WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.040 OK, so picture the scene. It's February 1860. 00:00:04.719 --> 00:00:07.160 The United States is effectively sitting on a 00:00:07.160 --> 00:00:09.880 powder keg. We're just months away from the election 00:00:09.880 --> 00:00:12.539 of Abraham Lincoln. And the country is, well, 00:00:12.699 --> 00:00:14.699 it's tearing itself apart at the seams. You can 00:00:14.699 --> 00:00:17.100 really feel the tension. Oh, absolutely. It is 00:00:17.100 --> 00:00:19.320 arguably the most volatile moment in American 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:22.320 history. Everything is uncertain. Right. And 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.239 right in the middle of this chaos on the edge 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:27.190 of the frontier in Quincy, Illinois. a group 00:00:27.190 --> 00:00:30.309 of German Franciscan friars arrives. Now, looking 00:00:30.309 --> 00:00:32.630 at the timeline, you'd expect maybe they're building 00:00:32.630 --> 00:00:36.109 a fort or maybe just keeping their heads down 00:00:36.109 --> 00:00:38.250 and trying to stay out of the way. But no. No, 00:00:38.549 --> 00:00:40.929 exactly. They decide to plant a flag and build 00:00:40.929 --> 00:00:42.869 a school. And not just a school, really. They 00:00:42.869 --> 00:00:45.329 were building a cultural anchor. That is a really 00:00:45.329 --> 00:00:47.189 important distinction to make right up front. 00:00:47.450 --> 00:00:50.210 It is. So welcome to the Deep Dive. Today we 00:00:50.210 --> 00:00:52.030 are looking at the source material on Quincy 00:00:52.030 --> 00:00:54.399 University. And the mission here isn't just to 00:00:54.399 --> 00:00:56.700 talk about a small college in Illinois. We want 00:00:56.700 --> 00:00:59.820 to figure out how an institution started by 19th 00:00:59.820 --> 00:01:03.119 century friars survives the Civil War, two world 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:05.299 wars, and the Great Depression. Not to mention 00:01:05.299 --> 00:01:07.620 the modern higher education landscape. Right. 00:01:07.659 --> 00:01:09.599 To end up offering something called sprint football 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:13.239 and producing an alumni list that includes both 00:01:13.239 --> 00:01:16.359 a candidate for sainthood and a notorious serial 00:01:16.359 --> 00:01:19.709 killer. It's a completely wild trajectory. And 00:01:19.709 --> 00:01:21.969 when you look at the Wikipedia overview we're 00:01:21.969 --> 00:01:24.730 using as our source today, the history, the financial 00:01:24.730 --> 00:01:27.469 reports, the architecture, you realize this is 00:01:27.469 --> 00:01:30.469 a fascinating case study and adaptation. It really 00:01:30.469 --> 00:01:33.549 is. It's about how you hold onto an ancient identity, 00:01:33.709 --> 00:01:35.950 that Franciscan intellectual tradition, while 00:01:35.950 --> 00:01:39.010 desperately trying to survive in the modern cutthroat 00:01:39.010 --> 00:01:41.409 business of higher education. So let's go back 00:01:41.409 --> 00:01:44.530 to that freezing February in 1860. They didn't 00:01:44.530 --> 00:01:46.810 call it Quincy University then. No, it was originally 00:01:46.810 --> 00:01:49.150 St. Francis Solanus College. A bit of a mouthful, 00:01:49.150 --> 00:01:51.819 but it tells you exactly who they were. St. Francis 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:54.819 Solanus was a Franciscan missionary, and that 00:01:54.819 --> 00:01:57.159 fits perfectly because these friars were missionaries 00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:00.000 themselves. Right. They had left Germany specifically 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:03.379 to serve the massive wave of German immigrants 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:05.700 flooding into the Midwest. That's a key piece 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:08.620 of context I think people miss. Quincy, Illinois 00:02:08.620 --> 00:02:10.620 was a boom town at the time, but it was a German 00:02:10.620 --> 00:02:12.719 boom town. Exactly. If you walk down the street 00:02:12.719 --> 00:02:16.280 in Quincy in 1860, you were just as likely to 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:19.180 hear German spoken as English. So this college 00:02:19.180 --> 00:02:21.629 wasn't just about hiring in the abstract, it 00:02:21.629 --> 00:02:24.229 was about preserving faith and culture for a 00:02:24.229 --> 00:02:26.849 very specific demographic. And they started at 00:02:26.849 --> 00:02:28.650 8th and Main Street, but the real transformation 00:02:28.650 --> 00:02:31.650 happens a few years later under Father Anselm 00:02:31.650 --> 00:02:33.889 Mueller. Mueller's a fascinating character in 00:02:33.889 --> 00:02:36.870 these notes. He takes over in 1863. Right in 00:02:36.870 --> 00:02:39.110 the middle of the Civil War. Yes. And he stays 00:02:39.110 --> 00:02:42.169 president for 37 years. Which is unheard of. 00:02:42.270 --> 00:02:44.949 Today, a university president lasts, what, maybe 00:02:44.949 --> 00:02:48.409 five years? Seven? It's a notoriously high burnout 00:02:48.409 --> 00:02:51.259 job. If they're lucky. 37 years is a reign. It 00:02:51.259 --> 00:02:53.759 really is. And that kind of longevity allows 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:56.379 you to build a true legacy. Mahler is the one 00:02:56.379 --> 00:02:59.560 who says we need to move. He buys the property 00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:01.639 on College Avenue, which is where they are today, 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:04.139 and he oversees the construction of Francis Hall. 00:03:04.900 --> 00:03:07.080 Now, looking at the architectural notes, this 00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:09.979 isn't just a classroom building. This is a fortress 00:03:09.979 --> 00:03:12.759 of German identity. The sources describe it as 00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:15.099 having strong German architectural influences. 00:03:15.550 --> 00:03:18.969 built between 1871 and 1898. I mean, that is 00:03:18.969 --> 00:03:21.870 a 27 -year construction project. They were building 00:03:21.870 --> 00:03:24.069 it to last a thousand years. It's limestone. 00:03:24.250 --> 00:03:26.830 It's heavy. It completely anchors the campus. 00:03:27.370 --> 00:03:29.750 But here is the tension. They built this German 00:03:29.750 --> 00:03:32.569 fortress, but the world around them kept changing. 00:03:32.969 --> 00:03:35.550 And you see this reflected perfectly in the name 00:03:35.550 --> 00:03:38.169 changes over the decades. Right. St. Francis 00:03:38.169 --> 00:03:40.990 Solanus College becomes just Quincy College in 00:03:40.990 --> 00:03:44.169 1917. Now, 1917, that is not a coincidence. Not 00:03:44.169 --> 00:03:46.750 at all. World War I is raging. The United States 00:03:46.750 --> 00:03:50.830 is at war with Germany. Suddenly being a overtly 00:03:50.830 --> 00:03:53.069 German institution with a foreign sounding name 00:03:53.069 --> 00:03:55.669 isn't a selling point. It's a massive liability. 00:03:56.129 --> 00:03:58.229 It's survival mode. You have to read the room. 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:01.659 Precisely. Changing it to Quincy College grounds 00:04:01.659 --> 00:04:04.080 it in the local American geography. It says we 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.000 are part of this city, not we are part of the 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:09.060 old world. It's a rebranding exercise forced 00:04:09.060 --> 00:04:12.520 by geopolitics. And then much later, in 1993, 00:04:13.139 --> 00:04:15.680 it shifts again to Quincy University. That's 00:04:15.680 --> 00:04:18.779 a status signal. By the 90s, they had added graduate 00:04:18.779 --> 00:04:22.040 programs like master's degrees in business, education, 00:04:22.339 --> 00:04:25.339 counseling. In the American hierarchy, University 00:04:25.339 --> 00:04:28.000 carries a lot more weight than college. It signals 00:04:28.000 --> 00:04:30.360 professional preparation. It tells prospective 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:32.699 students that the institution has grown up. But 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:35.259 this is the thing that really surprised me. Despite 00:04:35.259 --> 00:04:37.779 the rebranding, the wars, and the modernization, 00:04:38.259 --> 00:04:42.629 they kept the original motto. I am the herald 00:04:42.629 --> 00:04:44.810 of the great king. It's the dying words of St. 00:04:44.990 --> 00:04:46.850 Francis Solanus. It's their way of saying, you 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:48.910 can call us Quincy, you can give us graduate 00:04:48.910 --> 00:04:51.990 programs, but at the core, we are still friars. 00:04:52.089 --> 00:04:54.329 Let's dig into that academic aspect because the 00:04:54.329 --> 00:04:58.209 history here is surprisingly practical. I think 00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:00.870 we have this stereotype that religious schools 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:04.350 in the 1800s were just teaching Latin, theology, 00:05:04.550 --> 00:05:06.889 and maybe some philosophy. The classic ivory 00:05:06.889 --> 00:05:10.089 tower stereotype? Right. I'm looking at the notes 00:05:10.089 --> 00:05:12.829 from the 1870s, and they are teaching commercial 00:05:12.829 --> 00:05:15.310 programs. They're teaching accounting alongside 00:05:15.310 --> 00:05:18.290 Aquinas. That is the Franciscan pragmatism coming 00:05:18.290 --> 00:05:20.250 through. You have to remember who their students 00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:22.129 were. They were the sons of immigrants. They 00:05:22.129 --> 00:05:24.829 needed to run hardware stores, breweries, farms. 00:05:25.209 --> 00:05:27.089 They needed to build a local economy. They needed 00:05:27.089 --> 00:05:30.050 jobs. Exactly. The Friars understood that if 00:05:30.050 --> 00:05:32.610 you want to elevate a community, you can't just 00:05:32.610 --> 00:05:35.529 feed the soul. You have to feed the family. That 00:05:35.529 --> 00:05:37.829 DNA feels very present in how they're structured 00:05:37.829 --> 00:05:40.629 today. They have five schools now, Fine Arts 00:05:40.629 --> 00:05:43.610 and Communication, Humanities, Science and Technology, 00:05:44.089 --> 00:05:46.310 Education and Human Services, and the Oakley 00:05:46.310 --> 00:05:48.829 School of Business. But the source material highlights 00:05:48.829 --> 00:05:51.610 a specific initiative launched in 2020 called 00:05:51.610 --> 00:05:54.639 Success by Design. This is probably the most 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:56.160 critical thing they are doing right now. And 00:05:56.160 --> 00:05:58.459 to understand why, you have to understand the 00:05:58.459 --> 00:06:01.040 current crisis in higher education. The enrollment 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:04.600 cliff. Exactly. There are simply fewer 18 year 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.420 olds in America right now. Small colleges are 00:06:07.420 --> 00:06:09.720 fighting for their lives. Parents and students 00:06:09.720 --> 00:06:12.199 are asking if this degree is actually worth the 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:15.639 debt. So Quincy launches Success by Design. It 00:06:15.639 --> 00:06:18.980 is essentially a promise of hyper personalization. 00:06:19.240 --> 00:06:22.160 The documentation says every undergraduate gets 00:06:22.160 --> 00:06:25.459 an individual Student Success Plan. And not just 00:06:25.459 --> 00:06:28.220 once, but updated every single year. Think about 00:06:28.220 --> 00:06:31.180 the massive labor that requires. At a giant state 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:34.139 university, you are often just a number. You 00:06:34.139 --> 00:06:36.399 might see an academic advisor for 10 minutes 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:39.319 once a semester. Quincy is flipping that model 00:06:39.319 --> 00:06:41.680 completely. They are saying, we are small and 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.180 that is our superpower. We'll curate your entire 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:46.220 four years to make sure you get a return on your 00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:48.420 investment. It includes what they call high -impact 00:06:48.420 --> 00:06:51.810 learning. research, internships. But they pair 00:06:51.810 --> 00:06:53.610 it with something called the Bonaventure program. 00:06:53.930 --> 00:06:56.709 Which is their general education core. And the 00:06:56.709 --> 00:06:58.629 non -negotiable part of that program is service. 00:06:58.930 --> 00:07:00.490 It doesn't matter if you are a nursing major 00:07:00.490 --> 00:07:03.470 or a computer science major, you have to do service 00:07:03.470 --> 00:07:05.509 hours. That ties directly back to those friars 00:07:05.509 --> 00:07:08.850 in 1860. It does. They are telling students, 00:07:08.850 --> 00:07:12.269 get your job, make your money, but remember you 00:07:12.269 --> 00:07:14.569 are part of a broader community. It's that exact 00:07:14.569 --> 00:07:17.870 blend of the commercial and the spiritual again. 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:20.540 It really does seem like they are trying to produce 00:07:20.540 --> 00:07:24.240 a very specific type of person. Now, we talked 00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:26.379 about Francis Hall being the anchor, but let's 00:07:26.379 --> 00:07:27.860 mentally walk the campus for a second so you 00:07:27.860 --> 00:07:31.000 can really picture it. It's described as compact 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:33.259 and walkable. It's nice, but I love the quirks. 00:07:33.560 --> 00:07:35.199 The quirks are always where the history hides. 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:37.259 The quirks tell the best stories. What stood 00:07:37.259 --> 00:07:41.399 out to you? The chapel. built in 1911, a beautiful, 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:44.279 holy space. But the notes say the design was 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:46.720 shortened and modified for a very specific reason. 00:07:46.860 --> 00:07:49.519 To save the baseball field. Yes, I love that 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:52.399 detail so much. 1911, they were building a literal 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:54.600 house of God and someone says, well, if we build 00:07:54.600 --> 00:07:56.779 the nave too long, we lose center field. And 00:07:56.779 --> 00:07:59.540 the baseball field won. Or at least it forced 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:02.759 a serious architectural compromise. It speaks 00:08:02.759 --> 00:08:05.019 volumes about the American college experience. 00:08:05.730 --> 00:08:07.910 Athletics and faith have always been competing 00:08:07.910 --> 00:08:11.550 religions in a way, but it also shows how incredibly 00:08:11.550 --> 00:08:14.529 tight the campus fumbprint is. They are locked 00:08:14.529 --> 00:08:16.610 into a residential neighborhood near the business 00:08:16.610 --> 00:08:19.110 district. They have to fight for every square 00:08:19.110 --> 00:08:21.629 inch. Speaking of fighting for space, they did 00:08:21.629 --> 00:08:23.970 expand to what they call North Campus. Which 00:08:23.970 --> 00:08:27.529 is a fascinating example of adaptive reuse. That 00:08:27.529 --> 00:08:30.209 facility used to be a Franciscan seminary. It 00:08:30.209 --> 00:08:32.289 was where they specifically trained priests, 00:08:32.529 --> 00:08:35.009 but as the number of vocations dropped over the 00:08:34.889 --> 00:08:37.250 decades, they didn't just sell it off, they converted 00:08:37.250 --> 00:08:39.649 it. Now it houses the science and technology 00:08:39.649 --> 00:08:42.289 division and the Connie Nieman Center for Music. 00:08:42.889 --> 00:08:44.830 So the chapel where they used to pray is now 00:08:44.830 --> 00:08:47.659 a media studio. Essentially, yes, it houses the 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:50.019 Quincy Media Incorporated television studio, 00:08:50.299 --> 00:08:52.620 too. They turn the sacred into the scientific 00:08:52.620 --> 00:08:55.159 and the broadcast. Though, again, a Franciscan 00:08:55.159 --> 00:08:57.139 will probably tell you that studying biology 00:08:57.139 --> 00:08:59.179 or communicating truth is just another way of 00:08:59.179 --> 00:09:01.320 studying creation. It's a very practical use 00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:04.360 of their asset. And we can't talk about the campus 00:09:04.360 --> 00:09:06.299 without mentioning the limestone walls around 00:09:06.299 --> 00:09:09.330 the athletic fields. built in the 1930s. It gives 00:09:09.330 --> 00:09:12.509 the place a real gladiator vibe. It feels historic, 00:09:12.669 --> 00:09:16.090 very rooted, and that naturally leads us to the 00:09:16.090 --> 00:09:18.289 Hawks. Right, the Hawks. Victor E. Hawk is the 00:09:18.289 --> 00:09:21.309 mascot. Colors are brown and white. Standard 00:09:21.309 --> 00:09:23.590 stuff. Yeah. But the athletics program is where 00:09:23.590 --> 00:09:26.490 I got a bit confused, and I need you to untangle 00:09:26.490 --> 00:09:29.850 this for us. They are NCAA Division II. They 00:09:29.850 --> 00:09:31.809 play in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. That 00:09:31.809 --> 00:09:33.730 is exactly what you expect for a school with 00:09:33.730 --> 00:09:37.179 1 ,300 students. Mostly. But then I see men's 00:09:37.179 --> 00:09:40.580 soccer. They have 11 NAIA national championships. 00:09:40.860 --> 00:09:43.700 That is a legitimate dynasty. It is. Before they 00:09:43.700 --> 00:09:46.519 moved to the NCAA, they were an absolute powerhouse 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:49.440 in the NAIA. That legacy still attracts talent 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:52.700 today. But the real anomaly, the thing that makes 00:09:52.700 --> 00:09:55.799 sports data nerds look twice, is men's volleyball. 00:09:56.240 --> 00:09:58.299 Explain this. They were Division II, but they 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:00.679 play against the Giants. Men's volleyball is 00:10:00.679 --> 00:10:03.240 unique in the NCAA. There just aren't enough 00:10:03.240 --> 00:10:05.820 teams across the country to have separate divisions. 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:09.740 So the championship is open. Quincy plays in 00:10:09.740 --> 00:10:12.679 the MIVA, the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:16.139 Association. That means this small Franciscan 00:10:16.139 --> 00:10:18.659 school is lining up across the net from Ohio 00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:21.340 State, from Penn State, from massive Division 00:10:21.340 --> 00:10:23.679 I powerhouses. Yeah, and they hold their own. 00:10:23.799 --> 00:10:26.340 They are punching way above their weight class. 00:10:26.679 --> 00:10:29.220 It brings a level of national visibility to the 00:10:29.220 --> 00:10:30.879 university that they just wouldn't get otherwise. 00:10:31.279 --> 00:10:33.620 David versus Goliath story every weekend. But 00:10:33.620 --> 00:10:35.919 the weirdest addition, and the source says this 00:10:35.919 --> 00:10:38.600 just started in fall 2022, is sprint football. 00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:40.899 I honestly didn't know what this was. I thought 00:10:40.899 --> 00:10:42.799 maybe it meant, you know, really fast football, 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:44.720 like you have to snap the ball every 10 seconds. 00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:48.419 A logical guess, honestly. But no. Sprint football 00:10:48.419 --> 00:10:51.000 is regular American football. Same pads, same 00:10:51.000 --> 00:10:54.159 hits, same exact rules. But with one major catch, 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:57.919 there is a strict weight limit. 178 pounds. Correct. 00:10:58.179 --> 00:11:01.120 If you weigh 179 pounds, you do not play. It's 00:11:01.120 --> 00:11:03.980 not governed by the NCAA at all. That changes 00:11:03.980 --> 00:11:07.000 the game completely. No 300 -pound lineman. It 00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:10.320 makes it a game of pure speed, agility, and strategy. 00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:13.779 It's a very new sport. Historically, it was played 00:11:13.779 --> 00:11:16.299 almost exclusively at military academies like 00:11:16.299 --> 00:11:19.000 Navy and Army or Ivy League schools like Penn 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:22.480 and Cornell. So why is Quincy, a small Catholic 00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:25.460 school in Illinois, adopting this Ivy League 00:11:25.460 --> 00:11:28.080 military sport? It goes right back to the enrollment 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:30.389 cliff we talked about earlier. Think about the 00:11:30.389 --> 00:11:32.629 high school football player who loves the game, 00:11:32.889 --> 00:11:36.230 is incredibly athletic, but weighs 165 pounds. 00:11:36.809 --> 00:11:39.289 He is never going to play division two or division 00:11:39.289 --> 00:11:42.429 one football. He's just too small. Quincy says, 00:11:42.769 --> 00:11:44.509 come here. You can play varsity football for 00:11:44.509 --> 00:11:46.929 four years. It's a brilliant recruitment tool. 00:11:47.289 --> 00:11:49.250 It opens up an entirely new market of students 00:11:49.250 --> 00:11:50.929 who wouldn't have looked at Quincy otherwise. 00:11:51.149 --> 00:11:52.970 It is brilliant, actually. It fits that whole 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:55.350 theme of success by design, find a niche, serve 00:11:55.350 --> 00:11:58.110 it well. But all these pivots, the name changes, 00:11:58.330 --> 00:12:01.029 the new sports, the master's degrees, they usually 00:12:01.029 --> 00:12:02.929 come from a place of necessity. And the financial 00:12:02.929 --> 00:12:04.870 records show things got pretty scary recently. 00:12:05.129 --> 00:12:08.389 They did. It wasn't all smooth sailing. In 2016, 00:12:08.570 --> 00:12:11.590 the music stopped. The university announced a 00:12:11.590 --> 00:12:14.610 $5 million deficit. For a school with an endowment 00:12:14.610 --> 00:12:18.570 the size of Quincy's, $5 million is not a rounding 00:12:18.570 --> 00:12:21.529 error. That is an existential threat. It is. 00:12:22.149 --> 00:12:24.590 The source material uses the phrase significant 00:12:24.590 --> 00:12:27.190 financial issues, which is essentially polite 00:12:27.190 --> 00:12:30.149 corporate speak for we might have to close our 00:12:30.149 --> 00:12:32.779 doors. So what actually happened? A combination 00:12:32.779 --> 00:12:35.919 of things. Enrollment dips, the massive maintenance 00:12:35.919 --> 00:12:38.240 costs on those historic limestone buildings we 00:12:38.240 --> 00:12:41.279 talked about, but the recovery is the truly interesting 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:44.000 part. Usually when a small college hits a wall 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:46.679 like this, they enter a death spiral. Quincy 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:48.970 didn't. They pulled off a turnaround. Was it 00:12:48.970 --> 00:12:51.389 just cutting costs? Cuts were part of it, certainly. 00:12:51.669 --> 00:12:53.809 But you can't cut your way to long -term growth 00:12:53.809 --> 00:12:56.649 they had to be invested in. And in 2021, the 00:12:56.649 --> 00:13:00.950 Oakley family gave $6 .5 million. That is more 00:13:00.950 --> 00:13:03.090 than double the previous largest gift in the 00:13:03.090 --> 00:13:05.029 school's history. Hence the naming of the Oakley 00:13:05.029 --> 00:13:08.299 School of Business. Right. But... You don't give 00:13:08.299 --> 00:13:11.399 $6 .5 million to a sinking ship. You give it 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:13.279 to a ship you believe can be fixed and steered 00:13:13.279 --> 00:13:16.139 back on course. That donation signaled to everyone 00:13:16.139 --> 00:13:19.120 else that Quincy is staying. And then in 2018, 00:13:19.440 --> 00:13:23.940 they secured a major federal grant, $2 .25 million 00:13:23.940 --> 00:13:26.080 from the Department of Education specifically 00:13:26.080 --> 00:13:28.779 for STEM access. So you have local philanthropy 00:13:28.779 --> 00:13:30.919 and federal tax dollars coming together to prop 00:13:30.919 --> 00:13:33.620 this up. It proves that the community, both the 00:13:33.620 --> 00:13:35.799 local business community and the broader academic 00:13:35.799 --> 00:13:39.419 community, saw immense value in keeping the university 00:13:39.419 --> 00:13:42.720 alive. They recognized that if Quincy disappears, 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:45.240 the region loses something irreplaceable. And 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:47.700 part of that value is the output, the alumni. 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:50.059 We really need to talk about this list because 00:13:50.059 --> 00:13:52.539 Eclectic doesn't even begin to cover it. You 00:13:52.539 --> 00:13:54.440 are looking at the full spectrum of humanity 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:56.879 here. It is a study in contrasts, absolutely. 00:13:56.960 --> 00:13:59.000 Let's start with the light. We have a legitimate 00:13:59.000 --> 00:14:01.600 candidate for sainthood, the Venerable Father 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:04.759 Augustine Tolton. An incredibly significant historical 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:09.200 figure. He lived from 1854 to 1897. He was the 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:11.980 first openly African American Catholic priest 00:14:11.980 --> 00:14:14.519 in the United States. His story intersects with 00:14:14.519 --> 00:14:16.419 the college right at the very beginning. It does 00:14:16.419 --> 00:14:18.669 and it was not an easy path. You have to remember 00:14:18.669 --> 00:14:22.350 the racial climate of the 1860s and 70s. No American 00:14:22.350 --> 00:14:24.409 seminary would accept him because he was black. 00:14:24.769 --> 00:14:27.129 The friars at St. Francis' Solana, specifically 00:14:27.129 --> 00:14:29.629 the Franciscans there, stepped in. They helped 00:14:29.629 --> 00:14:31.549 educate him so he could eventually go to Rome 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:34.490 to be ordained. So the university played a pivotal, 00:14:34.870 --> 00:14:37.590 hands -on role in breaking that color barrier 00:14:37.590 --> 00:14:40.690 in the church. Exactly. He is a hero of the faith. 00:14:41.110 --> 00:14:43.600 But then... You scan further down the alumni 00:14:43.600 --> 00:14:46.639 list. And you see Michael Swango. Yes. Now, for 00:14:46.639 --> 00:14:48.399 anyone listening who doesn't follow true crime, 00:14:48.639 --> 00:14:51.820 Michael Swango was a physician, but he was also 00:14:51.820 --> 00:14:55.519 a prolific serial killer. He is suspected of 00:14:55.519 --> 00:14:58.340 fatally poisoning up to 60 of his patients and 00:14:58.340 --> 00:15:01.460 colleagues over his career. It is genuinely jarring 00:15:01.460 --> 00:15:04.779 to see those two names, Tolton and Swango, on 00:15:04.779 --> 00:15:07.379 the exact same Wikipedia overview. The Saint 00:15:07.379 --> 00:15:10.340 and the Serial Killer. No. We are just stating 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:12.980 the facts here without sensationalizing. But 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:15.840 the contrast with the Franciscan values is stark. 00:15:16.279 --> 00:15:19.039 It is stark. But I think it serves as a rather 00:15:19.039 --> 00:15:21.759 sobering reminder of what a university actually 00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:25.179 is at its core. It is a tool provider. Quincy 00:15:25.179 --> 00:15:27.039 gave both of those men an education. It gave 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:29.299 them knowledge. What they ultimately did with 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:31.460 that knowledge comes down to human free will. 00:15:32.040 --> 00:15:35.000 The Franciscan tradition heavily emphasizes hospitality 00:15:35.000 --> 00:15:37.720 and service, but an institution cannot force 00:15:37.720 --> 00:15:40.779 you to be good. Swango is a factual statistical 00:15:40.779 --> 00:15:43.059 anomaly in their history, but he is part of the 00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:44.960 record. And in between those two extreme polls, 00:15:45.159 --> 00:15:47.200 you have just really successful, interesting 00:15:47.200 --> 00:15:48.879 people doing their thing. You've got the guy 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:51.799 from the band Chicago. James Pankow, the trombonist, 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:54.019 he wrote Make Me Smile and a bunch of their hits. 00:15:54.220 --> 00:15:56.710 I had no idea he was a Quincy alum. And then 00:15:56.710 --> 00:15:59.429 John Mahoney. The dad from Frasier. Absolutely 00:15:59.429 --> 00:16:01.789 brilliant actor. It just shows that despite the 00:16:01.789 --> 00:16:03.870 commercial focus we talked about earlier, the 00:16:03.870 --> 00:16:05.750 fine arts program there is serious and produces 00:16:05.750 --> 00:16:08.809 real talent. And on the sports side, Josh Kinney, 00:16:08.929 --> 00:16:11.789 who was a relief pitcher for the Cardinals, Josh 00:16:11.789 --> 00:16:14.309 Rabe for the Minnesota Twins. And then in politics, 00:16:14.490 --> 00:16:16.169 you have Francis G. Slay, who was a former mayor 00:16:16.169 --> 00:16:18.669 of St. Louis, and Lindell Shoemake in the Missouri 00:16:18.669 --> 00:16:21.159 House. It shows that the school consistently 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:23.480 produces leaders, whether that's in City Hall, 00:16:23.980 --> 00:16:26.539 on a Major League Baseball diamond, or on a rock 00:16:26.539 --> 00:16:29.639 stage. It is clearly not a factory stamping out 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.440 identical widgets. It is a community that gives 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:34.700 people the foundation to find their specific 00:16:34.700 --> 00:16:37.580 lane. So when we step back and look at the whole 00:16:37.580 --> 00:16:40.480 picture for you from the German Friars arriving 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:42.860 on the frontier in 1860 to this Sprint football 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:46.480 team lining up in 2024, what is the big takeaway? 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:49.279 What is the narrative arc of Quincy University? 00:16:49.980 --> 00:16:52.679 For me, synthesizing all of this, Quincy University 00:16:52.679 --> 00:16:55.179 is a master class in resilience through identity. 00:16:55.379 --> 00:16:57.539 Unpack that a little bit. Well, look at everything 00:16:57.539 --> 00:16:59.960 that changed. The name changed three distinct 00:16:59.960 --> 00:17:02.879 times. The actual physical buildings changed. 00:17:03.000 --> 00:17:05.059 They went from speaking and teaching in German 00:17:05.059 --> 00:17:08.039 to English. They went from primarily training 00:17:08.039 --> 00:17:10.660 priests to training modern business owners and 00:17:10.660 --> 00:17:13.779 educators. But the soul of the place never changed. 00:17:13.980 --> 00:17:16.630 The Herald of the Great King. Exactly. They are 00:17:16.630 --> 00:17:19.289 still hyper focused on hospitality. They are 00:17:19.289 --> 00:17:22.289 still deeply community oriented. They survived 00:17:22.289 --> 00:17:24.730 the massive financial crisis and the world wars 00:17:24.730 --> 00:17:27.069 because they knew exactly why they existed. They 00:17:27.069 --> 00:17:29.210 weren't just a business selling degrees. They 00:17:29.210 --> 00:17:31.589 were serving a specific mission. And when you 00:17:31.589 --> 00:17:34.329 have a remarkably clear mission like that, you 00:17:34.329 --> 00:17:37.349 can adapt your tactics like adding spring football 00:17:37.349 --> 00:17:40.109 or rolling out success by design without losing 00:17:40.109 --> 00:17:42.710 your way. It's the difference between being stubborn. 00:17:43.109 --> 00:17:46.029 and being steadfast. Stubborn is refusing to 00:17:46.029 --> 00:17:47.869 change anything at all as the world moves on. 00:17:48.309 --> 00:17:50.150 Steadfast is changing everything around you so 00:17:50.150 --> 00:17:52.450 you can keep doing the one core thing that actually 00:17:52.450 --> 00:17:54.470 matters. That is a perfect way to synthesize 00:17:54.470 --> 00:17:57.319 it. They adapted the vessel to protect the cargo. 00:17:57.799 --> 00:17:59.500 So here is the provocative thought I want to 00:17:59.500 --> 00:18:02.000 leave you in today. We are currently living in 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:05.519 the age of massive online degrees, of AI generated 00:18:05.519 --> 00:18:08.200 coursework, of educational efficiency at all 00:18:08.200 --> 00:18:11.759 costs. Quincy is essentially betting its entire 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:14.599 institutional future on the exact opposite approach. 00:18:15.180 --> 00:18:18.359 They're betting on success by design. They're 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:20.740 betting on human -to -human mentorship, highly 00:18:20.740 --> 00:18:23.859 individualized plans, small classes, and mandatory 00:18:23.859 --> 00:18:26.460 community service. It is a massive high -stakes 00:18:26.460 --> 00:18:29.200 bet. They are betting that high -touch ultimately 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:31.420 beats high -tech when it comes to human development. 00:18:31.819 --> 00:18:34.539 So the question to mull over, is this in an era 00:18:34.539 --> 00:18:37.740 of mass education, is this the only way small 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:40.670 private colleges actually survive? Do they have 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:42.950 to revert back to becoming the bespoke tailors 00:18:42.950 --> 00:18:45.170 of education in a world flooded with off -the 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:48.410 -rack degrees? Or is that highly personalized, 00:18:48.730 --> 00:18:51.130 mentor -based model just too expensive and doomed 00:18:51.130 --> 00:18:53.970 to eventually fade away? That is the exact question 00:18:53.970 --> 00:18:56.589 that will define the next 166 years for them. 00:18:56.670 --> 00:18:58.690 But if their history is any indicator at all, 00:18:58.849 --> 00:19:00.430 I certainly wouldn't bet against the Friars. 00:19:00.529 --> 00:19:01.930 Thanks for diving in with us. We'll catch you 00:19:01.930 --> 00:19:02.369 on the next one.