Faculty and students filled the seats of McCormick forum on Thursday, where University President Morton Schapiro hosted the first “Conversations with the President.” The 15-minute talk was followed by a question and answer session open to both the audience and a webcast. Topics ranged from acceptance numbers and finances to diversity and relations with Evanston.
“There were 27,614 undergraduate applications this year, up 70 percent over the last five years. This year the acceptance rate will be 23 percent, soon to pass the magic 20. We’re very close on the cusp on the highest level of selectivity we could ever hope for,” Schapiro said.
Schapiro attributed part of the success to university financing.
“If you actually look at rankings, whether it’s departmental or school rankings. It’s really hard, when everything is going really good, to pass another school. When [the economy] is in flux, there’s a lot more movement. Highly selective private college and universities use 40 to 50 percent of their endowment annually,” Schapiro said. “Given we only give 18 percent of our operating revenues to our endowment, we’re in a better position than virtually anyone.”
Schapiro praised the Strategic Plan for the last decade and emphasized a need for this decade’s plan to be flexible, strategic, compelling and realistic.
Furthermore, he discussed the “Good Neighbor, Great University” policy, an initiative aimed at targeting students in the Chicago and Evanston areas. “We want to be the school of choice for both Evanston and Chicago,” he said. This will encourage relations between Northwestern and its neighboring communities.
“It’ll remind everyone that Northwestern is not in Seattle,” Shapiro joked.
Several audience members posed questions, and Schapiro, more often than not, turned to his colleagues for answers.
“It’s a little daunting [to] enter a new community,” the president said. “I think everyday I’ve learned something new about Northwestern, and I’m hoping this is one of those days.”
This address marked the first of four State of the University talks, held respectively on April 15, 16, 27 and 28 on the Evanston and Chicago campuses.