Interview with Rev. Kevin Wildes: President of Loyola University

New Orleans CityBusiness, Sep 25, 2006 by Craig Guillot

Age: 51

Hometown: Pitman, N.J.

Education: advanced degree in theology, Weston School of Theology, Cambridge, Mass.; advanced degree in philosophy; Fordham University; doctor of philosophy, Rice University.

Fast fact: Wildes, an expert on bioethics, wrote the book, "Moral Acquaintances: Methodology in Bioethics" and also edited and co- edited four books on the subject. Bioethics blends law, philosophy, insights from the humanities and medicine to bear on the interaction of human life, science, and technology. "It's good for my sanity," he said.

If you weren't a Jesuit or the president of Loyola University, what would you be doing?: For years, I had interest in law and public life. I probably would have wound up there but it's very hard for me to imagine what my life would be like if I weren't a Jesuit.

Ordained a Catholic priest in 1986, the Rev. Kevin Wildes has been president of Loyola University New Orleans since 2004. Loyola University was recently ranked No. 7 in the category of "Best Universities - Masters in the South" in Princeton Review's 20th annual "America's Best Colleges" issue, while its J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library ranked No. 10 among best college libraries.

What do Jesuits do for fun in New Orleans?

One of the great things about the Society of Jesus is that we're a very diverse group. You'll find all kinds of people doing different things. I'm a great fan of movies and I actually love to box. I boxed when I was in college and still do. Jesuits are a pretty diverse lot.

You're a board member of the Friends of New Orleans, along with John Barry, James Carville, John Larroquette and Mike Tidwell. What's it like working with that group of characters?

The group keeps national attention on New Orleans and the region. It's a diverse group and part of the diversity of the board is to help us reach out to as many different groups and organizations as we can. When the board meets, it's usually a conference call meeting type of thing. We've also been more into promoting events for example, the premiere of "All the King's Men" last week.

Last year, New Orleans universities were in survival mode.

What has been the mindset this year?

It's about looking forward. I believe we've reached a level of stability. It's about how do we grow and which directions do we want to go in. We're looking toward the future but we want to ask how big do we really want to be. How much do we really want to grow and what kind of mix (graduates and undergraduates) of students do we want?

It's not just a matter of time in our recovery; it's a matter of making choices about these things.

How has enrollment been?

Last year was not a good comparison but normally we have been structured for an incoming class of 850. The enrollment of the freshmen class for fall 2006 was about 550 so that's down by about 30 percent. That's what we anticipated and we made a decision to maintain standards. That's important for our future.

We also did a lot of downsizing in staff programs and things like that so that we will hopefully have a balanced budget this year.

Where are most of your students coming from and has that changed since last year?

Yes. Prior to Katrina, 75 percent of our students came from out of state. Now, that's about 50 percent. That's actually better than I thought it was going to be. Part of that has to do with the public perception of New Orleans. The students we're losing on this are the ones who never even get down here for a visit. They say to their parents that they're thinking of going to school in New Orleans and they say "Are you crazy?" That's a big challenge for us now.

Loyola is in an insurance lawsuit battle over not receiving enough funds to repair the university. Has the university

made the necessary repairs and how has that been managed?

We've made the necessary repairs and funded them ourselves but the question is about reimbursement for that. The policy that we're suing about is actually a business interruption policy. We started again in January.

What are you hearing from Uptown business owners post-Katrina?

Even though our enrollments are down, we've still got more than 4,000 students here and Tulane has a lot of students next door. The infusion of students has been good for the economy because not only do they spend money, but they're a part-time work pool, which is very important. Businesses are very happy to have them around because they're customers and employees.