News Scrapbook 1980-1981

HUGHES: School Led (o New Heights Contiaued from Flnt Pace . "He bas performed even better than we had antici- pated." aay1 Anita Flg\leredo, vice chairman of the board and a member of the search committee that se- lected Hughes for the president's post from among some 240 applicants 10 yean ago. "The university has mo~ed ahead on every front." Despite such comment.I - one heart similar superla- · tlv from students, faculty and community ~eaders - Hughes is self. effacing about his accomplishments. A.sited during a ~ent interview what he did to put the university on solid financial footing, Hu,}les said: "These things evolve and they are not attributable to me but to the group of peopl~ who make up this com- munity here. In terna of fmances, it. waa- necessary to generate the enrollment, Increase the tuition and in- crease our fund-nislng eflon&• · "1t wu necessary to have a budgeting system with effective internal controls to make sure that we didn't nd more than we had to spend." he said. Geta Major Cncllt I But those familiar with USD's internal workings give Hughe • the major credit for revamping a loosely con- trolled bookkeeping system that. under the old adminis- • tratlve structun. led the College for Men and the Law School Into serioUS debt. Upon his arrival Hughes instituted a closely-moni- tored system of budget and fiscal cofltrols that enabled USD gradually to retire lta deficit over a period of eeveral years, showing it.a_ fint operating- surplus in 1976, according to Sister Sally _Furay. USO vice presi- dent. USO was chartered in 1949 and until 1967 consisted of t o am.all Htonomous institutions, the College for Women, built and operated by the Society of the Sacred Heart. and the College for Men and the School of Law, supported by the Catholic Dioce,e of San Diego. Each college wu run as a separate nonprofit corpora• Uon. ch with its own enrollment,. board of trustees, t-culty, fl.rwlc 811d administration. But the Roman Catholic Church's Vatican Council n. which espouaed cooperation among Catholic educa- tional Institutions, prompted admimstrators at both col- leges to co der merger, recalls Furay, who J(lined the f cuJty profeaot of English nearly 30 years ago. C.~ C.m•tae4 The melding began in 1987 with the combining of stu - nt vemments and some courses. By 1970, the cur- nculum, dmisllons. food rY1Ce, regi!trar nd finan• clal aid aervicee had been merged. But t.o complete the unlon, aome thorny l11Ues had to be resolved. There wu the question of what would happen to the W1lvers1ty'1 asseu if the merger of the College for Men and the Law School. which had accumulated a Stzable deficit after the diocese discontinued funding in 1968, w1lh the older College for Women. which was sell · aufficient and aolvent. wer~ unsuccessful. And the boards of trustees of both 11::hools, who ran the colleges, would aJao have to be umfied. Pleue '"'HUGHES.Pare~

HUGHES: School Led to New Continued from 2nd Page "There were two cook and one broth,' srud Furay, who was dean of the College for Women at the time "To agree on (hinng) a single president was al. ost a natural outgrowth of what had gone on from the grass .roots up." One of 5 Finalists Enter Author Hughes. one of five finahsts for the USD presidency. The timing could not have been better. After years of choosing presidents who were members of a religious order, USD trustees decided at the time of the merger "that we would take the person - male, female lay (person) or cleric - who was best qualified" for the Job said Figueredo. With a background in business educa- tion and administration and computer science, Hugh proved the strongest contender "He had looks and personality and confidence and a proven abllity (at leadership) and then he rad Marge .. She was a bonus, like his being Catholic," said Fi- gueredo of Mrs. Hughes, an outgoing mother of four who frequently entertains USO offlr1als and vmt.ors at Casa de Alcala, the sunny, spacious official res1denre of the USD president and his family. By the time Hughes amved for his mterv1ew with USD administrators, he had long shed whatever am- bivalent feelings he once had about academia. Hlrher ducatlon After graduating from Eastern Illinms Cr1ve 1ty in 1951 with a bachelor's degree in business education he won a master's degree In the same subJect at Northern Colorado Umvers1ty, then earned a Ph.D. tn buSlness administration at the Umverstty of Iowa. He taught high school busme courses wh1.e w rk mg summers on hlS master's degree in Colorado, hen r turned to Eastern IlhnotS to teach accounting af er a fnend alerted bun to an opening. While there, he renewed his romance with his co ege sweetheart, Marjone, a Catholic smce birth, after he learned from her sister that she was "still single" and teaching at a high school down tate. It was then, shortly before they married. that he converted to Ca- tholtc1sm, a decision that was to profoundly affect the direction of his personal and professional fe Hughes said that Marjorie did not pre ur him nto converting, but he had known from their college ay "that her faith was very important to her . I thou ht I'd check it out and I did, unbeknown to her ' He began reading the work of Catholic thinkers su h t Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine and studying w ha local priest. """=~=""l::'!'::Tr.:y;--:, Tom,,ttat the were onvers..tions about tholicism and what the tenets of that faith are " he said. "I had no problems with the values at all " Th w e ly talks led to his decision to convert - a surprise to his fiancee - <\lld a lasting spmtual commitment for Hughes. "It wasn't (something) he really did basically fo me but really for him," recalls Marge Hughes. "It was 'We were lookingfor a person with real high values . • . •' ei hts something he ~anted and he's always been very strong in his fruth. He s not Just a Sunday Catholic He likes to a~tend daily Mass as often as he can, whether 1t be the o clock Mass at the Immaculata or the 12:15 studen Mass." In their search for a new president:, USD off1c a found that quality in Hughes a strong inducemen W were looking for a person w1th·real high values who had given eVJdence of that in their personal life," sa1 F1 gueredo. After a short teaching stint at a state college m Penn sylvama, Hughes m 1961 had taken a position as profes- sor of busine s at Northern Anzona University in Flagstaff. In 10 years he rose through the ranks to dean of the Business School and academic vice presid nt while the state-run inst1tut1on's enrollment went from 2,100 to 9,000. Sourht Bluer Job After deciding that he'd like to try a college pres1 dency - but reahzmg that it would be several years br- fore his friend and mentor, NAU President J. Lawrence W lkup, retrred - Hughes learned of and applied for the t;SD post. _He a_dmi_ts that the financial problems facing the San Diego institution gave him reason for "a little pause. Even now, when the university IS fiscally healthy, fi- nances and fund-raising continue to be his biggest concerns. ,"Financing a private institution 1s always a problem Its true of every private mstitution in the country whether it's Harvard or Notre Dame or Stanford" h saJd. "It's the magnitude of the problem that differ~. Its hard to think about Harvard having financia problrms with a b1lhon-and-a-half (dollar) endowment, but the, do have financial problems " Ninety-one percent of USD's revenues come from student sources, mainly tuition, making a healthy en- rollment the key to survival. he added. "You look at the school that's having enrollment difficulties and that's the school that's in trouble, because we're nearly all de- pendent" on tuition. Tuition Costs Up The prit'e of attending USD has about tnpled durmg Hughes' tenure, and is now $4,480 annually for under- graduates and $4,980 for law students. Hughes has watched with concern and interest as •n recent years, several private colleges in Cahforn1a h~ve floundered and closed, among them Ambassador Col- lege 1~ Pasadena and Lone Mountain College in San Francisco, also a Roman Catholic in titution. Act'ordmg

Unusual Spelling Grandmother's Slip Led to Rare ame

JQl'"1 McDONOUGH / I'°' Ansel Ttm the full-scale courtroom used by students.

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--.-- GHES: School Led to Educational Heights Cudaaecl hom Sth Pa,e· . · · ' wnl>Ccommodate En> additional.students haa just peen :i: ~~:geaht - bu_!,~t e~esaarily Catholi- CCIUl~eted. ' ""' U a ""'"''puue ... not a cat.e- ,•.-although it is thriving, USD Is not problem-free =takapproaltch.lWe're nowt sayin1 Ulil la the way It la, _. • • · , e or eave it. e're 111,Ying thi. is an inter •.~•• Prelllems , pretation of Scripture, of moral theology ...•" say; Same of the universit.y'1 concerns revolve around ita Hughes. ~e. · While the cuual obeerver might mistake the 180- ; -Hqghes believes a larp part of hil role as president is acre campua for a seminary;in fact USD'1 lltudents are ~rrect the rniltaken Impression • he feel • many San generally l~g eecu1ar trades. Business la the most . ~ve a?Out usn. "I think most people thltdt of popular maJOr for Wldergr&duates, while law attracts i1. a pre-Vatican D inltitution where. most atudents the larfest number of graduat.estudent& ¢iefeb to class," _he laid, an image perhape bolstered by 1-kof vi.1•111tT apoUess white building, topped with croaes that Lack of visfbilit Is ha the campua. • USD~rs. Y per Pl the biffeJt frustration of i ,.:.~5t. besides havln, a student body whose rtllgtoua USD trustee Ftrueredo, a La Jolla physician, say, the ~,....,.,itfon haa steadily grown more diver.e today university ,always haa lived In the shadow of UC San nearly 93~ of the faculty are laymen. Attendance at Diego and San Diego State University "and J think daily mass 1s no longer compulaory. · 8llll do." . ' . • v,e Studetits must take m unit • of phil010pby and nine Pl.... _ HUGHES, Paro T

-P ULA PARKER