54 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • AUGUST 2021
BACK TO SCHOOL
DONALD BOOMGARDEN, PRESIDENT OF ST. JOSEPH’S COLLEGE EDUCATION BOOM
BY CLAUDE SOLNIK
As president of St. Joseph’s College,
Donald Boomgarden, Ph.D., leads a
school with campuses in Patchogue and
Brooklyn as well as online. He talked
with us about leadership, launching
new degrees, thriving nursing and
education programs, construction, and
getting back to in-person education.
What's the role of a college president
today and has it changed dramatically?
I think it’s got to be one of the most
challenging periods in history for all
of us. I don’t think the role of the president
has changed all that much, but the
complexity of the job has changed. The
role of the president to be the leader of
the community — and provide insights
and make decisions and be thinking of
the good of the institution and the community
around it — is the same.
How did you and the institution deal
with and adapt to the pandemic?
We took a practical approach. St.
Joseph’s College is primarily nonresidential.
That gave us a lot of flexibility.
We have an advanced online program.
We had a large staff and faculty familiar
with remote learning. So we shifted
quickly and successfully to remote
learning. We were able to not only maintain,
but increase, our enrollments.
The expertise in that area allowed St.
Joseph’s to do quite well.
How do you focus on both the Brooklyn
and Long Island campuses?
I spend about three days a week on Long
Island and about three days a week in
Brooklyn. I travel back and forth every
week. That allows me to stay on top of
everything on each campus.
What differentiates the campuses in
terms of studies?
We try to offer the same programs
on each campus. In Patchogue, one
of the leading areas for St. Joseph’s is
education. There are thousands of St.
Joseph-educated teachers in the public
and private schools on Long Island.
That’s a major impact the college has
had for a long time.
Which programs are big and growing
in addition to education?
We’ve seen an explosion of interest in
nursing. That continues to be so popular.
Nursing has a seriously complex accreditation
process. You’re only allowed
to have X number of majors. We easily
meet our numbers in nurses every year.
What other areas are particularly
popular?
We’ve seen great growth in education,
which runs contrary to what’s happening
in most of the country. Majors
like criminal justice and majors in the
liberal arts and in the sciences, biology
and chemistry.
What are some of the specialties for
your online “campus?”
That continues to be an area of great
growth. We offer 27 different programs
fully online. A number of them
are graduate. We have accounting,
business management, healthcare
administration, education. We’ve seen
almost double- digit growth in online
programs.
Can you update us on the new student
center?
It’s a $17 million structure. It will be
open by spring of 2023, 32,000 square
feet, in Patchogue. It will have classrooms
and offices as well as spaces
for students, including dining areas
and gathering areas for student life, a
chapel, and an art gallery. It will be a
beautiful building.
What new degrees are in the works?
We have a number of new degrees
coming. Probably the most significant is
the master’s of social work. I think that
will be really important after we get
through this pandemic. This summer,
we just started a teaching of English as
a second language master’s program.
There are some other things we’re doing
as well, including a bachelor’s of science
in computer science education. It trains
people to be teachers of computer science
in the schools. That fits beautifully
into our education program.
How do people react when you introduce
yourself as a college president?
I never do. I still teach. My first year, I
was teaching a class. The chair of the
education department said, “Don, one
of my students is in your class.” I said,
“How do they like it?” She said, ‘He
thinks you’re really funny. He said, ‘My
teacher’s so funny. He keeps saying he’s
the president!’”
How do you introduce yourself?
Sometime, people say, “Where do you
work?” I say, “I work at St. Joseph’s.”
Then they tell me about St. Joseph’s.
They will say wonderful things about
the school. When I went to get my inoculation,
I went to a firehouse in Suffolk
County. The nurse checking me in recognized
me. She was a graduate of St.
Joseph’s. Several people working there
were from St. Joseph’s.
How does your music background fit
into your academic role?
I think there are a lot of connections.
I was trained as a classical pianist and
musicologist and music historian. What
you learn in music is discipline. You
learn to sit in a chair for many hours
and work on a very small thing to make
it perfect. That’s an important skill. I
can apply the same rigor to an administrative
problem.
Do you still perform?
I give a recital every year. Last year
right before the pandemic, I gave a recital
of the piano works of Franz Liszt.
This year, unless the pandemic stops us,
I’m working on a recital program of the
works of Gershwin. I try to play every
year. I love to play. But it’s a great way
to connect with faculty and students. It
gives you a chance for them to see you
as a person, not just a president.
What are the plans for in-person
education?
We’re going to go back to in-person in
the fall. God willing, that’s our plan. We
have everything set up to do that. Our
plan is to be fully back to the pre-pandemic
approach on both campuses in
the fall.
Are people excited, or a little apprehensive,
or both, about the fall?
I know people have a mixture of excitement
and anxiety. I think the regular
things we have planned will seem special
after what we went through. Faculty
meetings, informal gatherings when
students come back for orientation.
When classes begin, those will all have
a special significance after what we’ve
been through.
Donald Boomgarden
“We’ve seen an explosion of interest in nursing.
That continues to be so popular.”
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
