The St. John’s College Board of Visitors and Governors met in Annapolis June 11-13, 2026, with attention centered on positioning the college for long-term strength. The board and college leadership are focused above all on sustaining healthy enrollment and achieving a structurally balanced budget: one in which our projected recurring annual revenue will be sufficient to cover annual expenses. As with most small private colleges at this time, this remains a challenge, but a manageable one. Reaching that goal will build confidence in the college’s financial model; inspire new philanthropic investment; and allow major gifts to be directed toward endowment growth, capital needs, and strategic initiatives. Most importantly, this work will protect the Program and the college for our students’ benefit and for generations to come.
Real clarity of our current strengths and challenges came out of the work of the Strategic Planning Task Force, which informed this June meeting. The college and campus leadership will now finalize a more detailed strategic framework over the summer, concluding the current strategic planning process.
One of the Task Force’s central recommendations to the board was to restore a unified, single presidency over both campuses and the college as a whole. The board accepted this recommendation and, in consultation with the faculty, will work to amend the Polity of the college to reinstitute that earlier model in a way that fits our contemporary structures. In a first step forward, the board appointed Santa Fe President and current interim College President J. Walter Sterling (A93) to the added role of interim Annapolis President, effective July 1. Susan Paalman will return to serving her term as dean on the Annapolis campus. While serving in these combined roles, President Sterling will divide his time between the campuses. The board will also move to form a presidential search committee this August, with the Polity-defined board and faculty representation.
“I would like to thank Presidents Sterling and Paalman for stepping into their roles over the last year, and Deans Macfarland and Davis. We have full confidence in President Sterling’s ability to serve in the combined presidents’ role, given his long experience of the college on both campuses,” said Board Chair Warren Spector (A81). “The work we have undertaken together has been significant—and essential to moving the college forward in a time of national headwinds for higher education.”
A primary focus of the meeting was the ongoing work to reverse modest declines in undergraduate enrollment and in associated revenue for the college. The enriching diversity of background, geography, and socioeconomics of our incoming classes remains exceptionally robust, as is their academic quality. Our challenge is that—following national demographic trends and current dips in international enrollment in American higher education—St. John’s is enrolling fewer freshmen. We see stabilizing undergraduate enrollment and growing our applicant pool as the critical goal for the leadership of the college at this time. The board heard about enhanced strategies and targeted investments we have made in this area. These include full implementation of the faculty’s major instructional proposals passed this year, including the MA partnership with the Pascal Institute in Leiden, the Netherlands; the introduction of spring preceptorials in the senior year in Santa Fe; and the forthcoming and carefully deliberated change to the name of the St. John’s degree, each of which should benefit our students and allow the college to offer a true St. John’s education to new students in new ways. More information on the updated degree name will be shared with our community before the start of the fall academic year.
Meanwhile, the Graduate Institute continues to see enrollment growth on both campuses, with 150 students currently enrolled across programs this summer, continuing a trend of increasing Graduate Institute enrollment over the past several years. This includes the inaugural cohort completing the Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Classics.
The endowment remains one of the college’s great sources of strength and stability. Since 2018, it has grown from $170 million to $390 million, reflecting extraordinary philanthropic momentum and continued confidence in the college’s importance and future. This has been a very successful year for philanthropy at St. John’s, including more than $4 million in new gifts raised to the endowment and the receipt of a $25 million residual gift to the endowment from the Winiarski estate. Donors contributed $14.7 million to restricted funds, including $12 million for scholarships for Santa Fe students and $2 million to support conferences and speakers over the next several years on both campuses. At this meeting, the board approved moving forward with the construction of a new arts and academic building in Annapolis, a $12.5 million project that is now fully funded, with over $8 million coming in new funds pledged this year to the project. The Annual Fund, which has garnered $2.7 million annually in recent years, remains an area of opportunity and focus. Because Annual Fund dollars flow directly into the operating budget, we will soon launch a new three-year campaign with the aspirational goal of increasing this to $5 million. Success in this effort will materially strengthen the college’s financial model. Together, these investments demonstrate the confidence alumni, parents, foundations, and friends have in the college’s mission.
On the visibility front, the college continues to make the most of a powerful cultural moment. At a time when families, educators, and public leaders are increasingly concerned about the value of higher education, the effects of technological disruption, and the rise of political polarization, St. John’s is finding new ways to share the enduring value of our educational philosophy and its connection to these acute present concerns. Over the past year, the college has achieved more local and national media visibility than at any point since the 2018 launch of the Freeing Minds campaign. We have also pioneered a creative social media strategy that taps into a renewed cultural interest in books, reading, and serious conversation—dramatically increasing our audience, extending our reach, and introducing St. John’s to young people who are newly receptive to what the college has always offered.
St. John’s College, and what we stand for, is needed now more than ever, and there are more ears than ever ready to hear that message. Even while we, like the rest of higher education, face arguably unprecedented challenges and hard decisions, we should neither underestimate nor fail to take advantage of our strengths. Above all, we must not fail in our mission as a community of learning dedicated to liberal education, a “small by design” community dedicated to the learning and flourishing of our students through Great Books and shared inquiry conducted in the full integrity of the face-to-face relationship.
We want to close by expressing our gratitude to our faculty and staff, who have continued to manifest that dedication daily during these challenging times, and to our alumni, board, and friends for their unwavering conviction in the value of this education and their support for the college and for our students.
St. John’s Forever!
President J. Walter Sterling President Susan Paalman
