Remarks: Daniel F. Sullivan—President’s Dinner
New York City—March 29, 2000

It’s absolutely terrific of you to join us for this very special St. Lawrence evening. Ordinarily, of course, at this time of year one doesn’t have to come to New York by dog sled. We’ve been having some very challenging weather in the North Country. My son Adam is on the golf team—let me tell you there is a lot of disappointment on the St. Lawrence golf team just now! But hasn’t it always been thus? Isn’t it true that in the North Country the four seasons are early winter, mid-winter, late winter and next winter? Don’t tell that to our prospective students, or we’ll be in the soup!
This is my chance each year to share some facets of institutional strategy with our most thoughtful and supportive alumni, parents, and friends; celebrate some victories and successes; and thank each and every one of you for your outstanding generosity. St. Lawrence is on the move. You have fueled our engines, lifted our spirits, and shared your strong encouragement when you think we’re getting it right. We would be nowhere without you. Thank you all, most warmly!
Two Important Successes
Two critically important successes are worth mentioning before we get to the focus of this evening, which is student development through athletics. The first is our truly remarkable performance in Campaign St. Lawrence, where we passed our $75 million goal in late December, a full year early, enabling the Board to see its way to raising the goal to $130 million and adding two years to the length of the campaign. Today we stand at over $81 million, and we’re still moving forward nicely. The impact of this campaign is everywhere on campus—from new and renovated facilities, to new programs like global studies (where we have just completed hiring five new outstanding faculty with support from the Christian Johnson Foundation), a full-semester endowed writer in residence, the integrated science education initiative, two new endowed professorships (the Jack and Sylvia Burry Chair in Statistics and the emerging Grace Fippinger Chair in Science), several new endowments in support of our new University Fellows Program where students work with faculty on research over the summer, and a number of new endowed scholarships that help keep St. Lawrence accessible to strong but needy students.
The tangible outcomes of this campaign are very visible, and they are one key component in our second important success—a fundamental strengthening of St. Lawrence’s competitive position in admissions. Applications for the Class of 2004 were up 13% over last year, including a 40% increase in early decision applicants and a 70% increase in minority applicants. We admitted 67.6% of them, compared to 73.7% of last year’s total, and the increase in minority applications allowed us to admit 129 of them compared to 87 last year. We have applications from 45 states (+6) and admits from 42 (+5); applications from 57 countries (+3) and admits from 27 (also +3). Applications were up in every region except the North Country. In addition, the mean SAT score for our admitted applicants was up 17 points over last year to 1163.
Our goal is a class of 550 new students on “count” day in September. That means we will need roughly 585 deposits by mid-May, because we will lose some to other institutions that take them off their waitlists over the summer. At this point, deposits are running ahead of last year when we ended with 610. On the other hand, last year we had warm, sunny weather for each of our spring admissions programs. Our first spring program for admitted students this year was Saturday in a steady rain, and the second was yesterday, after having over a foot of snow. I guess we will see how intrepid and committed this year’s admitted students are! Our qualitative sense, however, is that interest in St. Lawrence among admitted students is very strong.
We are not yet where we ultimately want to be in admissions, but I believe we are well on our way. Admissions success comes to liberal arts colleges that are academically demanding and highly student centered; that work hard at everything to try to make things better; that have a clear and carefully thought through institutional strategy; and that are ambitious in the best sense. By “ambitious in the best sense” I mean ambition that is focused on making a profound difference in the lives of students. That’s what we are about at St. Lawrence right now, and prospective students, their parents, and their high school counselors are noticing.
Student Development Through Athletics
Another thing they are noticing, because it is so rare and hard to do in colleges and universities in America today, is our focus on student development through athletics. Our philosophy—shared by faculty, administrative staff, coaches and players alike—is that intercollegiate athletics is primarily about the education and development of young people. Without that as the core purpose of athletics, it would make little sense to pursue it so vigorously and broadly at an academically demanding liberal arts college. The first test of success of an intercollegiate athletics program therefore must involve assessment of educational outcomes, just as that is the test of success in our academic programs. As part of this kind of assessment, we are in the process of aligning our evaluation of coaches with this test first and foremost in our minds. What have our student-athletes learned through athletics? How have they developed? Those are the key questions, in our view.
A second test of success is whether the athletic and academic experiences of our student-athletes are mutually reinforcing. We believe that our kind of athletic program should attract to St. Lawrence students who perform well academically. Indeed, if we attract student-athletes who are serious of purpose and disciplined in their approach to their sport or sports, we know we will also attract student-athletes who are serious of purpose and disciplined in their approach to their studies.
All of you in this room know of the truly fine season our men’s hockey team just completed. What you probably don’t know, however, is that a majority of the men on that team had a grade-point average last semester of 3.0 or higher, and the overall team average was 3.05. On the team were two students who had a 4.0 last semester, including the student currently ranked first in the senior class—Kris Margherio. The student ranked second in the senior class, last I looked, is Michael Berner, who scored an outstanding goal in our men’s soccer team’s national championship game. You’ll hear from both of them a little later. The student ranked third in the class is Ed Kupiec, captain of the track team. The academic averages of a substantial majority of our teams are above the men’s or women’s all-student average, respectively, and we are working on those where that is not the case.
At St. Lawrence we believe strongly that one way to increase the academic selectivity of the university is to have the kind of broad-based, demanding, competitive, student-centered program of intercollegiate athletics we are pursuing. Other colleges and universities have to apologize for the academic performance of their student-athletes. We expect ours to lead the student body, and in this as in so much else you tend to get what you expect. Because we seek mutual reinforcement between our athletic and academic programs, I have intercollegiate athletics reporting to the academic dean. It just makes sense to do so.
A third test of our success in intercollegiate athletics must be the extent to which the values our student-athletes learn and exhibit represent the values to which the university as a whole is committed. At most colleges and universities nationally, student-athletes are leaders, but one of the places where they lead is in the student drinking culture. Nationally, student-athletes have among the highest rates of drinking and binge drinking among students. At St. Lawrence, student-athletes have among the lowest rates. Why are we different? Sascha Werner, who is also with us tonight, is collaborating with Professor Cathy Crosby-Currie on a study focused on just that question. She has promised to reveal what she knows in her remarks in just a moment.
That St. Lawrence is so different from other colleges and universities on the issue of drinking by student-athletes is a signal to me that the leaders of our athletic program are focused on aligning the values our student-athletes are learning and practicing with those of the university as a whole. There are few worse things than to be the president of a college or university where the opposite is the case, and examples of that are legion. You can find the reports in almost any newspaper almost any day. Where I can find pride and excitement in my work, most of my presidential colleagues find dread and disappointment. I am a lucky man, but everyone involved with athletics at St. Lawrence works to make it so.
A fourth test of our success must be gender equity. The St. Lawrence of today has 32 intercollegiate teams—16 for men and 16 for women—one of the largest numbers of opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics offered at any liberal arts college. We work hard at gender equity. When I was at St. Lawrence in the 1960’s I don’t believe there were more than a couple of women’s teams. We have had a revolution, and we want to be among the leaders of that revolution. We’re not there yet, but I believe we’ve made great progress. You may want to ask the four students with us tonight how they think we’re doing during the question and answer session. Gender equity in athletics is also a test we must pass.
Finally, we believe that an intercollegiate athletics program that is focused on student development, ensures that athletic engagement and the pursuit of academic and intellectual goals are mutually reinforcing, and aligns itself with the fundamental values of the university will also be competitive with the teams of other colleges and universities. Excellent teaching, here as in every other part of the university, brings out the best in students. There is therefore no reason I can think of why all St. Lawrence teams should not enjoy significant competitive success, and that is also one of our important goals for St. Lawrence athletics. We are beginning to see broad-based competitive success now. Watch our smoke!
Let’s Hear from the Participants
Well, that’s enough from this old broken down athlete. We’ve brought with us tonight some of the very best people we have in St. Lawrence athletics, and I’d like you to hear what they have to say about student development through athletics. First up is Bob Durocher, coach of this year’s NCAA Division III national champions and NCAA Division III Coach of the Year. He’ll be followed alphabetically by Mike Berner, one of Bob’s outstanding backs, Kris Margherio from men’s hockey, Sarah Smith of our track team, and Sascha Werner, a diver and captain of our new squash team. You’ve read their biographies in your program. All I can say when I review their academic, athletic, and all-around performance at St. Lawrence is “wow!”
Bob Durocher!
Question and Answer Period
If the program has not gone on too long, I’ll open a question and answer period by asking alumni in the audience to raise their hands if they were student-athletes at St. Lawrence and, if so, to tell us what teams. This will break the ice, I think, and allow some questions to come. I’ll close it off when I think it’s run its course and turn the program back to Karen Bruett.