Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JULY 14, 2025 15 institution," Hardin said. "My job is to find talent, tap talent and move those great ideas forward." Strong brand Hardin took the reins at a relative lull in the academic calendar year. It gives her time to cement relation- ships with her administrative team and learn the university. The campus will come alive again in August when students and faculty return for the 2025-26 school year. "Our expectation is Marie will seek to understand the university in the first six months, and then come back to us with strategic initiatives and where she wants to lean in," said Charles Saia, a senior partner at CPA and consulting giant Deloitte and chair of Quinnipiac's Board of Trustees. "We hired her for her lead- ership capacity, and because she has been strategic in other roles." One goal, Saia said, is for Quinnipiac to better leverage the high demand for its law and medical schools. The medical school alone had 10,000 applicants for 90 spots this year. And the university is seeking approval from regulators to take in classes of 125 students, he said. With a series of recently completed building projects, a strong endow- ment ($770.2 million as of the 2022- 2023 academic year) and in-demand law and medical schools, Quinnipiac garnered hundreds of candidates for the president's job, Saia said. "Quinnipiac's brand is at an all-time high," he said. "It was a very attractive job for many." Executive leadership consultant Spencer Stuart and the university's search committee narrowed the pool down to nine candidates who were interviewed over Zoom for 90 minutes; then three were chosen to interview in person for another two hours. "Marie rose to the top," Saia said. "We were not just going to hand the keys over to anybody. (Former President Olian) did such a tremen- dous job. The next leader is going to elevate the trajectory of Quinnipiac." Not without challenges Hardin acknowledges she arrives at Quinnipiac as the higher education industry broadly faces a spectrum of challenges. President Trump's administration has cut higher-ed funding, particularly for research. Hardin said the impact has been blunted at Quinnipiac, which is not a research-intensive school. The university said it has lost a National Institutes of Health grant that was pending. Some faculty and staff have been hesitant to apply for federal grants in the current climate, noted Provost Debra Liebowitz. The school is also keeping a close eye on its enrollment, which officials acknowledge is on track to dip this September. Hardin blames recent economic uncertainty, as well as increased questioning of the economic returns yielded by higher education. Like other colleges, Quinnipiac's enrollment trended lower immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping from 9,746 undergraduate and graduate students in the fall of 2020, to 8,788 students in fall 2022. Numbers subsequently trended upward, reaching 9,424 in fall 2024. There is also pressure from popu- lation shifts that are yielding fewer high school graduates, a trend that is expected to exacerbate in the years ahead and is especially acute in the Northeast, Hardin said. Hardin is also keenly aware of the potential for a "digital disruption" in higher education. Alternative digital learning options could increasingly challenge traditional institutions. Quinnipiac will have to be prepared to embrace technology and evolve, she said. The school, Hardin added, also must adapt to more students seeking skills and credentials rather than degrees. "We need to understand and leverage the power of digital tools," Hardin said. Spending for the future Quinnipiac, which has two campuses in Hamden and a third in North Haven, reported revenue of $542 million and expenses of $501 million in fiscal 2023, with assets near $1.89 billion and liabili- ties at $537 million. The university has invested signifi- cantly in facilities in recent years. In 2023, the university opened a renovated and expanded 157,000-square-foot athletics and recreation center. A new 415-bed residence hall opened on its main Hamden campus last fall. A new 79,000-square-foot headquarters for the business school, and a new 137,000-square- foot science and technology hub are slated to open this fall, also on the main campus. The four buildings collectively cost $350 million, according to Quinnipiac. Quinnipiac currently holds about $405 million in debt with a Moody's A3 stable rating. It recently moved to bond $228 million through the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority, a quasi-public state agency that allows not-for-profit organizations to access tax-free debt financing. Mark Varholak, Quinnipiac's chief financial officer, said the new borrowing would be used to refinance existing debt, but the university has not determined exactly how much to borrow, or when to finalize a financing package. "We are waiting for market condi- tions to improve before moving forward, so there is no news to report at this point," Varholak said. With strong annual operating cash flow, the university is able to finance a "substantial" portion of its capital plan without incurring additional debt, Varholak said. Meanwhile, the university is monitoring financial markets for refinancing opportunities that would free up cash, he said. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, some universities paused capital spending, wary of a perceived push to digital learning, said Saia, the Board of Trustees chair. Today, Quinnipiac's main Hamden campus is far larger than when he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in the early 1990s. "We doubled down and made investments when many others were not because they were fearful of higher education being disrupted in terms of online learning," Saia said. "So now, when you walk onto campus, it is sort of unrecognizable." Charles Saia is a senior partner at CPA and consulting firm Deloitte and chair of Quinnipiac's Board of Trustees. He was a key player in selecting Marie Hardin as Quinnipiac's new president. Contributed Photo Mark Varholak TO BECOME A SUBSCRIBER VISIT OR CALL 860-987-5900 BUSHNELL.ORG/SUBSCRIPTION S P O N S O R E D BY Full series package price of $322 is based on series tickets in the rear balcony during the Tuesday, Wednesday, or Sunday evening performances for all eight (8) shows.

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