Brian Troyer: On Pausing to Let Our Soul Catch Up

Brian Troyer, Vice President for Enrollment Management at Marquette University, joins the ALP for a conversation that explores the deep roots of Jesuit leadership and the lighthearted joys of life in Milwaukee, including:

• Marquette’s Gift of Time and why institutional rest matters.
• How the university discerned its move to test-optional admissions, grounded in archival research and mission alignment.
• The legacies of leaders like Ray Brown, Roby Blust, and the late President Mike Lovell — and how Brian carries that mantle forward.
• Reflections from the Ignatian Colleagues Program, including the reminder to “pause and let our soul catch up.”
• Brian’s dissertation on how high schoolers’ ecological environments shape their sense of what’s possible after graduation.
• Plus: Tolkien manuscripts, bourbon tours, and a meditation on raw vs. fried cheese curds.

It’s a conversation about integrity, mission, and belonging ... peppered with a fair amount of laughter, reflection, friendship and bourbon.

• 01:30 – A family road trip and Marquette’s Gift of Time.
• 04:20 – Remembering Mike Lovell and lessons in leadership.
• 07:10 – Why and how Marquette went test-optional, with help from the archives.
• 09:20 – Tolkien manuscripts, reading The Hobbit to his son, and dreaming of Stephen Colbert in the archives.
• 12:30 – Retention milestones: two of the best years in Marquette’s history.
• 15:00 – Honoring Ray Brown and Roby Blust (and how Roby's fishing skills resemble that of a well-known biblical fisherman).
• 18:55 – Leadership lessons: integrity, mission alignment, and Shaka Smart’s “relationships, growth, victory.”
• 25:45 – Ignatian Colleagues Program and contemplatives in action.
• 28:45 – A six-day silent retreat and the wisdom of pausing to let our soul catch up.
• 31:30 – Dissertation insights: how ecology shapes student horizons.
• 36:00 – A bourbon detour: Eagle Rare, Buffalo Trace, and Kentucky connections.
• 39:45 – Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce: Kopp’s burgers, Lakefront Brewery, and cheese curds.
• 43:15 – Raw vs. fried cheese curds: a meditation.
• 44:20 – Rapid Descent.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment