President Riverso speaking at the De La Salle
Medal Dinner in May.
MANHATTAN PHOTOSHELTER / COURTESY
By Grace Cardinal & Jill Tuthill, Editor-in-Chief & Asst. Arts & Entertainment Editor
Just one year after beginning his tenure at Manhattan University, Milo Riverso, Ph.D., is stepping down from his position as president. The announcement was made to the campus community via an email from the Board of Trustees on Sept. 9.
According to the email, Riverso approached the Board of Trustees over the summer about his desire to return to retirement and transition out of his current role due to health reasons. Riverso will continue his involvement with MU through a role as a senior advisor to the Board of Trustees.
“Ever since Milo Riverso arrived on campus as a student in 1977, he has been finding new and impactful ways to give back to the Manhattan University community,” chairman of the Board of Trustees Stephen Squeri said in the email. “On behalf of the Board, I thank him for guiding Manhattan University as President through a challenging period; he is leaving our institution stronger as a result. With the worst of the pandemic’s effects behind us, we have a bright future ahead.”
Riverso began his term as the 21st president of the university on July 1, 2023.
In his time at the institution, Riverso faced criticism from the campus community for laying off over 25% of faculty, consolidating the university’s original six schools into three, raising the minimum class size and merging multiple departments, among other changes.
Riverso is leaving the institution with the belief that no further cuts should be made.
“I don’t believe there’s any more cutting that should be done to this university,” Riverso told The Quadrangle. “We did the cutting that was necessary to try to bring financial stability. We instituted a lot of budgeting reforms and things necessary. Although I can’t declare 100% victory, I believe the university is on the path of sustainability, where hopefully the budget will not grow unless the student enrollment grows with it to support it. That was a Herculean task alone for the administration, for the faculty and to the degree that students were affected.”
In a follow-up statement from Squeri, he too acknowledged the university’s previous financial struggles and cuts made under Riverso’s administration.
“We have taken decisive action in response to the major changes across the post-pandemic higher education landscape so that we can respond more effectively to shifting student needs and expectations,” Squeri wrote. “We have made changes to our structure and offerings – changes that are admittedly never easy – and as a result we are well positioned to deliver on our mission in the years ahead.”
Associate Provost Bridget Chalk, Ph.D., has worked closely with Riverso on a number of different projects, including crafting articulation agreements with other institutions, revamping MU’s education program and the installment of an AI Task Force.
Chalk attributes the necessity of the cuts under Riverso’s administration to a national decline in college enrollment, particularly in the humanities, which led to a surplus of faculty per student than what MU could afford.
According to Chalk, the changes have helped solidify the future of the school.
“The cuts, as painful as they were, did need to happen,” Chalk said. “And we’re all still reeling from that, but at the same time, it’s put us on stable ground. We are now at a place where we can respond to social realities in the changing face of higher education.”
While it’s no secret that the university suffered financially, some students on campus still disagree with how changes were implemented.
“When he [Riverso] came in, he made a lot of promises,” Sammer Abaddi, a senior civil engineering major, said. “After he fired a bunch of people, took away a lot of programs and all these budget cuts, he promised a lot. It’s very strange that he left immediately after. So it’s leaving a lot of us unsure of what’s going to happen next, and kind of untrusting of the institution.”
Riverso explained that the “business model” his administration created is more nimble than those previous, so it’s able to react quickly to socioeconomic changes in the ever-evolving higher education landscape.
“My first day at work, I went around the room and asked them, ‘Are you in the education business? Or are you in business to educate?’,” Riverso said. “The right answer for people in the administration should be that we’re in the education business, and the answer for the entire faculty should be, ‘We’re in business to educate’.” And the two can’t survive without each other. If we don’t run a business with financial stability, with strategically planning how to move forward, how to adapt to the socioeconomic changes…we won’t be around to employ the teachers, the professors, the doctors that are teaching our students. We want them to concentrate on new techniques, on teaching students, on new technologies, on what the education industry is demanding, that people need to be successful in their work life, in their private life, in their business.”
As for transitioning into a new presidency, Riverso believes the process will be seamless for students. Due to recent improvements made by the institution, Chalk agrees.
“I know that some students felt disruption and confusion, and I think that’s in the past,” Chalk said. “We’ve all worked really, really hard over the past six months to make sure that now everything is in place, and ultimately, this is all for the improvement of the institution.”
Riverso is leaving his alma mater with a sense of positivity for the future.
“I see nothing but bright futures for all of our students coming out of college,” Riverso said. “We took some lumps in the press when we did the downsizing of the university, but once that recovers, everything will go very smoothly forward. I’ll miss my alma mater, coming to work every day, but I’ll be doing some physical therapy and trying to rehabilitate – something that I should have probably done in February and didn’t. I postponed it because we were in the midst of a lot of changes.”
Chalk concluded with a comment about the resilience of the university.
“You have to be stable in order to adapt,” Chalk said. “Otherwise, it’s just desperation.”
Riverso will be succeeded by Interim President Frederick Bonato, Ph.D., who will begin his position on Oct. 15.
*Editor’s Note: Angelina Persaud contributed to reporting.
Good riddance. Someone should reverse Riverso’s policies, which have cheapened the College and tarnished its considerable history. Rather than a steward, Riverso has been a wrecking ball, purging faculty, closing entire departments, and bring the School of Arts to its knees, among other things.
If the College survives, Riverso’s tenure will go down as the worst in its history. Sadly, current students know nothing of the College’s storied past (although what can one expect when half of the History department’s faculty has been dismissed), and alumni/ae seem to prefer golf outings, games at Yankee Stadium, or rubbing elbows with Wall Street denizens.
Ubi sunt?