Crisis at the GTU! The schools that were most solid two years ago (PSR, SFTS) are now in peril. These are the schools that are the best endowed, but the endowments have diminished by 46%. The Presbyterian School (SFTS) has 19 fulltime professors, and they must immediate reduce the full-time faculty to 13 by next Fall. The Jesuit School (JSTB) will have the gradual retirement of three Full Professors with no plan to replace them.
All of this came out during our faculty meeting this afternoon. Fr Michael Sweeney reported to us the needs of the school in terms of advertising and increasing our donor base, but then he spoke frankly of the general difficulties being faced by the GTU and the other member schools. The situation is dire.
Michael Sweeney, OP, President of DSPT, speaks during an all-school meeting
DSPT has always struggled for finances, but in the struggling has not lost the money of investments and endowments that it never had. Suddenly we find our struggling school in a better position than most of the others of the GTU. It is not that our fortunes have reversed. What has happened is that the wealthy cannot attract the foundation dollars that they once did and their stock portfolios are a fraction of their former value. DSPT has never had any of this, so in maintaining its usual struggling fiancial position, the school actually comes out ahead. So much so that we are talking about making a hire (possibly two) for the new academic year.
If nothing else can be said, we can at least affirm that this is an interesting turn of events.
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