By Audrey Elwood, Newswire Intern

Xavier has introduced a direct admissions program with St. Xavier High School (St. X).

Within this partnership, any graduate of St. X in good academic standing will be automatically admitted to Xavier with a $1,831 scholarship, recognizing Xavier and St. X’s founding year of 1831.

St. X is an all-boys Jesuit high school in Cincinnati that was once a part of Xavier. They split into separate institutes in 1934. Of St. X graduates, 99% attend college, with a majority attending the University of Cincinnati, Ohio State University and Miami University.

This new partnership will create opportunities for St. X students seeking higher education, according to St. X President Tim Reilly. 

“This is a historic agreement, providing each and every St. X graduate with the immediate opportunity for an excellent college path, including scholarship dollars to support their next step,” Reilly said. 

“It is a testament to the hard work that each of our students puts forward academically, spiritually and morally, every day through their high school efforts,” he continued.

Xavier President Colleen Hanycz agreed, citing St. X students’ commitment to the Jesuit values.

“This agreement offers the young men at St. Xavier High School an opportunity to continue their Jesuit tradition through college. Guided by Jesuit values and through our very long histories together, we know St. X students to be young men of rigorous academic preparation who show care in their support of each other and those around them.”

Meanwhile, this decision has sparked controversy among Xavier’s student body. Senior biology major Millie Hinds points specifically at the demographics of St. X and how this will impact diversity at Xavier.

“I could see it being more, you know, they want more men on campus. But men have been on campus for a long enough time,” Hinds said. “If you want to hold the fact that we want to push women into STEM — we want to push women into the business field — having more women on college campuses does that for you.”

First-year marketing major and St. X graduate Will Sicking suggests this decision will be inconsequential to St. X graduates’ chances of admission.

 “I think there won’t be much of an impact really. I think most of the guys at St. Xavier’s that want to go to Xavier would be able to get into here on their own,” Sicking said. “I do think there’s a lot of diversity (at St. X) and I do think I saw some people saying like, ‘oh, it’s just they’re giving handouts to rich candidates.’ It’s definitely not one of those.”

Speculating on the reason behind the decision, Hinds suggests this may be related to the university’s budget deficit.

“I know that the schools are having some financial troubles recently and they’ve been making some very questionable decisions,” she said. “I think that it’s a good idea in the short run to try and get some more money for the school by auto-admitting St. X boys for a wealthier demographic than most and they would pay tuition.”

 Sicking suggests this is more so an attempt to increase admissions generally. 

“I personally just think that it’s kind of a marketing campaign to get more kids to look into Xavier because we had a lot of kids go to SEC schools, to Dayton and Miami of Ohio, so I think it’s just gonna get more kids,” he said.

The direct admission program will begin in Fall 2024 with the St. X class of 2024 being the inaugural class of the partnership.