Stephen Ainlay says managing the finances of a nonprofit school like Union College is not unlike the successful businesses built by members of the Mennonite religious sect he is an authority on.
While private colleges do not frown on material success like the Mennonites, colleges have a deep social responsibility and an obligation to give back to the communities they call home, Ainlay said. One of the ways Union can do that is by helping to recruit new companies and economic activity to Schenectady, he said.
“Union is a cultural gem for the city of Schenectady and we do have an obligation to provide ways of making it known to potential businesses that we're here, we're going to work with them, we are going to create opportunities for their employees and that this is a good place to be, in part, because Union is located here,” Ainlay said.
Ainlay became Union's 18th president July 1. His formal inauguration will be Sept. 16.
Ainlay said he will continue the policies of former President Roger Hull (1990-2005) of building close ties between Union and the city of Schenectady. He said he would like to infuse the Union campus with more of a spirit of entrepreneurship and would be pleased to see more students create businesses and jobs in Schenectady after they get their diplomas.
Ainlay does not believe Union's obligation to give back to Schenectady extends to the payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs, that Mayor Brian Stratton and some vocal property taxpayers have sought from the college.
Except for a few exceptions, Union does not pay property taxes for its 100-acre campus. It would face an estimated $6 million a year in payments if all of its property was taxed.
“PILOTs, I can see why people look at that as a way of trying to solve the community economic problems, but I don't think, in my mind, they are the most effective way,” he said. “At the end of the day, there are a lot more things that a college or a university can bring.”
Union is already a significant employer which generates more than $200 million a year for the local economy, he said.
“That's not just the direct money that comes from employees who have residences and pay taxes and so forth,” he said. “But it's also through all the indirect revenues that are brought into the city with people in hotels and restaurants, with parents visiting, the various conferences and so forth. Union is already a major economic player by way of the revenue that goes into Schenectady and into New York.”
Money matters
Ainlay, 54, is a Lutheran who attended the Mennonite Goshen College in Indiana as an undergraduate. He was a professor of anthropology and sociology and a vice president for academic affairs at Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass., when he was selected as Union's president.
He said he wants to maintain a high profile on the Schenectady campus, even though he also expects to spend considerable time raising money. The college is currently in the middle of a $200 million donation campaign.
“You can't simply be on the road raising money all the time,” he said.
He said he will probably have to set aside his own scholarly pursuits–he is working on a book on Mennonite seminary education–while he settles into his new job at Union.
An earlier Ainlay book did profile the successful Mennonite businessmen, despite the sect's emphasis on living a simple lifestyle unadorned by most of the conviences of modern life.
The founders of the Smucker's food company and the Sauder furniture company were Mennonites.
Milton S. Hershey, founder of the Hershey chocolate empire, was descended from Mennonites.
“I was interested in what it was like to be a businessperson in a community that disapproves of worldly success of that sort,” he said. “Not to keep you from reading the book, but the answer is what they do is they give a lot of money back to the church and to society at large. The church is able to tolerate worldly success as long as it's being used for the service of others.”