Could your students recognize the dean of their college if they passed them in a hallway? Would your students feel comfortable striking up a conversation, and would the dean be mindful enough to ask about their classes and the semester?
A seemingly simple question, but for Sacred Heart University President John Petillo this present-mindedness is a difference maker in convincing students to return to an institution.
Presence is when students, professors and staff members are aware of their interconnectivity to the broader community, Petillo explains. It’s why he enjoys asking students what they know about faculty and administrators at the Connecticut institution—and even why one dean began dropping by first-year classes to introduce herself.
This increased attention to presence, Petillo says, is encouraging students to connect with their faculty beyond their studies to talk about personal development and belonging.
“It gets everyone to feel as if they’re part of a community rather than some large organization,” Petillo says.
But campus presence isn’t just marmalade skies. Petillo believes it’s core to why Sacred Heart’s enrollment has increased through the pandemic and recent fall enrollment has tipped north of 2,000 incoming first-year students.
“We’re excited. I don’t want to jinx us. I attribute a lot of our success to the culture,” Petillo says. “When my colleagues ask, ‘How are you doing it?’ and I give them an answer, they look at me strangely. I say, ‘presence’—availability and engagement by faculty and staff.”
Helping under-resourced students succeed
Petillo’s focus on presence also extends to his mindfulness of talent emerging from the Bridgeport, Connecticut, region. Sacred Heart University recently purchased—and now operates—a nearby high school, which Petillo believes will further serve Notre Dame Prep’s predominantly minority population. “We wanted [it] just not as an appendage; it’ll serve as a laboratory, if you will, for our faculty and some of our graduate students to work with their students,” he explains.
Since 2018, approximately 20% of the high school’s graduating class has gone on to study at Sacred Heart, Fox61 reports, and its recent designation as an IB institution will further spur cross-sector education.
The university also plans to invest at least $5 million to renovate the high school’s buildings, upgrade technology and update athletic facilities.
More from UB: Do you agree with this ranking of the best public colleges?
Petillo hopes the renovations will also support Sacred Heart’s decade-old summer program for K-8 students in the broader Bridgeport area. Sacred Heart participates as a chapter of Horizons, a national collective of organizations aimed at advancing educational equity and bridging postsecondary access. University leaders connect Horizons students with the university’s planetarium, community theater and other campus-related programs to help illustrate the value of higher education.
“We have a lot of our own students working as teachers or providing guidance,” Petillo says. “Any of these programs we start, we have to make sure we do something that our students are involved in.”
These efforts don’t even touch Upward Bound, its federally-funded college preparatory program for high school students. Sacred Heart estimates that participants are four times more likely to graduate college.
Defending the liberal arts
Sacred Heart, like other liberal arts colleges across the country, is facing pressure from lawmakers and employers to ensure its students are workforce-ready. Some institutions have responded by retooling their academic programs by providing more vocational, skills-based education. Amid the change, however, the private Roman Catholic University has proven it’s not sacrificing its respect for the humanities.
In 2021, Petillo’s administration added a bachelor’s degree in music and renovated a century-old community theater in nearby Fairfield. The Sacred Heart University Community Theatre is now a state-of-the-art facility for film events, live musical performances and lectures.
Sacred Heart is now infusing classical liberal arts disciplines with cutting-edge alternative credentials. Listen here why:
