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Dominican’s Fink to retire by 2011, aid transition
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| Courtesy photo Joseph Fink |
By Paul Jones
Marinscope Newspapers
Joseph Fink, the president of San Rafael’s Dominican University, recently confirmed his plan to retire in 2011, though he will serve on for an additional year as president emeritus to allow for a smooth transition for his successor. Fink began his term in 1988, and said his retirement after 37 years in academia was a long time coming.
“I was going to retire in 2010, but the economy was so bad, we decided to push it off until 2011,” he said. “I’m 68; it’s time to relax. It’s a 24/7 job. After I stop being president emeritus, I’m going to do something on a part-time basis. I still feel the need to be productive in some way or another.”
That work ethic is to be expected of a veteran of Dominican, which 22 years ago began the heady task of saving itself from a death spiral.
“Dominican was going through a very difficult period,” Fink said. “The male Catholic colleges in the area had gone co-ed, and the female Catholic colleges followed suit. But while many women started going to male schools, not many young men went to the female schools, and many closed. Dominican’s enrollment had fallen; it laid people off and closed departments. To make thing worse, they hired a president in 1987 who started to make significant changes in the institution, but six months later, he was killed in a plane crash.”
Fink said the institution’s campus and faculty were its strengths, and that he’d set about increasing enrollment, at the time a paltry 650 students. “We had to bolster academic programs, do a better job marketing, and go out and raise a lot of money to improve the facilities. But it’s hard to raise money while your institution is tottering, and we had to demonstrate to individuals, corporations and foundations that we were on a path to success. We were able to demonstrate strength and growth each year. And as the enrollment climbed, so did the revenue. My first year, the revenue was $7.2 million. Right now it’s close to $60 million.”
A capital campaign begun by Dominican is an example of Fink’s willingness to challenge the odds. “We had a professional fundraising firm do a feasibility study, and it said we could maybe raise $15 million. Well, we raised about $50 million, and another $20 million since that campaign finished. We’ve probably raised more than any other institution in Marin county,” he said.
The school now has over 2,000 students, and roughly 500 additional non-degree-seeking students as well. In order to serve that body and draw still more to the school, Fink said he worked to expand the college’s facilities. “We built new residence halls, acquired a small mansion adjacent to the campus, and are now in the process of renovating a 100-year-old mansion. We demolished the old gym and now have a first-rate recreation facility that allows us to take our athletics to the NCAA Division II, a big jump for a small place like us. The most important thing, though, two years ago, was building a new science and technology center, It’s state of the art, and we’ve attracted young scientists, who in turn attract students. We’ve now got a cooperative with Kaiser, and we have a joint master’s degree program with the Buck Center.”
The growth of the campus and enrollment, while a victory, has also presented challenges, Fink said. “For most of its lifetime, Dominican was a relatively small institution. When it started to grow it became more vibrant, but there was also the issue with neighbors, because it’s surrounded by homes. Traffic and parking and other problems came along. Then we announced we were going to expand the institution and build more facilities, which created more issues. It was rather tense for some time. But for the last decade things have worked out well. We’ve cooperated with the neighbors on issues like parking and traffic, and they’ve come to see us as a community resource; one week they can listen to Al Gore give a lesson, the next they can hear members of the San Francisco Symphony perform.”
Fink said that despite the economy, the university’s boosted enrollment and strong revenue made it a good time to retire, albeit a year later than planned. “We decided to do it now because the school’s in very good shape. We’re probably one of the only institutions in the Bay Area that did not have to lay anybody off or furlough anybody.”
Fink will work to complete fundraising campaigns for the Dominican Heritage and Alumni House and the “Field of Dreams,” the all-weather multipurpose athletic field.
Fink said that despite his work improving the campus and fiscal situation of the university, he tried to keep in mind that students were always the school’s No. 1 priority. “People often ask what I’m most proud of, and I can talk about new facilities, enrollment, how the campus has changed, fundraising, but what I’m most proud of is that we opened the place up. Twenty years ago the student population was very homogeneous, and we made a policy decision that we would go out of our way to get a very diverse population. About a third of our student body are people of color. We did that by going out and raising a hell of a lot of money to provide scholarships and financial aid for students who normally wouldn’t have a shot at coming to a place like Dominican.”
“I was going to retire in 2010, but the economy was so bad, we decided to push it off until 2011,” he said. “I’m 68; it’s time to relax. It’s a 24/7 job. After I stop being president emeritus, I’m going to do something on a part-time basis. I still feel the need to be productive in some way or another.”
That work ethic is to be expected of a veteran of Dominican, which 22 years ago began the heady task of saving itself from a death spiral.
“Dominican was going through a very difficult period,” Fink said. “The male Catholic colleges in the area had gone co-ed, and the female Catholic colleges followed suit. But while many women started going to male schools, not many young men went to the female schools, and many closed. Dominican’s enrollment had fallen; it laid people off and closed departments. To make thing worse, they hired a president in 1987 who started to make significant changes in the institution, but six months later, he was killed in a plane crash.”
Fink said the institution’s campus and faculty were its strengths, and that he’d set about increasing enrollment, at the time a paltry 650 students. “We had to bolster academic programs, do a better job marketing, and go out and raise a lot of money to improve the facilities. But it’s hard to raise money while your institution is tottering, and we had to demonstrate to individuals, corporations and foundations that we were on a path to success. We were able to demonstrate strength and growth each year. And as the enrollment climbed, so did the revenue. My first year, the revenue was $7.2 million. Right now it’s close to $60 million.”
A capital campaign begun by Dominican is an example of Fink’s willingness to challenge the odds. “We had a professional fundraising firm do a feasibility study, and it said we could maybe raise $15 million. Well, we raised about $50 million, and another $20 million since that campaign finished. We’ve probably raised more than any other institution in Marin county,” he said.
The school now has over 2,000 students, and roughly 500 additional non-degree-seeking students as well. In order to serve that body and draw still more to the school, Fink said he worked to expand the college’s facilities. “We built new residence halls, acquired a small mansion adjacent to the campus, and are now in the process of renovating a 100-year-old mansion. We demolished the old gym and now have a first-rate recreation facility that allows us to take our athletics to the NCAA Division II, a big jump for a small place like us. The most important thing, though, two years ago, was building a new science and technology center, It’s state of the art, and we’ve attracted young scientists, who in turn attract students. We’ve now got a cooperative with Kaiser, and we have a joint master’s degree program with the Buck Center.”
The growth of the campus and enrollment, while a victory, has also presented challenges, Fink said. “For most of its lifetime, Dominican was a relatively small institution. When it started to grow it became more vibrant, but there was also the issue with neighbors, because it’s surrounded by homes. Traffic and parking and other problems came along. Then we announced we were going to expand the institution and build more facilities, which created more issues. It was rather tense for some time. But for the last decade things have worked out well. We’ve cooperated with the neighbors on issues like parking and traffic, and they’ve come to see us as a community resource; one week they can listen to Al Gore give a lesson, the next they can hear members of the San Francisco Symphony perform.”
Fink said that despite the economy, the university’s boosted enrollment and strong revenue made it a good time to retire, albeit a year later than planned. “We decided to do it now because the school’s in very good shape. We’re probably one of the only institutions in the Bay Area that did not have to lay anybody off or furlough anybody.”
Fink will work to complete fundraising campaigns for the Dominican Heritage and Alumni House and the “Field of Dreams,” the all-weather multipurpose athletic field.
Fink said that despite his work improving the campus and fiscal situation of the university, he tried to keep in mind that students were always the school’s No. 1 priority. “People often ask what I’m most proud of, and I can talk about new facilities, enrollment, how the campus has changed, fundraising, but what I’m most proud of is that we opened the place up. Twenty years ago the student population was very homogeneous, and we made a policy decision that we would go out of our way to get a very diverse population. About a third of our student body are people of color. We did that by going out and raising a hell of a lot of money to provide scholarships and financial aid for students who normally wouldn’t have a shot at coming to a place like Dominican.”
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