By Claire Regan
When Angelo Araimo arrived at Wagner College in 1994 as director of admissions, Bill Clinton was in the White House, Ace of Base was topping the charts and the Ford Taurus was America’s favorite car.
Inside Wagner’s Office of Admissions, “applications were in a big file cabinet, and the only way to reach out to a prospective student was by landline or an in-person visit,” Araimo recalls. “The staff worked 14-hour days because they couldn’t communicate with students until they got home from school.”
Higher education wouldn’t transition to the Internet until a year or two later. Social media was even further away.
Fast forward 30 years, and the view is a lot different from Araimo’s corner office on the top floor of the Wagner Union. As its 20th president, he has been a change agent for the college, activating deferred maintenance projects that include renovations to Guild Hall, Harborview Hall and Campus Hall, enhancing Wi-Fi, completing new locker rooms, refurbishing the planetarium and expanding undergraduate and graduate degree programs.
His three-decade perspective also includes the construction of Foundation Hall and Pape Admissions House, the renovation of Main Hall, and the transformation of Sutter Gym into the Spiro Sports Center, all under the collective leadership of his predecessors, Norman Smith, Joel Martin and Richard Guarasci.
“Big changes,” he says succinctly.
But as he prepares to step down as president at the end of June, Araimo prefers to stress that while many things have changed at Wagner since 1994, one thing has stayed the same.
“When you walked on campus back then, the students were friendly. Everyone said ‘hello’ to you; everyone held the door for you,” he recalls. “I remember how striking it was. That culture hasn’t changed, and that’s what has kept me here for 30 years.”
Leading With Empathy
Specializing in admissions, enrollment and planning for most of his Wagner career has given Araimo a deep understanding of the needs of today’s college students and the challenges they face.
“Students are a bit more fragile,” he reflects. “When you think about how they have grown up with social media – we still don’t know the effects of it on children who start using it at 7, 8 or 9 years old.”
“Students get exposed to things much quicker now,” he continues. “It’s a stark period, with deeper cultural and political divides,” and the global pandemic added even more instability, especially for the Class of 2024.
With so much information at their fingertips, students are learning differently in the classroom. “Teaching needs to focus more on critical thinking,” Araimo says with conviction.
In spite of the digital revolution, students come to Wagner today with the same goals as students in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, Araimo points out. “They want to get a good education so they can get a good job, hopefully make some friends and possibly meet a life partner. They want to make the most of their time here and use it as a springboard to their future,” he explains.
He has enjoyed bringing together Wagner’s many stakeholders -- from students to staff and faculty, to donors, alumni and community leaders -- for collaboration and conversation.
“My style is to lead by example,” Araimo stresses. “Leadership should be empathetic. That doesn’t mean you don’t make decisions and you’re not firm when you have to be. You’re not always going to make everyone happy, I’ve reminded folks as president. But I hope they respected that I was willing to explain my decision and understand their point of view.”
Accolades from all Corners
David Martin, Esq., Wagner’s director of planned giving and alumni relations, says Araimo pays attention to every student as an individual. He has also appreciated the president’s collegial management style.
“Angelo treats everybody equally,” Martin says. “As president, he’s never been too busy or too lofty to speak with anyone.”
“Anybody who meets Angelo feels immediately comfortable,” says Lisa DeRespino Bennett ’85, a member of the Board of Trustees and a former Admissions colleague. “No matter who you are, he treats you with respect and dignity – as if you are the most important person in the room. He leads with humility and graciousness.”
And he hasn’t shied away from tough calls, Bennett says.
“Angelo took the helm at a time of change and tough decisions. We needed a president who would help with those decisions, but who also understood the college’s history. As part of Wagner’s culture for so many years, Angelo understood that.”
“He’s been a voice of reason who knows the industry and its trends,” adds Dr. John Esser, a longtime faculty member in the Sociology Department.
Ed Burke ’80, retired senior adviser to the Staten Island borough president, appreciates Araimo’s many years “as a behind-the-scenes bulwark.”
“I’m glad Angelo had the opportunity to be front-and-center as president,” Burke says. “He did a great job; the college and the community are indebted to him. Angelo makes likeability an art form; his genuine decency and informed leadership are his hallmarks. The campus famously has a ship’s anchor outside Harborview Hall, but Angelo has been the real anchor at Wagner.”
Success Stories
Araimo is eager to discuss how Wagner’s enrollment has strengthened under his watch – and not just by the numbers.
“We haven’t been reluctant about growing sports. That’s a granular success I’m proud of,” he says, citing teams that now include athletes from Europe and Central and South America.
He recalls a conversation in 2013 with Walt Hameline, Wagner’s longtime athletic director and now vice president for intercollegiate athletics, who was smarting after a football loss to St. Francis University.
“Maybe if we had a marching band, we’d win more,” Hameline pointedly told Araimo, who turned that wistful observation into action the first chance he got.
Today, the 75-student Wagner College Marching Band cheers on the Seahawks at football and basketball games and drums up Wagner pride at special events and major parades under the direction of Dr. Jose Luis Diaz Jr.
“This is a perfect example of how adaptable we’ve been at Wagner, bringing together performing arts and athletics, which other schools might consider disparate areas,” Araimo points out.
Simultaneously, the nursing program continues to draw accolades and a new degree program in occupational therapy (OT) is filling for the fall semester.
“We have a tremendous brand in the tri-state area with our nursing program,” Araimo says. “Everywhere I go, people talk about how great our program and our nurses have been over the years. Our PA (physician assistant) program has developed the same reputation in just two decades. The same thing will happen with OT.”
Queens Roots
Born in 1960 to working-class parents in Queens, Araimo was the middle son of three boys. A first-generation college student, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from St. John’s University in his hometown borough.
He met his wife, Mary, while they were working as UPS couriers in the World Trade Center. They married in 1988 and raised two children, Christopher and Catherine. Mary, a graduate of Fordham University, became a teacher.
Araimo also considered a career in the classroom and enrolled in a doctoral program at NYU before transferring to St. John’s to take advantage of a teaching fellowship. He taught two courses a semester for two years at St. John’s, and, like many young academics, “jumped jobs all over the city,” he said in a 2022 interview with Wagner magazine. “Some semesters, I was teaching five courses.”
As a faculty member at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn in 1988, he was invited to help recruit more men to the newly co-ed institution. A year later, at age 29, he was named admissions director of St. Joseph’s.
Araimo briefly weighed another career transition, enrolling in the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1993. But with a family decision to stay in New York, he accepted a teaching position at the Garden School in Queens.
At the same time, he responded to an ad in The New York Times for admissions director at Wagner. He was hired by then-President Norman Smith and arrived on campus in January 1994. A series of promotions would name him dean of admissions and financial aid, vice president for enrollment and planning, and senior vice president before his appointment as president nearly three years ago.
He is confident his successor, Dr. Jeffrey A. Doggett, will continue positioning Wagner for the best possible success.
“Jeff is committed to becoming a part of our community while setting ambitious goals for growth,” says Araimo, who served as non-voting vice chair of the presidential search committee led by Thomas Kendris ’78. “I know he will shape a future for Wagner where innovation and collaboration thrive,” the president adds.
At 63, Araimo confides he is not quite ready for full retirement. His post-Wagner plans include international travel, especially to Italy. “Mary and I have both been there, but not together,” he shares. He also hopes to have more time to “get back to reading” – both fiction and non-fiction – and possibly take on some teaching or consulting work near his home in Nassau County.
“I fell in love with Wagner, its people, and the community that exists here. That feeling has never gone away and is stronger today than ever,” Araimo wrote in a letter to campus in September announcing his decision to step down. “The college is strong and poised to thrive in the years ahead.”
“And I’ll only be 30 miles away,” he quickly adds with a smile.
