The next day, the skies cleared and our 73rd undergraduate exercises returned to the Great Lawn at Bellarmine Hall. Overall, we conferred 1,171 undergraduate and 588 postgraduate degrees and certificates to our dry and cheerful Class of 2023.

As always, our Commencement celebrations were an opportunity for us – faculty, leadership and staff – to step back and reflect on what has been an exceptional year educating and developing children of God as individuals of purpose in service of the greater good.

We have accomplished much and we are blessed to be thriving as we anticipate the incoming Class of 2027. With the highest GPA and SAT scores, an admittance rate of less than 45 percent, and an all-time high yield of accepted students, this class is also the most geographically and culturally diverse group we have ever welcomed.

More prospective students are making Fairfield their first choice because we are one of the best values in higher education. Our graduate programs are ranked among the top in the country, our focus on undergraduate research is yielding more Fulbright award recipients and NASA research grants, and with several graduates heading to top doctoral programs at institutions like Tufts, Yale, and the University of Chicago, we are academically engaged at a level befitting our national prominence.

Our reputation for academic excellence continues to rise at a time when we are also being recognized for fiscal acumen and prudence. In April, Standard & Poor’s upgraded our credit rating to A (from A-). The agency cited Fairfield’s recent trend of growth and improvement, and our “proven ability to manage operating adversity and budget effectively, leading to consistent full-accrual operating surpluses.”

In other words, we are well-positioned to meet the moment.

One of the challenges we have embraced – in keeping with the Ignatian tradition of traveling to new regions – is to bring our mission to students wherever we are needed. On Monday, June 5, representatives from our University and I celebrated a ribbon cutting for the Austin, Texas campus of our Accelerated Second-Degree Nursing program. It is an exciting venture, one we continue to learn from, and one that I am confident will be a success and perhaps open doors to other healthcare and additional programs in this region.

It was also a thrill this spring to welcome the first applicants to Fairfield Bellarmine, our associate’s degree-granting program in Bridgeport. As I write, renovations are underway at the former St. Ambrose parish site, scheduled to open for classes in the fall. With this initiative, undertaken in partnership with the Diocese, we are providing a pathway of access for capable and eager students of promise from traditionally underserved families.

As Fairfield continues to evolve and innovate, we do so ever mindful of our call to ensure that our Jesuit values flourish in the 21st century. In March, I accompanied a group of Trustees and University leaders on pilgrimage to Spain, to follow in the footsteps of St. Ignatius. Stopping at the Abbey of Montserrat and the cave at Manresa where Ignatius deepened his conversion and developed the Spiritual Exercises, it was invigorating to be reminded that our mission at Fairfield is a transformative work of the Holy Spirit, one that has been resonating and finding expression for over 500 years. We are all – as members of the Fairfield community – servants of this ongoing work: always looking to the future, prudent in our thinking, prepared to respond energetically and creatively to what is asked of us, and to set the world afire.

With utmost gratitude and very best wishes to you all,

Mark R. Nemec, PhD
President