President Loyack hosts invitational convocation for faculty and staff

By Caroline Haviland

In place of the annual presidential convocation presentation that occurs in late August, newly appointed Rider President John Loyack shifted gears and hosted an invitational social event at his home on Aug. 28, allowing himself the chance to meet faculty and staff members and hear any concerns ahead of his first school year at the university.

After a backyard cocktail hour with pinwheel sandwiches, pigs in a blanket and servings of beer and wine at his home neighboring Rider’s campus, Loyack delivered a “little spiel,” according to associate professor Victor Thompson, giving attendees “the impression that he wants to do something to ensure the financial stability of Rider.”

Another professor, who wishes to be anonymous, said Loyack discussed his success at getting his former school, Alvernia University, out of financial distress, utilizing the example of his past accomplishment as a segue to emphasize the need for change at Rider, while remaining “student-centered.”

“Change is coming. Change is necessary. Higher education is changing. We need to work together to make change,” Loyack told faculty and staff.

Even though the university’s financial security remains on the top of his priority list, the president also expressed an interest in adding technical majors like engineering, said the anonymous professor, and spoke on the value of experiential learning. 

During the Q&A portion of the event, Loyack was asked about enrollment numbers. He replied by explaining these statistics were still being solidified, according to the anonymous professor, adding that they would be released in the near future. 

In past years, numerous key enrollment and budget figures were displayed during the convocation presentation by former Rider President Gregory Dell’Omo to inform the Rider community of where the university stands in certain areas before heading into a new school year. 

Scott Alboum, Rider’s video technologies coordinator who teaches video production classes, said “Personally I think the presentation is important, but maybe it’s not the thing we need to start the school year off with,” in response to the lack of a formal statistics-based presentation given at the event. 

With a similar sentiment, Professor-Librarian Robert Lackie said, “He just started. He doesn’t know everybody yet. He doesn’t know the whole situation yet. For him to jump in and do a presentation to show all the bad stuff we’re still dealing with would set a tone for his presidency that would be negative right off the bat. … I’m hoping later on in the semester he will do something like a convocation that we would normally have.”

As the Q&A session went on, according to the anonymous professor, Loyack was asked about the current nationwide strains placed on diversity efforts in higher education under President Trump’s administration. He responded that it is critical for Rider to maintain its family nature and care for all students. 

“It’s our job to make this place somewhere where everyone feels like they belong,” he said.

Once the event concluded, associate professor Shawn Kildea said perhaps what Rider needs is someone who knows how to run a business, speaking highly of Loyack’s rich business acumen. 

“There’s so many positive things in the air. It really does feel good,” said Kildea.

Rider’s AAUP chapter responds 

At the August 2023 presidential convocation, members of Rider’s American Association of University Professors chapter held signs urging Dell’Omo to resign. This year, constituents in the union have more hope for a better relationship between faculty and the university’s administration.

Rider’s newly elected AAUP chapter President Maria Villalobos-Buehner said after attending the presidential convocation, she anticipates the new university president will make an effort to bring culture back to Rider, and she remains hopeful yet cautious in this time of transition to allow room for “good positive change to happen.” 

Hours before the informal gathering, Villalobos-Buehner, a professor in the Languages, Literatures and Cultures Department, said the AAUP held their first meeting of the school year, where they discussed the Trump administration’s attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education and the opportunity for the relationship between the administration and faculty to flourish under Loyack’s leadership.

“These new changes in leadership bring up opportunities for being able to participate. … As long as they are changes that will move us in the direction of all of us being part of the institution and having a future. … We need to be partners because we know what is happening in the classroom and we bring levels of expertise that also is what students experience,” said Villalobos-Buehner. 

Jeffrey Halpern, the chief grievance officer of Rider’s AAUP chapter, has been active with the union since he came to Rider in 1977. He noted that there was a lively campus culture until the Dell’Omo administration, where “people loved to come to work and faculty bluntly didn’t retire because it was too good of a place to work.” 

“I saw over the Dell’Omo administration that culture undermined, programs people worked on for years to build, destroyed. The leading choral music program in the country undermined. It’s created a very serious morale problem. That’s the number one thing that has to be turned around,” said Halpern, an associate professor.

One of the reasons Halpern has not retired after almost 50 years at the university is to see that morale brought back and stand against the fight on DEI, something he notes as “what higher education should have been about from the very beginning.”

After speaking to professors at Loyack’s last institution, Alvernia University, and hearing only positive remarks, Halpern is hopeful that Rider will return to what he once knew and continue to stand firm in DEI initiatives amid these trying times for higher education. 

“I expect the institution to continue to emphasize the need for a diverse student body, a diverse faculty, to support fair and equitable treatment to all students and to include all students, faculty and staff in that community,” said Halpern. “If diversity, equity and inclusion are wrong, I don’t want to be right.”