Greetings, Madonna University Community,
Yesterday, we received news about the closure of Lourdes University, effective at the end of this academic year. Today, we share a sense of sadness given that we also learned of Siena Heights University’s impending closure earlier this year. During my first semester at Madonna, I met the new presidents of both Lourdes and Siena Heights with a sense of optimism for our institutions, our work, and the wonderful communities we joined. That optimism was well-founded, given the missions and Catholic identity of each of our institutions. Going forward, our Madonna community will honor the legacy of the Sisters of St. Francis in Sylvania, Ohio, and the Adrian Dominican Sisters in Adrian, Michigan, who founded and supported Lourdes and Siena Heights, respectively. I know that the overwhelming majority of us have likely thought of and perhaps communicated with colleagues and collaborators at Lourdes in the past 24 hours. Thank you for your past, present, and future support for our peers in this most difficult time for them.
Turning to our work at Madonna, many of you have shared your concerns regarding these recent institutional closures. Undoubtedly, these are challenging times for higher education as an industry, and Catholic colleges and universities are not immune to those challenges. I appreciate and share collective pride in our response to those challenges and for the confidence they have created in Madonna’s long-term sustainability and success. In forums as recent as this past Friday’s faculty business meeting, I shared information about the actions we are taking to sustain a balanced budget at Madonna. For example, in the past two years, we've generated a combined 9.5 percent increase in overall net revenue from tuition and fees, driven by enrollment growth across multiple markets, including direct-from-high-school and transfer students.
I appreciate the patience, fortitude, and resilience of a Madonna community that has undertaken the necessary work of eliminating the University’s deficit. I thank every member of the Madonna community--from the Board of Trustees who have supported our work in countless ways to each caring, compassionate, and committed member of our faculty and staff for contributing daily to the experience of our students.
My experiences since my first visit to Livonia in February 2023 have taught me many wonderful things about Madonna. As a university, we are perpetuating an exceptional tradition of leadership by the Felician sisters. That tradition is present each day in the sense of charism and mission we share, particularly our understanding of the meaning of peace, justice, and respect for the dignity of each person in these very troubling times. The generations of Felician Sisters who preceded us were also exceptional financial managers and exquisite planners. Over multiple decades, the leadership at Madonna University, stewarded by the Felician Sisters who served as Presidents, diligently and consistently allocated budget surpluses to a reserve base, anticipating that our university may need those reserves and should preserve those reserves for purposes that provide for Madonna’s stability, confidence, and excellence. We are the direct beneficiaries of their intelligence, their expertise, and the exceptional strategic decisions they made for the long-term financial stability of Madonna.
Because of the leadership and sound decision-making of the Felician Sisters who preceded us, we have been able to provide a bridge to a balanced budget. In doing so, we learned that we could not continue to use our financial reserves if we wanted to support a sustainable model for Madonna University. As a result, we've made tough decisions, and while I know it hasn’t been easy, this community has contributed in countless ways to sustaining the distinctive Madonna experience in navigating this transition. We have achieved measurable, meaningful, and manageable change in our financial model, one that guarantees our long-term sustainability.
I also appreciate that the Felician Sisters have been a community of leaders, not one of them ever leading alone. The same is true for Madonna today. The exceptional people on the Senior Leadership group and Cabinet work directly with me in engaging and understanding our data, our strategy, our students, and our internal and external communities. They are your experts, your advocates, and your guides in promoting the unique expertise and commitment that each of you brings to your roles. I rely on their intelligence and experience, along with that of our Board of Trustees, who volunteer their time, talent, and treasure to steward Madonna’s success. I’m the beneficiary each day of a leadership model at Madonna that is a decidedly shared act.
Given the mission and tradition of the Felician Sisters that supports and sustains us, I’ll close this message with one final source that inspires me. In my office, I keep a copy of Walking through the Woods, authored by SM Francilene Van de Vyver, CSSF, “Sister Francilene,” who served as Madonna’s fifth president. It’s a signed copy, and I cherish it even more because it was given to me by Sr. Nancy Jamroz when I started at Madonna as one of several reminders of the faith, hope, and love that surrounds us (thank you Sr. Nancy!). The book is an account of Sr. Francilene’s courageous journey following a cancer diagnosis, and is filled with humor, insight, love, and stories of, you guessed it, relationships. The signed message, in Sister Francilene’s cursive handwriting, is simple and profound: “With prayerful wishes on your journey. Sister Mary Francilene.” The word “your” is underlined.
I never encountered Sister Francilene, but I sense and am grateful for her spirit, and for the words that so selflessly acknowledge the importance of each of our journeys, perfectly expressing our core value of respect for the dignity of each person.
Sister Francilene’s message reminds us why we do what we do. It’s why I celebrate my relationship with each of you as a president who walks in the path of the Felician Sisters’ legacy. It symbolizes why Madonna will remain a choice for learners long into the future.
Peace and All Good,
Chris Dougherty, Ph.D.
President
