Sound familiar?

Since hindsight is 20/20, the Tribune took a look back at the men who led Marquette through heady highs and tumultuous lows.,”

For past university presidents, their years at the helm have included mascot changes, tuition hikes and an expanding campus.

Sound familiar?

Since hindsight is 20/20, the Tribune took a look back at the men who led Marquette through heady highs and tumultuous lows.

Let's start near the very beginning

Marquette's fourth president was the Rev. Stanislaus Petit Lalumiere in 1887. While Lalumiere wasn't the first, he did much to expand what was then Marquette College.

You could say that the Marquette-Illinois love affair began with Lalumiere. He studied and practiced law in Springfield. When he took the bar exam in 1844, Abraham Lincoln was his examiner.

Lalumiere soon abandoned law to follow education and the priesthood. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1851 in St. Louis and later moved to Milwaukee.

Lalumiere was known in Milwaukee for his energetic pursuit of opening Catholic schools for the city's small, mostly immigrant Catholic population.

Lalumiere made a habit of strolling past the Marquette neighborhood's public school around recess time. Schoolchildren would run after Lalumiere to shake his hand.

Lalumiere was appointed to the top position at Marquette College in 1887 and transferred to St. Xavier's in Cincinnati just two years later.

But Lalumiere returned to Milwaukee in 1893 for the laying of Gesu Church's cornerstone.

Lalumiere's Ignatian motto was simply, "Do as much good as you can."

A record-setting career

The Rev. John P. Raynor certainly lived up to Lalumiere's motto, serving an unprecedented 25 years as Marquette's president.

In 1997, more than half of Marquette's 96,000 living alumni graduated during Raynor's presidency, according to a university press release.

Raynor started his Jesuit training in 1941 and came to Marquette in 1960, and become president in 1965.

The Raynor years had incredible growth.

Under his guidance, the university increased enrollment from 8,000 students to 11,000 students, the budget from $22 million to $131 million, and campus from 26 acres to 80 acres.

But what most alumni remember about Raynor's years is the 1977 NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.

The years leading up to Raynor's retirement were quieter on campus, but Marquette's president was still beloved by students.

"You would see him around," said Lori Fitzgerald, a 1985 nursing graduate. "He was very visible on campus."

Fitzgerald said she didn't know Raynor but that he worked with the students in Campus Ministry and celebrated student Masses.

Raynor died at age 74 in 1997 of melanoma.

Changes and controversy

When the Rev. Albert J. DiUlio took over upon Raynor's retirement, he hoped to continue Marquette's growth.

History, however, had other plans.

In 1990, the year DiUlio's five-year stint as Marquette's 21st president began, college applications across the country began dwindling, according to William Thorn, associate professor of journalism.

During the Raynor years, the 2,000 students admitted to each freshman class were the highest possible number Marquette could enroll. Trying to sustain such a number against declining applications was nearly impossible, Thorn said.

"The infrastructure of the university . was changed to reflect a smaller student body," he said.

While smaller enrollment wasn't necessarily DiUlio's fault, student levels coupled with a budget crisis contributed to DiUlio's resignation in 1995.

In fall 1995, it became apparent to university officials that there was a huge deficit in the budget – so big, in fact, that tuition and endowment money wouldn't be sufficient to fill the hole.

The following school year the university sold a residence hall, cut 100 staff positions and froze faculty salaries, Thorn said.

Was DiUlio spending money he didn't have?

DiUlio spent $31 million on his Campus Circle project, which was responsible for revitalizing the Campus Town area and the Union Sports Annex.

In 1991, DiUlio allotted $9 million to beef up the Department of Public Safety. The same year, the School of Dentistry received money to stay up and running.

DiUlio's grandest plan was a $10 million public park called Avenue Commons. After two years of lobbying the Milwaukee Common Council, DiUlio's plan was shot down in spring 1995, because the park, intended to bring more green space to campus, would have permanently cut off the city's major artery. DiUlio wanted to close Wisconsin Avenue between North 11th and 16th Streets.

DiUlio suffered another blow to his popularity when Marquette changed its athletic mascot from Warriors to Golden Eagles in 1994. Two years later the Rev. Robert A. Wild began his current term.

Background research for this article was conducted using University Archives and issues of The Marquette Tribune from 1994-1995.

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