time to incorporate faculty suggestions. The committee will continue to work closely with the deans on finalizing Polity amendments as well as creating ancillary documents that outline board and tutor operating principles.

Conclusion

It’s a difficult time for higher education, but St. John’s is committed to ensuring our special and distinctive academic Program continues to be a beacon for all liberal arts education. Stay engaged with us and share your thoughts as we embark on the strategic vision and planning process to build a resilient and flourishing college. St. John’s Forever.

Feedback

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

Sincerely,

Nora Demleitner and J. Walter Sterling