USD Magazine, Summer 2003

Her vision not only gave Hayes the ability ro see the big picture, but also the small details. On Sunday afternoons, after 11 a.m. Mass at The Immaculata, Hayes often hopped in her car and cruised around the campus. She checked the progress of construction and made sure all was shipshape. When something needed attention, she sent out what became known to maintenance managers as Monday– mornmg memos.

University of San Diego reach its full potential. Early on, she made a list of things to accomplish. Now tattered and worn, the list, which she checked often over the years, reads not like a got-to-do list, but a gor-it-done lisr. One priority was to improve academic quality. She capped enroll– ment of entering freshmen at 1,000, so that as more applications flooded in the number of new students didn't change. Thus USO could be more selective in shaping a diverse freshman class with high grades, leadership experience, community service involvement and extracurricular talents. Hayes' first freshman class had a mean grade point average of 3.39 and a mean SAT score of 1110. This year's freshmen, by comparison, had a mean GPA of 3.74 and a mean SAT ,of 1162. The improve– ment was affirmed last summer by The Princeton Review, which added USO to its student guide of top U.S. colleges. The best illustration of Hayes' success in the academic arena, however, was her ability to attract a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Although the decision to grant the campus a charter to the nation's preeminent honor society won't be finalized until August, if approved it will give USO the highest academic honor obtainable by a liberal arts institution. Hayes also focused on faculty, increasing the number of professors by almost 20 percent and acquiring the necessary teaching tools. A few months inro her term, Hayes convinced the Board ofTrustees to commit nearly $500,000 for faculty computers, network infra– structure, computer lab improvements and a new computer classroom in Maher Hall. Now almost all employees have computers, all resi– dence halls are online, several buildings have wireless networks and

USD expanded its worldwide scope in 1996 when the president signed an agreement to collaborate with a university in Monterrey, Mexico. "It gave me a chance to review things without people feeling like I was looking over their shoulders," Hayes says. "It just took 15 or 20 minutes, and it was a way to keep up-to-date on how things were going." Her bifocal view not only allowed her to see near and far, but to inspire chose near and far. Administrators, students and alumni say Hayes kindled confidence in others, and chat she was decisive and quick to show gratitude. At a reception following her farewell Mass, Patrick Drinan, dean of the College ofArts and Sciences, noted that when things go wrong, a true leader looks in the mirror and asks, "Where did I go wrong?" But, when things go right, the leader looks through the window and says, "Look at all chose people, and every– thing they did to make chis happen." Hayes, he said, was such a leader. Drinan's praise is echoed at all echelons of the campus community. From the deans and vice presidents to the students and her personal staff, chose who know Hayes well note how quick she always was to acknowledge that she couldn't do her job,without help. "She's an amazing person," says Elaine Atencio, special assistant to Hayes for three years, who watched the president juggle 300 daily e-mails, countless phone calls and business trips, as well as engage– ments at all hours of the day and night. "She's warm and magnetic. She always finds the positive, even in the negative, and she's so kind. When people walk up and talk to her she's humble." The kindness shone through especially to students. Jenna Jones '03 was the most recent president of Alcala Club, a group of students who escort and assist the president at major events.'Jones, a sociology major, says she learned a great deal from Hayes' work ethic. "She's probably the hardest working person on campus," Jones says. "Each year she invited us to her house and talked to us about her adventures in science or about our future careers. I want to go into student affairs, and I hope someday, ifl ever get to run a college campus, that I can rise to her level of leadership." The president's leadership extended beyond USO to the realm of Catholic higher education and the Catholic Church. In 2002, she was appointed as one of 13 lay persons and only three academics to a board created by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to implement and moniror the Catholic church's zero-tolerance sexual abuse policy. It's a role she'll continue after retirement.

I Bishop Robert Brom offered USD's new president his best wishes following her November 1995 inaugural Mass, over which he presided. the university is implementing an all-encompassing computer system to link departments and allow students to pay fees, order transcripts and register for classes online. "Ir's traditional, at most places, that when tuition is increased by, say, 4 percent, every department's budget li kewise is increased by 4 percent," says Hayes, who also helped build the university's endow– ment from about $40 million to more than $100 million. "But we had some real strategic initiatives we wanted to pursue, so we directed that money to goals like technology and increasing faculty."

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USD MAGA Z I NE