CSB+SJU hires new Dean of Admission
Cory Piper started at CSB+SJU on Sept. 28 after spending 25 years at St. Catherine University.
A campus tour on day one was enough to get Cory Piper excited about her new job.
CSB+SJU’s new Dean of Admission started her time at the schools on Sept. 28, filling a position left empty since former Associate Dean of Admission Karen Backes’ departure in May.
“I’m just on fire. It was such an awesome tour with Emi [a student ambassador],” Piper said. “I was impressed over and over at every corner. I am extremely impressed with the student spaces for community activity on campus. I loved it all.”
Piper joins CSB+SJU after spending 25 years working in a variety of roles at St. Catherine University, a college for women located in St. Paul. She served as St. Catherine’s Associate Vice President of Admission for the past six years. Now, she is at CSB+SJU, in part because of her relationship with CSB+SJU President Brian Bruess, who worked with Piper at St. Catherine for almost 20 years.
“I’m extremely excited to serve under the Bruess administration with the new energy about Stronger Integration,” Piper said. “I’m really impressed with St. Ben’s and St. John’s, and I’m excited to be a part of the team.”
Piper’s main goal in her first few months is to listen and learn from different members of the community and meet a wide range of students. After that, her role may look different than it has in the past.
According to Director of Admission Matt Beirne, Piper will work more closely with Bruess than previous deans of admission have with other presidents. Then, she can return to the admissions team with directives formulated by Bruess’s leadership team.
“You have the boards and the President, the President has his leadership team and then the leadership team has their individual offices, right? So, Cory will come back to the admissions staff and…we will implement whatever those plans might be,” Beirne said.
Some immediate challenges await Piper in her new role, foremost of which is declining enrollment. CSB and SJU’s enrollment numbers continue to reflect nationwide declines in students attending small, liberal arts colleges, with the total number of students dipping to their lowest levels since 1973.
To her, some answers lie in highlighting the positives of what the schools have to offer. Another challenge Piper faces is the rate of turnover within the admissions office itself. Along with Backes’s departure, Vice President for Enrollment Management Nate Dehne left the schools for St. Scholastica after the 2021-22 school year.
Beirne also said that about 10 admission representatives left the schools in the past year. Because of this, Beirne has put in extra work to ensure admissions continued to welcome prospective students to campus. Student workers in the admissions office felt the effects of turnover, as well.
“Right now, a lot of people are doing a lot of jobs that aren’t necessarily theirs,” said Morgan Van Beck, CSB junior and admissions student manager. “There’s been more of, ‘Okay, who’s doing this now, who is coordinating this?’ Things aren’t functioning quite as smoothly as they used to, but if people get hired, then those [extra] jobs will be assumed by the people who fill them.”
Despite the concerns, Beirne was optimistic after Piper’s addition to the staff and as other admissions positions have been filled.
“We had to keep moving forward, and I had to make sure that our staff was continuing to move forward,” Beirne said. “Luckily, we have wonderful veteran staff members that I’ve partnered with who have been able to help us get through this transitional phase, and it’s exciting now to have someone come in who’s got a long history with [President Bruess] who can help us as we move forward into this new era with a single president.”
Even with the challenges that lie ahead, Piper is looking forward with confidence, hope and a goal to continue to help students find what is best for them.
“I really believe that the work of admission professionals changes lives [with] its relationship building with prospective students and their families,” Piper said. “For me, I’m just absolutely passionate about how transformational the college experience is, especially when it’s a good experience with excellent faculty, excellent student life and supportive staff.”
