Listen Here
By Monica Crawford
crawfordm3@findlay.edu
A week-long series of open forums for University of Findlay presidential candidates wrapped up on Thursday, April 2. Dr. Richard Ludwick presented his goals and ideas during an open forum with faculty and staff in the Winebrenner Auditorium.
His presentation entitled “The Future: Navigating Challenges and Opportunities in the Next Decade,” emphasized the University as a forward thinking institution.
Ludwick is a family man and was raised in close proximity to Findlay, fostering a deep sense of belonging to the University of Findlay.
“Richard and his wife, Melinda, his high school sweetheart and fellow first-generation college graduate, grew up 75 miles from Findlay. “Being here today is for them a genuine homecoming,” said Vice President of Human Resources Heather Ward. “They are the parents of two married children and grandparents of six.”
Ludwick has diverse presidential and vice-presidential experience at the Independent Colleges of Indiana and Albany Law School. However, his most applicable experience is his presidential role at the University of St. Thomas.
“As president of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Richard led a comprehensive institutional elevation that produced seven consecutive years of record-setting enrollment growth, the longest streak in the university’s history, while more than doubling undergraduate enrollment and growing gross revenues by over 100 percent,” said Ward. “Under his financial leadership, UST’s endowment grew 80 percent to 160 million, and the university raised more than 120 million, including the single largest gift and three largest foundation grants in institutional history.”
Ludwick proposed a four-fold solution for UF based around enrollment growth, distinctive excellence, financial strengthening, and innovation.
“You can open the door and let folks in, but if they’re walking right out the door, that doesn’t help them, and it doesn’t help us, so working on that piece of it is a very significant part of how we move forward in growing that enrollment,” said Ludwick. “We have to let people know about the programs we have that are unique and distinctive to this institution.”
“Financial strength is also so important because it ensures our future, it ensures students have the resources that they need, and it takes care of our faculty,” said Ludwick. “We want to create the future with a model that not only ensures the quality that we have now but also makes it better and demonstrably better.”
Ludwick explained the financial issues at St. Thomas including a $5 million a year structural deficit.
“It wasn’t about necessarily cutting because I said earlier you can’t cut your way to prosperity, but you have to get that reeled in,” Ludwick said. “So we did something that is very difficult and that no institution ever wants to do and we let 22 faculty members go.”
Ludwick pointed out that the faculty that were released were non-tenured faculty.
Ludwick gave examples of innovation in his previous experience such as his time as the president of the Independent Colleges of Indiana, Inc.
“We decided that property and casualty insurance was too expensive for our colleges,” Ludwick said. “So guess what we did? We created our own insurance company.”
He says the Indiana Risk Management Association worked.
“It saved those colleges money,” Ludwick said. “They could pass that savings on down to their students or invest it in building out better experiences.”
Ludwick also emphasized the influence of faith in his leadership.
“I am a person of deep Christian faith, and because of that, I sort of intertwine my professional life with my faith life, not in a proselytizing way, but in a way that informs a Christ-centered approach to leadership and to building communities,” said Ludwick. “Because this is a Christian mission-centered institution, I think that we are called to be Christ to one another.”
