Robert J. Wickenheiser
Robert J. Wickenheiser 19th president of St. Bonaventure, is a renowned book collector who was born in North Dakota, in 1946. Wickenheiser attended the University of Minnesota and received his MA in1969 and his Ph.D in 1970. He was appointed to the English Department Faculty at Princeton University in 1970. He was a member of the Grolier Club, 1977 to 2010. In 1977 at the age of 34 Wickenheiser was appointed and served as the 21st president of Mount St. Mary’s College in Maryland, founded in 1808.
Overview[edit]
Mount St. Mary’s[edit]
Wickenheiser is credited with saving “The Mount,” not only financially and doubled the size of enrollment, building a number of major new buildings, including some of the earliest on-campus apartment residences for students in the country, renovating buildings that go back to the early 19th century, raising a substantial endowment, and leading the faculty in developing and implementing a common liberal arts core curriculum praised by the National Endowment for the Humanities as “one of the top fifty core curriculums in the country” and a model among three for grant applicants. NEH quotes Wickenheiser in their booklet on Liberal Arts Colleges, The Fifty Top Core Curriculums, published beginning in the late 1980s on the liberal arts and the top core curriculums in the country.
Wickenheiser raised academic standards, improved the quality of the faculty, and instituted several lecturer and speaker’s forums, the most important, the annual forum for national speakers such as William F. Buckley, George Will, Bill Bradley and numerous other significant national figures, called “The Founder’s Lecture.” He led the College in receiving national reaccreditation three times. Early in his tenure he also led the Board of Trustees in their charge to him to unite the College (the second oldest Catholic college in the country after Georgetown University), the Seminary (the second oldest and largest in the country), and the “Grotto of Lourdes” (the oldest and most frequently visited Grotto in the country), under the leadership of the president, along with a new set of by-laws for the unified College (and later University).
A strong supporter of sports, Wickenheiser helped return the Mount’s sports programs to success once again, especially basketball and track. In men’s basketball he supported the schools immediate return to national prominence once again in Division II and promoted the advancement of women’s basketball, which also gained national prominence. To advance indoor athletics while promoting indoor recreation, Wickenheiser built a 12.2 million dollar complex for student-athletes and for student recreation, as well as for indoor convocations and major events such as hosting the Baltimore Symphony. He likewise built a new track early in his tenure and helped promote not only track, but the program of decathlon in particular, drawing international student-athletes, a program which ultimately produced Olympic gold and bronze medalists in the 1988 Summer Olympics
Because of the change in locations of Division II colleges in the early 1980s, he played a major role in the Mount’s move to Division I in the mid-1980s, applauded in a program by NBC originally designed to determine that the move was based ultimately upon financial considerations. He also played a leading role in establishing a new conference, called the Northeast Conference, which he served as president for five years), until the end of his Mount presidency.
Appointed at the young age of 34 directly out of the English Department faculty and classroom at Princeton in July 1977, Dr. Wickenheiser resigned at the end of the academic year in 1993, after 16 years as president of Mount St. Mary’s College. His service there was later recognized by the awarding of an honorary doctorate degree as well as naming him “President Emeritus.”
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Wickenheiser accepted the presidency of St. Bonaventure University in December 1993, to assume office in February 1994. Shortly after assuming office he persuading the New York Commission of Higher Education as well as Middle States Accreditation for Higher Education to support the University’s immediate financial and academic plan along with its future such planning. As with “The Mount”, Wickenheiser is credited with saving Bonaventure, taking the entire University through financial exigency during his first six months in office, declared by the Board of Trustees at his first meeting as president with the full Board in February. Wickenheiser’s dealing with the University’s serious financial crisis, which left it only months from closing at the time, is well documented in area and some national papers, particularly in a special edition of the Olean Times Herald and in June, 1994, the Buffalo News.. The University is credited, under Wickenheiser’s leadership, with being the only university to go through “financial exigency” declared for an entire university.
During his tenure as president of St. Bonaventure University, Dr. Wickenheiser is credited not only with saving the University, but with raising academic standards in every department, in the appointment and promotion of faculty, and in the creation of “Distinguished Board of Trustees Faculty” from among the faculty’s professors, limited to a select few nationally recognized scholars in their fields and appreciated classroom teachers. He led the faculty, once again, in the development of a common liberal arts core curriculum, known as “Clare College,” which also includes the teaching of Franciscan values. As at “The Mount,” he doubled enrollment, renovated older buildings, and built new apartment residences for seniors. He also established the School of Journalism, a highly praised program throughout the country, while expanding the graduate school into Buffalo, and seeing that the Schools of Business and Education each received accreditation. His support for the nationally recognized School of Franciscan Studies led to growth and increased involvement by other Franciscan provinces in unification with Holy Name Province, the Founder of St. Bonaventure. He further helped initiate several lecturer and speaker’s forums, the most important, the annual “St. Francis Lecture.” He likewise led the University in receiving national reaccreditation two times.
He was an equally strong supporter of sports at St. Bonaventure University as he was at The Mount. At Bonaventure Wickenheiser was compelled for financial reasons to end such select sports as volleyball, while introducing and expanding others, including women’s soccer and tennis. He supported the appointment of full-time coaches to all sports, was an advocate for women’s sports, and an avid basketball fan, again as he had been at the Mount and earlier at Princeton.
Controversies[edit]
In the second semester of the 2002-2003 academic year questions arose about the eligibility of one of the men’s basketball players. Wickenheiser readily and openly admitted to both the University’s Conference Commissioner and president, The Atlantic 10 Conference, as well as the NCAA, his involvement in supporting the players acceptance as a student and also his eligibility as a player, the latter in support of the head coach, whom he had helped to woo to the University. Both the Conference and the NCAA ruled the student ineligible, and because of his admitted involvement, Wickenheiser immediately resigned his presidency of St. Bonaventure University, effective at the end of the academic year, a University he served for more than nine years.
Collections[edit]
The Robert J. Wickenheiser Collection of John Milton is the most comprehensive collection in the world of books and art related to the work of the English poet John Milton. It is housed at the University of South Carolina in the Thomas Cooper Library.