Speaker 1: Wheeler gives it up. Brooks, the jumper. No. Good. You can feel the madness. Saint Peter's pulls off the upset.

Brian Lehrer: Yes. You can feel the madness when St. Peter's University came up against the University of Kentucky in Round 1st of March madness, two weeks ago. Almost anybody with a bracket would've had Kentucky going through to the next round, but more mistaken they could not be. It was upset that neutral's dream of and the Cinderella run was born. St. Peter's tiny Jesuit University in Jersey City beat a college basketball powerhouse on St. Patrick's day. Then they beat seven-seed Murray state in Round two, and then they booked a seat in the elite eight with another massive upset against Purdue. The first time a team ranked that low made it to the elite eight.

It was an incredible run and though it came to an end on Sunday in defeat to the University of North Carolina, St. Peters has been the story of this NCAA men's side tournament. We invited St. Peter's President, Eugene Cornacchia to join us for the last few minutes of today's show to brag a little bit about his school's basketball team's incredible run at match madness, and help you get to know the Jersey city college, that a lot of people, even in our area don't even know about. President Cornacchia first of all, congratulations on this inspiration run, how did it feel to you as it was going on?

Eugene Cornacchia: Oh, my goodness, Brian, it was almost an out-body experience as I watched it happen. I don't know how else to describe it. It was truly awesome. Particularly watching our young men play their hearts out on the court against much bigger allegedly more powerful schools.

Brian Lehrer: Right. Is this something that you've been building toward to? I'm surprised that St Peter's is even a division one school, which means it's already supposed to have one of the most competitive basketball programs in the country. Colleges also can join division two or division three, you're in division one.

Eugene Cornacchia: Yes. I think a lot of people don't realize we are a division one school and we have a full range of division one programs here at the university. In fact, we were one of the founding members of our conference, the Mac Metro Atlantic conference, and yes, building towards it. Absolutely, this has been our dream. It's been something we've been trying to accomplish. St. Peter's I think often has exceeded expectations both on the court and elsewhere.

Brian Lehrer: Listeners, we have a few minutes, if any current St Peter's University students or any alum are listening right now and want to call in and say anything at all. It doesn't have to be about basketball, about this school that some people know, but not that many people know. Well, let me give the phone number 212-433, WNYC, 212-433-9692. If you're in the St Peter's community in any way or tweet at Brian Lehrer for the university President, Eugene Cornacchia. I think if you asked the random person to list 10 colleges or universities in New Jersey, you'd get Rutgers and Montclair State and Princeton and Rowan and Seaton Hall, people will go down the list.

I don't know how many even would've put St Peter's on the list if you stopped the average New Jersey in and on the street. My question is, has something happened instantly with recruitment or applications? I realize it's too late for next year, probably this fall but has this basketball run, put the university on the map in people's radar in different ways?

Eugene Cornacchia: Yes. Brian, I think everybody's talking about St. Peter's all across the country, and especially in New Jersey, it's been a remarkable moment for us. We've already seen an uptake in applications actually for this coming fall, and it's late in our cycle, as you know I'm sure but the week that we beat Kentucky the following week, our applications were up 59% compared to a year ago that week.

Brian Lehrer: Just like that, boom.

Eugene Cornacchia: Yes, just like that, boom and we can even donations as well to the university in a comparable period last year went through the roof from something on the order of 475,000 last year to 2.3 million in the comparable period this year.

Brian Lehrer: How many students attend at a time?

Eugene Cornacchia: Oh, 3,100 overall, at the university that's undergraduate and graduate students.

Brian Lehrer: How big is the campus physically, how many buildings?

Eugene Cornacchia: How many buildings [unintelligible 00:05:12] I can put it this way. It's just about 30 acres. We have about 15 buildings.

Brian Lehrer: Do you have a green, is there a campus green or is it more like a real urban University?

Eugene Cornacchia: We have some green, but really our main thing to quad is concrete.

Brian Lehrer: St Peter's is a Jesuit school like Fordham in New York City right?

Eugene Cornacchia: It is indeed. It is a Jesuit school and it's interesting. This is the 500th anniversary of the founder of the order, St. Ignatius Loyola. It is our 150th anniversary as an institution. Now we have this remarkable historic, epic journey that we've been on.

Brian Lehrer: Let's hear from a few of your alum and maybe a neighbor of the school who's calling in John in Fanwood. You're on WNYC. Hi, John.

John: Oh, my goodness. I'm so thrilled to be on. The first time, a long time. I'm a member of the class of 1969, and I was in those lead seats at the garden for all the NIT games back then. I hadn't followed the team much over the years, but my wife and I were just thrilled to see what happened. I dragged out my varsity club jacket and my college ring, and I bought the St Peter Day t-shirt and we were just over the rainbow.

Brian Lehrer: That's great, John. Thank you so much. Here's a current faculty member. I thank Cynthia in Jersey City. Hi Cynthia.

Cynthia: Hi, this is the first time I've ever called in. I listen to your show all the time. I am an adjunct. I was at the school for 11 years until COVID cut my career short, but I know adjuncts who have been there for 25 and longer years. They're not doing it for the money they're doing it because they really love the St Peter's students. They are a very special bunch. They've got a lot of spirits and some of them are just great students and excellent students, but they're also really kind people. Really good people and they care about other people. It's a very diverse campus. It's a pretty wonderful place to work and I think that this was just great.

It's really something that as President Cornacchia said, the teams have been working towards this and to have this happen just meant so much to everybody.

Brian Lehrer: Cynthia, thank you so much. How diverse is the school, President Cornacchia like have a racial breakdown and also first-generation students?

Eugene Cornacchia: Sure. We're majority first-generation students, about 55% first gen. Our racial makeup is 48% Hispanic. We're a Hispanic serving institution, about 18% Black and 8% Asian and a mixture of everything else, and we run a gamut of religious traditions as well.

Brian Lehrer: Here's a neighbor of the school. It looks like Robin in Jersey City you're on WNYC. Hi Robin.

Robin: Hi. Well, I live about 300 feet from campus and I've never watched a college basketball game in my life until last week. It just has really brought such joy to the community and there are signs everywhere. People have metal peacocks on their porches and in their windows. It's just been so, so, so fun, especially when you think about everything else that's going on in the world right now. It's just been just a little bit of brightness so we all got a huge kick out of it, even though we knew the chance of them going to the top, probably wasn't great, but it's really, really, really been a delight.

Brian Lehrer: Robin. Thank you very much. Here's another alum, Jennifer in Waldwick you're on WNYC. Hi Jennifer.

Jennifer: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. Hi, Dr. Cornacchia. I'm a graduate of St. Peter's. I graduated in 1997. I was a runner for St Peter's and I also just wanted to speak to the academics because when I was there, I was actually a Rhode scholar regional finalist, and it was something I never would've dreamed even applying for being a first-generation college student myself, but the school was really great and selected me to put the application in and prepared me. When I was selected to go on and interview for the Rhodes, I was up against people from Columbia and Yale and all these really big-name Ivy League schools. I felt absolutely prepared and just so honored to be a part of it.

I know a lot of that was what St Peters did for me in the classroom, so seeing this run by the men's basketball team just reminded me of that and the little engine that could and I just think that's really the heart of St. Peter's is really taking those stories and saying like, "Yes, we can do it too. Don't forget about us." I just wanted to call in and say thank you for that. It was a tremendous experience for me.

Eugene Cornacchia: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: That's wonderful, Jennifer. We've got about a minute left. I'm looking at some stats from the school and I see the average family income for students. As of two years ago, I guess the last data was only about $53,000. Half your students have no estimated family contribution that is from the parents, the average scholarship package. As of fall 2020 for the first time, full-blown freshman or full-time freshman was $23,000 a year in aid. Give a last thought about how you see yourselves in the context of the American Dream.

Eugene Cornacchia: I think what we do is transform lives every day here at the university and to give students an opportunity to be their best. We do that thanks to the contributions of our donors who support our students. I have to say they are so giving of their time, talent, treasure to ensure that future generations can experience a St Peter's Jesuit education.

Brian Lehrer: Well, congratulations again on the incredible march madness run which has put St. Peter's University in Jersey City on the map as a Cinderella story in sports and now listeners, you know a little bit more about the academics and campus culture. Eugene Cornacchia is the president. Thank you so much for joining us and congratulations one more time. Oh, I understand there's a parade on Friday in Jersey City. Is that right?

Eugene Cornacchia: There's a big parade. Yes. The city is throwing us a parade.

Brian Lehrer: 2:00 o'clock, did I see? Where does it start? Do you have it? Where does it start?

Eugene Cornacchia: I don't know yet where it starts to tell you the truth.

Brian Lehrer: All right. Thanks for coming on. We really appreciate it.

Eugene Cornacchia: You're welcome.

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