Spotlight On: Brian McCloskey, Interim President & CFO, Chestnut Hill College
September 2025 — In an interview with Invest:, Brian McCloskey, interim president and CFO of Chestnut Hill College, discussed the most impactful changes for the college in the past year, the challenge of AI in education, and the top priorities for the college in the near term. “As we start our second century, we are going to remain a private, independent college,” McCloskey said.
What changes or shifts over the past year have most impacted the college?
We’ve had several shifts and changes. First of all, it’s our historic centennial celebration here. The college is celebrating its 100th anniversary, which is significant. Our sponsors, the Sisters of St. Joseph, have been just incredible supporters of education, serving our neighbors, and in particular, serving the underserved. They serve everyone without distinction. That has not changed, but the shift is that it’s our 100th anniversary of providing services and education to our students.
Also, I’ve been in this role now for a year as the interim president. I was the CFO before I assumed the role of interim president. I think it has been a positive change to have a finance professional lead an organization because, at the end of the day, they’re all businesses and need to be run like businesses.
Lastly, we’ve been moving to evolve with the demands of the market. We have a new online asynchronous MBA program, which is taking root and doing quite well. We have other new online programs that have started in the last 12 months. We’re going to have a concerted effort to move forward with expanding graduate doctoral education, more so on an online platform, and we’re also looking to expand into the allied health fields.
What sets Chestnut Hill College apart?
It is our interdisciplinary education, which is grounded in the mission of the Sisters, who have a focus on serving the underserved without distinction. That’s the core of who we are. We’re not going to change because someone doesn’t like terms like inclusion. We’re a Catholic college, founded on the principles of the Sisters of St. Joseph, but in fact, about 12% of our students self-identify as Catholic. We are very much diverse regarding the faiths of our students. It’s not a requirement, obviously, to be Catholic. We don’t try to convert anybody, but we do stand on the laurels of our Catholic faith, and it’s embedded in our educational platform.
Our secret sauce has several ingredients. No. 1 is that we’re a small college. We’re never going to be a large university. We also have an incredibly passionate and dedicated faculty who stand by and support the students. We have a healthy ratio of full-time faculty to students. This year, we have record retention for first-year full-time students and overall. For the first-year students, it was 94.40%, and overall, our retention is 97.7%. That speaks to the educational delivery here and the attention that our students receive. We have a big emphasis on student success.
What is your take on the economic landscape?
This is a very volatile landscape. We are a small private college, just as vulnerable as many, less than some. I see the challenges, the headwinds that are coming. In higher ed, we talk about the enrollment cliff. It’s here in the fall of 2025 and the fall of 2026. You’re 18 years past the Great Recession of 2007-2009, when people had fewer children because of the situation with the recession. But we’ve positioned ourselves well. We’ve not had any types of restructuring or layoffs. As a matter of fact, the college is hiring nine new faculty members this year. Four are new positions, and five are replacements. I don’t know how many other colleges can say that right now, but we’re proud of that.
We have systematically and strategically replaced positions when they become open, but we take a long, hard look. I wear two hats right now at Chestnut Hill College. I’m the interim president, but I’m still the chief financial officer. Every decision that I am involved with is driven, first and foremost, by the budget. That doesn’t always sit well with my colleagues, but I think we have been very transparent with the situation here, and there’s a lot of collaboration going on. Everyone understands the challenges that we are facing and the challenges that the industry is facing.
How do you think AI and other technologies will impact education?
We are embracing technology as best we can. Because I’m old school, I will be the first one to say that AI scares me a little bit. It scares me personally, but I know that we can’t shy away from it. We have to look at it and embrace it to see where it can help us.
As a business, we live, we thrive, we rely on students. They are our customers. Despite all the outreach tools that are available, especially electronically, we’re a big believer here that personal connection means a lot. We have invested as much in personnel and hiring more people in our enrollment management and admissions area as we do in technology.
Overall, our technological needs right now deal with the technology infrastructure on campus for our computer labs. We’re trying to do some more upgrades, and we have a five-year capital plan addressing that. We know that we need to do some work with servers and our cybersecurity labs. We want to keep them as up-to-date as possible. We are embracing technology, but we’re not rushing. We take a systematic look at it, but it’s not going to change who we are.
What are your top strategic priorities for the college over the next couple of years?
As we start our second century, we are going to remain a private, independent college. We are supported by a board of trustees and the congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, who want to see the college grow and expand. That is our No. 1 strategic priority.
We are also looking at additional new programs to help meet the demands of students and prospective students. One of the challenges of a beautiful, historic 100-year-old campus is the deferred maintenance of buildings that are 100 years old and more. What scares me and what keeps me up at night is what’s behind the walls that I can’t see. Deferred maintenance is a big expense, and you can’t fund it all, so you fund the low-hanging fruit. So, one of the strategic directives we have is addressing deferred maintenance over the next three to five years to become more energy efficient. A big part of the mission of the college and the Sisters is appreciating our beautiful, green Earth. We’re going to be good stewards of that.
Certainly, getting to a healthier position, enrollment-wise, program-wise, and with fundraising initiatives, is also a priority.
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