On Feb. 7, Iona College President Joseph E. Nyre held his Spring 2012 Convocation in the Christopher J. Murphy auditorium. The Convocation is held each semester to inform the Iona community and the greater New Rochelle area on the current state of affairs within the college and also serves as an opportunity to express the plans for the future of the institution.

The speech itself touched on many of the issues that the college has faced in the past and those challenges that will confront Iona in the future. Using comparisons to other schools in the tri-state area and some across the nation, Nyre spoke about tuition increases and his aspiration to curb the growth of the cost to attend college as it increases at a rate that exceeds the rate of inflation. He also spoke about the accreditation process that the college goes through with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. This is a process that the school goes through every five years to keep its accreditation.

Despite the many challenges that face Iona, Nyre spoke of his unwavering confidence in the school’s ability to succeed and grow over the next five years.

Although having only been with the school for seven months, Nyre was not reserved in openly speaking of the problems that the college has both presently and in the past.

He discussed the plans to increase the availability for housing at the school, which include the 37 beds newly available in Rice Hall with the renovation of what used to be the Gael Club as well as the reconstruction of Walsh Hall to allow for an additional 106 beds within the next year.

He also stressed the importance of reducing the occupancy of the megablock, which holds the three largest Residence Halls at Iona: Loftus, Conese and South Halls.

Also within the speech, Nyre spoke about the implementation of a new office on campus that will be dedicated to keeping track of institutional and student performance data in an attempt to correct the misreporting of this type of information that has occurred in the school’s past, especially within the last year.

The new Office of Institutional Effectiveness, as it is tentatively being named, will work to report accurate information across campus such as the SAT scores of the student population and other critical information. As the school had not previously had an office like this, the verification processes of data had not been properly measured.

Nyre stressed that an institution the size of Iona needs a “sophisticated mechanism” in order to prevent misinformation and over-reporting both involving the various offices throughout the school and student performance data.

This office will also work to effectively collect data pertaining to the school to help make better and more informed decisions to help guide Iona to a better future.

The overall tone of the Convocation was positive despite the many challenges that Iona faces, and Nyre effectively expressed his genuine optimism and enthusiasm for the future of the college.

In an interview held immediately following the Convocation, he spoke about his steadfast dedication to the students of Iona College and how he wants to make a degree from Iona “worth more tomorrow than it is today.”

He continued by saying that when students graduate from Iona, they should be able to focus on “how to invest in their future, not how to pay for their past.”

To see the full interview with Dr. Nyre, go to the Iona Mass Communication Department blog at northavenuenation.com.