48 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • JUNE 2020
MOLLOY PRESIDENT DREW BOGNER OFFERING IT UP
When Molloy College President Drew
Bogner retires in June, he’ll have more
than doubled its student population
and opened its first dormitories despite
having led it through some of America’s
biggest challenges.
Appointed a year before the Sept.
11, 2001 terror attacks, he increased
academic offerings through the Great
Recession, rallied community spirit
after Superstorm Sandy, and is handing
over the reins to an expanded campus
immediately after presiding over the
Rockville Centre college’s coronavirus
pandemic response.
“I really thought I would be easing out,
but I’m working as hard, if not harder,
than any time in my presidency,” Bogner
told the Press.
His 20 years at the helm of the small private
college that Catholic nuns founded
in 1955 is unusually long for someone in
his position. The average tenure of a college
president is five years and getting
shorter with time.
He recalls having to make a major decision
about college operations every
few hours when the coronavirus crisis
first arrived on Long Island. Molloy
announced on March 10 that it was suspending
in-person classes and campus
events for 18 days out of an abundance
of caution, making it one of the first
colleges in the region to take such measures
— a week before Gov. Andrew
Cuomo closed schools across New York
State to stop the spread of the virus.
“Faculty will offer classes via alternate
delivery methods,” the college
said in a statement at the time. “Staff
and administrators who can work
from home may be required to do so
until further notice.”
Fueling concerns for some was the
fact that the college is right down
the road from Mercy Medical Center,
which employs the man who on
March 5 became the first confirmed
coronavirus case on LI.
Before the crisis forced classes and
graduations to be held online for the foreseeable
future — Cuomo, fearing the likelihood
of a second wave of the virus this
fall, had not said as of press time whether
school will be back in September — there
was much progress at Molloy.
While he boosted enrollment from
2,200 to nearly 5,000, what Bogner’s
most proud of is growing Molloy from
a commuter college where students
spent little time outside class to planting
the seeds of a robust campus life
revolving around residence halls that
opened in 2011.
“We’re just a very different kind of
place than when I came,” Bogner says.
Previously known for its nursing and
education programs, new marquee
programs include one of the region’s
top accounting programs, a competitive
speech language pathology
program, and one of the top 20 music
theatre programs in the nation, centered
around its Madison Theatre.
After he retires to his 18-acre Massachusetts
home to write and tend to
his new orchard, his successor will
be James Lentini, the former senior
vice president for academic affairs
and provost at Oakland University in
Rochester, Mich. Bogner says, though,
that he’ll be back to teach leadership
remotely part time after an 18-month
sabbatical.
Among his biggest legacies will
be the formation of the Energeia
Partnership, a nondegree program
that has sharpened the community
stewardship of 500 local leaders
who’ve graduated with certificates
through 12 sessions. Its goal is to help
address some of the pressing issues
that persist on the Island, such as
segregation.
“I think it’s been making a real impact
on Long Island,” he says. “We have a
strong sense of community and we
rally together in ways that I think are
not very common.”
-TB
“We’re just a very different kind of place than when
I came,” says Drew Bogner.
ONLINE LEARNING
Drew Bogner is the second-longest
serving president of Molloy College.
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