The Varsity News

Issue date: 2/17/10 Section: News

Media Credit: Scott Frantsen President Gerard Stockhausen ushered UDM through substantial enrollment growth.

The Rev. Dr. Gerard Stockhausen, S.J., is stepping down at the end of the semester after six years as president of the University of Detroit Mercy, and the university board of trustees is launching a national search for his successor.

Stockhausen has been appointed executive assistant to the president and director of planning for the Jesuit Conference in Washington, D.C., a job that he will begin this summer.

Though excited by the new challenge, Stockhausen said it will be "tough" to leave the university he has called home since 2000.

"I'm not eager to leave the University of Detroit Mercy and all of the friends I've made here," he said.

Those friends include the fellow Jesuits he has lived in community with in Lansing-Reilly for nearly a decade.

"I've often said the Lansing-Reilly community is the best community I've lived in," he said. "They're good friends, supportive and easy to be with. They don't let who I am as president get in the way of living together."

As president, Stockhausen ushered the university through growth in enrollment and academic stature. During his tenure, enrollment in the School of Law more than doubled, and full-time student enrollment grew by 37 percent.

In addition, freshman ACT scores increased from an average of 20.7 to 23.9 in the past six years.

Stockhausen said he is proud of renovations to Calihan Hall, the hiring of new men's and women's basketball coaches and other additions to the athletic department, such as new tennis courts and basketball offices that were built during a "tough economic climate."

According to Dr. Matthew Mio, president of the McNichols Faculty Assembly, Stockhausen's financial knowledge has led the university to great success, including five straight years of surplus budgets.

"It was very comforting to know when he was chosen to be president that we would have an economist as a president," he said. "A scientist who knows money? That was a great person to bring us through to where we are now. I think he's left things for the next person in pretty good working order."

Mio, an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry, is a former UDM student. He said he will be sad to see Stockhausen go.

"It's tough to be the big picture person and the broken-sink-in-the-bathroom-needs-fixing person, but he did a pretty good job of that," said Mio. "He had UDM in his heart."

Despite his many accomplishments, Stockhausen said there is unfinished business.

A new student recreation fitness center, renovations to the Chemistry Building and his personal goal of 3,000 undergrads by 2013 are all still on his to-do list. However, he said he feels confident in the university's ability to continue what he started.

"We've set a lot of things in motion and the vice presidential leadership team has what it takes to carry that out," he said.

Stockhausen's new role will see him serve as chief of staff of the Jesuit Conference, a national organization. He will work in a number of roles.

"I'm replacing two people," he said. "Currently, there are 10 Jesuit provinces in the United States, and we're consolidating them into five. My job there is going to be working with the various area directors and helping to focus them on particular planning initiatives."

In addition, Stockhausen will serve as second in command to the president of the conference.

"I'm honored to be asked to do this and certainly excited of the possibilities of strengthening the Jesuit apostolate in the country," he said.

As he prepares to leave, Stockhausen said he wants to be remembered for his strong leadership in tough times.

"I want to be remembered as someone who helped move us from a place of a future that was unsecure to one that is secure, and who helped make the place not just survive but thrive," he said.

The university's board of trustees is beginning a national search for the next president.

The University of Detroit Mercy was created when the University of Detroit and Mercy College - two institutions with long, proud histories - consolidated in 1990.

Though the bylaws allow for a layperson to assume the role, the university has never had a president who wasn't part of a religious order.

Stockhausen is a Jesuit and Maureen Fay, his predecessor, is a member of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Mich.

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