St. Thomas facing a time of big transitions
As president finishes his tenure, university wrestles with identity
Robert Ivany walked down a shady Montrose street one recent Wednesday toward new construction on the University of St. Thomas campus.
The Center for Science and Health Professions, the future home of the university’s nursing, biology and chemistry programs, is a point of pride for the 69-year-old as he winds down his 13 years as university president. His successor, Richard Ludwick, takes the helm July 1.
Focusing on science and medicine is one way Ivany guided the Catholic liberal arts college through a turbulent higher education landscape that now emphasizes job skills and workforce placement. He also slimmed down the core curriculum, revived the school’s nursing program and created a program with the Texas Medical Center that teaches students how to take a drug from the test phase to practical use.
“We have to look very hard at all the things that are out there in the community and say, where can we add something of value?”
said Ivany, who served in the U.S. Army for 34 years and was a military adviser to former President Ronald Reagan.
But as Ivany finishes his last year, tension among the president, professors and alumni regarding the institution’s Catholic liberal arts identity has surfaced, coming to a head during the presidential search that ended this fall with Ludwick’s hiring.
Ivany announced in fall 2015 that he would step down after this academic year, and several months later, professors voted noconfidence in Ivany’s administration, citing a lack of budgetary transparency. They appointed three faculty members to a liaison budget committee.
Ivany said he welcomed working with faculty but that budget strains were unavoidable as the university allocated more money to student financial aid.
Alumni later criticized the university’s search for a new president when no finalist interviewed on campus was a Basilian clergy member. St. Thomas is a flagship campus for the Basilian Fathers, an order founded in 1822 in France.
Hundreds of alumni demanded the search committee reconsider a clerical candidate nominated by the Basilian order. In a Facebook group, they questioned St. Thomas’ commit- ment to the Basilians and the university’s Catholic roots. Tenure threatened
The two fronts converged in the fall when the faculty budget committee said in a report that not interviewing the Basilian nominee could hinder Catholic student enrollment and slow donations to the university from the Basilian order.
In a critical Oct. 12 letter to committee members, Ivany said the report “deeply disturbed” Basilian leadership and undermined the integrity of the search process.
He closed the letter by saying disciplinary actions “up to and including poten- tial termination of tenure and/or employment” may follow further commentary on the search process.
Ivany told the Chronicle that the faculty budget committee overstepped by commenting on the presidential search process, and that the interactions between those faculty members and his administration did not threaten academic freedom. He declined to comment further on the matter.
Threatening tenure evoked fear and is chilling to academic freedom, professors said.
“This is just without precedent,” said Mary Catherine Sommers, a member of the budget committee who has taught phi- losophy at the university since 1987.
She said it has been “really difficult” to reconcile the president’s letter with her Catholic education and 30 years working at the university.
Ivany, 69, retains support from administrators and the board of directors as he enters is last semester as president.
Provost Dominic Aquila said Ivany ensures the Basilian order “is steadfastly maintained” by speaking of faith often.
University board chair Herbert Edmundson, a member of the Class of 1969 who led the search committee, praised Ivany for “weathering, as best as anyone could, turbulent times within the institution and without.”
“Catholic higher education,” he said, “is a different world.”
In his Army career, Ivany served in Vietnam and assisted Reagan as a military aide. Aphoto of the two men hangs in his office. Before leading St. Thomas, he was commandant of the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania for three years. Easing the tensions
Ivany will serve as president emeritus for a year after Ludwick takes command of St. Thomas. “They can work with me as they wish,” he said.
Ludwick, wholed the Independent Colleges of Indi- ana, a group of that state’s 31 private, nonprofit colleges and universities, said he will try to ease the tensions and to create strong relationships with professors. “I will earn that trust,” he said.
Ludwick, previously provost at St. Gregory’s University, a Catholic university in Oklahoma, said he plans to draft priorities after meeting with professors, alumni, students, staff and community leaders, but he aims to expand the school’s enrollment and offer online graduate classes.
The university’s enrollment has vacillated between about 3,200 and 3,800 students in the last 12 years. Roughly half are undergraduates.
“Given Houston and its demographics and the market, I think a significant (enrollment) increase could be born there,” he said. “It’s not simply our business plan. We do it because of our mission and the service to the student.”
He acknowledged that he had been only “mildly familiar” with the Basilians before applying to be the university’s next chief executive but has since tried to learn as muchas possible about the religious order.
“I’m impressed by its commitment to St. Thomas,” he said, calling clergy leadership on campus “a treasure.” lindsay.ellis@chron.com twitter.com/lindsayaellis