Loyack’s 10-year plan; making Rider feel like “home” for prospective students and alumni

By Grace Bertrand and Caroline Haviland

As new Rider President John Loyack follows in the footsteps of Gregory Dell’Omo’s presidency, the task at hand is pulling the university out of its financial deficit and leaving behind a legacy that remains at Rider long after his departure. 

When asked if there was only one thing he could do in his first year as president, in a Sept. 15 interview with The Rider News, Loyack joked that he would love to find a billion dollar donor. Becoming more serious, he said, “I’d really like to make some real progress on the financial condition of Rider.” 

Resolving the financial crisis through experiential learning

As of fiscal year 2024, Rider remains in a $21.8 million deficit, according to the university’s most recent federal tax forms. 

This would not be Loyack’s first time rescuing a university from a financial crisis, as he has done so at both of his previous employers: King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania and Alvernia University in Reading, Pennsylvania. 

During his time at Alvernia, Loyack spearheaded the university’s largest fundraising campaign and expanded its property through new renovation projects. This included creating academic programs and student living opportunities, according to Alvernia’s website, which led to the institution’s first top national ranking.

Loyack said that for both colleges, he started with getting the cost structure in better shape because it required the shortest time frame to execute.

He said, “If you’re in a situation like Rider’s, there is no other choice but to start there. But the real answer to how you fix things is growth.” 

Loyack’s first step is to look at implementing new academic programs, new athletic programs and new experiences to attract students to Rider. He explained that by offering students different combinations of interests in all of these areas, they are more likely to choose Rider as their home for the next two to four years. 

“The broader we can make the set of athletics, the broader we can make the set of academics, the better chance we have to capture students,” Loyack said. 

Starting somewhere, Loyack credits Provost Kelly Bidle for the revamping of Rider’s Engaged Learning Program to become less about recordkeeping and more about the experience, which executes exactly what he wants to incorporate more of at Rider — experiential learning. 

With the help of Darryl Mace, vice president for community engagement and belonging, Loyack plans to tie in community service to experiential learning. Loyack said, “All of those things change the student experience, change the way we present ourselves to future students and will make the difference in the long run.”

To start leading the university from a financially stronger place than previous years, Loyack plans to finalize the current fiscal year’s budget once the amount of students enrolled in classes and living on campus is confirmed based on an annual census completed on Oct. 1. 

Since starting, Loyack said he has seen five to six iterations of numbers, which he explained is frustrating for him when the numbers are changing.

“We can guess in June, July or August but it’s a guess,” Loyack said. “We have not been good guessers in the past.”

Loyack said the decision to not release budget and enrollment numbers until October was one he also made at Alvernia, remarking that it worked well to wait for final numbers instead of creating a potential budget based on estimates. 

He said, “When I’m convinced that the numbers are of a quality that we can share them, we can start thinking about doing that, but we’ve got some work to do.” 

Leading Rider “as a team”

As he deciphers how to lead in his new position, Loyack began the journey by choosing the university members who will work right alongside him: the senior and extended leadership teams. 

Through a statement on Sept. 3 in a facultywide email, Loyack announced the formation of his Senior Leadership Team, composed of some administrators who sat on Dell’Omo’s Cabinet and Loyack’s former colleagues from Alvernia. This team focuses on strategy, goal setting and execution. 

Mary-Alice Ozechoski, who was selected for the senior team based on her work at Alvernia, starts at Rider on Sept. 29 as senior vice president and chief of staff for student experience. Alongside Mace, another former Alvernia administrator and now Rider’s vice president for community engagement and belonging, the two will “make the best of the best,” Loyack said, by combining their experience in his previous administration with Rider’s current team.

The Senior Leadership Team is joined by an Extended Leadership Team, which mainly focuses on execution for the student experience. 

Loyack said despite having separate teams to lead with instead of a traditional presidential Cabinet, it is his personal preference to refer to these groups as a team as the two will work closely together, while also symbolizing the signal to “a different leadership model.” 

“We will lead as a team,” Loyack said. “Cabinet to me has a flavor of siloing where everybody does some individual things, like in government. That is not how this group will lead the institution.”

As a new set of leaders take the reins, certain members of Dell’Omo’s Cabinet have left the university. In an email to her colleagues on July 16, Heeyoung Kim, former chief diversity officer and dean of libraries, wrote that she had been “impacted by the recent reorganization and layoffs at Rider.” 

Additionally, former Gail Bierenbaum Leadership Council Director Kim Barberich was laid off over the summer, and former Chief Financial Officer Jim Hartman abruptly left Rider in early September. In a facultywide email on Sept. 3, Loyack stated Hartman had left “to pursue other professional opportunities. 

Loyack did not comment on Barberich and Kim’s departure, stating the decision was made before he began his appointment on July 7. He also declined to comment on Hartman’s exit because of personnel issues and said “I certainly wish Jim the best.” 

Maria Villalobos-Buehner, president of Rider’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, said she was able to put a face to a name for Loyack over one of the 15-minute conversations he has with members of the Rider community over coffee. 

The most important thing for Villalobos-Buehner, she said, is giving Loyack the space and time he needs to “read the culture” of the university, before he takes any immediate action. 

During their conversation, Villalobos-Buehner said she offered the opportunity to “say we’re here, we want to collaborate, to move with the university because this is our place. This place means a lot to us and the faculty is very committed to collaborate in moving [Rider] forward.”

Leaving behind a legacy

The presidential footprint that Loyack plans to leave behind will not just be seen in what he does in the years to come, but could possibly be found at Muller’s Pub in the future. 

Reflecting on Dell’Omo’s choice to have a sandwich at the eatery named after himself, Loyack said if he were to follow suit, he would spice things up. Naming it “The Hot Johnny,” the sandwich would come on a hoagie roll topped with a “long hot,” turkey, jalapeno cheese, a little yellow mustard, lettuce, tomato and onion. 

If he were to make a sandwich at home, Loyack said, this is how it is done.

“You can’t make it too hot … I’ve got a cast-iron stomach,” he joked. 

But his legacy will not stop at Muller’s Pub. 

In one of Loyack’s final interviews at Rider before he was offered the job, he recalled asking a student, who had been interviewing him, what they wanted out of the next president. They responded with what Loyack thinks should be the mantra of the administration: “I want Rider to be here 10 years from now so that I have some place to come home to.” 

The most important task for Loyack during his tenure will be to make Rider a place that students and faculty can call home even long after their chapter at Rider has closed. He said, “[Rider] has been here since 1865 and we should hope it’s still here in 2065 for people to come home to.”