Throughout his Convocation address President Steven DiSalvo, Ph.D., remained adamant about “growing the college’s brand”. He relayed pride and excitement about the current state of the college.

President DiSalvo put a lot of stress on “getting the name of Saint Anselm College out there”. This goal is already coming to fruition through the popularly circulated Princeton Review in which Saint A’s received 6th in the nation for student engagement, 8th in the nation for food, 11th for most religious students and 20th for happiest students. He cited these rankings as proof of the hard work and commitment of the faculty, staff and students of the school. In particular he credited the cooks, servers, cashiers and cleaning staff of Davison with providing the service as well as the food which won 8th in the nation.

At the beginning of his address President DiSalvo welcomed the class of 2020 as “one of the most diverse and academically talented” classes the college has ever seen. This class has the highest average GPA in the history of this college. Recruiters focused on the New York metro area as well as 18 states and 19 foreign countries this past year. These aggressive recruiting efforts were intended to broaden the diversity of students who apply to Saint A’s.

Saint A’s focus on diversity has also been aided by the Barker Foundation “hilltop scholarship program”. This scholarship aims to increase diversity by awarding 5 $10,000 annually to promising students.

President DiSalvo also welcomes 12 new faculty to the college. He credited the faculty of Saint A’s and their commitment to the students as being a large part of the 90% retention rate after freshman year.He also cited three initiatives as being crucial to the acclimation of students to Saint A’s. Another key part of retention rates.

Passages is a program for traditional freshmen to help them get socially connected the summer before freshman year. The freshmen go on overnight excursions with student leaders and Saint A’s faculty members. This past summer the groups traveled to Gettysburg, the Adirondacks, Champlain, Coastal Main, and The White Mountains.

Another program called Transitions aims to bring together a diverse group of student and introduce them to the Saint A’s culture of spiritual, social, and intellectual growth. Student who participated include transfer students, students from California and Paraguay and five freshmen football players.

A new program this year, called Anselmian 360, is an overnight retreat for freshmen which focuses on the history and faith of the college’s Benedictine tradition. President DiSalvo made a point of recognizing the diversity of the student’s faiths and looks forward to this program as a way for them to be introduced to the traditions of their new home at Saint A’s.

There will be five of these faith based retreats this fall.

The President then celebrated the college’s success in bringing the academic and social spheres of campus life together through residencies. The Living Learning Commons (LLC), the new dorm on campus, will host 2 arts courses this year. These classes will also use the third floor common room as a place to display and discuss art created in their classes. The Resident Learning Community (RLC) program has also provided opportunities for thematic housing options. In this program students choose a theme and work with a faculty member to create informational programs for the community about their topic. There are 7 RLCs on campus this year.

The political activity last year on campus helped establish the “brand” and name recognition of Saint Anselm College. Between Nov. 20 and Feb. 5 when the college hosted the first in the nation debates Saint Anselm College was cited 8,000 times. In addition the circulation reach for Saint A’s name in newspapers was 18 billion people. President DiSalvo credited “getting the name out there” with a 48 percent increase in visits to campus.

However, for DiSalvo it is not just getting the name out there, he also stressed the importance of what kind of brand this college hopes to create. He has become well known for his goals of changing athletics at Saint Anselm to fit the college’s brand mission. Last year he faced some backlash for applying to move from Division II to a Division III conference. The college’s application was not accepted. DiSalvo reaffirmed “we want to keep company with a conference of our academic peers” and even stressed not wanting to degrade Saint Anselm’s name by being associated with institutions of “inferior academic quality”.

DiSalvo praised Joe Adam, the new football coach, for giving his players structure and supporting their academic achievement in addition to athleticism.

The President then addressed the revitalization of campus with the new student center and new main entrance. The new entrance will lead up to the new student center before turning to face what DiSalvo calls “the money shot of Alumni Hall”. He appears devoted to the image of Saint Anselm College and how it presents to outsiders.

Next, President DiSalvo addressed the financial health of the college. The Fiscal Year 2016 was the fourth best fundraising year in the history of the college. President DiSalvo also highlighted that “the audit of the financial statements is in the process, but we anticipate that our positive margin from operations will be 5.8 percent”. He also called the endowment “strong” although he revealed that the endowment had “experienced a slight decline from $130M to $123M”.

He also shared that “we have been in a quiet phase of a capital campaign”. They have already raised $39.1M in commitments. There will be a public phase of this campaign in the spring.

President DiSalvo concluded his convocation with a look forward. He revealed that Saint A’s is working to take on more leaders in the field of diversity and mission. The college is hoping to create a new position called mission officer. The mission officer will focus on how mission plays a role in the academics and student life of Saint A’s. In addition, the college is in the process of actively seeking a Chief Diversity officer to increase diversity and inclusiveness. This position will report directly to the president displaying the high value which has been placed on increasing diversity under DiSalvo.

Throughout his convocation address President DiSalvo was positive about the current state of the college but confirmed his commitment to continue pushing forward.