Note: Above photo of STAC students is pre-pandemic.
By Darren Johnson
Campus News
Relatively new St. Thomas Aquinas College (STAC) President Ken Daly signed on just before the pandemic hit, and officially took the reins as, like all area colleges, classes went almost wholly virtual.
STAC is a small four-year, private liberal arts college, just 15 miles north of New York City in Rockland County, and the bad news was that similar colleges were seeing steep population declines; however, STAC was able to pivot amid all of the uncertainty, and has actually seen positive enrollment numbers and plans for further growth, whatever the future holds.
“We’re investing in our future, first by hiring new faculty,” Daly said, noting that the College is aiming for more diversity and is launching programs in LatinX and STEM. “We’ll hire more new faculty this year than we have in the past decade. No one else is doing this.”
Daly comes from the private sector – formerly a top exec for National Grid – and specializes in crisis and emergency management, skills surely useful during this pandemic, but he said, “My dream always was to be a college president.”
He’d had a foot in the academic world, serving on college boards and as an adjunct, but had to hit the ground running in this new role. “I spend most of my time preparing for the future and working to make the college stronger post-Covid,” he said.
The President has seen to it that all classrooms are modernized, to be able to handle both in-person and hybrid learning. Also, he feels that adding new programs is key to growing the College. “We have to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow,” he said, noting that STEM fields like healthcare and data analytics will be in high demand.
“Another pillar for success for the College includes new facilities,” Daly said. “You see the cranes and construction happening on campus.” Notable will be a new Admissions Office, an “extreme makeover” of the Student Center, and a Career Placement Office. A property adjacent to the college was recently acquired and will feature a bike trail. A new dormitory was unveiled this past fall.
“We also want to improve student engagement, and tell them, ‘These will be the best four years of your life,’” he added. “We already have wonderful athletics programs and academics, but we will increase programming and hours and really make them feel welcomed.”
Unlike many similar colleges, STAC has a strong financial footing, which is allowing its growth while other colleges are shrinking. “The College has always been well run from a fiscal soundness standpoint, which allows us to plan for the future.”
STAC has also been able to retain its current students through a robust fundraising effort to get many of them additional scholarships. “We did our first ever fundraising event to keep students in our seats,” he said. “We would have had 300 less students this year if we did not provide this financial support.”
While STAC’s total enrollment, like most colleges’, was slightly down this past fall semester, the spring numbers were up compared to the previous year, meaning student retention has improved.
The College also is focusing on community college transfer students, receiving hundreds of such applications each year. That number has been increasing in recent years. As local high school enrollments have lagged, affecting traditional freshman enrollment, STAC has been striving to make transfer students feel welcomed.
Transfer students have come from 150 different colleges in recent years, so STAC has been responsive to their varying needs. The College has also been generous with scholarships to transfers; granting up to $25,000 over two years or more, and guarantees student housing for all new and transfer students.
Through a program called STAC Tracks, students can seamlessly transfer to STAC and be ensured to graduate on time for a four-year degree, or stay an extra year and earn a master’s degree. Daly said he’s going to make it a point to meet every transfer student this coming academic year.
To learn more about transferring to STAC, visit stac.edu/admissions/transfer-students or call 845-398-4102.
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