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The recent announcement that Dr. Antoine Garibaldi is considering stepping down as President of the University of Detroit Mercy next June should remind our community of how extraordinary and transformative his leadership has been. Let’s take a break and consider how much we owe him.
Dr Garibaldi is on 25e president of the university, a position he has held since 2011. Sponsored by the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and the Religious Sisters of Mercy, Detroit Mercy was founded in 1877 as the University of Detroit and consolidated 113 years later with Mercy College in Detroit. It is the largest Catholic university in the state, offering undergraduate, graduate and professional programs, including architecture, dentistry, and law.
Prior to coming to Detroit, Dr Garibaldi was the sixth president of Gannon University – with a campus in Erie, Pennsylvania and one in Florida – where he served for a decade. He is originally from New Orleans but went to Howard University for his undergraduate degree in sociology and to the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis for his doctorate. in educational psychology. He would return to New Orleans to fill a series of educational and administrative roles at Xavier University for 14 years.
The progress that Detroit Mercy made during Dr. Garibaldi’s tenure is long and powerful. It has promoted a significant increase in registrations. He has overseen the growth in student retention and graduation rates – the University expects a freshman class of 570 students, an increase of more than 20% since starting its service. He set himself what many thought was an impossible goal to raise $ 100 million for the campaign for the University of Detroit Mercy – and surpassed it. He has overseen numerous construction and renovation projects, which have redefined the campus footprint. It has raised the university’s academic excellence ratings.
Dr. Garibaldi’s predecessors made the enlightened and courageous decision to keep the university in Detroit when a distressing number of institutions – religious, educational, commercial – lost faith in the city and chose the opposite. Dr Garibaldi has tripled his commitment – with untold benefits for the student body, faculty, the surrounding community and the city as a whole.
But Dr Garibaldi has made a significant break with his predecessors by engaging the university in new and ambitious ways. beyond the campus property lines at the corner of Livernois and McNichols in northwest Detroit.
This willingness to engage was at the forefront of Dr. Garibaldi’s priorities when he asked to meet with me shortly after arriving in Detroit. His passion at this meeting extended beyond the pursuit of academic excellence and financial stability that preoccupies most new university presidents. He wanted to talk about the Livernois-McNichols neighborhood.
He imagined that the university was fundamentally transforming the way it contributed to the revitalization of the neighborhood… by investing in the beautification of the adjacent commercial corridors… participating in the establishment of the neighborhood organization that would become the Alliance Live6.
Dr Garibaldi has answered each of these aspirations. Some immediately. Some over a longer period.
I was especially memorable with him and over 100 community members on a sunny summer afternoon in 2015 to announce the formation of the Live6 Alliance. Shortly after the bankruptcy, a community organization dedicated to neighborhood revitalization was – it’s hard to imagine today – a new entity in the Detroit neighborhood landscape. This afternoon’s announcement would in many ways foreshadow the expansion of anchor community organizations in Detroit.
With the active participation of Dr Garibaldi on the Live6 Alliance Board of Directors, the organization has demonstrated the value of these flagship organizations as custodians of progress as the nerve of the connection between people, plans and resources … . as agents of change deeply rooted in the community’s soil, particularly able to understand neighborhood strengths, build on historical and cultural identity, build the musculature of resident-led decision-making .
The alliance is now led by Dr Geneva Williams and has its own showcase on McNichols, HomeBase neighborhood. More than a set of offices, Neighborhood HomeBase has also become a community space. And the Alliance is deeply engaged in a range of activities, from improvements in the streetscape to new ways of connecting residents to social services…. help corridor businesses stay afloat to move forward during a pandemic.
It is difficult for me to imagine the university without the firm, humble and yet expert hand of Dr Garibaldi. But he had laid the much-needed foundation in all dimensions upon which his successor can draw – a legacy of excellence, a broad commitment to community membership, and service leadership.
And I find some comfort in two things.
First, the university – and the community – will benefit from an additional 10 months of leadership from Dr Garibaldi. At Kresge, we intend to take full advantage of this window.
Second, after a sabbatical year, Dr Garibaldi will return to university as a full professor to continue to pursue his interests in research, teaching and scholarship. It is not possible to imagine that he will bring to these roles anything less than his unwavering commitment to the Detroit community. I have no doubt that he will continue to inspire us all.
Thanks Antoine. It was our greatest privilege to be part of your trip.
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