Year-End Reflection

Closing the Year with Gratitude, Clarity, and Momentum

A reflection on WestConn Rising, 912 graduates, student success, shared leadership, NECHE progress, financial resilience, and the work ahead.

May 2026WestConn RisingWelcome. Weave. Widen.
Focused StrategyMay Budget UpdateAccomplishments Report
WCSU shield mark
912graduates celebrated this month
10%nearly total enrollment growth year over year
76%first-year retention
$1.7Mrecurring administrative savings from restructure

Closing the Year with Gratitude, Clarity, and Momentum

Jesse M. Bernal, Ph.D.
President, Western Connecticut State University

Dear WestConn Community,

As we close this academic year, I want to begin with gratitude. Thank you.

This month, we celebrated 912 WestConn graduates – 717 undergraduate students and 195 graduate students. Each one crossed the stage carrying a story. Some were first-generation students. Some worked while they studied. Some commuted. Some raised children, cared for family members, changed majors, started over, found their people, found their voice, or simply kept going when no one else could see how hard it was.

As I watched my first Commencement as President of WestConn, I was reminded of why we do this work. At its core, higher education is about expanding opportunity and changing lives. Every graduate who crossed that stage represents years of effort, sacrifice, encouragement, and support from countless people across our university community.

To every faculty member, staff member, advisor, coach, mentor, counselor, police officer, facilities colleague, student employee, peer leader, administrator, alum, donor, partner, and family member who helped make that possible: thank you.

As I approach my first anniversary as President this July, I have been reflecting on what I thought I knew when I arrived and what I know now. I came to WestConn believing deeply in its potential and convinced that its best days were ahead. Nearly a year later, that belief is stronger than ever. What I have learned is that WestConn's greatest strength is not a building, a budget, a strategic plan, or a ranking. It is our relationships. It is the faculty and staff who show up every day for students. It is the students who persevere through challenges and continue pursuing their goals. It is the alumni, supporters, and community partners who believe in our mission and invest in our future.

I have learned a lot this year. I have also learned how much more there is to learn. For the conversations, the candor, the partnership, and the trust you have extended to me, I am grateful.

This year brought meaningful progress. We welcomed more students to WestConn. We improved student retention. We expanded opportunities for our students. We strengthened partnerships across our region. We continued addressing important challenges while building momentum around a shared vision for our future.

There is still much work ahead. But there is also much reason for hope. WestConn is rising not because of any one person or initiative. WestConn is rising because of all of you.

Thank you for everything you have done this year to support our students and strengthen our university. I wish you a restful, well-deserved summer and look forward to continuing our work together in the year ahead.

With gratitude,

Jesse M. Bernal signature

Jesse M. Bernal, Ph.D.
President, Western Connecticut State University

The Major Work of the Year: Setting a Path

This year, one of our most important accomplishments was not a single event, report, ceremony, or metric. It was the work of setting a clearer path.

The endorsement and continued development of our WestConn Rising Focused Strategy and our Financial Resilience Blueprint gave us something we needed: a shared direction for the next phase of WestConn's work.

That direction is not complicated to name, but it will take discipline to execute:

  • Improve retention.
  • Grow recurring revenue.
  • Sharpen the message about what makes WestConn distinct.
  • Align resources with students, mission, and long-term sustainability.
  • Build the trust and shared leadership needed to do difficult work together.

The Focused Strategy is the execution layer of WestConn Rising. It helps move us from aspiration to action. It organizes our work through five commitments:

  1. Strengthening Foundations.
  2. Distinctively WestConn.
  3. Regional Anchor and Opportunity Engine.
  4. Culture of Shared Leadership and Renewal.
  5. Creating a Healthy Environment that Cultivates Growth and Thriving.

These commitments are not just statements. They are a way of making decisions. They ask us to connect enrollment, retention, academic quality, facilities, finances, student support, culture, community partnership, and employee thriving as one shared project.

That is the work ahead.

Listening Before Deciding

The Focused Strategy did not come out of nowhere. It grew from listening.

In the fall, we launched 12 all-campus WestConn Exchanges as working conversations about strategy, finance, DEIB and campus climate, IT, facilities, and the university we are trying to build together. These were not meant to be one-way updates. They were spaces to test ideas, name constraints, debate priorities, and ask what it would take for WestConn to move from stabilization to momentum.

In the spring, I continued that listening through academic department meetings across campus. Those conversations were some of the most important hours I spent all year. I heard pride, creativity, frustration, ambition, fatigue, honesty, and deep care for students.

I heard faculty and staff talk about applied learning that is already happening everywhere: clinical placements, internships, undergraduate research, public humanities, student media, cybersecurity labs, chemistry clinic, business consulting, education pipelines, creative practice, and community-based projects.

I also heard where we need to do better: staffing plans, facilities, equipment, scheduling, data, communication, workload, and transparency. I heard the desire for academic restructuring to be faculty-led and mission-driven. I heard the concern that market-facing language should help students find us without flattening academic identity. I heard that the liberal arts, humanities, social sciences, and arts must be understood as core to WestConn's mission, not peripheral to it.

You can read the full academic department meeting themes here: Academic Department Meetings – Spring 2026.

Those conversations are shaping next year's work in very concrete ways: retention strategy, academic pathways, faculty-line planning, scheduling, applied learning support, facilities priorities, AI guidance, and how we tell the WestConn story.

Student Impact, Employee Service, and Academic Momentum

The year also brought real momentum.

Total enrollment grew by nearly 10 percent year over year. First-year retention rose to 76 percent. Applications reached 7,262. Accepted student yield event participation grew, campus visits increased, and more students are choosing to live with us again. More than 5,300 advising appointments were scheduled. Peer mentors supported more than 850 first-year students. JUMP Start helped 92 percent of participating students improve academically. Wally's Cupboard distributed more than 7,200 pounds of food to more than 220 students.

These numbers matter because they are not just institutional metrics. They are signals that students are finding their way here, staying here, and being supported more intentionally.

This year, we also recognized 55 employees for milestone years of service. Together, these honorees represent an extraordinary 1,050 years of service to our university. That is a remarkable legacy of commitment, and it says something important about the people who have carried WestConn across generations of students.

Academically, we saw strong program momentum across the university. Highlights included the accelerated nursing program, the BBA/MBA pathway, continued MBA growth, the proposed MSW program, and an 85 percent increase in Sports and Wellness Management enrollment. Our educator preparation programs continued to make a significant impact, including the Ed.D. in Instructional Leadership, whose first cohort includes Frank LaBanca, named the 2026 Magnet Schools of America National Principal of the Year. Nursing achieved 100 percent pass rates on both the undergraduate NCLEX and MS Acute Care Nurse Practitioner certification exams. We strengthened academic quality through continued AACSB accreditation work, NECHE response efforts, and investments in assessment infrastructure. The Carol A. Hawkes Center of Excellence for Learning and Teaching was named and will support faculty fellows, innovative teaching, and student applied-learning opportunities. We also celebrated 20 years of student scholarship and innovation at Western Research Day, while the History, Philosophy & World Perspectives Department hosted the CSU Making History Conference, bringing together students, faculty, and alumni from all four Connecticut State Universities to showcase research and strengthen academic collaboration across the system.

We also saw the power of the arts, performance, and creative practice. Our visual and performing arts students, faculty, and staff reminded us that creativity is essential to a thriving university. Through concerts, theatre productions, exhibitions, design, media, and public performances, they enriched campus life and elevated WestConn's visibility far beyond our campuses. This year, Broadway theatre critic Peter Filichia highlighted WestConn's production of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown on his nationally followed Broadway Radio podcast, calling on audiences to “pay attention to this university.” The School of Visual and Performing Arts also supported professional development for more than 200 arts educators, while our students' creative work showcased the talent, imagination, and excellence that define a Distinctly WestConn education.

That matters. A university is not only measured by enrollment and finances. It is also measured by whether it creates beauty, voice, imagination, courage, and shared experience.

Inauguration as a Community Moment

The inauguration was never meant to be only about a presidency. At its best, it was about renewing a promise.

A promise to welcome students as they are. A promise to weave stronger academic, social, and career supports around them. A promise to widen pathways to opportunity for our region.

The events brought more than 1,000 community members to campus and helped raise more than $110,000, including support for student scholarships and presidential priorities. But what I will remember most is how much talent was on display from our students and the WestConn community.

The music, performances, hospitality, planning, design, media production, volunteer work, and quiet behind-the-scenes coordination all reminded me that WestConn's strength is not only in what we say about ourselves. It is in what people experience when they come here.

They see our students. They hear our talent. They feel our care. They understand that this is a university with something real to offer.

You can view an inauguration recap here: WestConn Community Showcase | Inauguration Recap & Photos.

NECHE: Progress Recognized, Work Continues

We also received an important NECHE update this spring.

On May 27, 2026, NECHE informed us of the Commission's action following its April 23, 2026 meeting. NECHE accepted WestConn's Focused Evaluation report and removed the Notice of Concern related to Organization and Governance.

That is a meaningful step. The Commission recognized progress in leadership stability, shared governance, transparency, WestConn Rising, enrollment growth, and student support. In particular, the removal of Organization and Governance as an area of concern reflects the work so many people have done to rebuild trust, create predictable decision routines, expand communication, and strengthen shared leadership.

At the same time, NECHE continued a Notice of Concern related to Institutional Resources and Educational Effectiveness. That is not something to minimize. It means we must continue the work with urgency and discipline.

The next steps are clear:

  • Submit an Annual Report on Finance and Enrollment by December 1, 2026.
  • Submit a progress report by January 15, 2028.
  • Continue toward the confirmed Fall 2028 interim report and focused evaluation visit.

You can read the NECHE decision here: NECHE Focused Evaluation Decision.

My own reflection is this: NECHE recognized real progress, and NECHE also confirmed the work we already know is before us. We have moved from uncertainty into a phase of execution. The task now is to keep proving, through action, that WestConn can sustain academic quality, strengthen finances, improve retention, use evidence well, and support students with consistency.

The Financial Reality

We also have to be honest about the budget.

The May 2026 FY27 Budget Update makes clear that WestConn does not have a temporary imbalance. We have a structural deficit, and structural deficits require structural change. The FY27 plan shows a projected $12.9M operating gap before transfers and an underlying recurring gap of approximately $19.5M once one-time bridges are removed. At the same time, we have already secured approximately $4.5M in recurring savings in the FY27 plan. This is not a panic message. It is a clarity message.

We have enrollment momentum. We have student success momentum. We have fundraising momentum. We have stronger public visibility. We have a more coherent strategy. But those strengths must now become recurring revenue, stronger retention, sharper program pathways, and a disciplined cost reset. That is why retention is not just an academic priority. It is a moral, student-success, and financial priority. That is why revenue generation is not just a budget exercise. It is about building programs, partnerships, and pathways that students and the region need. That is why sharpening our message is not cosmetic. Families, employers, donors, legislators, and community partners need to understand what makes WestConn distinct: a relationship-rich, applied-learning public university serving western Connecticut and the New York-Connecticut region; Connecticut's largest public four-year Hispanic-Serving Institution; a regional anchor and opportunity engine for first-generation, commuter, transfer, adult, Hispanic/Latino, and career-focused students.

WestConn is not the backup plan. WestConn is the plan.

Completing the Restructure

This year we also moved through a major administrative restructure. This was difficult work. Change always is. The restructure is guided by a simple frame: Welcome, Weave, Widen. Welcome means clearer roles, fewer handoffs, steadier support, and better communication. Weave means more cross-boundary problem-solving and stronger links between planning and daily practice. Widen means more shared leadership and shared ownership so people can see how their work helps the whole university move forward.

The restructure flattens layers, clarifies leadership lanes, and results in nearly $1.7M in recurring administrative savings. It also supports a more coordinated university: Operations, Student Thriving, Academic Affairs, People and Culture, Marketing/Communications and Public/Government Relations, University Advancement and Alumni Relations, Public Safety, and Athletics each with clearer roles and relationships. An updated organization chart is linked here.

We are now finishing the work of implementation. That includes executive searches and leadership transitions connected to the new structure. The inaugural Vice President for Operations and Chief Operating Officer search is underway. The search is designed to help build a new Operations Division across finance, facilities, auxiliaries, technology infrastructure, cybersecurity, student-facing business services, and event/media production. You can follow the VPO/COO search here: Vice President for Operations and Chief Operating Officer Search.

The Associate Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs search is also moving forward with broad representation, including student, faculty, staff, and leadership voices. You can follow that search here: Associate Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Search.

Hybrid open forums for these searches will be held in June and July, and additional information will be shared by email. These searches matter because people matter. Structure helps, but the leaders we bring into these roles will shape whether the structure actually improves service, trust, coordination, and student experience.

Athletics and Campus Pride

Our Wolves gave us a lot to celebrate this year.

Athletics successfully launched six of seven new varsity sports, with women's ice hockey preparing for full varsity implementation. The department raised $230,868 through Day of Giving, exceeding last year's total by more than $23,000. Athletics also became a nationally recognized leader in community service, earning the NADIIIAA Community Service Award after 550 student-athletes from 21 teams gave back at WestConn's Day of Service at nearly 70 sites across Greater Danbury.

On the field, court, ice, track, course, and classroom, there was plenty to be proud of: conference championships, LEC recognition, NCAA moments, new varsity opportunities, and strong academic performance. The overall team GPA was 3.05, with 18 of 22 teams at or above 3.0. Men's ice hockey posted a 3.55 team GPA in its first varsity season.

This is the story we should tell more often: athletics as student opportunity, campus pride, academic achievement, community engagement, and regional visibility. View the 2025–26 Athletics Infographic.

A Personal Leadership Update

Because every year-end reflection deserves a little joy, I also pulled together a more personal “one year in” reflection. It is part thank-you, part leadership update, part honest attempt to show what I have been trying to practice: presence, responsiveness, visibility, and relationships as the infrastructure of the work.

You can view the full PDF here: Personal Leadership Infographic - Year One.

One Year In: A Thank You - personal leadership infographic
One Year In: A Thank You. Select the image or the text link above to view the full PDF.

The year included:

  • 45,000+ emails processed.
  • 12,000+ personal replies to students, families, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners.
  • 150+ speeches and public remarks.
  • 21 academic department meetings.
  • Hundreds of student and family conversations.
  • Hundreds of campus conversations.
  • 550+ external partners engaged, including the Governor, Regents, donors, elected officials, community leaders, and alumni.
  • Dozens of statewide strategy meetings with CSCU and the Board of Regents.
  • 250+ days in WestConn orange.
  • Hundreds of attempts at humor, with mixed results.

And yes, the unofficial count includes walks across WestConn with Bella, Tuck, and Sam, and more pre-dawn wake-ups from Addison than any reasonable calendar should allow.

I include these not because the president's calendar is the story. It is not. I include them because they are a small reminder that this work is made of human contact: conversations, decisions, listening, showing up, trying again, and sometimes laughing at ourselves along the way. The work only matters if it stays connected to people.

Shared Leadership for the Work Ahead

The work ahead cannot sit with one office.

That is why we created the Budget Advisory Group, expanded the President's Council, and launched the Strategic Enrollment and Student Success Council. These are not just committees. They are part of how we build trust, use data better, communicate more clearly, and keep students and mission at the center.

The Budget Advisory Group gives shared governance and union partners more visibility into budget decisions and tradeoffs. The President's Council creates a broader leadership rhythm across the institution. The Strategic Enrollment and Student Success Council connects recruitment, retention, advising, academic planning, financial aid, and student support in one sustained conversation.

This is how we move from isolated effort to shared execution.

The next phase is clear:

  • Retention by design, not by hope.
  • Revenue growth connected to mission.
  • Academic pathways that are clearer for students and stronger for the region.
  • A sharper message about WestConn's distinction.
  • A healthier culture of shared leadership, accountability, and renewal.

Remembering Members of Our Community

This year also brought loss.

We remember members of our WestConn community whose absence is felt deeply. We especially remember former President Dr. John B. Clark, whose leadership and contributions continue to shape this institution, and longtime WestConn friend Dr. Jane Goodall, whose connection to this university remains part of our story.

In these moments, I am grateful for the care shown across campus: by Student Affairs, HR, faculty, staff, colleagues, friends, and teams who quietly supported one another. These are not the moments that appear in dashboards, but they are among the clearest expressions of what it means to be a university community.