The Inspiring Odyssey from Haitian Roots to Academic Eminence at Xavier University
A journey through a life defined by intellect, resilience, and grace, Dr. Reynold Verret stands as a symbol of dedication and a beacon of the American immigrant dream. His leadership at Xavier University in Louisiana reflects not only his remarkable academic credentials but his deep humanity. The Inspiring Odyssey from Haitian Roots to Academic Eminence at Xavier University
Dr. Reynold Verret – an indisputably charming, highly cultured and principled Haitian American with outstanding academic credentials as well as genuine human warmth – could easily be the protagonist in a novel by Graham Greene (The Comedians, perhaps?) or even Edwidge Danticat. Bespectacled and unassuming but with a trenchant intellect and a formidably Cartesian mind, Dr Verret holds the distinction of being the sixth president (and only second lay leader) of Xavier University in Louisiana, where he has served with dedication and renown since his election in 2015.
Upbringing
He was born and raised in Haiti, where his father was a doctor and his mother a nurse; he arrived in New York at the age of eight with his parents, fleeing the oppressive Duvalier regime, which was at that time decimating the already blighted Caribbean Island nation and systematically plunging it even further into an abyss of heinous poverty, ubiquitous corruption and abject terror. “We left Haiti under Duvalier. My mother was a political prisoner under Papa Doc”, Dr Verret explains calmly, without bitterness. Reflecting on this painful and challenging period in his and his parents’ lives, he reveals the difficulties they faced. Despite this arduous start, Dr Verret became a quintessential embodiment of the American immigrant dream, determined to succeed and pursue his education to the fullest extent possible.
Parental Values
A veritable polyglot (he speaks English, French, Spanish and Haitian Creole), Dr Verret inherited his profound love of languages from his parents and a love of poetry, much of which he was encouraged to learn by heart. “My father could read Latin, but also many languages. My parents encouraged us to read and even to recite poetry. There are poems that I remember from when I was five years old, which I can still recite verbally.” Whether it was French or Latin poets like Verlaine or the amorous Catullus that his parents encouraged him to learn by heart, ones from the English poetic canon or perhaps more politically engaged modern works by the 20th-century Haitian poet Jacques Roumain, a palpable love of language and the myriad joys of poetry have never left him, a testament to his enduring passion.
In addition to a tangible sense that “language matters”, Dr Verret took from his parents something even more critical for and germane to his future. He recalls effusively: “As someone who went into the sciences, there was permission to be inquisitive.” He continues with a pedagogical incisiveness, dwelling with profound gratitude for what his parents bequeathed to him. “It’s probably the parents’ biggest role, permitting us to become musicians, poets, argumentative, difficult children, and eventually lawyers. In many ways, that permission to be inquisitive, even to take things apart, was something my parents tolerated up to a point. That is a gift from parents.”
Moreover, his parents also gave him a sense of unconditional love. As he explains, “Not only a sense of belonging but that notion that you are loved no matter what.” One feels this undoubtedly contributed to his sense of stability and, thus, his ensuing successful development. It was not just his nuclear family but also his extended family who made him feel that way. He explains, “It’s not just parents (who made me feel that way) because I was enveloped by a family of aunts, godmother and uncles who would say something similar to me.” The importance of extended family in his upbringing is obvious. He candidly admits, “I remember one time when I was a difficult child, feeling disrespect for all kinds of things that I should not have been, my godmother saying that “I love you. I would do anything for you.” This articulation and reinforcement of unconditional love from his extended family strengthened him. “She said, “It’s because you are my sister’s son.” And that’s an important understanding of belonging to that community, that relationship.”
Move to New York
The move to Brooklyn, New York, in 1963 effectively truncated his childhood or divided it into the Caribbean and American parts. He recalls, “In many ways, my childhood is in two boxes that are quite neat.” But he readily admits, speaking with genuine pride for and evident fondness and sincere attachment to his new home with its myriad cultures, “I’m very much a child of New York City and of Brooklyn, which is a different culture altogether because it’s also a culture where many cultures meet.”
As Dr Verret talks, his euphonic voice and mellifluous accent, subtly inflected with French Caribbean undertones but also the indelible linguistic traces of Brooklyn’s racial melting pot and its plethora of inhabitants from all over the globe, are noticeable. “Even my accent. When people hear it, they say, “Are you from Jamaica? Are you from Ireland?” However, it’s a neighbourhood accent. You have Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Jews, Irish, and Puerto Ricans in Brooklyn. And if you put a child there, they will sound like me.” Reflecting on the large NYC outer borough’s famous linguistic and cultural diversity and how it has shaped him, he states, “That culture of encounters with many different people and learning from many people is very much Brooklyn.”
Education
Like many talented immigrants to America before him who were passionate about a love of knowledge and self-improvement, Dr Verret seized all the educational opportunities available to him with an unquenchable ardour and an unslakable thirst. Excelling at school, his love of scientific, intellectual enquiry – in particular, the chemistry of living organisms – led him to scale the twin educational peaks of Parnassus and study at two of the nation’s most august academic institutions. He received his Bachelor’s degree cum laude in Biochemistry from the Ivy League Columbia University in New York and then a PhD (again in Biochemistry) from the world-famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research as a Fellow at the Howard Hughes Institute for Immunology at Yale University and then at the Center for Cancer Research at MIT. With such impeccable academic credentials, the scientific world lay before him.
After such accomplished and fulfilling post-doctoral peregrinations, he eventually came full circle. He said, “My first academic position was here in New Orleans at Tulane University, where I was a Professor of Chemistry. I then left and went to Atlanta and other places, and eventually, life pulled me back here because I guess life pulls you back. It calls you.”
As he recounts his academic journey from student to scientist to dean, he smiles, seemingly amused at the almost inevitable nature of his progression. “Like many scientists, I had a sense that I enjoyed science as a small boy and learned what that meant in libraries. I have a PhD in Biochemistry as well. I am an educator. I have a laboratory. I have graduate students who research. And at some point in my life, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I need you to be a dean.” So, I became a dean.”
Awards
Throughout his long, varied and stellar career, Dr Verret has won numerous awards for his outstanding contributions as an educator, researcher and academic leader. These include the Community Healers Award (2020), an Honorary Doctor of Science from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (2019), the 1804 List of Haitian American Changemakers (2016), USP-Office of Sponsored Programs Award (2006), a First Year Advising Award –University of the Sciences (2004), the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Award for Academic Excellence and Student Mentoring (1999), the Fogarty International Centre Fellow – Biocentrum, Turku, Finland (1997), an Educational Resource Centre Teaching Award, Tulane University (1990), the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, M.I.T. (1980), the Green law Fellowship, M.I.T. (1976), the King Crown Award, Columbia University (1976) and the Charles Hubsman Prize in Biology, Columbia College (1975).
On New Orleans’ Cultural Debt to Haiti
As a Haitian, Dr Verret is acutely aware of the enormous debt which Louisiana’s Creole culture owes to his mother country, and in particular to the Haitian revolution. He proudly elucidates that “Creole culture was a culture that derived from French ancestry and somewhat from the Spanish influx as well, but also heavily from the influx of people who came from the Haitian revolution.” He continues with a scholarly intensity, “An estimate is that roughly more than half of the population in New Orleans by 1810 after the revolution was of Haitian descent (and were instrumental in) the remaking of southern Louisiana, especially New Orleans, its key city.”
Inestimably proud of his Haitian Creole roots, Dr Verret is also painfully conscious of the pernicious legacy of slavery in both the Caribbean and New Orleans and one of its unintended consequences – namely, creating a burgeoning class of educated Creole people, something he sees as an unerringly positive by-product of a nefarious system. As he explains, “Creole culture is in music, but it’s also in the educated class of black Creoles we have as a result because if you have an illegitimate child, even now in France or Spain, you must educate the child. That was the case then, too. Therefore, you have an educated class of Creoles.”
Dr Verret then proceeds to discourse passionately about the manifold influences of the Haitian city of Cap-Haitien on New Orleans. Evidently, he still feels a strong sense of pride in his native land and a deep-seated attachment to his adopted home in the Crescent City. “New Orleans is a city that culturally flowered from the people who came from Cap-Francais, now Cap-Haitien, a city with orchestras and cafes. It was a city with a rich culture because it was the epicentre of the French colonial empire, at least in the Caribbean, and even up the Mississippi basin.” He continues, a tone of authority born from copious knowledge in his voice. “These people came and developed a culture in New Orleans, so that you have the cafes, the musical clubs, the society, even the rebuilding of what is now the French Quarter, which, as you see, is really in the image of their favourite city, Cap-Haitien.”
The similitude of the two cities’ ecclesiastical architecture, including cathedral spires, is also very apparent to Dr Verret and indicates a broader influence. “If you look at the architectural layout of the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and the cathedral in Cap-Haitien, they are essentially the same. When we see the sharp spires of our cathedral here and the round spires of the cathedral in Cap-Haitien, we forget that in the 1940s, there was a fire in the cathedral, and it burned the spires. The new spires are sharp, whereas the old spires are exactly like the ones in Cap-Haitien.”
Dr Verret’s concluding assessment of New Orleans’ cultural debt to Haiti is balanced, readily acknowledging the often ostensibly contradictory nature of an antebellum Creole society striated by the scars of slavery and the myriad nuances at play in both the social stratification and the cultural exchange. “Haitian culture also brings to New Orleans certain linguistic customs and certain societal customs, even the conception of slavery, race, and ethnicity. This is in a city in which, during and after the Haitian revolution, with the influx of people from Haiti, there were members of the Louisiana army who were black and who were generals and also who enslaved people. Therefore, it is a complicated culture.”
Career Prior to Joining Xavier
Before acceding to the presidency of Xavier University, Dr Verret served as the Provost at Savannah State University (from 2012 to 2015) and at Wilkes University (from 2007 to 2012). He also served as the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia from 2002 to 2007. Before that, he was on the faculty of Chemistry at Tulane University. For many years, he led the Department of Chemistry as its chair at Clark Atlanta University from 1996 to 2002. During his tenure at Clark, he also joined Morehouse School of Medicine as an adjunct Professor of Immunology.
Xavier University
In 2015, Dr Verret was appointed President of Xavier University in Louisiana, the nation’s only Catholic HBCU. It was a role he felt very much as if he had been called to be there by a higher power. Sounding as if nurturing a belief in a providential deity, he admits, “In terms of my journey to Xavier, I was called. There was a phone call but also a sense of mystical calling.” He then elucidates what he means. “I’ve known Xavier since I was even on faculty. Some of my former students are here on faculties. When we were here, my wife and I would come to mass in the chapel, so we knew the school, and I also knew the students here. Then, when someone said, “Would you want to be considered for this position,” it was an easy “Yes.” But I was called to come back in many ways, and it felt right.”
Challenges of the Xavier Role
Ironically, Dr Verret sees the fact that he used to live in New Orleans before, in the 1990s, and was already familiar with the city and its culture. He explains, “I was here before, so in many ways, I was returning. I left New Orleans in the mid-nineties, and many friends were on the faculty, and even the family that cared for our baby son are still here. Our relationships are still here, and some of my students are still here. I know the city of New Orleans. I’ve seen it, so I know the culture. I understand the Mardi Gras, and sometimes it is too much because I’ve been here.” He adds, his in-depth knowledge of the city’s racial and social tectonic plates evident, “When I speak of the ambiguities of the divisions of the city, and how the city has changed, and sometimes in what I call its pre-Katrina and post-Katrina phases, I know the city of New Orleans. It was home.”
Insularity of New Orleans
Dr Verret is unapologetic about the challenges of being an outsider in Crescent City. As he explains, “I am not a New Orleanian, and you cannot be a New Orleanian if you were not born here. That’s what the culture says.” Yet he concedes, “However, exceptions are beginning to be made and to change that. The mayor was not born here now. That’s a big exception.” He elucidates the sometimes-tacit division throughout the city about his children, “But my son was born here, so he has some authenticity. One of the changes was that New Orleans was a city that divided itself between outsiders and insiders. You must be born here for at least several generations.”
Dr Verret then cites New Orleans’ famous carnival as an example of the city’s insularity and how it traditionally excluded outsiders. “You could only become part of a Mardi Gras crew if born here. However, you could be invited to a ball if not born here. You could watch but not be part of it because that depended on long family relationships.” He continues, understanding the reasons for the city’s way of being and equally now at peace with it. “We’re a city with a great reputation worldwide but not that large. If you go far back enough, many people are related in some way and have supported each other through crises that a mother or a grandmother may remember. They have many reasons to remain one. That’s a piece of New Orleans that must be cherished.”
His Vision for Xavier
On taking office in 2015, Dr Verret was initially keen not to tamper with a winning formula. He was conscious that “Xavier is an institution that has successes. That’s not something that you want to change.” However, he did initiate asking some soul-searching questions about the nature of the institution and its purpose in this day and time. He explains, “What we intentionally did was to do some examination, almost from a Jesuit point of discernment, of where we are called to be, and of understanding the legacy that we were passed by Mother Katherine Drexel of whom to serve and where and how.”
Continuing to reference the American philanthropist, religious sister and saint who founded Xavier University and who devoted herself to advocating for the needs of the oppressed, he explains, “We asked ourselves the hard question: If Mother Katherine were here today, there are some whom she would have on her list who should be served, such as African Americans and Native Americans, but then who else?”
As he concludes, Dr Verret reflects on Xavier’s efforts to address critical and timely questions. He emphasises the need for the university to be welcoming and inclusive to new communities while re-examining its curriculum to ensure it meets current educational needs. He states, “We have focused on being inclusive to those not here before us and re-evaluating our curriculum. We should constantly ask, ‘Where is our education needed?’ These are the steps we have taken.”
Stem Subjects at Xavier
In terms of shaping the curriculum, Dr Verret is keen to stress his intention that Xavier develops in STEM subjects and other necessary domains as a crucial area in the future of education, which will further increase graduate employability. To this end, Xavier recently announced the establishment of a Bachelor of Science in Robotics and Engineering Program (beginning in January 2022), thus becoming the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to implement such a program. “We are especially elaborating our health professions and STEM fields because we are a STEM school. We are the only historically black college that is Catholic in this country, so we have some things that are key to what we do, especially in STEM, where we have some great ability, how we leverage and develop the right programmes in STEM, but also to look at the breadth of our education in the social sciences and the arts and humanities too.”
Medicine at Xavier
Regarding the study of medicine, Dr Verret mentions that Xavier has sent more African American students to earn medical degrees and PhDs in the health sciences than any other higher education institution in the country. Soon, Xavier looks forward to producing Black MDs of its own, with planning for a new medical school announced in April of this year. Dr Verret is unashamedly passionate about the need for medical school, as he sees it as the more significant issue of trust.
“Developing a medical programme has to do with the fact that the representation of practitioners of colour is important for trust, for the stability of the system, and not just for that, but for the quality of care, that we can overcome the disparities of healthcare that we see throughout the system.” He then adds, “But also for another reason, that it’s important that you have investigators asking the questions about what we should be doing and when we should be doing it in the research domain.”
Making Changes to Xavier
Conscious of the need for funding to maintain the university’s many historic buildings but also of the need to construct new ones to facilitate expansion, Dr Verret adds, “We must build the physical structure that would allow us to expand and give opportunities to students. That’s important.”
Another of Dr Verret’s principal aims for Xavier is wholly financial. Both laudable and humbling, it is a clear, philanthropic vision to benefit the less fortunate. “I’d like to come to the point where we can graduate all students who have come from a family income below a certain level, to graduate loan-free – to make real affordability, so that no student who has a passion or desire and the talent and ability would have to make a choice and say no.” As he continues, explaining his rationale with passion, commitment, and zeal, he puts Xavier’s desire to raise funds in the context of service to the nation. “That’s where we are because talent is important to us. If I say that, you may think it’s a self-serving interest for Xavier, but it’s not. The country needs talent in the second and third grades if it wants to remain strong. If we don’t develop that talent, we do it at our peril, so we should make education affordable.”
International Ties
Dr Verret has also focused on building international ties for his university and building scholarship programmes to support them. As he explains, inordinately proud of the global dimension he is fostering, “We’ve had exchange programmes in China, in the Caribbean, especially with the Francophone countries, in Costa Rica, and throughout the Americas as well.” In addition, incorporating a fascinating historical dimension to his outward-looking vision for Xavier, he states, “In our exchange programmes, we are also looking very much into the Caribbean because, to be quite honest, New Orleans is a Caribbean city, both in history and in culture, and we are opening to the Caribbean, so therefore we have reasons to open ourselves to those nations.”
Challenges of Covid
Naturally, the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 threw up many unprecedented and discombobulating logistical, pastoral, and academic challenges for him in his role as the head of the university. Explaining from a scientific point of view, with refreshing honesty, he states, “COVID was challenging because of the uncertainty, the uncertainty of exactly how the epidemic would migrate.”
Mask Wearing During Covid
On the hotly debated issue of the ethics of wearing masks on campus during the pandemic, Dr Verret makes a correlation between Xavier being a black Catholic HBCU and its core values of thinking beyond oneself and being considerate to the well-being of others: They encouraged the wearing of masks “so that you were not a danger to your fellow, to your neighbour. It was other-centred (as opposed to self-centred.” Humanistic ethos he extols both touching and humbling, “We were relying upon our reputation as an institution that was not only black but Catholic as well. We said your duty is to the person sitting beside you rather than saying, “What about me?”
Dr Verret’s assessment of Xavier’s response to COVID-19 is delivered with pride and humility: “I think, in many ways, our response was counterintuitive to the national leaning on individualism and individual rights. Ours was about the rights of the one next to me. That helped us and allowed us to demand things of ourselves and our community that others were struggling to do.”
Summing up, he states, with discernible pride, “Our goal was to say that we could make it significantly safer to be on campus than in your communities or the community outside, and we did exactly that. 98% of our campus was vaccinated, so it was safer on campus than out there.”
Moreover, unsurprisingly, as an immunologist who led by example, Dr Verret was determined to do his part during the COVID-19 pandemic and participated in vaccine trials. As a scientist and a trusted figure in the local African American community, Dr Verret used his background as a scientist to reassure anxious underrepresented groups about the science and ethical standards of modern medicine while thoroughly acknowledging past medical mistreatment of people of colour (such as the infamous and repellent Tuskegee experiments).
On Distance Learning During the Pandemic
Appreciating the limits of distance learning (e-learning), Dr Verret pushed, wherever safety permitted during and immediately after the pandemic, for students to return to campus and engage in learning in person. As he readily admits, “We have high expectations of our students. We push them hard but push them hard because we give them what they need. They needed to be here in person.” He continues, “The in-person interaction with the professor was much more significant than we would have imagined two years before in our theoretical notion of exactly what online education could do.”
Dr Verret concludes his assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the tertiary education sector with some harsh but fair words about the ultimate causes of discrepancies in student outcomes. “COVID-19 forced the nation to experiment. The experiment failed because we saw the difference, especially for students who did not have the means and who did not have their rooms or computers. In other words, it became a class distinction.”
Financial Challenges of Running a University
As Xavier’s President, Dr Verret is acutely conscious of the pressure to fundraise with a willingness to meet the student’s financial needs. He is honest about the university’s limited wealth and how it can be rectified. “We don’t have enough (money) yet, but we must. That means we need to engage the larger community of Americans, and even abroad, to be part of this endeavour because we are not benefiting ourselves; we’re not even benefiting just the students who graduate because what they do has benefits for the larger community, because they are the ones who are serving and opening up this country, so we must invest in them.”
Addressing Misconceptions About Xavier
Dr Verret is also keen to address and clarify misconceptions about Xavier’s student body composition and who the university intends to serve. “We need much more understanding that Xavier doesn’t just serve black students or Catholic students. Most of our students are not Catholic and never have been – and for a very long time. We serve all students.”
He then assiduously re-iterates the notion of “service” to students, the wider community, and ultimately the nation. “It’s not just the students we serve, but it’s whom they go on to serve. Because as they proceed to work as teachers, doctors and lawyers, and in the many places where you find our graduates, they are of service to someone else.” With cogency and force, he concludes, “Xavier is worth investing in because it’s a gift to the nation.”
Furthermore, he stresses that Xavier caters to many academic disciplines, including arts and sciences. “We are liberal arts, and I use the word liberal arts in the ancient sense. It includes the humanities, social sciences, and the arts and sciences. We also have students in the arts, music, theology, and philosophy. We also have many students in the physical and natural sciences. Some of them go to medical school. We also have a college of pharmacy – the oldest college of pharmacy in Louisiana.”
Xavier Alumni
When it comes to Xavier’s relationship with its alums, Dr Verret is enthused about its strength and the importance of the bond. “The alumni are very much engaged in Xavier because our alumni have a sense that, “But for the grace of God, there go I” – that they were beneficiaries of someone else’s effort, and therefore, they owe something to someone else.” He continues, “That sense that others stood in the way for them, and now they will stand in the way for those who’ve not yet arrived.”
Advice to Others
Looking back over his long and illustrious academic career, Dr Verret articulates a steadfastly philosophical appreciation of the nature of our human journey with disarming honesty and infectious candour. “I have made enough mistakes in my life that there are many things I would change, but I would still want to have the life I have.”
The piece of advice he would like to pass on is that he was once given by the president of an institution Dr Verret was leaving: “You should never go to any place where you have more to teach them than they have to teach you.”
Yet, he adds ruminatively, and with a tinge of regret, perennially aware of the quirks of human nature, “But, like many people, like my children, and like many of us when we were 18 or 19, we didn’t listen to advice that was given. But if we listened to that advice, there are things we would never have learned. I don’t know whether I would trade them either. And that’s the recklessness of youth.”
Advice to Politicians
Regarding politicians, Dr Verret’s advice about empathy and humility for successful communication is concise and direct but humane: “You need to be able to listen to others. Listening means always exposing yourself to the possibility that someone might change your mind or you’re thinking. In other words, humility. That’s an important thing to do, to teach others.”
In terms of political responses to COVID-19, he is forthright in his assessment that politicians actually made the handling of the pandemic worse and even greatly exacerbated the loss of life on an unprecedented scale. He opines with a conviction backed up by scientific rigour, “Politicians need to stay back because I think in many ways, even during the pandemic, the political discussion made it harder to manage what was purely a health problem. In April or March 2020, it was a health problem. By May 2020, it became a political problem, which did not help. The fact that we had half a million dead by the end of 2020, compared to a dozen dead in Taiwan, is because of political issues. So, the politicians were not helpful.”
Advice to Young People
His advice to young people is replete with worldly wisdom but is also profoundly philosophical, stoical, and reminiscent of biblical counsel, such as that found in Ecclesiastes. “I would tell young people advice that I think has been given in every generation, but it only makes sense years later, namely that this will pass.” He continues, “The older people tell you this will pass. If it’s a catastrophe in the community, they say, “We will get through this, and this will pass, and we will find another way,” or even a young man or young woman who’s been jilted by his boyfriend or girlfriend, it’s an older person who says, “This will pass.” But at the time, for a young person, the perspective that this will pass is not there yet.” He adds, compassionately, readily acknowledging his human fallibility, “And we must tell young people about our failures to give them a sense that we are not just making this up.”
Three Wishes
When it comes to the proverbial three wishes he would like to be granted, Dr Verret, perhaps unsurprisingly, focuses on education, in particular, uplifting young people by enabling them to finance their studies, and also crucially on the importance of encouraging them to dream big at an early age. “I would like $300 million of endowment money to support student scholarships. That’s my first wish.” He continues, with a macrocosmic view of the often intransigent, belligerent and partisan nature of political discourse, “I would want to be able to engage each other in common conversations about the difficult things without relying upon ideologies that fix positions.”
His final wish concerns young children being permitted to dream (and thus to become whatever they want later on in life). It is incredibly poignant and touching as it does on the very nature of human flourishing. “I also want us to give young people in the second or third grade clear opportunities and the message that if you dream of becoming something, whatever it is, be it a fireman or a theoretical physicist, society will support you.” Proceeding to explain further the rationale behind this wish, he nods with conviction, “Because I think giving them that message at that age allows them to say, “I will follow that,” because there’s not an obstacle, as opposed to saying that it’s impossible.” His concluding words – an opposite mineralogical analogy about cultivating human potential – are delivered, as are all his remarks, with a mixture of sagacity, good humour and grace, profoundly thought-provoking and chastening. “I fear we leave our gift and gold unrefined in the second and third grades.”
Centenary Anniversary: Reflecting on the Past and Preparing for the Future
As Xavier University of Louisiana approaches its 100th anniversary, President Dr Reynold Verret reflects on the institution’s storied past and its plans for the future. Established by Mother Katharine Drexel with a mission to educate the underserved, Xavier has consistently worked to fulfil this vision. As the centennial milestone nears, the university is actively strategising on how to sustain and advance this mission for the next century.
A significant part of this strategy involves the centennial capital campaign. Dr Verret explains, “One of the aspects of that is how we enter a centennial capital campaign. That campaign is to be able to fund some important aspects of the mission.” This ambitious campaign aims to raise half a billion dollars over the next five to ten years, focusing on several critical areas to ensure the university’s continued success and growth.
First and foremost, the campaign addresses the issue of affordability. Dr Verret emphasises the importance of making Xavier accessible to all students, regardless of their financial background. “Since most of our students are not from the wealthiest families, how do we make Xavier affordable so that any young woman or man who wants to come to Xavier should be able to come to Xavier, and money should not be an impediment?” This commitment to affordability is central to Xavier’s mission of providing quality education to underserved communities.
Another key focus of the campaign is faculty sustainability. Recognising that the quality of education at Xavier is mainly due to its dedicated faculty, Dr Verret highlights the need to support and retain these educators. “We have to be able to sustain them by allowing them to grow as scholars, to make sure that they’re paid well, but also that the teaching loads are adequate to allow them to flourish.” By investing in its faculty, Xavier aims to maintain its high standards of teaching and scholarship, ensuring that students continue to receive an exceptional education.
In addition to affordability and faculty support, the capital campaign will fund the renovation and expansion of the university’s physical facilities. Many of Xavier’s historic buildings, including those built by Katharine Drexel herself, require significant renovations to preserve their legacy and functionality. Furthermore, new laboratories and studios are needed to accommodate the growing demand for modern, state-of-the-art educational spaces. Dr Verret underscores the necessity of these improvements, stating, “We need to create quality spaces that would attract students where students can flourish.”
Conclusion
Xavier University is exceedingly fortunate to have a leader of the moral fibre and intellectual ability of Dr Reynold Verret at the helm. A Haitian American scientist and academic, Dr Verret embodies the same ideals of equality and education for all that his famous compatriot, Toussaint Louverture, fought for during the Haitian Revolution at the turn of the 19th century.
While Dr Verret’s scientific research and educational initiatives may not be as martial or conventionally “epic” as Louverture’s revolutionary battles, he undoubtedly shares his fellow Haitian liberator’s intellectual audacity, physical ardour, and emotional resilience. Toussaint used military might and strategic insight to free his people. Dr Verret leverages his position as the president of one of Louisiana’s foremost educational institutions—and an HBCU—to uplift the less fortunate and facilitate human flourishing.
As Xavier University approaches its centenary, Dr Verret’s leadership ensures the institution remains true to its founding principles. His commitment to affordability, faculty support, and the enhancement of educational facilities underscores his dedication to sustaining and advancing the university’s mission for the next century. Under Dr Verret’s guidance, Xavier continues to honour its legacy while preparing to meet the challenges and opportunities of the future.