By ALLISSA KLINE
Business First

John Hurley isn't shy about sharing his vision for his alma mater, Canisius College.

The newly appointed president-elect of the private Jesuit school wants more students, more space and more tuition, endowment and fundraising dollars - all of which, Hurley believes, will push Canisius to the forefront of higher education.

"I want to try to make Canisius one of the best regional comprehensive universities in the United States," Hurley said during an interview this week, a few hours after being officially introduced as the college's 24th president. "We want to be up there with the very best."

The Buffalo native and lawyer was elected Oct. 19 by the Canisius College board of trustees to become the next president of the institution, succeeding the Rev. Vincent Cooke, who will retire this spring following his 17-year presidency. The appointment marks the first time a non-clergyman will lead the school since its 1870 founding by German Jesuits.

Among the nation's 28 Jesuit colleges, Hurley is the fourth lay president, marking a shift in Jesuit education.

"I think some are concerned, (saying) ‘Are we going to continue to be a Catholic Jesuit college without a Jesuit priest?' " Hurley said. "So the challenge here is to enhance the Catholic Jesuit identity, and I'm going to be more intentional about the way I approach that. I'm very willing to do it, and I think it's where I'm being called right now in life."

Hurley's short- and long-term goals for the college are ambitious. He wants to:

• Complete the ongoing capital campaign A Legacy of Leadership, which aims to raise $90 million by June 30, 2010. About $68 million has been raised so far.

• Start and finish the $47 million redevelopment of the former HealthNow building, which will provide space to combine the college's science departments in one central location. Renovations will take place in phases, and Hurley expects to review the design for the first phase by the end of this year.

• Explore options to expand the college's current footprint, possibly south on Main Street, in order to "knit together" the Canisius and Buffalo Niagara medical corridor campuses.

• Evaluate the college and establish a comprehensive planning process with "measurable and realistic" goals, such as increasing undergraduate enrollment by 1,000 students and creating non-traditional learning opportunities, such as non-degree-granting programs and more online courses.

Attracting more students means marketing outside Western New York to other parts of New York and states including Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In the long run, bumping up the undergraduate population from about 3,000 to 4,000 students will elevate Canisius into a different tier, Hurley said.

"We have to think about spreading our net a little wider and getting students (who live) in the 400- to 500-mile radius," he said. "As we look at schools like us and ahead of us on the curve ... they seem to be in the 4,000-to-5,000 range for undergraduates. There's something about that size that gets more resources."

Hurley was one of three final candidates for the position. Also vying for the job was Steven DiSalvo, president and founder of a New York City philanthropic advisement company called Hopewell Group Inc., and Guiyou Huang, dean of Biscayne College of Liberal Arts & Social Sciences and director of the Institute for World Languages at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Some have criticized the college for hiring Hurley, based on the fact that he was an internal candidate. But board of trustees member Anthony Masiello, former City of Buffalo mayor, said Hurley was the best candidate for the job, precisely because he already knows Canisius and the community.

"He doesn't have to start from scratch," Masiello said. "(The board) felt as though he brought a body of experience to hit the ground running. There will be no learning curve."

Hurley doesn't come from a traditional higher-education background. He spent 16 years in private law practice, first in Chicago and then in Buffalo at Phillips Lytle LLP. He left the firm in 1997 to accept a job as vice president for college relations and general counsel at Canisius, working alongside Cooke, whom he calls his mentor.

Hurley's most recent position, the executive vice president promotion he received in 2007, kept him close to Cooke and allowed him to get involved in marketing and planning matters.

He said his experience as a lawyer taught him how to solve problems, a must-have characteristic for a college president.

"People love to hate lawyers, yet when we get involved in an organization, (people) like the way we think," Hurley said. "The training is very good in that it teaches you how to be a problem-solver ... who's able to weigh those problems and then move ahead."

While some have questioned the board's selection in the days following the announcement, others are pleased with the decision.

Donna Billings, owner of Luh Consulting Services in Depew, said she's confident Hurley will successfully lead the school from which she received both bachelor's and master's degrees. She said she's pleased the board chose someone already familiar with the college.

"It's somebody from the community, somebody who knows the community," she said. "If he was not within the teachings of the institutions, he would not have been accepted."