April 1, 2024

Dear William Paterson Faculty and Staff,

With the arrival of April, we are just over six busy and exciting weeks away from the end of the Spring semester and the close of the 2023-2024 academic year. 

As many of you know, the Cabinet has been charged by the Board of Trustees to deliver a tightened spending plan for approval this June. To that end, we will look to reduce our non-personnel expenditures by $2-2.5 million in this next budget cycle. I know this will be a difficult task, as much of our non-personnel expenditures are connected to contracts or other services. However, we are going to have to try our best to meet this goal. 

As everyone who attended the Budget and Enrollment Forum learned, personnel costs still account for 78% of our budget. To avoid a further reduction in force, we need to grow main campus enrollment, while we reduce our non-personnel expenditures and work our way through this complex budget compression. I have charged the vice presidents with making reductions in their areas, while being sensitive to our four key goals: enrollment, retention, graduation rates, and career placement. Please also remember that at the beginning of last fiscal year, we were making the transition from Banner to Workday, so budgets will likely look very different this fiscal cycle. It is my expectation that vice presidents will involve direct reports in this process and keep everyone informed as we move forward.

Spring enrollment remains in a good position, with an overall headcount 8.5% over last spring as Census II approaches on April 2. Looking ahead to the Fall 2024, as of Friday, first-time student applications are up 13.2% over this time last year and first-time student acceptances are up 11.2%. Deposits are also trending ahead of this time period last year. International undergraduate applications are up 24.7%, and international graduate applications are up 62.2%. Overall, new student applications for Fall 2024 are up 12.7%, and acceptances are up 11.7%. Undergraduate Admissions is also busy preparing to host more than 450 registrants and their families for the ‘Will. Power. Day for Accepted Students’ on Saturday, April 13.

Thank you to everyone who came out to a nearly full Shea Center for last week’s Distinguished Lecturer Series event, in which I interviewed former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson. Instead of my usual black and orange, I chose to wear a purple tie for the event to symbolize the coming together of the red and blue of our two major parties toward which our politics must aspire. Civil conversations featuring diverse viewpoints, like the one that took place that evening, followed by thoughtful questions from the audience, are essential to a healthy democracy. They are the kind of conversations that the DLS has hosted more than four decades and which do, and must continue to, take place on our campus every day. 

This week’s WP: We are Proud – Over Spring Break, I had the pleasure of accompanying 37 student and alumni members of the William Paterson Chamber Choir and four small instrumental chamber ensembles on a performance and cultural tour of France and Belgium. The group performed five beautiful and moving concerts across the 10-day tour, including participating in Mass at Antwerp’s Cathedral of our Lady, along with concerts at St. Salvatore and Donatius Church in Bruges, the Parish Church St.-Mer-Eglise, the Church of Madeleine in Paris, and at the Normandy and Utah Beach WWII memorials. The tour was coordinated by Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Bands Teresa Purcell-Giles, Professor of Music Education and Interim Director of Choirs Diane Falk-Romaine, and Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Vocal Studies Christopher Herbert. It was originally organized by the late beloved Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities, Lauren Fowler-Calisto, who passed last December, and who was remembered by the student performers during the tour. Congratulations to all the faculty and performers on a successful trip.

Have a great start to your April.