06/22/2018
TO: The Quinnipiac University Community
FROM; John L. Lahey
I am pleased to present my final end-of-the year report to the Quinnipiac Community.
Our long-term enrollment goal of 10,000 students was reached this past fall with 7,000 full-time undergraduates and roughly 3,000 graduate students. The fall 2018 enrollment should be about 10,200 with approximately 7,100 full-time undergraduate and 3,100 graduate students. Future years' enrollments as planned will see little change in the quantity of student enrollment but ideally ever improving quality. The SAT average for our new freshman class for the fall of 2018 is approximately 15 points higher than the 2017 class, a significant increase. Also, approximately 25% of these new freshmen are enrolled in our innovative and highly competitive dual degree programs.
The University's finances, I am pleased to report, have never been better. This year's and next year's operating budgets will achieve operating margins of 4% or better representing surpluses of approximately $25 million each year. In addition, we are achieving these operating margins without withdrawing any funds from our endowment. If we were to withdraw the typical 5% spending, our operating margins would double. At the end of April 2018, our endowment stood at $529 million, very near its all-time high, up from $3 million in 1987. Also, we have not increased our long term debt for the past 10 years, and the par value of that debt of approximately $440 million now stands at less than one times our operating budget and less than one times our endowment, representing very reasonable levels of debt and an improvement of 100% from these debt level ratios pre-great recession. Our excellent bond rating reflects all of these very positive factors — strong enrollments, healthy operating margins, growing endowment and reasonable debt levels.
In the academic area, we received during the past two years full accreditation for our Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine and our School of Engineering. Adding these two new (and not inexpensive) schools and receiving full accreditation during the past ten years of our country's worst recession is nothing short of miraculous. The new schools, along with our other professional Schools of Law, Education, Nursing, Health Sciences and Business, all enjoy national accreditation in good standing along with many commendations for distinction and excellence.
We also continue to strengthen and expand our many Institutes and Centers of Excellence which add greatly to the teaching, research and special learning experiences for our faculty and students. We were most pleased to announce recently a $5 million gift from People's United Bank which will help transform two of our Centers of Excellence in the School of Business.
In all of my 31 years as Quinnipiac's President I have never been more bullish or optimistic about its future. I strongly believe that we will achieve our endowment goal of $1 billion by our 100th anniversary in 2029, as approved by the Board of Trustees. Achieving this goal will then allow us to begin withdrawing the typical 5% from our endowment into our operating budget, representing an addition of $50 million annually. If, for example, we decide to use half of that amount for endowed faculty chairs we could add roughly 100 new full-time faculty or 11 new faculty in each of our nine schools and college. We could also use the other $25 million for student scholarships, allowing us to attract a stronger and more diverse student body and make a Quinnipiac education more affordable for more students. Next year's Self- Study as part of our NEASC ten-year reaccreditation process will provide an ideal forum for the entire Quinnipiac Community to have input into the best use of these significant and transformative additions to our operating budget.
Finally, Judy and I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your friendship, collegiality and support during the past 31 years and 3 months. It takes only one person to have a vision but it takes in our case 1,500 talented and dedicated full-time faculty and staff and hundreds of part-time employees to execute on that vision and make it a reality. Quinnipiac's many outstanding achievements and indeed transformation over the past 3 decades were very much a team effort. Our congratulations, thanks and best wishes to all of you for your personal success and happiness in the years to come. With your hard work, dedication and leadership, I have no doubt Quinnipiac University will continue to advance in its rankings and recognition among the best universities in America.
