Colleen Hanycz

Dr. Colleen M. Hanycz is a Canadian academic who is currently the president of La Salle University. She served as principal of Brescia University College from 2008-2015 and was appointed president of La Salle University in 2015. She was the second lay person principal in the history of Brescia, a Catholic school and Canada’s only women’s university, and she was the first lay person president at La Salle. At Brescia, Hanycz led a strategic plan that resulted in an increase in Brescia’s enrollment, student, faculty, and staff retention, and consolidation of academic programs. While she served as president, she taught in Brescia’s women's leadership program and in the LL.M. program at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Under her leadership, Brescia saw a 60 percent jump in enrollment to 1,500 full-time equivalent students.^[1]

In 2015, Hanycz became the first female university president of La Salle University.^[2] She was appointed to La Salle at a transitional time, inheriting a large deficit, prior mismanagement, and lower enrollment.^[3] In 2015, La Salle had a smaller a freshman class of 725, which was below its target. The 2015 freshman class was about 16 percent less than the 2014 freshman class of 860. This led Hanycz to downsize student life programs and consolidate academic programs at the university. Hanycz inherited a similar situation at Brescia, which ultimately saw higher enrollment and an increased national profile. Hanycz also led the charge to decrease La Salle University tuition rates by 29 percent, citing college affordability in her home country.^[4] By the fall 2017 semester, La Salle will cut its tuition by more than $11,000. A similar move happened at Rosemont College a year prior.

Hancyz earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. She completed her J.D. at Dalhousie University and her LL.M. and Ph.D. at Osgoode Hall Law School.^[5]

References

External links

• Biography from La Salle University