Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago Names New Deans

BY ISN STAFF | April 24, 2015
CHICAGO, IL – Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago, a developing educational innovation in Jesuit higher education, announced today that Yolanda Golden and Jennie Wozniak Boyle have joined the college’s administrative leadership team. Golden will serve as the associate dean of student success, while Wozniak Boyle has been named the college’s associate dean of academics.

Yolanda Golden joins Arrupe College after serving as academic advisor coordinator for Loyola’s School of Social Work since 2007. During her time with the school, Golden also served as an adjunct professor teaching both graduate- and undergraduate-level courses. In her new role as associate dean of student success, Golden is responsible for shaping and implementing the unique Arrupe support structure that will optimize and be critical to each student’s chance for academic and social success. Golden will oversee the college’s career counseling strategy, student employment opportunities, the college’s social worker, its partnership with Loyola’s School of Social Work, and more.

 Jennie Wozniak Boyle comes to Loyola from Elmhurst College, where she is associate professor of political science and the department’s chair. Wozniak Boyle’s area of research is international relations and the European Union. As the new associate dean of academics, she is responsible for hiring and mentoring the college’s faculty, overseeing teaching assignments, creating academic schedules, shaping the college’s intensive learning experience, and teaching faculty how to deliver courses in Arrupe’s innovative education model. She will also guide the college’s academic advisors and instruct an international relations and American government course. Wozniak Boyle will officially join Arrupe on July 1.

“With Arrupe College, we set out to create an experience that features a holistic, integrated support structure unprecedented at the college level, and these two appointments are critical to us achieving that vision,” said Stephen Katsouros, S.J., dean and executive director of Arrupe College. “Both Yolanda and Jennie will make an immediate impact on this college, as we continue to build the program and prepare to welcome our first cohort of students this summer.”

Introduced this past February, Arrupe College is a two-year associate’s degree program for motivated students with limited financial resources and an interest in attending a four-year institution after graduation. The program, which will offer associate’s degrees in Arts and Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences, is set to launch this summer, pending final approval by the Higher Learning Commission. Students graduating from the new college can expect little to no debt upon completion of the program.

Arrupe College addresses a serious problem in higher education across the country—the need to increase access to, and completion rates of, post-secondary education degrees for students from low-income families. To achieve this, the college is focused on affordability and a unique education model that includes extensive, one-on-one contact with experienced, full-time faculty members.

Arrupe College’s education model includes:

• Enhanced summer pre-enrollment orientation
• A strong cohort and holistic, integrated series of supports for students to optimize their chances for academic and social success
• Intensive one-on-one contact with specialized faculty
• Significant increase in availability of faculty and staff due to small class sizes
• A two-year associate’s degree that is fully transferable to state and private options throughout the state
• A financial strategy that permits low-income students to fully finance the cost of instruction with financial aid that does not include assuming debt

Founded in 1870, Loyola University Chicago is one of the nation’s largest Jesuit, Catholic universities, with nearly 16,000 students. Loyola University Chicago is an 2014-2015 Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN) Institutional Member.  Students, faculty, staff regularly engage in ISN programs.  In 2013, ISN partnered with Loyola University Chicago and Faith in Public Life to host the Student Summit on Immigration Reform on Loyola’s campus, convening over 150 Catholic university students for a 1-day workshop on immigration and Catholic Social Teaching.