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New Siena College president officially kicks off tenure with eye on the future

 Siena College's new president Charles Siefert in front the steps of Siena College's Siena Hall on June 1, 2023.
Lisa Witkowski
/
Siena College
Siena College's new president Charles Seifert in front the steps of Siena College's Siena Hall on June 1, 2023.

The new president of Siena College says the private school’s future is bright.

Dr. Charles Seifert has been at Siena since 1996, when he came on as a visiting professor. Speaking in front of Siena Hall Thursday, the college’s second lay president says recent growth enables further success.

“Some of the programs that have been really successful, one is nursing, so I think that is something that the community is looking for, it’s something that the hospitals are looking for, it’s something that the students are looking for, so that’s a very strong program,” Siefert said.

Seifert takes over for former New York Congressman Chris Gibson, who retired after three years leading the private school in Loudonville. He was the college’s first lay president. Despite the success he noted, Seifert says the college is always looking to grow and evolve.

“We can't sit on our laurels, right. There are some pretty strong headwinds in the academic space. And there's a lot of different areas that we need to make sure that we address and we continue to address. First and foremost is the fulfillment of our mission. We are a learning community advancing the ideals of a liberal arts education. Grounded in our both our Catholic and our Franciscan tradition, every single thing that we do needs to be focused first and foremost on our mission. I like to call it the litmus test, every single thing that we do has to meet that test," Siefert said.

Seifert says Siena’s community focus is what makes it special.

“When you come on Siena’s campus, you feel the care, the nurturing, and just the overall atmosphere at the college, just it's fantastic. You can't fake it this good. It's intoxicating, the just the support that people feel,” Siefert remarked.

Simon Meisel, of the class of 2024, agrees, saying it’s why he chose Siena.

“Because of the liberal arts nature of the school, everyone gets well-rounded to an extent, and everyone gets to pursue their own passions. Beyond that, the community nature of it and the Franciscan nature of it help to foster a sense of community,” Meisel said.

Siena was founded in 1937 by members of the Orders of Friars Minor on an asparagus farm in Loudonville as a men’s day school and coeducational night school running out of a farmhouse on Route 9. The farmhouse is gone now, but the college has grown from about a hundred students to over 3,000.

Although he’s worked for Siena for years, Seifert says he looks at the college with a different perspective as president than as a professor.

“I've walked up the stairs for 27 plus years, right. And it was the morning after the potential opportunity was first presented to me. And so I'm walking up here, and I literally open up the door. And there's a divot right here. And it was the first time that I'd ever noticed it. And the magnitude of the responsibility of this position really hit me. And that this divot has been created by the tens, hundreds of thousands of students and community members that have walked across those stairs. And it's our responsibility to make sure that we honor their legacy,” Seifert said.

Father Kevin Mullen, a member of the Order of Friars Minor and former president of the college, says despite being a layman, Seifert has Franciscan ideals at heart.

“This is a gentleman thoroughly filled with our Franciscan values, who lives them in his life, and passes them on in his classroom and has done that as a leader in the faculty. So I think our values our mission, the stuff that really matters to the Franciscans are in great hands," Mullen said.

Siena is renovating several buildings and area residents have raised concerns about truck traffic on Fiddlers Lane. It led to the Colonie Planning Board restricting truck traffic to Spring Street Road and Route 9. Seifert says the college will abide by the requirements.

"And we did receive the stamp on our approval. We had done our analysis, and we felt that it was best for the community in general in order to use Fiddlers Lane," Seifert said. "That was not the feeling of the board. And we will absolutely 100% comply with that.”

A 2022 Siena College graduate, Alexander began his journalism career as a sports writer for Siena College's student paper The Promethean, and as a host for Siena's school radio station, WVCR-FM "The Saint." A Cubs fan, Alexander hosts the morning Sports Report in addition to producing Morning Edition. You can hear the sports reports over-the-air at 6:19 and 7:19 AM, and online on WAMC.org. He also speaks Spanish as a second language. To reach him, email ababbie@wamc.org, or call (518)-465-5233 x 190. You can also find him on Twitter/X: @ABabbieWAMC.