by Brandon Job

Last Year President Michael Brophy Moved from Los Angeles, CA back home to Western New York to take on a new assignment as the President of Hilbert College. He has been involved in higher education for 35 years, serving as president of Benedictine University and Marymount California University before arriving at Hilbert. He has earned multiple degrees, including a Ph.D in educational leadership and policy analysis from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. The Scribe had a chance to sit down President Brophy to talk about his transition to his new role.

The Scribe: Where are you from and what schools did you go to?

Michael Brophy: My wife and I are both from Western New York. I went to a college very similar to Hilbert called the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. I have been in college admissions for 35 years. Half of that was in admissions, so I spent a lot of time in the northeast recruiting students out of high school. And since 2002 I’ve been the CEO of four different institutions.

TS: What specifically drew you to Hilbert College?

MB: Two things: I was ready for my final assignment and I wanted to stay in the Catholic higher education system. And I was really impressed with the board of this institution. And the other thing is I was really looking forward to getting back to Western New York. We’ve been away for 17 years and this was a great opportunity to come back home.

TS: Is there anything you have seen that you would like to change since you’ve been here?

MB: Well, there are really four things. One is our athletics, and we’re going to do that by hiring more full time coaches, by building new fields and by trying to build a new track and field complex and hopefully these things will make a difference. Second is trying to go online with some programs such as law and justice to grow the college and make it more accessible. And we don’t want to be the best kept secret in the south towns. We have to become more aware for people in the area in order to help this college grow a bit. We are also going to try to attract more international students by hiring an international student council.

TS: Is there anything you want the students to know about yourself?

MB: We’ve made a lot of changes to the campus and it’s really all about the students. We moved administrative offices for student life experience and we will keep improving what we do for the students and to keep the good advice and good questions coming