President Joseph E. Nyre and several other Iona administrators met with students to discuss the current affairs and future of the college on Oct. 10 at the last of three Town Hall meetings. This meeting continued important conversations regarding the strategic plan and the state of the college that were introduced at the beginning of the semester during the Fall Convocation address.

Nyre opened up the discussion with an overview of year one of the strategic plan, which was put into effect last year. The college was successfully able to implement a number of the intended goals: trimming the budget, gaining full Middle States accreditation, creating new academic programs, launching a new extensive branding campaign, increasing enrollment and completing campus renovations.

One particular point of pride lay in Iona’s newly claimed spot on a list of the nation’s top colleges released by Payscale. Iona broke the top 100 in May, ranking as #90 in regards to the quality of students’ return investments on education, according to payscale.com.

This year, several areas of interest were covered in the administrators’ reports, including the progress being made on the strategic plan, updates in academic affairs, college financial concerns and budgeting, enrollment and admission efforts as well as fundraising and branding campaigns.

Co-Director of the strategic plan and Vice Provost for Information Technology Joanne Steele spoke largely of the college’s new website, which launched on Oct. 5. The site took a year to develop and it is hoped to be more appealing and user-friendly than the previous Iona page. Innovations are also expected in the realm of academic affairs, a discussion which was led by Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Michael Marsden. Four areas of academic life are soon to be evaluated: undergraduate and graduate academic programs, the college core, the Honors Program, and Study Abroad.

Extensive faculty-led evaluations of all academic programs are expected to begin soon. These evaluations are intended to better inform decision-making on such important issues as resource allocation and will also aid in determining program effectiveness.

The recent Middle States evaluation highlighted issues with Iona’s core curriculum. In response to this, plans are in the making to develop a more distinctive, innovative and integrative common core throughout the college, as administrators agree that the core is an important aspect of the institution’s identity.

Also under consideration is the structure of Iona’s Honors Program. The possibility of creating a “build your own major” program is on the table, an idea already proven successful by many other colleges and one that seemed to interest many Iona students. Increasing student membership in the Honors Program was also cited by Marsden as a future goal.

Senior David Blessington, an Honors student, seems hopeful about the proposed changes to the program but also has some reservations.

“I’m all for expansion as long as the quality of the students stays the same,” said Blessington. “I also like the idea of the self-designed major, especially as a science student. It allows for more flexibility and the ability to take more major electives which can be difficult with the strict science requirements.”

Study Abroad opportunities at Iona will also be reviewed over a five year period with the goal of evaluating existing programs, creating new ones and also trying to make the programs more financially sustainable and affordable.

The agenda then moved to the more practical administrative matters of finances and enrollment, addressed by Senior Vice President of Finance and Administration Anne Marie Schettini-Lynch and Vice President of Enrollment Management Mary Beth Carey.

Over the past year, the college was able to effectively cut the budget and end the fiscal year with a small surplus, something that would be beneficial to continue in upcoming years. In terms of enrollment, the college aims to better attract and retain students by enhancing student success and engagement, and increasing graduation rates.

Finally, the “Iona Forever”campaign, a program to increase Iona’s endowment, and new branding initiatives were discussed by Senior Vice President of Advancement and External Affairs Paul Sutera. Sutera highlighted Iona’s increased efforts to “own our backyard” and make a bigger impact in the New Rochelle and Westchester areas and beyond. The new marketing strategy includes the recently-launched website, various billboards on highways, in bus shelters and train stations, as well as the redesigned college and athletics logos.

The student-focused Town Hall forum ended with a question and answer segment, in which many students were able to express their views about Iona’s current state of affairs and future plans.

The most frequently expressed student concerns were in regard to the new website, the branding initiative, and the overall growth of the college. Other students voiced more specific needs including better commuter accommodations, improved arts programs and resources and an expansion of international connections and foreign language education.

Students are encouraged to continue playing an important role in the college planning process by attending future meetings and voicing any further concerns or suggestions.