By JP Pelzman
Dr. Joseph Nyre had been in office for just under six months as Seton Hall President when he and his executive cabinet were faced with the type of decision no one could have foreseen, the type of decision no crisis manual could have prepared anyone for.
The deadly pandemic which would come to be known as COVID-19 was about to hit the United States, and the East Coast in particular with a vengeance. The time was late January 2020, and the Seton Hall President and the rest of the school’s executive cabinet already were hard at work dealing with a problem that wasn’t even on the radar of most people.
“In late January, early February,” Dr. Nyre recalled in an interview with PirateCrew, “we were communicating with health officials in other countries, including northern Spain, which was hit harder and faster in the early days than the United States. We were learning lessons about what was happening there and what was likely to happen here. And I'm grateful. Eventually, we mobilized over 140 faculty, staff and students to work together to develop multiple sets of contingency plans so we could successfully reopen the University” eventually.
Seton Hall issued its first guidance to its university community regarding the coronavirus on Jan. 29, 2020. On February 26th , Seton Hall had shut down all study abroad programs. By March 12, Nyre had to issue an update that was necessary, but no less painful--that the school was suspending all in-person classes through at least Easter, April 13, 2020. March 12, of course, was the same day that the unthinkable happened, as college and professional sports shut down in North America because of COVID.
Soon, it was decided that all classes would be remote for the rest of the semester. But a ray of hope appeared on May 22, when Nyre announced plans for a re-opening of the campus in August, with in-person classes.
“In May of 2020,” he said, “we announced our reopening plans. We were one of the first, if not the first, on the East Coast to announce we were going to reopen in August and how we were going to do it.”
“I don’t claim that to be my success,” he said. “Having that many people working together to set strategies depending upon where the virus takes us has been essential and I'm grateful for their efforts.”
This happened because of planning and readiness.
Nyre noted, “I can tell you quite broadly that colleges and universities on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, including Seton Hall, acted to protect their communities and students well before government guidance chose to do so.
“I think that’s a demonstration of what’s right about higher Ed,” he added. “Seton Hall worked very hard during the early days to garner information. We were able to obtain information that was two weeks to a month ahead of what was happening in our immediate region that would help to manage what was about to come.”
As Nyre said, he doesn’t do it alone.
“Our cabinet meetings have no rank,” he said. “We want the best solutions and we want an environment where we can think critically and challenge one another.”
With that in mind, Seton Hall was faced with yet another difficult decision, brought on by the ongoing pandemic. The university was about to finalize and deploy a strategic plan and a related series of important capital improvements to ensure the school’s future, but as Nyre noted, Seton Hall was faced with a difficult decision. He said, “Do we postpone the University’s strategic planning process and focus exclusively on the pandemic or should we operate in two lanes, that is the day-to- day crisis that is the pandemic and also map out the future of the University?”
The president added, “We knew doing two at the same time would be difficult, but ultimately our administration chose to do both. ... That strategy is leading to a lot of the changes you’re seeing across the University. And, it's driving our fund-raising.”
As he noted, “The name of the strategic plan is ‘Harvest Our Treasures’, a quote taken from the writings of Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton. It's focused us to think past the pandemic and to lean forward and not suffer from pandemic paralysis, and that’s critical. I’m grateful for the incredible number of faculty and staff and administrators that were there from the inception.”
The goal, he said, is “to assure Seton Hall takes its rightful place as a preeminent Catholic university in the country.
“Harvest Our Treasures,” he added, “calls for us to make significant investments to increase the competitiveness of our portfolio of academic programs, our learning environments, our living environments and our athletic spaces.”
He said one of the projects was the renovation of the University’s oldest residence facility, Boland Hall, this past summer.
Also in the summer, the school completed the first phase of the renovation of the University Center.
“Parts of it are closed now,” Nyre said, “but Phase 2 will be completed by next fall. It will be an entirely transformed space and building. You won’t recognize it. We know it is going to substantially improve the student experience and increase the level of student engagement.”
He said there also is a plan for a “mixed-use project” at 525 South Orange Ave., which is across the street from the front gates of the University. The plan is for a building with shops on the ground level and as Nyre said, “floors above it with apartment-style living space for our students. Our aim is to create a more dynamic campus, more services, more space for our students. That’s another major project for us.”
He said the renovation of Walsh Gym “is just about complete (interview took place before the construction was completed), featuring a center-hung scoreboard and all-new seats.
“It looks tremendous,” Nyre stated. As for the planned men’s basketball practice facility, the president said,
“We're just finishing finalizing the plans. We'll be breaking ground on that in the near future as well.”
How will it be paid for?
“In March 2020,” he replied, “we entered the bond markets and brought down approximately $110 million in taxable and non-taxable bonds. Approximately 70% were taxable. The rates were exceptional. By pulling down those bond funds, it allowed us to lean forward and move ahead on the projects while simultaneously fundraising for them.”
Again, Nyre said, this is why he believes following two paths, managing the crisis and planning for the future, was the right thing to do.
He indicated the practice facility still is on track because of “leaning forward and not waiting for the pandemic to pass, and recognizing we should move quickly and steadily in these places” to secure bond funding.
“You'll recall that the stock markets had dropped precipitously when the pandemic (came to the US),” he said. “We wanted to position the University so that it would not have to draw on the endowment, if in fact the pandemic turned out to be a three or four-year pandemic.
“We didn’t want to draw resources out of the endowment in a down market. We wanted liquidity. It created flexibility for the projects” with $110 million in bonds and 70% of it taxable.
He noted that no one knew how long the COVID pandemic would last.
“It's starting to feel more and more like it’s going to linger with us in various ways for quite a while,” Nyre said.
“We have the financing” for the practice facility, he said, “but our principal focus is raising the needed funds through philanthropic activity to fund the University Center and name the University Center and fund the practice facility and name the practice facility – while working to also raise funds for the University endowment to underwrite academic innovation and support scholarships for students – both critical to elevating the University.”
Part 2 to follow
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