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Quinnipiac’s
Philosopher
King
BUSINESSPERSON OF THE YEAR
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Business New Haven
1/25/1999
By: Lori Green
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When he penned his 1950 essay on “Philosophy's Ulterior Motives,” British philosopher Bertrand Russell never imagined that within 25 years or so a number of his a priori assumptions would be disproved by American philosopher John L. Lahey, then four years old.
Wrote Russell: “Philosophers for the most part are constitutionally timid and dislike the unexpected. Few of them would be genuinely happy as pirates or
burglars. Accordingly they invent systems which make the future calculable.”
Fifty years later we find that, contrary to Russell's view, John L. Lahey, doctor of philosophy and president of Quinnipiac College, can by no means be counted among the weak-kneed, or found in the executive ranks of control-crazed micromanagers. And even his ever-so-audible, barely detectable, tough-guy Bronx accent hardly makes Lahey seem the seafaring
thieving type.
Yet in keeping with Russell's analysis, Lahey has indeed invented - or re-invented, as the management experts say - a successful free-market model of not-for-profit higher education. Indeed, by aggressively positioning the institution for long-term growth, the Lahey system has rendered Quinnipiac's future both “calculable” and secure.
When Lacey arrived to take over the reins at Quinnipiac 12 years ago, at the age of 41, the college was an obscure, provincial campus with an operating budget of about $20 million. Today Quinnipiac is a $150 million operation. Through strategic acquisitions and adept fundraising campaigns, the school now boasts a fully accredited law school, a school of business, a school of health sciences and even an award-winning AM radio station.
State-of-the-art ice hockey and basketball facilities are under construction in conjunction with Quinnipiac's elevation to Division I athletic competition. The college's student body has doubled over the past decade. Women now compete in ten intercollegiate sports, and the new women's ice hockey team will be elevated to varsity status next season.
How has Lahey been able to advance Quinnipiac out to the leading edge of the higher-ed industry? Or, what is so different about Quinnipiac?
Many other private colleges are struggling to break out of financial straitjackets. Lahey contends that what makes Quinnipiac different is that it isn't chasing every market. “That way the school stays focused and concentrates its resources on strengthening the quality of its programs,” he explains. “People are not going to pay the costs of a private education for mediocrity.”
Unlike the men riveted into passive fascination with their own ideas projected as shadows on the walls of Plato's cave, Lahey gets out there and brings his visions to the front line.
After receiving his Ph.D. in philosophy, Lahey earned a master's degree in higher education administration from Columbia University. “I was an ambitious philosopher,” Lahey explains.
Later executive vice president and chief operating officer at Marist (N.Y.) College, Lahey is now a member of the boards of directors of the United Illuminating Co., Yale-New Haven Hospital and Long Wharf Theatre. Lahey has also served on boards at Gaylord Hospital, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the Regional Plan Association, the Greater New Haven Regional Leadership Council and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. He is also immediate past president of the board of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges.
The Quinnipiac success story began with a plan.
Explains Lahey: “Over 100 people, including board members, staff, faculty and alumni, contributed to develop our strategic plan. Quinnipiac has certain strengths historically, advantages because of location, and opportunities that we identified on the basis of those advantages. We aimed to play to our strengths.”
One of Lahey's guiding tenets is that since private institutions are priced at the high end of the market, they must offer corresponding quality.
“People are willing to pay a little more for a particular product or service as long as there is some extra value, quality or something unique about what they're getting.”
Lahey exemplifies a disciplined but expansive management style. “As CEO you have to be willing to take the heat and criticism from some people in the organization. Once you've set priorities, you're going to make a few enemies. Good basic strategic planning provided a discipline for us so that we can let certain things go and say, 'No, we don't do that.'”
When Lahey and his team do say yes, it seems to pay off big. Major strides have been made in upgrading program quality and adapting curricula to meet intensifying marketplace demand for health-care and business professionals.
For instance, during the past decade construction was completed of a $4.5 million Echlin Health Sciences Center, the Lender School of Business (seeded by bagel maven Murray Lender, a QC alumnus), and the Ed McMahon (yes, that Ed McMahon) Mass Communications Center.
The School of Law Center, replete with a 250,000-volume law library, was purchased in 1992 from the ailing University of Bridgeport for $1 million. Since coming on-line at Quinnipiac, the law school has been completely self-supporting, paying the full cost of its purchase within two years.
Gains in quality and scope have earned Quinnipiac its wings: As of July 1, 2000, the college becomes “Quinnipiac University.”
Lahey acknowledges that initially he had mixed feelings about the change.
“We want to be a major player in our market and not take our eye off the ball, which is 4,000 full-time undergraduates, three-quarters of whom live on our campus,” he explains. “If we were to grow much beyond 4,000 undergraduates, we would lose the small college and university life that we have. We don't want to be selling on the cheap.”
With enrollment capped, Quinnipiac University's net revenue increases will be realized through tuition increases, fundraising and maximizing economies and efficiencies. Lahey envisions that further use of new technologies such as satellite communications, Internet and computer-assisted learning will allow the school to reach more students at lower cost.
The low-tech but high profile Quinnipiac College Polling Institute is already reaching more prospective students and winning the school a premier reputation with various media, research firms and government agencies.
The college pays students out of its own budget to conduct polls so it is able to maintain the operation's integrity and independence. But why not, in the spirit of free enterprise and joint ventures, find a strategic partner to foot the bill?
Answers Lahey: “Independence of the poll is absolutely critical. Major media outlets would be happy to pay the costs to join up with us, but we have turned those invitations down. Our poll is more respected and widely covered than many of the more established - but compromised - polling centers.”
Lahey lives in Cheshire, not far from the Quinnipiac campus, with his wife Judith Paxton Lahey and their two college-aged sons, Brenton and Robert. Still active in community affairs in his native New York, he has been a committee member of New York City's St. Patrick's Day parade since 1976. And in 1997, Lahey led the parade as grand marshall, an event which commemorated the 150th anniversary of the worst year of the Irish famine.
While a lifelong lover of the academy and its values, Lahey isn't reticent about his view that fundamental business principles are consistent with the mission and objectives of higher education.
“I'm a free-market person,” Lahey says. “A college or university is a business in many respects. It's selling a product, it has to communicate that product, market it, deliver on quality, meet a payroll, negotiate at times with organized labor and maintain high morale among its employees. We have a public sector in higher education that ought to be there. To remain private means having the flexibility to call your own shots and not go to the state with your hat in your hand.” No idle speculation here.
Lahey believes that his training in philosophy helps him to see the broader picture and not get bogged down in irrelevant or technical incidentals. “I've found this very helpful in conducting business on the boards I've served on. However, business principles having to do with valuing and managing human resources might be the most important concepts I've applied. Success now depends on running universities more like businesses,” he says.
Accordingly, Lahey recently convinced one of his sons to major in finance. Oh, yes - and to take a few philosophy courses.
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