When Miguel Martinez-Saenz was named president of St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2017, his previous role had been as provost and vice president of Academic Affairs at Otterbein University, located in Westerville, Ohio. This was a radical change, from a town of 38,000 residents - a suburban community of the bustling city of Columbus, Ohio - to New York’s borough of Brooklyn, with its 2.5 million residents, which is part of a city of over 8 million people.

A Dynamic, Multicultural College

Since Martinez-Saenz was born in Atlanta, raised in Miami, and hails from a Cuban-American background, he blends in with New York, with its large Latino population and scores of immigrants. He says moving to Brooklyn was easy for him and caused “few adjustments. I met more people like me, many more Latinos here, but also got to meet with African-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Irish Catholics.”

Though St. Francis is considered a small college, it was known to “powerbrokers,” he says, evidenced by his meeting influential congresswoman Nydia Velasquez early on and then quickly getting involved with community organizations such as the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce.

St. Francis College is situated in the middle of the action in downtown Brooklyn, two blocks from the headquarters of the New York City Department of Education, several blocks from the Brooklyn Court House and a mile or so from the Brooklyn Bridge.

The student body of St. Francis mirrors the multicultural diversity of New York City. In fall 2022, its 2,300 enrolled undergraduates consisted of 28% Latino, 26% White, 24% African American, 4% Asian, 1% Native American and the remainder biracial. Of those students, 1,865 were New York City residents, so it’s mostly a commuter, local school serving the five boroughs. Proving its economic diversity, 99% of students—that is, nearly everyone—was on some form of financial assistance, scholarship, grant or loan. It also has 300 graduate students on campus.

And while many colleges suffered enrollment decline to the pandemic, by 2026, St. Francis is expected to increase to more than 3,500 students, including graduate students, based on its new building on campus.

Its three most popular majors are nursing, biology and management. But Martinez-Saenz added that many majors, including marketing, math, psychology, and criminal justice, are also quite prevalent. He suggested that overall enrollment gets a boost “since nursing is one of our strongest points, and the demand is so great.”     

Regardless of the major students choose, “we try to create conditions to make their life better, not just improve their socioeconomic position,” states Martinez-Saenz.

A New Message: Transformational Degrees for Public School Students

When Martinez-Saenz started as president in 2017, St. Francis College was facing a problem. Governor Cuomo had just announced a statewide Excelsior program in which students whose families earned $125,000 or less would attend college for free.  “What that did was to distort the market for colleges like us, and Mount St. Vincent and Mercy College. We needed to pay attention,” he said.

Martinez-Saenz said the college had to transform its message and take a more active role in recruitment. So instead of a tagline saying, “small college: big dreams,” its marketing emphasizes its return on investment and the economic impact a degree would make on its students’ lives.

Moreover, Martinez-Saenz and the college’s assistant vice-president for enrollment started visiting local public high schools such as Edward Murrow H.S., Fort Hamilton H.S., Young Leadership Collaborative, as well as local parochial schools, to let students know that St. Francis College welcomed them, and to describe the majors it offered that could transform their lives.

On these high school visits, they would look at student transcripts and offer conditional acceptance on the spot, which would then require some follow-up information. Martinez-Saenz said they’d analyze the transcript and say something like “You have an 83% GPA, and you’re accepted.”

These efforts have paid off. Martinez-Saenz states that “ten years ago, our student body was about 70% parochial school students and 30% public school, and now it’s 85% public school students”.

Fostering a Global Student Body

In addition to high school outreach efforts, the college embarked on increasing its international enrollment, both in its graduate and undergraduate classes. “We have this major attraction, which is New York City,” that helps attract many international students, he suggests.

“We used to have about 50 international students and now it’s more like 350 students,” he says, who hail from a wide-ranging number of countries and regions, including Southeast Asia, South America, India, Bangladesh, and Serbia. The college also offers exchange programs with Germany and Norway.

Moreover, he wants the student body of St. Francis College to reflect the borough of Brooklyn, its neighborhoods, and its diversity, which it achieves with its more global student body.

Looking Towards the Future

In October 2022, St. Francis College underwent a major change when a new campus building opened, measuring 255,000 square feet and consisting of three floors.  The college moved to Livingston Street and is in the process of closing its former, outdated Remsen Street building. “We decided to sell the building and get a state-of-the-art building. Our students deserve a 21st century building, not an old space.”

The new building includes 30 modern classrooms equipped with high-tech facilities, a 6,600 square-foot library, a 260-seat dining room, and a 300-seat auditorium. Martinez-Saenz said the building was devoted to the “student experience,” rather than to offices for administrators. For example, it has floor-to-ceiling windows, making it feel open instead of feeling enclosed, like old-fashioned college offices.

Asked how his philosophy major has shaped his educational philosophy, Martinez-Saenz replied,

“We have to think all the time of how we live our life. That is the question.” He referenced the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke who wrote, “Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday, far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.” Martinez-Saenz added, “What we should do as educators is get young people to figure out that this is a journey and be mindful of living the question.”

And he’s not just an administrator but keeps involved in teaching. Last year he taught a class on human rights, and this year, he’ll focus on criminal justice.

The college also reflects Franciscan values going back to St. Francis of Assisi.  Martinez-Saenz noted that these values are based on the college “being rooted in its community, a college that provides a quality, accessible and affordable education to all, with special emphasis on those historically underserved.”

Asked to describe what he expects to happen at St. Francis College in the next two years, Martinez-Saenz said, “I think you’re going to see continued enhancement in enrollment and program development. Expect to see new majors in exercise science, public health, cryptosecurity, and data science. What industry is requiring, we will provide,” he says.