By: John Hall, Editor-in-Chief
With over 1001 students entering Saint Leo at the beginning of Fall 2019, everything on University Campus has changed. Traffic entering and leaving the University Campus has increased, lines for the cafeteria have increased, and the frequency of bumping into people in residence halls has been raised exponentially.
Many students and faculty have been concerned about what the increase in incoming class size means for the future of the University. University President Dr. Jeffrey Senese explained that the 1001 is just the tip of the iceberg, as his vision for the future involves increasing the size of on campus students.
Senese explained that the team in Admissions would attempt to reproduce the results regarding intake in the Fall of 2020.
“If we continue on the trend line, there’s probably a need for another 500 beds,” said Senese.
He continued to explain it would most likely point to another form of housing being built on the Western side of Campus, near Marmion and Snyder.
Freshman Orientation allowed many of the 1000+ new students to acclimate to the new environment.
Conceptually, Senese has envisioned continuing to build up the western end of campus and creating a small city to itself on University Campus.
“This would create a town that not only would we benefit by, or students have benefited by but the people from the community could interact with us, and it would create really a center of entertainment and attention”, said Senese.
The vision has the potential for restaurants (possibly popular chains), a coffee shop and/or a place for the local post office to be creating a hub within the community.
Additionally, the future may also provide for a developer to create and run a hotel on the University property, adding in additional sources of employment for the university students. “We need a hotel not only parents and students coming in and out to check us out, but athletic teams and conferences as well”, said Senese.
Senese continued to explain that the size of the hotel would be no more than 60-70 rooms, as it would service the university, through the provision of jobs to its’ students.
With the growing pains of adjusting to the 1000+ students parking has become slightly untenable for some, with complaints of not enough parking spaces.
Senese believes that the parking on campus has taken a significant increase in traffic size, however, it is not more than the university is able to manage.
As a frequent on-campus runner, Senese has observed that there are a lot of spaces for parking, but acknowledges that spots may not be where people want to park.
To remedy this situation, Senese has planned to put additional parking on the opposite side of campus. To bridge the gap between parking structures, several solutions are being sought out, including a short transport system.
With over 1000 students making Saint Leo their home this Fall, the numbers will continue to increase along the trend line for the next few years, raising the number of on campus students.
“I have a company coming in, called Coast Autonomous that does autonomous vehicles that don’t require a driver,” said Senese.
The company can place a self-driving system in place that will shuttle passengers to and from parking areas and stop as soon as a pedestrian crosses its path.
Regarding Dining Hall space, there are plans for expansion that include the expansion of the current dining hall area and increasing it by one-third.
The area will also have a deck that will allow persons to eat outside, depending on their preference.
The continued increase of students annually should offset the cost to provide the services, according to Senese.
“We will bring in a class of a thousand or more again next year, that’s about the incoming class that we’re going to bring in over the next couple of years”,said Senese
The vision is to move the current student population on campus from 2200 to 4500 people total, the increase in population would also allow for faculty to receive raises and have better working facilities.
Senese maintains that it is pivotal that we keep the small sized classrooms that the university has been characteristic of Saint Leo.
Regarding the recent engagement between Saint Leo and The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Senese says that ideally the hope would be that a student sections could be created between alumni and current students.
The banners that are on the fence touting the exclusive partnership is temporary only during the football season, to allow the local community the opportunity to know of the arrangement.
Given the Buccaneers 3000+ employees, and wide outreach in the media, Senese agrees that the partnership is mutually beneficial to both entities as Saint Leo tries to solicit its brand.
“Part of our strategy in the Strategic plan, we have three themes; Culture, Academics, and Growth. Under growth [our goal]is to get the Saint Leo name and brand out there more,” said Senese.
Having attended numerous meetings, Senese has perceived that not many persons understand what Saint Leo is today.
“We are the second largest Catholic university in the United States, and in fact, we’re twice the size of Notre Dame.
If you look at iPEDS (The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), at the data that we use to track our self, we have twice as many students as they do, said Senese.
“We are by far the biggest Catholic Benedictine University in the United States, the next five Benedictine institutions are smaller than us combined. So [Saint Leo] as institution has a lot of breath are economic impact in the country is a billion dollars.”
Senese continued on to say that the branding campaign of marketing with the Buccaneers is to get our image with an organization that people in the greater Tampa Bay Area pay attention to you. This allows thousands if not millions of persons to see The Saint Leo name, across several T.V. and Radio stations as well as an aggressive social media presence.
With much debate over the carbon footprint of every day citizens, many students and faculty are concerned about recycling on Saint Leo’s campus.
“There’s quite a bit going on in the background with recycling of metals and other substances that we use, but it’s not fully developed programmed yet to do that.”, said Senese.
Dr. Senese explained that the program would require a significant amount of capital in order to commence, but they are working with partners to establish where to curb the university’s carbon footprint.
One inititative is with the use of the to-go containers, currently the university is dialoging with a company that creates green to go containers for the dining hall.
“[The biodegradable containers are preferred] Instead of having plastic containers because, when you wash it you’re burning more power than it saves.”, said Senese.
However, Senese warned that there would be a cost associated with this program, and as much as possible the University is erring to the side of caution as it attempts to be good stewards of its’ resources.
“We’re trying to be careful with our resources, Stewardship is one of our goals and focus it on the things that that students and the community think are important,” said Senese.
Although recycling is important to the administration, Senese’s student centered goals are pivotal as he attempts to the most good with the available resources.
When asked about the inauguration ahead of the date, Senese expressed how adamant he was about having a ceremony as he believed that they are frequently individual, rather than institutionally centered.
Senese relayed his personal feelings towards events of that magnitude.
“Don’t look for a pat on the back and [for someone to say], look how wonderful he is. It’s not about that, bold in actual action humble in spirit.
It’s not about taking credit for things, it’s about doing the right thing for the institution and moving that institution forward.” said Senese.
“This is not Jeff Senese’s inauguration, this is the inauguration of the President of the institution. It’s not my individual event, it’s an institution event and that’s what I hope people focus on is that this is celebrating rather than me,” said Senese.
Senese was also asked about a concern students have broached concerning cigarettes, e-cigarettes and vaping on campus.
Smoke-free campuses have been declared across the United States and many students wonder if Saint Leo can expect to see the same type of action happening on University Campus.
Senese conveyed his personal beleifs about smoking, going as far to say that it is a practice that he does not prescribe to, in light of the educational campaigns to eliminate tobacco use.
However, he acknowledges that there are several persons on campus that find it a necessity as it is their personal preference to smoke.
“If smokers are interfering with non-smokers, we’ve got to figure that out and step in. Vaping is dangerous and we’ve got to educate people that is dangerous,” Sense said.
Senese went on to say that ultimately, even with educational efforts to warn persons about the dangers of vaping and smoking, it is up to the individual student to decide whether or not to use the nicotine based products.
