Improvements and Recommendations for St. John's

Quote from: jake12801 on July 29, 2011, 11:36:54 PM

Much like Father Harrington did not understand just how good the St. John's athletic program could be, I do not believe he and his brain trust understand just how much the schools academics could be.

Very well said.  Sometimes it takes striving for excellence to prove that excellence can really be had.  Lavin changed our reputation and ceiling overnight.  Sometimes increased expectations are a good thing.  SJU is not a trade school.  I don't think SJU should have their sights set on Harvard, but this is not a trade school.  SJU's approach should be along the practical lines that it has always been and not academia, but things must change moving forward.  Practical fields like Engineering, healthcare etc. prepare students to attain jobs.  Like I said, SJU did a great thing by acquiring the Physician Assistant school and adding it to their Allied Health school.   PA's are all graduating with high GPA's, all have tons of jobs available, and most in 6 figure range.  Goes to show that SJU can adapt and has done so successfully.  We just need more of that.

All very well stated.  We've never taken full advantage of our proximity to the Metropolitan area either in sports or academics.  It's always amazed me that Long Island, one of the more fertile areas anywhere doesn't have a top notch university.  As a result the residents are forced to send their kids elsewhere spending a fortune in the process and draining the local economy.  SJU has always tended to establish mediocre offerings to draw more students while ignoring the top notch kids in it's backyard.  Unfortunately a lot of this is based on our reputation which has been allowed to flounder over the years.  I doubt whether we can overcome this across the board but there is no reason why a segment of the school couldn't be devoted to superior academics to start the ball rolling in the right direction.  It pisses me off to see the millions being exported to the Podunk schools who've had the wisdom to establish good academic reputations.  There are huge advantages inherent in our location that the Vincentians have ignored and you can't tell me that a president who adorns himself with Patek watches and $1000 suits isn't aware of this.  We are long overdue for some enlightened leadership and I hope Lavin and the change of administration get this school to where it should be in the near future.

Well, the US News 2014 rankings are out. And St. Johns is ranked at #152. Behind such schools as Depaul, Hofstra, Seton Hall, SUNY Albany!
The law ranking has dropped to 98th this year. Behind Syracuse. What the hell is going on with the administration of this place?! SJU could so easily be a top 110 university within a few years if the people who ran this school had a clue.

DePaul:

http://premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/depaul-university-1671/rankings?int=c6b9e3

St. John's:

http://premium.usnews.com/best-colleges/st-johns-university-2823/rankings?int=c6b9e3


Retention and 6 yr. grad rate doesn't help us.

Well, the US News 2014 rankings are out. And St. Johns is ranked at #152. Behind such schools as Depaul, Hofstra, Seton Hall, SUNY Albany!
The law ranking has dropped to 98th this year. Behind Syracuse. What the hell is going on with the administration of this place?! SJU could so easily be a top 110 university within a few years if the people who ran this school had a clue.

DePaul and Albany were always better schools than St.John's. Seton Hall is not really a surprise. I always had them pegged around St.John's. I'm actually surprised that St.John's is ranked #152. That's better than I expected.

Well, the US News 2014 rankings are out. And St. Johns is ranked at #152. Behind such schools as Depaul, Hofstra, Seton Hall, SUNY Albany!
The law ranking has dropped to 98th this year. Behind Syracuse. What the hell is going on with the administration of this place?! SJU could so easily be a top 110 university within a few years if the people who ran this school had a clue.

Since SJ's is not a hardcore research university, I recommend taking a tried and true approach that other schools have employed: as a starter, find one department to key on building up into the spotlight by poaching a heavyweight professor (a Nobel Prize winner type, a researcher well known in his/her field, or a nationally known faculty for example) and let them use their notoriety to start adding some high end young faculty.  Having one department shine starts changing perceptions, and they move on from there.   Where I live, George Mason enhanced its reputation for its business school when it hired Walter Williams in the Economics dept., and he took over as Dept Chair shortly thereafter.  It took 20 years, but it has to start somewhere. 

So I conclude with:  Start with your faculty.  Need to put up (cash), or shut up.  Get the faculty, and the quality of students will move up too.  Do good in sports, and more high end students want to go to SJ's.

Well, the US News 2014 rankings are out. And St. Johns is ranked at #152. Behind such schools as Depaul, Hofstra, Seton Hall, SUNY Albany!
The law ranking has dropped to 98th this year. Behind Syracuse. What the hell is going on with the administration of this place?! SJU could so easily be a top 110 university within a few years if the people who ran this school had a clue.

Syracuse was a tier three law school like five years ago and SJU was knocking on tier one.  That is crazy. 

Quote from: uwsfan on September 10, 2013, 10:00:53 AM

Well, the US News 2014 rankings are out. And St. Johns is ranked at #152. Behind such schools as Depaul, Hofstra, Seton Hall, SUNY Albany!
The law ranking has dropped to 98th this year. Behind Syracuse. What the hell is going on with the administration of this place?! SJU could so easily be a top 110 university within a few years if the people who ran this school had a clue.

Syracuse was a tier three law school like five years ago and SJU was knocking on tier one.  That is crazy. 

Harrington was too busy accepting gifts (and I don't mean God's Gift), looking the other way and making shady deals to worry about the state of the university.

Latest 2015 US News law rankings. St. Johns drops to 107th.

http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-law-schools/law-rankings/page+5


Really. As an MBA alumn i am really disturbed by the management of my B-school alma mater. i think a cleaning of house is needed and replace all of these mediocre small time people with an administration and faculty that has a vision and effective strategy for improvement.