Causey: Signs of Stritch closing have been clear for a while, but many, including me, didn't notice

When I first heard the news of Cardinal Stritch University closing its doors for good at the end of this year, I thought it was a spoof.

Universities like Cardinal Stritch don’t shut their doors.

I graduated from Cardinal Stritch in 2002 with my master’s degree in business. The school challenged me — especially the high-level statistics class — and I met a lot of talented people at the school.

In my class I had Barry Bateman, the former director of General Mitchell International Airport; Charlotte Booker, who was a math wizard; and many others who are doing great things in Milwaukee today.

I attended Stritch because the university offered the best opportunity for me to earn my MBA while working full time at the Journal Sentinel. I also picked the school because of its prestigious reputation for working with students of color who were going back to school to better themselves.

When President Dan Scholz said Monday that the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi had accepted the recommendation of the university's Board of Trustees to suspend and cancel all educational services effective May 22, and begin the "wind down" of university operations after the current spring semester, I didn’t want to believe it, despite the financial climate and declining enrollment at several colleges.

But in this case, the signs have been clear for a while. Many just didn’t notice. Including me.

People deserve answers

After getting over the shock, it began to sink in just how much impact a school can have on people’s lives.

Cardinal Stritch has touched so many throughout our city.

Here is what a few people had to say on Facebook:

“My baby will be the last graduating class of nurses this June,” said Honey Chyle.

“Mom would drive my brother and me there on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. The nuns taught us to read in the 1950s. Hard to believe,” said Ramelann Kalagian.

“I received my associates bachelor’s and MBA from CSU! Man – what now? How does that look on a resume. I received a great education! It truly is saddening,” said Lawson Rodney.

“My mother took classes there in the 1960s to better understand and care for my brothers who had Down Syndrome,” said Scott Wohlgemuth.

“My daughter is a student. This is messed all the way up…They didn’t even have the decency to let the students or parents know about this first,” said Lelah J. Huntley.

The confusion is understandable, and people deserve answers.

Scholz said the decision was necessary after looking at the fiscal realities and downward enrollment trends caused by the pandemic. He also said the need for more resources and the mounting financial challenges placed the university into a “no-win situation.”

There are so many questions to unpack here.

Why didn’t the university let the students and parents know earlier?

Was there anything else that could have been done?

Did the school consider a possible merger with another educational institution to keep its doors open?

What happens to the current students and staff?

What is taking place now is nothing like I experienced when I attended Stritch.

Stritch was the best decision I made

When I applied to graduate school in fall 2000, I had been out of school for nearly eight years. I was working as a business reporter at the Journal Sentinel and was assigned the red-hot banking beat.

In the 1990s, the financial industry was all about mergers and acquisitions, and I had limited knowledge of the industry. George Stanley, who was the editor of the business department at the time, told me to investigate taking a few financial classes to bring me up to speed to cover my beat.

I first considered Marquette University because I graduated from there in 1992, but most of their banking classes were during the day.

I called Stritch, and in talking with the enrollment department, was asked why I would just want to take a few banking classes when I could pursue my MBA?

I went to the school to discuss the matter further, and after talking with Stanley, he gave me the green light; the paper even chipped in and paid for half.

It was the best educational decision I could have made.

First, after bankers discovered I was pursuing my MBA in business, they had a newfound respect for me. They opened up more, and I got better stories.

Second, pursuing my MBA allowed me to meet some fantastic minds from all around southeastern Wisconsin. The teaching style of many of the professors was great, but I learned the most from other students in class.

I still remember being in a group with Mitchell’s Barry Bateman and him asking me about how he should go about talking with someone at the airport about expansion.

Where else can you get that kind of respect?

Stritch is one of the reasons why I'm still here

The school also helped me in other ways to become a better journalist.

Everyone pursuing their MBA had to complete a capstone project. I focused on minority retainment and recruitment in the newsroom.

After months of research, I submitted my project and got it approved by the staff at Stritch. More important, I presented my findings to the management of the paper for them to use in retaining and recruiting journalists of color, and mentoring in a way that those journalists felt valued and respected.

It’s one of the reasons I’m still at the Journal Sentinel today.

Cardinal Stritch did a lot for me. So, to hear that the school is closing its doors after its final commencement on May 21, which will end more than eight decades of providing liberal arts education grounded in Franciscan values, this loss is more like a funeral.

The closure of Stritch is painful, but the school will be remembered by all those who walked through those halls since 1937.

James E. Causey started reporting on life in his city while still at Marshall High School through a Milwaukee Sentinel high school internship. He's been covering his hometown ever since, writing and editing news stories, projects and opinion pieces on urban youth, mental health, employment, housing and incarceration. Most recently, he wrote about a man who went to prison as a child for a horrific crime in Life Correction: The Marlin Dixon story. Released at age 32, Dixon’s intent on giving his life meaning. Other projects include "What happened to us?" which tracked the lives of his third-grade classmates, and "Cultivating a community," about the bonding that takes place around a neighborhood garden. Causey was a health fellow at the University of Southern California in 2018 and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2007. Email him at jcausey@jrn.com; follow him on Twitter @jecausey.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Closing of Cardinal Stritch a painful end to students' good memories