University of Scranton

The University of Scranton A LEGACY TO HOLD, A FUTURE TO BUILD 1888-2013

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The University of Scranton A L E G AC Y T O H O L D, A FUTURE TO BUILD 1888-2013 On a late-summer afternoon in 1888, with the installation of a cornerstone in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, Bishop William G. O’Hara, D.D., proudly announced the formation of St. Thomas College. But neither Bishop O’Hara nor anyone else could have predicted 125 years into the future to what is now The University of Scranton.

Growing from a single building, The University of Scranton today offers outstanding students and faculty a world-class campus in the heart of Scranton.

Almost from the beginning, St. Thomas College struggled, making sacrifices to keep its doors open, adopting new programs, and launching aggressive development campaigns. Today, the University’s reach is global, and its faculty and students are an on-going testament to its founding mission and to the Jesuit commitment to education that has defined a Scranton education since 1942.

In other arenas, the school has also excelled.

Whether students immerse themselves in athletics, the performing arts, public affairs, international cultures, or any number of extracurricular activities, they will find exceptional resources to help guide and inspire them.

Just as it was impossible 125 years ago for Bishop O’Hara to predict so far into the future, it is impossible to foresee that span of time again. Whatever its future may hold, The University of Scranton’s mission will endure—to provide a superior, transformational learning experience, preparing students who will “set the world on fire.”

The University of Scranton 800 Linden Street, Scranton, PA 18510 www.scranton.edu (570) 941-7400

The University of Scranton 1888 – 2 013

A LEGACY TO HOLD, A FUTURE TO BUILD

The University of Scranton 1888-2013

A L E G A C Y T O H O L D, A FUTURE TO BUILD

The University of Scranton 1888–2013

Copyright © 2014 by The University of Scranton All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from The University of Scranton.

800 Linden Street, Scranton, PA 18510 (570) 941-7400 www.scranton.edu President Kevin P. Quinn, S.J. History Book Committee The dedicated work of the History Book Committee made this project possible. The members, listed below, have together served the University for nearly 240 years.

John A. Beidler, C.D.P., Ph.D., Professor of Computing Sciences Ellen Miller Casey, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of English/Theatre Robert W. Davis Jr. ’03, Chief of Staff David J. Dzurec III, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History Frank X. J. Homer ’64, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of History Michael J. Knies, Special Collections Librarian, Associate Professor, Library Maryjane S. Rooney ’80, Director of Parent and Alumni Relations Tara M. Seely, Projects Coordinator Gerald C. Zaboski ’87,Vice President for External Affairs (Chair) Author Gayle White with Frank X. J. Homer ’64, Ph.D. Editor Rob Levin Chief Operating Officer Renee Peyton Design Rick Korab Copyediting and Indexing Bob Land Special Note of Appreciation The completion of this book was immeasurably aided by the meticulous and sound historical research compiled over many years by Frank X. J. Homer ’64, Ph.D., professor emeritus of history Acknowledgments This book includes photographs and materials from the following sources: Christian Brothers Archive at La Salle University Diocese of Scranton International News Lackawanna Historical Society Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus Marywood University Carol McDonald Photography Terry and Paula Connors Collection Special thanks to the following for their assistance: Br. Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., Archivist, La Salle University Weinberg Library Staff and Faculty Kay Lopez, Elizabeth Shomaker and Kristen Yarmey Valarie Clark ’12, Creative Services Book Development Bookhouse Group, Inc. www.bookhouse.net

C O N T E N T S Introduction IX

Chapter One

IN THE BEGINNING A New Cornerstone in Jesuit Education 1 Chapter Two

A JESUIT INSTITUTION Expectations Are Great Indeed 19 Chapter Three

THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND Addressing the Whole Person 39 Chapter Four

ARTS AND ACTIVITIES Providing a Pathway to the Human Heart 57 Chapter Five

AN EVOLVING CAMPUS Anything with a Steeple . . . and More 75 Chapter Six

FOR AND WITH OTHERS Our Place in the World 95 Epilogue

HONORING OUR PAST, CELEBRATING OUR PRESENT, EMBRACING OUR FUTURE 113 Appendix 114 Index 121

I N T R O D U C T I O N

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light snow casts magic over the campus of The University of Scranton. In the Loyola Science Center, students discuss an equation as they scribble on a glass classroom wall. In a former church that now houses performing arts programs, conductor Cheryl Boga prepares for a band rehearsal that will bring future doctors, accountants, teachers, and business leaders together to make music for the love of it. Up the hill, in the Long Center, the men’s basketball team practices for a conference semifinal game.

In O’Hara Hall, William J. Parente, Ph.D., professor of political science and former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, conducts a mock interview with an applicant for a Fulbright Scholarship for international study, perpetuating a tradition of turning out recipients of the prestigious award. Across the campus, Honors students meet individually with professors in an innovative program that gives the best young scholars an opportunity to work one-on-one with faculty mentors. And in the DeNaples Center, work-study students map out plans to deliver supplies to a local public housing project.

The University boasts the usual offerings of a twenty-firstcentury American institution of higher learning, but with its own distinctive qualities. Its identity is shaped by its heritage in the Catholic Church, the Society of Jesus, and its location in the heart of the former coal-mining country of Pennsylvania’s Lackawanna River Valley.The University is steeped in a tradition that puts spirituality at the core of learning and sees scholarship as a means to greater service.

At 125 years old, the University offers more than sixty undergraduate and twenty-five graduate programs to some six thousand students. Its core curriculum ensures that all undergraduates are grounded in philosophy, theology, and the lib-

eral arts, no matter their majors. Behind the requirements is a “way of proceeding”: education should equip students to make a good, well-rounded life, not just a good living.

“When our students finish their education here, we want them to leave with a good idea of what their philosophy of life is,” says the Rev. Bernard R. McIlhenny, S.J., H’98, dean of admissions emeritus. “We want them to be able to stand on their own two feet, have something to say, and say it well.”

Bishop William G. O’Hara, D.D., who was appointed in 1868 as the first spiritual leader of the newly created Diocese of Scranton, saw the need for such a college to educate the sons of immigrant laborers. On August 12, 1888, Bishop O’Hara presided over the laying of a pink cornerstone in a lot adjacent to St. Peter’s Cathedral on Wyoming Avenue in downtown Scranton.

Four years passed before a building could be completed atop the stone and the first classes could be held at what was then known as St. Thomas College. The school would be buffeted by world events: seeing students leave for World Wars I and II; sharing in the unrest surrounding the Vietnam War; mourning alumni killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001; and serving veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its graduates would thrive in medicine, health care, business, government, education, the arts, and public service of all kinds.

That pink stone made gray by time and weather laid the foundation for what was to become a great coeducational university, an essential component of the economy and culture of northeastern Pennsylvania, and a life-changing catalyst for tens of thousands of its sons and daughters. They would go out into the world confident in their solid education, bolstered by the relationships they formed, enriched by the cultural events they experienced, and sustained by the values they developed.

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When Bishop William G. O'Hara, D.D., dedicated the cornerstone of what became known as Old Main, he said, “It is the great desire of our heart to see your children gather therein to learn first the faith and then to learn those other branches necessary for their welfare in the world.”

“All the well-being of Christianity and of the whole world depends on the proper education of youth.” —Pedro de Ribadeneyra, S.J.

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build | CHAPTER ONE

125 IN THE

BEGINNING

A New Cornerstone in Jesuit Education

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nthusiastic passengers poured off excursion trains from

nearby towns to watch as organizations of various stripes paraded through Scranton’s dusty streets in full regalia. The official ceremony began with Mozart’s “Gloria.” While dedicating the cornerstone for what would eventually become The University of Scranton, Bishop O’Hara turned to the book of Proverbs to urge the crowd to trust in divine wisdom and to appreciate the potential of the young. “The child is the most exalted visible work of God,” with the capacity to “contemplate the most elevating and sublime truths,” he said in his homily. “It is for you to put your shoulder to the wheel and to see this institution of learning rising up, and it is the great desire of our heart to see your children gather therein to learn first the faith and then to learn those other branches necessary for their welfare in the world.”

It was Sunday, August 12, 1888, when Bishop O’Hara’s vision took physical form in the shape of that cornerstone. He had come to Scranton twenty years earlier as the first bishop of a new diocese populated largely by recent immigrants escaping the potato famine in Ireland, political repression in Germany, and difficult economic conditions in Italy and eastern Europe.

He dreamed of an institution that would offer its children a solid Catholic higher education. With that in mind, he had led

FirstJesuits2.jpg

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Old Main—officially College Hall—

The University of Scranton’s Pride, Passion, Promise

hosted its first class on September 6, 1892. The three-story red-brick building was the first edifice of what was originally named The College of St. Thomas of Aquin.

Chapter One In the Beginning

the diocese to buy two lots on Wyoming Avenue, adjacent to St. Peter’s Cathedral.

The city had been only a village in a rural area known as Slocum Hollow when the first members of the Scranton family arrived from New Jersey just half a century earlier.

They built the forge that would later grow into the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, delivering the first mass-produced T-rails in North America. The community was named Harrison in honor of President William Henry Harrison in 1845; a few years later, its name was changed to Scrantonia, and then shortened to Scranton. Railroads were laid to carry iron and coal out and laborers in, and the character of the Lackawanna Valley was forever changed. The industries offered unskilled jobs to new immigrants, and the absence of labor laws led even youngsters to work in the mines. Bishop O’Hara wanted to give the next generation an opportunity to do better.

On September 6, 1892, Bishop O’Hara gathered with sixty-two young male students in the chapel of a new threestory red-brick building to invoke God’s blessings on their first

Bishop O’Hara came to Scranton twenty years before the school was founded in order to head a new diocese. Under his direction, the church purchased two lots adjacent to St. Peter's Cathedral on which he would start the College.

day of class. Accounts at the time refer to the new institution as The College of St. Thomas of Aquin, later to be simplified

with the Christian Brothers, he appointed the Rev. John J.

to St. Thomas College. The building itself, officially College

Mangan, a twenty-nine-year-old native of Cuba, New York,

Hall, became affectionately known as “Old Main.”

who had served as his curate at St. Peter’s, to be the school’s

Most of those students were high-school or even

first president. Priests and seminarians from the diocese made

elementary-school age, but the College made its mark. At

up the first faculty. Four years later, three Xaverian Brothers,

least five of the original students became lawyers, six became

members of a religious order founded in Belgium fifty-nine

physicians, and a dozen became priests or joined religious

years earlier, came to Scranton.

orders. One, John Eagen, returned after World War I as

They found a school that had shrunk to only thirty-

Brother Glastian Philip, F.S.C., to be president of the College.

two students, “fifteen in what might be a first-year high, and

Bishop O’Hara’s first aspiration was to entrust the school

seventeen in an eighth grade,” according to their history.

to a religious order. Following initial unsuccessful discussions

“Though chartered as a college, and termed as such, the 3

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Alexius Banderlee, who agreed to staff the school, withdrew the Brothers.They had lasted only a single academic year. After the Xaverians left, the diocese succeeded in securing the help of the Christian Brothers, who began their service in 1897, reorganized the school, and reopened the night school.

Founded in the seventeenth century by a French priest, St. John Baptist de La Salle, the Christian Brothers stayed for forty-five years, until declining finances and increasing demands made it impossible for them to fill the needs of the University. The College struggled mightily in its early years—only eighteen students were enrolled when the Christian Brothers arrived. By the turn of the century its student body numbered more than one hundred, and it had both a commercial department and a high school. Although it was thriving, however, St. Thomas was not officially chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and degrees Decades before the University became a Jesuit institution, a Jesuit, the Rev. Daniel MacGoldrick, S.J., was named by Bishop O’Hara as St. Thomas College’s second president in 1895. When the Christian Brothers assumed

were granted through other Christian Brothers institutions.

Some early graduates of the four-year program under

administration of the College in 1897 Fr. MacGoldrick continued to hold

the Christian Brothers became notable alumni. Among them

the title of president until his death in 1900.

were Joseph F. Gunster, Esq. ’17, H’56 a successful attorney for whom the student center was named in 1981, and T.

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high school department had not been completely formed

Linus Hoban ’11, H’58 who served in three wars, retired as

when the Brothers arrived.”

a major general, and sat on the Lackawanna County Court

A new night school was different. “To the night classes,”

of Common Pleas for nearly forty years. A lecture series in

the Xaverian historian wrote, “came all ages of the male sex

his honor brought to campus U.S. Supreme Court Justice

from seven to fifty.” Many students were young boys “fresh

William Rehnquist, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, H’87, of

from the mines, coal dust embedded in their hands and under

West Germany, and Prime Minister Edward Heath of Great

the eyes,” who couldn’t write or spell. Many of the men also

Britain. Many other early alumni entered the priesthood, and

were illiterate, but a few were able to handle advanced classes.

at least three became bishops, including Patrick A. O’Boyle

Despite its popularity, the night school closed in April

’16, H’67 who went on to serve as the cardinal archbishop

1897. It was seen as out of step with the mission of the Col-

of Washington, D.C., and Martin J. O’Connor ’18, who, after

lege. Shortly thereafter, the Xaverian provincial, Brother

first serving as auxiliary bishop in his native diocese, was

Chapter One In the Beginning

elevated to archbishop as the rector of the North American

and after the United States entered World War I in 1917, Broth-

College in Rome.

er Edewald Alban, F.S.C., president of St.Thomas College, an-

As war in Europe escalated and signs pointed to U.S. in-

nounced in 1918 the suspension of the College Department

volvement, young men—including those in Scranton—began

until the war ended. For five years, the College operated only

to enter military service. University enrollment plummeted,

the two-year commercial and premedical departments.

21, 1898. Some of the original , in a photo from commencement and end-of-year exercises, June St. Thomas students, from various grades, and two Christian Brothers fields. and many went on to successful careers in the clergy, law, and other classmates were of grade school and high school age when they started,

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Brother Firmus Edward, F.S.C., took office as president in fall 1922 with the determination to acquire a charter and accreditation. On January 12, 1924, after much paperwork, Pennsylvania granted St. Thomas College the authority to award degrees under its own name. Diplomas handed to the graduating class of 1925 were the first to bear the seal of St. Thomas College.The class included two men who would be fixtures at the school for decades and have buildings named in their memory: Frank O’Hara, H’56 the first person to serve over fifty years as a University employee, and James Driscoll, longtime professor of English.

The charter established a nine-member board of trustees but left property in the hands of the diocese. It included authority to grant both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, a provision that later facilitated the change of the name of the institution to The University of Scranton. Following an arduous process, St. Thomas College secured accreditation from the Association of Colleges of the Middle States and Maryland in 1927. The quest for accreditation brought with it a campaign to improve the College library. Alumni, This 1877 map of the city of Scranton shows the Joseph H. Scranton Estate, the J. Archbald Estate, and the Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, all in the lower left

books toward the effort. In the fall of 1926, St. Thomas

quadrant. This area would later become the University campus. The original St.

hired its first professional librarian.

Thomas College buildings are not on the map.

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students, clergy, and friends of the College gave money and

With its charter and a new seal, the College was establish-

Administrators planned to make up some of the loss by

ing more traditions and customs. A three-branch student gov-

having the College used as a site for the Student Army Train-

ernment with executive, legislative, and judicial functions was

ing Corps, a federally sponsored program to educate soldiers

created in 1926, and the 1927 student manual outlines some

on active duty through existing colleges. In September 1918,

rules made and enforced by students themselves: Students must

seventy-five soldiers were registered for training at St.Thomas,

salute faculty members; first-year students must wear caps, black

but officials in Washington discovered that the College had not

ties, and black socks on campus; freshmen must be prepared to

been chartered and thus was not eligible for the program.

furnish matches to upperclassmen at all times; and only upper-

R

classmen could use the front entrance to Old Main.

This photo of the faculty in 1928 was taken just as the College was in the process of maturing.

The year before, it had secured accreditation, and with it came an improved library and its first professional librarian.

A St. Thomas College class reunion, most likely the class of 1919, was held during the Christmas holiday season. At the time, World War I had drained the campus of many students and faculty, and the school was operating only its two-year commercial and premedical programs.

Chapter One In the Beginning

An expanding variety of clubs and activities gave stu-

Sellers, a book-review publication founded by three fac-

dents more opportunities to express themselves and in-

ulty members in the 1930s and highly regarded among

teract with each other, and athletic director John J. (Jack)

librarians at Catholic schools for its attention to moral as

Harding was taking varsity baseball, basketball, and foot-

well as literary quality. Publication continued until 1987.

ball to new levels. The Scranton community responded,

St. Thomas seemed to face a bright future. Despite the

turning out in crowds of more than a thousand or more

impact of the Great Depression that began in 1929, en-

to watch the gridiron exploits of the Tommies. On the

rollment grew and for the first time topped one thousand

literary front, the school was gaining attention for Best

in 1938–39, buoyed by a growing evening college. The

The Aquinas newspaper was founded in 1916 as a monthly publication, and later developed into a weekly newspaper. Aquinas staff would go on to distinguished careers in journalism and other professions. Shown here are some of the early staff members. Seated: Marshall K. Lynch, Thomas A. Gilhool, Joseph A. Loftus, Raymond A. O'Neil, and Francis Stahlheber. Standing: Joseph E. O'Brien, John Gillispie, Willard F. O'Malley, Gerald McNulty, William J. Chiziek, Daniel J. Kennedy, and James J. Mullaghy.

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

still evident decades later in its strong Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute.

But not everything remained rosy. The number of faculty failed to keep up with the number of students, the athletic program began offering some full scholarships with little attention given to academic ability, and the College’s reputation began to suffer. Brother Denis Edward, F.S.C., installed as president in 1931, set out to reverse this trend. He phased out athletic scholarships, raised entrance requirements, established new courses, recruited qualified students through diocesan priests, and added lay faculty and staff, increasing their numbers from sixteen in 1926 to forty-three in 1940.

Even though his efforts paid off in greater academic standing, St. Thomas was accumulating debt. Although it was considered a diocesan college, the school was receiving no diocesan funds and depended on tuition as its sole source of income.

In the wake of the Depression, the College posted its first deficit in 1933 as many students were unable to pay full fare. By 1937 Brother Edward, acting out of desperation and about Brother Denis Edward, F.S.C., began his presidency in 1931 at a time when the College desperately needed new leadership. Under his

to donate one thousand dollars to keep the school alive. Faced

guidance, new academic standards were set,

with financial troubles of their own, few responded.

and the faculty more than doubled in size.

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the Lackawanna Valley and from more ethnic groups. Even

The mounting debt and some of Brother Edward’s undertakings strained relations between St. Thomas, the diocese, and other local Catholic institutions. One source of tension was his proposal to admit women to the College’s night school, and another was his determination to change the school’s name.

though the College maintained its strong Catholic charac-

A 1936 survey showed that more than one hundred

ter, 11 percent of its students in 1931 identified themselves

Scranton-area women were enrolled in extension programs

as Jewish, a reflection of ties with the Jewish community

offered by secular institutions. Brother Edward believed

student body was also increasing in diversity. St. Thomas graduated its first African American student, Louis Stanley Brown, in 1919. Students were coming from outside

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one hundred thousand dollars in the red, asked each alumnus

Chapter One In the Beginning

Athletics is a longtime tradition at the University, dating back to the St. Thomas College days. Using a mine car made for a great early photo op and also provided an immediate connection to the region’s proud mining history.

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Shown here are members of the St. Thomas College Freshman Business basketball team, who were champions of the College’s intramural league in 1935. The team was coached by varsity player Charles “Chick” Harte ’38 and junior varsity player Patrick “Packy” Boyle ’38.

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Chapter One In the Beginning

they—and their tuition payments—should be welcomed into the evening and summer programs of St.Thomas.The school’s 1924 charter had described it specifically as a “college for the education of men,” but an amendment was easily passed by the State Council of Education of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction in 1937.

Nearby Marywood College, a Catholic women’s school, feared competition and appealed to a sympathetic diocese whose administrators forbade Brother Edward to admit women in 1937 and 1938. A new coadjutor, Bishop William J. Hafey, D.D., H’53, appointed to administer the diocese during the illness of the ailing bishop Thomas C. O’Reilly, D.D., whom he would succeed, was more open to persuasion. Faced with the argument that many of the eighty-seven

The University of Scranton band parading in 1938 on North Washington Avenue

women who had applied to St. Thomas were now taking

in downtown Scranton. The parade celebrated the football team's victory over St.

courses at “outside universities,” Bishop Hafey issued an ex-

Vincent the previous day.

ecutive order giving Brother Edward permission to “admit

agency overseeing corporate charters had no objection to the

such women students as would otherwise be deprived of

change, the State Council of Education wrote that its approval

these courses under Catholic auspices.”

was also required.The question of authority to grant the change

A month after the bishop granted admission in the night

sparked an internecine struggle among state agencies that lasted

program to women, Brother Edward raised another controver-

four years. While the protracted controversy continued behind

sial proposition: changing the name of the institution to The

the scenes, the University operated under the new title, which

University of Scranton. With permission of the trustees, and

finally became official on April 10, 1942.

through a simple petition to the local Court of Common Pleas,

Meanwhile, the Christian Brothers were facing their own

he was able to rename the school on March 30, 1938. A new

difficulties, including a $1 million debt at La Salle College in

seal and redesigned diplomas quickly confirmed the change, but

Philadelphia, their own institution. The Brothers had neither

the student body voted overwhelmingly the next fall to keep

the money nor the manpower to grant the diocese’s request

Tommies and Tomcats as the name of the athletic teams.

that they staff the University entirely with their members to

Bishop Hafey and state officials in Harrisburg resented

save the cost of hiring lay employees. With their blessings,

Brother Edward’s swift action. The bishop believed the name

Bishop Hafey, himself a product of Jesuit training, traveled to

change incorporating “university” should wait until the Col-

New York in January 1942 to meet with the Rev. Anthony

lege had advanced degree programs in place, and while the state

J. Bleicher, S.J., vice provincial of the New York–Maryland 13

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

and faculty positions. Increasing numbers of Brother Denis Edward, president of St. Thomas College, looks on as a new sign is attached to Old Main, advertising what had just recently become official—that, as of March 30, 1938, the College was now operating under its new name: The University of Scranton.

priests were serving as military chaplains, Jesuits among them.

The Very Rev. James P. Sweeney, S.J., provincial of the NewYork–Maryland Province of the Jesuits, wrote that accepting responsibility for the University would be “a challenge” at a time when all colleges were under strain.“However,” he added,“St. Ignatius was never one to run away from a difficult proposition, and we are supposed to imitate his example.”

The Very Rev. W. Coleman Nevils, S.J., rector and president, and the Rev. Ferdinand Wheeler, S.J., minister, arrived in Scranton on June 24 and took up residence in The Estate, the mansion of Joseph Hand Scranton, whose entrepreneurial ancestors had made a fortune developing the area’s natural

Province of the Society of Jesus, to invite the Jesuits to take

resources. His grandson, Worthington Scranton H’53, had only

over the University. The bishop was willing to turn over not

months earlier donated the house and nearby property to the

only the school’s administration but also its property. By then,

University. More Jesuits would follow.

Brother Edward had been replaced as president and the school’s debt had doubled to almost two hundred thousand dollars.

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In welcoming the new order to campus, Bishop Hafey praised the Ignatian approach to education.“In the Jesuit system,

Despite the financial woes, on Friday, February 13, Fr.

mind training is not held to be the exclusive function of edu-

Bleicher and a colleague visited Scranton.They must have liked

cation,” he said. “The training of the will must have its proper

what they found, for after some extended discussion among the

place. The fundamental consideration is the fact that all knowl-

Jesuit leadership, the bishop received a letter dated May 11 stating

edge imparted must be impregnated with the principles that are

that the Jesuits were willing to take over both the ownership and

Christian to the core. Holding fast to the traditions, the sons of

administration of the University.The decision came as World War

Ignatius today have won and deserved as educators and as mis-

II was reducing the number of Jesuits available for administrative

sionaries the title, ‘The Light Cavalry of Christ.’”

In October 1933 the Scranton Times Progress Exhibition was held at the Watres Armory to promote civic pride among Scranton residents. The College’s entry, called the “House of Magic” was designed by students from the science department and included experimental apparatus like the “electric eye” photo-electric cell, microscopes, colorimeters, and electrostatic machines.

Despite the onslaught of the Great Depression in the same year—1929—at this commencement event, enrollment at the College was continuing to grow. Shown above is the Most Rev. Thomas C. O'Reilly, D.D., Bishop of Scranton.

“Like good wine that becomes better with age, let us pass on to young people the wisdom of life.” —Pope Francis

The pioneer Jesuit faculty at The University of Scranton. First row, from left to right: Fr. Charles G. McManus, S.J., Mr. Robert H. Springer, S.J., Fr. Vincent I. Bellwoar, S.J., the Very Rev. W. Coleman Nevils, S.J. (rector and University president), Fr. Ferdinand C. Wheeler, S.J., Fr. James L. Harley, S.J., Fr. J. Eugene Gallery, S.J., Fr. John J. Coniff, S.J. Second row: Mr. Vincent de P. Lee, S.J., Mr. Richard J. Neu, S.J., Fr. Edward J. Baxter, S.J., Mr. Henry P. Gruczszyk, S.J., Fr. Richard M. McKeon, S.J., Fr. Charles J. Denecke, S.J., Fr. Edward G. Jacklin, S.J. Third row: Fr. Joseph T. Durkin, S.J. H’92, Br. William J. Haggerty, S.J., Fr. Richard F. Grady, S.J. H’73, Br. Clarence F. Mahlmeister, S.J.

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build | CHAPTER TWO

125 A JESUIT

INSTITUTION Expectations Are Great Indeed

A

s Fr. Nevils prepared to move to Scranton as president of the University, the Rev. Zacheus J. Maher, S.J., in the office of the Jesuits’ American Assistancy, wrote to congratulate him on his new assignment. “You go to Scranton to sustain a sacred tradition,” Maher wrote. “You go, and the expectations of your coming are great indeed.”

But as the Jesuits established their presence in Scranton, World War II was draining the student body. By the end of the 1942–43 academic year, its 440 students dwindled to 268. Only 52 freshmen entered the next fall, and they had little chance of completing their degrees before being called up for military service. Extracurricular activities were curtailed as gasoline rationing and travel restrictions limited intercollegiate competition. Varsity athletics were completely dropped in 1943.

Some wartime issues of the campus newspaper, the Aquinas, were devoted to names of University students, alumni, and faculty in the armed forces. Shortly after the end of the war, the Rev. Vincent Bellwoar, S.J., who served as student counselor and kept the records, reported that 2,012 former students had served, 66 had died, 5 were missing, and 4 were prisoners of war.

Although the Jesuits knew few of the men in the service, Fr. Bellwoar sent them sheets containing news about and messages from them—weddings, promotions, decorations, and notices of injuries and deaths. “Just found out that Frank Carroll [’47] and two other

FirstJesuits2.jpg

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

The Scranton family estate was donated to the University in 1941. This photo shows the main building as it appeared in the early 1890s; the tower on the left was removed before the estate came into University ownership.

20

Tommies are here,” said a message from Pvt.William J. McHale ’47 at Fort Benning, Georgia, published in October 1943. And Ensign Frank W. Maycock wrote from the South Seas about the same time,“You certainly keep us well informed and I shall ever be grateful for your efforts. . . . Enclosed please find a small contribution which will help your postage expenses.”

Mass was offered every Monday for former students in the military, and a vigil light burned day and night in front of a statue of the Sacred Heart in the main building “to remind all who pass to pray for ‘our’ boys,” Fr. Bellwoar wrote in the first issue of his news sheet.

On campus, the presence of aviation cadets for the U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S. Navy helped offset revenue lost from student tuition. The War Department contracted with the University in 1942 to use its facilities and faculty for cadets training to be reserve pilots. At its peak, the programs enrolled more than one hundred students.

While the war raged, the Jesuits and Bishop Hafey began discussing a possible college preparatory school on the site should the University have to close. Happily, the University stayed open for business, though it still moved ahead with the preparatory school, which opened in September 1944 in a former hospital building located two doors down from Old Main that the University had acquired as an annex in 1940. After moving to its current site in the 1000 block of Wyoming Avenue in 1963, the Scranton Preparatory School remained a part of the University until becoming a separate corporation in 1978.

With the end of the war and the advent of the G.I. Bill of Rights, enrollment exploded. By the fall of 1947 the student body reached 2,924, about 1,000 of whom were in the Evening College. But attrition was high, and enrollment soon settled down.

Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

Graduation exercises under way on September 5, 1943, on the grounds of the Scranton Estate at the center of campus. World War II, still in full swing at the time, was taking its toll on the school as many students and faculty entered military service.

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

The University of Scranton’s first graduate class were awarded their master of arts degrees in June 1952. The University admitted women to its graduate program and Evening School long before it began admitting women to the undergraduate day school. Seated, left to right: Molly L. Noone, Renato Mazzei, Dr. Lawrence Lennon, Gino J. Martrorelli, Marie C. Lesniak, Anne E. Carlin. Standing: Eugene M. Langan, Joseph R. Grzywacz, James G. Hopkins, Walter J. Soya, William A. Waters, John J. Haggerty.

Not pictured: Norman F. Keiser.

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Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

As the 1946 school year began, students found themselves cheering not for the Tommies, but for the Royals. The Rev. John J. Conniff, S.J., dean of men and moderator of athletics, promoted the change, reasoning that the old nickname had lost its significance. The name Royals befitted the school colors of white and purple, he said.

Another change was the establishment of a Reserve Officers Training Corps on campus in 1951. The first two years of ROTC were mandatory for nonveterans. In some ways, cadets were following in the footsteps of Jesuit founder St. Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish knight wounded at the Battle of Pamplona. His religious conversion occurred while he was in recovery, when he discerned the call to become a soldier for Christ.

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By 1947 the University reached well beyond Scranton, and formation of an Out-of-Towners Club signaled the change.

Five years later, the University fulfilled its designation as a university by awarding its first master’s degrees.The Graduate School was established as a separate entity in 1950.

With a growing, evolving student body and aging, inadequate facilities, The University of Scranton was in need of a serious building boom. This expansion would come with the arrival of the Very Rev. John J. Long, S.J., as president in 1953.

By the time of Fr. Long’s departure in 1963 the campus had been transformed. New buildings, especially dormitories, attracted even more new students and changed the nature of the University. When Dr. Frank Homer ’64, a professor emeritus of history and university historian, arrived on campus as a freshman in 1960, commuter students outnumbered resident students, “and commuter students ran

Shortly after becoming the University's president in 1953, the Very Rev. John J. Long initiated a multimillion-dollar expansion program that by the end of his presidency a decade later had produced twelve newly constructed buildings and a virtually complete transformation of the University's campus, by then located entirely in the Hill Section.

the University,” he said. “Over the course of the next two decades, resident students started outnumbering commuters.

That meant the University would have more of a campus feeling. It meant student life could exist twenty-four hours a day and on weekends.”

The University entered the computer era in 1964 under Fr. Long’s successor, the Very Rev. Edward J. Sponga, S.J., with the installation of a used first-generation Burroughs 205 23

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Some students and faculty at the time were also moving into an era of political activism, evident even in campus elections during the late 1960s when two parties competed for control. One student body president, Edward Mitchell ’68, successfully pressed for student representatives on the University Senate. After graduating, Mitchell became a professional political consultant. Students also campaigned against the dress code that required jackets and ties in class, and against mandatory class attendance. After 1969 adherence to the policies was left to individual faculty members, and the dress code all but disappeared.

About the same time, the Council on Resident Student Affairs, which represented students living on campus, began pushing The Very Rev. Aloysius C. Galvin, S.J., left, at the dedication of the Long Center in 1967. The threefor parietals, or dormitory visiting hours for story athletic facility, named for the former president, capped a long period of campus expansion. Also shown are Scranton mayor James Walsh ’55 and the Most. Rev. J. Carroll McCormick, D.D., Bishop of women. Then president the Very Rev. Aloysius Scranton.

C. Galvin, S.J., would hear none of it. Protests followed over his preemptive decision, and the faculty, computer. The system was managed by the Rev. Paul Casey, through the local chapter of the American Association of S.J., a member of the Chemistry Department. It was bulky, University Professors and the University Senate, supported prone to breakdowns, and had a minuscule capacity compared the call for a Day of University Concern. The president to today’s computers. John A. Beidler, Ph.D., professor of accepted the proposal, and the Day of Concern was held on computing sciences, was at the school the year the Burroughs Friday, April 25, 1969—an event that would change life on arrived.“By today’s standards,” Dr. Beidler said,“the B-205 was campus in profound ways. just a toy.” He said it generated so much heat that in its first Fr. Galvin appointed a fifteen-member task force conwinter on campus, “There were flowers growing in front of sisting of five each of administrators, faculty, and students to the basement room in Loyola Hall where the computer was review proposals resulting from the day. Among the develophoused because we did not have a recycling AC unit, and we ments that resulted was the creation of a Board of Trustees just pumped the warm water out onto the lawn in front of the made up of both laymen and Jesuits. No member except the building.” Despite its limitations, the computer’s acquisition University president could be a student or employee. thrust the University into a new universe of learning.

24

Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

The University’s entry into the computer era in 1964 was overseen by the Rev. Paul Casey, S.J., shown here around 1970, checking computer data card information with student Stan Mark.

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Ignatian Underpinnings From its earliest days as St. Thomas College, The University of Scranton

At The University of Scranton, these principles are the foundation

has been solidly Catholic. Since 1942, it has also been Jesuit. Those

of classroom discussions, faculty-student relationships, service

identities undergird all other aspects of campus life.

commitments, and, for many students, life choices long after graduation.

Founded by Ignatius of Loyola and a small group of friends in

“Our students come here knowing it’s a Jesuit school,” said Brian

Paris in 1534, the Society of Jesus is an

Conniff, Ph.D., G’80, dean of the College of

order of priests known for their work

Arts and Sciences. “That obviously means

in education and social justice. The

something to them.”

University of Scranton takes its place

As on most other American Catholic

among twenty-eight Jesuit institutions

campuses, members of religious orders are

of higher learning in the United States,

increasingly outnumbered by lay faculty and

including Georgetown University, Boston

staff. Except for one month under Frank

College, Fordham University, Marquette

O’Hara as acting president, the University

University, and three universities that

has always had a religious president, but

bear the name Loyola.

that could change. The shrinking presence of

Jesuits brought more than academic

members of the order “concerns us,” said Fr.

and administrative skills to Scranton.

McIlhenny, “but we’re not going to sit here

They brought a culture, philosophy, and

and wring our hands.”

set of principles—among them:

The Jesuit Center opened on campus in 2013 to engage faculty and staff in the

• Magis—a restless desire for excellence based not on selfaggrandizement but on love of God and a call to follow Christ.

• Seeking God in all things—a deep belief that God is in everyone and everything, and it is a person’s duty and privilege to acknowledge it.

• Cura personalis—care for each

school’s mission and to help ensure that its The dedication of Metanoia, a statue of St. Ignatius, marked the first visit to the University by the leader of the Jesuit order. In attendance were, from left, the Very Rev. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, S.J., Superior General of the Society of Jesus, University president J. A. Panuska, S.J., sculptor Gerhard Baut, Robert Sylvester ’58, and trustees Edward Lynett Jr. ’65, H’93 and Elizabeth Redington H’92.

person in his or her own uniqueness.

Catholic and Jesuit identity remains at the core of their work. The Rev. Ryan Maher, S.J., the center’s executive director, said its purpose is really to help employees answer the question, “What difference does it make that I work at a Jesuit university?”

Alumni express appreciation long after they leave campus for their Jesuit grounding. “The values of honesty,

• Service and the promotion of justice—a commitment to the

integrity, moral courage, and selfless service guide your actions and

common good.

decisions every day,” Major General John P. Herrling ’60 said when

• Contemplation in action—an understanding of the

he received the Frank J. O’Hara Award for Government Service in

interrelationship between reflection and deeds so that one’s acts are

1990. “The Jesuit philosophy of developing the whole person is the

in accordance with deeply held convictions.

key to living a productive, balanced life.”

“So order the inner person that its order overflows into the outer.” —Ignatius of Loyola

26

Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

Another new body was the Student Affairs Council, composed of student government officers and representatives from the faculty and administration.The council, which evolved into the Student Life Board, repeatedly proposed parietals until 1970, when the Board of Trustees approved visiting hours for women.

A Faculty Affairs Council, already in the works, would deal with faculty compensation and working conditions.

In 1974 FAC gained formal recognition as a collectivebargaining agent from the National Labor Relations Board.

Activism also appeared in matters of national and international significance. As on campuses across the country, debate about U.S. involvement in Vietnam played out on the streets of Scranton. Antiwar activists called for the school’s support of a national moratorium to end the war on October 15, 1969. Fr. Galvin refused to suspend classes but expressed his desire to support freedom of speech. “The response of the University must be, and is, one of political neutrality,” he wrote in a memorandum. His guidelines allowed faculty to use their own discretion in rescheduling classes or excusing student absences, and daylong demonstrations took place on the courthouse square in Scranton.

A month later, Fr. Galvin received more than 250 requests from students, faculty, and staff for the University to participate in a Day of Concern on November 13. Supporters of the war were circulating fliers claiming that such activities aided the Communists. The president maintained his position, much to the disappointment of some on both sides.

Demonstrators then marched across campus chanting, “Go to hell, Galvin.”

After the Ohio National Guard killed four unarmed students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, Fr. Galvin once again refused to cancel classes but lowered the school’s

In May 1970, just days after the shooting at Kent State University, students went on strike. One student recalled that the strike was “meant as public notice to Scranton that the unspeakably obscene war in Asia must end and that if Scranton had to be closed down to help do it, Scranton would be closed down.”

27

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

In 1969 and 1970 The University of Scranton was embroiled in a series of anti–Vietnam War protests. A strike, which began with the boycott of classes and the obstruction of Linden Street, ultimately spread to Court House Square and resulted in the arrest of twelve students.

28

Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

flag to half-staff. As many as three hundred students formed human barricades, closing Linden Street— an artery through the University—to traffic.

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While activism and student involvement were rising, enrollment was declining at the still all-male University. Unable to fill the dormitories, administrators rented out Fitch Hall to house students at a local truck-driving school. The University was faced with two choices to ensure economic survival: lower standards or admit women.

After extended debate, on March 19, 1970, the University Senate approved the introduction of coeducation in its undergraduate day programs. Implementation came two years later, after an unsuccessful attempt to develop a cooperative arrangement with Marywood College as an alternative to admitting In the fall of 1972, due in no small part to a financial crisis then confronting the University, it admitted women for the first time into its undergraduate day school ranks. Shown here with a women undergraduates to the University. fellow classmate is Karen Pennington ’76 (left), who would serve for a number of years on the “One reason why all the faculty, including my- Student Affairs staff and later on the Board of Trustees. self, were for going coed was that most of us had come out of colleges that were coed or had gone to had been removed and washers and dryers installed, and its coed graduate schools,” said Dr. Parente. “It didn’t seem like a new residents arrived to find a red rose on each desk. big deal.The Evening College was already accepting women, The change “took some adjustments for women, but and the Graduate School had been accepting female students probably took a lot more adjustments for men who had for a long time.” Fr. McIlhenny said he supported coeducaelected to go to an all-male college,” she said. She was often tion on the grounds that the change would not only bring the only woman in a class, and “going into the cafeteria was in female students but also make the campus more appealing very unnerving.” But she held her own, participating with to males. other women in Mischief Night on Halloween by putting Karen Pennington, Ph.D., ’76, G’83, who later worked Vaseline on doorknobs. The same night, the University witin Student Affairs and served as a trustee, entered in 1972 nessed what may have been its first panty raid. with fifty-seven other women in the first coed class. Fitch Pennington was one of five black women in that first Hall would now house women instead of truckers. Its urinals class. At the end of the year, she was the only one left.“I never

29

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Some of the first undergraduate women students at the University pose in 1972 with University president Dexter Hanley, S.J., and his dog, Prince. On the far right of the back row is Joseph M. Cannon, ’56 director of the counseling center. In all, fifty-eight women enrolled that year.

saw myself as different,” she said. “Most of us had grown up with similar values.”

With the admission of women, standards remained high— and, in fact, a new undergraduate curriculum was coming together under the leadership of Richard H. Passon, Ph.D., then a young English professor who chaired the University’s Program Committee. Dr. Passon would later leave and then 30

return to serve for sixteen years as provost and academic vice president before being named University Professor.

The changes spurred the University to a period of growth in both enrollment and academic quality during the presidencies of the Revs. Dexter L. Hanley, S.J., H’75 (1970–75), and William J. Byron, S.J., H’84 (1975–82). Growing recognition in national rankings and acceptance of its students by

Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

The Rev. Bernard R. McIlhenny, S.J., longtime dean of admissions, right, examining coded maps of the eastern United States used in the admissions office recruiting efforts with James Moore. Fr. McIlhenny was a strong proponent of the wellrounded student. “We want them to be able to stand on their own two feet,” he once observed, and “have something to say, and say it well.”

31

Chapter Two A Jesuit Institution

For thirty-seven years Dr. Frank X. J. Homer ’64 served as Grand Marshal at University commencements and other formal academic ceremonies, including five presidential inaugurations. He returned to his alma mater in 1968 as a faculty member in what was then the History/Political Science Department. Now a professor emeritus, he serves as the University’s undisputed historian. “The faith our

prestigious scholarship and fellowship programs—including an exceptional number of Fulbright Scholars—would boost the University’s reputation and appeal. While administrative positions other than the presidency were increasingly filled by lay men and women, the University retained its strong Jesuit identity.

In the fall of 1980, the student body was 4,499 strong.

More than three-quarters were from Pennsylvania, but undergraduates came from twenty-two other states. Thirteen undergraduates and fifty-two graduate students represented sixteen countries outside the United States. While enrollment was burgeoning, physical expansion was once again limited. “The 1980s was a time of taking advantage of what we were working on in the 1970s,” said Fr. McIlhenny.

Fr. Byron negotiated the permanent closing of Linden Street in 1980, creating for the first time a consolidated campus and setting the stage for what was to come. When the Rev. J. A. Panuska, S.J., H’74, his successor, took the helm in 1982 he faced the challenge of raising money to build facilities to accommodate the increased student body.

His success led the University through a period of construction that added fifteen buildings to the campus. In his honor in 1998 the Board of Trustees named the College of Health, Education, and Human Resources, established during his tenure, the J. A. Panuska, S.J., College of Professional Studies.

While buildings were going up, academic improvements were beginning to pay off for students in the form of Fulbright Scholarships and other prestigious opportunities.

Applications for admission continued to rise, and U.S. News & World Report recognized the school as an “up-and-comer.”

Many accolades and rankings would follow. “People began to listen when you said ‘Scranton,’” Fr. McIlhenny noted.

founders had in this University is astounding,” he once remarked, taking into account the challenges the school faced in its early years. And, he added, “It continues to this day.”

33

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

As dean of admissions he played a major role in keeping the school competitive for good students by heavy recruiting that pulled in more applicants from New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Connecticut, and beyond.

Meanwhile, officials were increasingly emphasizing service. Patricia Vaccaro G’92 was hired in 1987 to coordinate Collegiate Volunteers, a collaborative student volunteer effort with Marywood College, later to become the University’s Center for Service and Social Justice. “I think service gives practical application to what they’re learning in the classroom,” said Mrs. Vaccaro, now director of the center.

When the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., H’04 succeeded Fr. Panuska in 1998, he brought a passionate commitment to the future that included preparation of a new strategic plan and twenty-year campus master plan. Under his leadership, the University continued to place in national rankings, and annual fund-raising rose to new heights. The first President’s Business Council Annual Award Dinner, held in New York in 2002, raised more than six hundred thousand dollars for scholarships and started an annual tradition that would eventually bring in more than $1 million a year. Fr. McShane left in 2003 to become president of Fordham University. Succeeding Fr. McShane at the University was the Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. During Fr. Pilarz’s tenure, The University of Scranton welcomed more than one hundred new faculty members and, through the Pride, Passion, Promise Campaign, created five endowed chairs. Undergraduate applications reached record highs, and graduate programs expanded dramatically through online degrees and a renewed focus on campus-based programs. The 180,000-square-foot Patrick & Margaret DeNaples Center and the 200,000-square-foot Loyola Science Center were just two of the projects undertaken during his presidency.

As the campus continued to change, Fr. Pilarz reached out to reassure alumni, “The essential characteristics of the campus they knew have not changed and hopefully never will.” Rigorous scholarship in the context of a caring community would continue, he wrote. “The University of Scranton remains a place where people are closely connected to one another, and that is a sure sign of God’s grace at work here.”

The Rev. Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., who took office as president in 2011, said he found an institution where faculty members are engaged with their students and cura personalis—care for each person in his or her own uniqueness—is practiced.

As The University of Scranton celebrates its 125th anniversary, Dr. Passon, who first arrived on campus in 1964, reflected on the University’s past. “What’s remarkable are the wonderful things that have happened,” he said. “What’s also remarkable are the wonderful things that haven’t changed.”

34

On September 5, 2013, The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, D.D., J.C.L., H’14, Bishop of Scranton, delivered the homily at the Mass of the Holy Spirit, which marked the campus kickoff “Celebrating 125 Years.” The yearlong celebration included lectures, exhibits, concerts, and other events.

On the University campus, you are frequently in the presence of great art and may not even realize it. For over thirty years, the University has been commissioning public artworks to beautify and inspire the campus. Among them is Christ the Teacher, by Trevor Southey, shown here on the campus. Other pieces include The Doorway to the Soul, by Lisa Fedon; Metanoia, by Gerhard Baut; and Jacob and the Angel, by Arlene Love. The sculptures represent different aspects of the University’s identity as a Jesuit institution.

“Nothing is hard to one whose will is set on it, especially if it be a thing to be done out of love.” —Ignatius of Loyola

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build | CHAPTER THREE

University students have a long tradition of engaging in research as undergraduates both as part of their regular coursework and outside of class in collaboration with professors. Scranton students often present the results of their research at national conferences.

THE CLASSROOM AND BEYOND

125

Addressing the Whole Person

A

n emphasis on teaching and learning is inherent in the Jesuit philosophy.

The Ignatian concept of cura personalis emphasizes individual attention to students while magis (literally “more”) requires a restless pursuit of excellence grounded in gratitude. At The University of Scranton, this combination adds up to a rigorous curriculum with a solid support system that challenges the most gifted students and assists those who are struggling.

“We’re demanding,” said Fr. McIlhenny. “We set the bar high and bring the students up to the bar.”

The University is a comprehensive institution offering degrees in arts, sciences, preprofessional, and professional areas with separate schools for some, including the J. A. Panuska, S.J., College of Professional Studies; the Arthur J. Kania School of Management; and the College of Graduate and Continuing Education.

Every undergraduate, whether an English major or a future physical therapist, is required to take a generous dose of the liberal arts, including philosophy and theology. This general education curriculum is built on a Jesuit model that dates back almost to Ignatius, said Fr. Quinn. And it was, indeed, “rooted in the liberal arts along with theology and philosophy.”

“We are not a liberal arts college.We were,” said Ellen M. Casey, Ph.D., an English and theatre professor emerita who was among the

FirstJesuits2.jpg

39

Pre-medical studies at the University have a long and proud history. In this undated exhibit from another era, pre-medical students display lab equipment, medical books, and a list of alumni who became members of the local medical society. Today, the pre-medical program also includes dentistry, veterinary medicine, optometry, and podiatry. Recently the University partnered with Jefferson Medical College to help recruit students into medicine via its Physician Shortage Area Program, and in 2012 the stunning Loyola Science Center opened as home to all of Scranton’s science programs.

Chapter Three The Classroom and Beyond

Frank A. Cimini ’39, H’01, served for decades as a professor of foreign languages, teaching Spanish to an entire generation of University students. In 1962 he was inducted into the Order of Pro Deo et Universitate, which honors those completing twenty years of full-time service to the University and today, over a half-century later, he is the Order’s oldest living member.

first female faculty. “But we have a substantial core, much larger than many institutions, because we think it matters not only to do well in a job, but to live well.”

Student body size and class sizes are intentionally limited, because interaction between professors and students is crucial to carry out the Jesuit commitment to wholistic education.

“It’s easier to teach the whole student when you get to know the whole

student,” said Dr. Casey.

The system produces positive outcomes that are recognized nationally. The Princeton Review consistently lists Scranton among the top 15 percent of America’s twenty-five hundred four-year colleges, based on outstanding academics. Other publications continually cite the University among the nation’s best. U.S. News & World Report, for example, named Scranton among the top-ten best regional universities in the North, the nation’s most competitive region, for twenty consecutive years.

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St. Thomas College began with no organized curriculum and a student body much younger than its name suggests. Bishop O’Hara envisioned the institution as a gateway to careers in business and the professions for the sons of immigrants of the most modest means. After taking courses in the classics, English, mathematics, and bookkeeping at St. Thomas, students were to be able to transfer to other colleges or apply to schools of medicine, law, or theology.

When members of the Xaverian order came to serve as the faculty at St. Thomas in 1896, the most advanced students were of early high school age and ability. The Christian Brothers, who succeeded the Xaverians, organized St.Thomas into three divisions: a college department that would produce

The Rev. Bernard Allan Suppe, S.J., was a highly regarded and beloved philosophy professor at the University from 1957 to 1976. The New York City native, who had taught Greek in a high school before coming to Scranton, loved mentoring students and was only half-joking when he instructed them to “not let books get in the way of learning.”

41

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

degree candidates by 1901, a commercial department with a two-year program, and a preparatory department that would eventually become St. Thomas High School before it was closed in 1939.

The College motto in those days and continuing to the present was Religio, Mores, Cultura, loosely translated as “religion, morals, and culture.” It established the idea that would be expressed in other language by the Jesuits—that education needed to address the whole person.

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In the late 1920s and early 1930s, students could earn a bachelor of arts with programs designed specifically for future seminarians or concentrations in education, general sciences, or social sciences (prelaw). Bachelor of science degrees were offered in physics, business, or premed. All B.A. students had to take Latin, a requirement that remained until the 1950s.

A four-year sequence of religion courses was mandatory for Catholic students.At various times during the College’s history, students were also required to write a senior thesis.

When the Society of Jesus took over the University in the chaos of World War II, members immediately set about revamping the curriculum in accordance with their Ratio Studiorum (Plan of Studies) established in 1599. All students, regardless of major, would now take logic, cosmology, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. The Jesuits also emphasized rhetoric, public speaking, and exposure to Latin and Greek. In January 1943 they established a chapter of the Jesuit honor society, Alpha Sigma Nu, later joined by more than thirty honor societies covering almost every subject.

The Jesuits’ basic curriculum remained in place for thirty years until the school’s Program Committee, under the chairmanship of Dr. Passon, undertook a revision.The Jesuits’

42

In September 1966, University students competed in the General Electric College Bowl. The team was supported by a large group of fellow students who traveled to New York City for the filming. The Scranton team lost to the University of Oklahoma in the nationally televised game. From left: Neil McCabe, Brendan Vanston, Richard Rodgers, and William McLane.

Students in the Kania School of Management can get a taste of Wall Street in the Irwin E. Alperin Financial Center. Housed in Brennan Hall, it features computer stations and software that provide sophisticated analysis and simulated real-time trading of equities and foreign currencies. Alperin, H’91, a former trustee and benefactor, was a driving force in the economic growth of northeastern Pennsylvania, and established scholarships and financial aid plans for deserving students.

Chapter Three The Classroom and Beyond

course of study was providing a broad-based education but left little opportunity for academic exploration beyond core courses and major requirements. As the curriculum underwent a reassessment in the 1960s, supporters of a rigid core debated vigorously with advocates of greater flexibility.

By the end of the 1969–70 year, consensus was in the air: some latitude within broad-based requirements that ensured a well-rounded education.

Modifications followed as the faculty and administration saw the need. Around 2010 the University began shifting away from one-credit freshman seminars to more substantive three-credit seminars developed to give students opportunities to work closely with faculty, explore important intellectual questions, and become familiar with the University’s Ignatian identity and mission. The new seminars put students on the path to eloquentia perfecta, the ability to express thoughts clearly and effectively in writing and speaking, a Jesuit principle that the curriculum increasingly emphasized.

Dr. Passon described the University’s approach to education as always “striving for excellence” in producing graduates who can thrive in a changing world.

“There is a spirit of continuous improvement,” said Rose Sebastianelli, Ph.D., professor of operations management. “The curriculum gets constantly modified to meet the needs of students.”

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In the new millennium, University of Scranton students still face rigorous demands, but fields of study have broadened.

An early commitment to preparing students for health professions and careers in education has grown into Panuska College, adding majors in community health education, physical and occupational therapies, nursing, health

45

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Going Forth as Scholars The University of Scranton is consistently recognized by the Chronicle

In a yearlong process, Dr. Trussler conducts information sessions

of Higher Education as among the “top producers” of Fulbright

and workshops; meets one on one and exchanges email with

Scholars—recipients of the U.S. government’s premier scholarship

students; helps hone proposals and personal statements; and

for overseas graduate study, research, teaching, and volunteer work.

oversees interviews with the Campus Fulbright Committee, whose

“These students are outstanding not only in their academic and

members ask tough questions to prepare applicants to think quickly

research credentials but in their long-standing commitment to service,”

and answer with confidence. Scranton students compete in a

said Susan Trussler, Ph.D., Fulbright program advisor and associate

national pool of thousands, including scholars from the country’s Ivy

professor, economics/finance.

League universities.

Scranton’s Fulbright Scholars have studied and worked in about four

The University is also making its mark in other prestigious scholarship and fellowship programs.

dozen countries around the world.

Biology graduate and Scranton

In Malaysia, Rebecca Bartley ’11 taught English to primary school students

native Vivienne Meljen ’13 became the

and hosted activities to build the

ninth Truman Scholar at the school. The

students’ interest. “They . . . made me

program honors students with good

feel like a bit of a celebrity,” she said.

leadership skills who plan to enter public service. Meljen plans to attend medical

Mary Elise Lynch ’10 launched a quality assurance program in Kenya

school, earn a public health degree, and

for HIV testing in Kombewa District

work as a physician in an underserved

Hospital and its satellites. Through the

rural community.

experience, she said, “I recognized my

In 2012 junior Bradley Wierbowski

resilience as a researcher. . . . I likewise

’13 was named the University’s tenth

matured as an individual.”

winner of the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship, which honors students with

In the United Arab Emirates, Gian Vergnetti ’08 focused on Abu Dhabi’s

In 1983, senator J. William Fulbright was awarded an

science, mathematics, and engineering

plan to diversify its oil-based economy

honorary degree at the University. In his comments, he

skills. Wierbowski double-majored in

and evaluated market-based solutions to

remarked on the University’s “impressive” track record in

BCMB (biochemistry, cell and molecular

water scarcity. The Fulbright “transformed

placing Fulbright Scholars in the program named after him.

biology) and English.

my perception,” he said.

Since then, it’s only gotten better, and now the University ranks among the top producers of Fulbright Scholars in

administered by Dr. Engel, helps students

Fulbrights from 1972 to 2013. Dr. Parente,

America. The highly competitive program sponsors a year of

through the sometimes laborious

himself the holder of four Fulbrights,

study abroad to work on special projects.

application process for scholarships and

They are 3 of 144 students who received

fellowships other than the Fulbright.

initiated the push when he arrived as dean.

Dr. Parente recruited students to apply and promoted the program on

From its establishment in 2000 under the auspices of Fr. McShane

campus. “I edited the catalog from 1972 until 1985,” he said. “I gave the

until the University’s 125th anniversary in 2013, sixty-five Scranton

Fulbrights quite a bit of prominence.” Dr. Trussler, who followed him as

students were named recipients or finalists for some of the nation’s

head of the program, has continued the tradition of Fulbright success.

top opportunities.

“Go forth and set the whole world on fire.” —Ignatius of Loyola 46

The Office of Fellowship Programs,

Chapter Three The Classroom and Beyond

administration, human resources, counseling, and exercise science. All graduates are equipped with both a liberal arts education and the skills needed for their professions. The University added eighteen new health sciences majors in the 1970s revision under the deanship of Dr. Parente. “I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was moving us away from being a strictly liberal arts institution,” he said. Another effect, in an institution that had recently admitted women, was to pull in more coed students interested in professions that have historically been heavily female.

Premed remains a popular pursuit for Scranton students, and the University has an impressive success rate of medical school admissions. In a thirteen-year period beginning in 2000, some 78 percent of the University’s 522 seniors who applied to schools of medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, podiatry, and optometry have been admitted—nearly twice the national average. The University is also one of only seven undergraduate institutions participating in the Physician Shortage Area Program at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia to recruit and educate students interested in the practice of medicine in rural areas.

Internships, mentoring by faculty and alumni, and school-sponsored community and international service complement transcripts and test scores when students apply for health professional schools, said Mary Engel, Ph.D., director of fellowship programs and director of medical school placement. “If we’re churning out premed and prehealth students who are just like everyone else, we’re not doing our job.”

In the Kania School of Management, ethics and responsibility are emphasized—sometimes in subtle ways— along with the latest technology. A study of counterfeit electronics in a quality control class led to a discussion about questions of justice raised when workers in poverty-riddled

Dr. Umbay Burti H’65 was a key University chemistry professor, instrumental in shaping the reputation of the school’s pre-medical program.

countries are exposed to toxins to produce cheap knockoffs, said Dr. Sebastianelli. Statistics can be taught with numbers about the environment that introduce issues of sustainability and consumption, she said. The University’s strong sense of community assures that business leaders among the alumni are willing mentors and guides to students and new graduates.

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The Rev. John J (J. J.) Quinn, S.J., joined the University’s English Department in 1956. Until his death in 2004 he served as a professor, residence hall counselor, moderator of drama, retreat leader, coordinator of the communications program, and faculty editor of the University’s literary magazine, Esprit. He was the first University liaison officer with the Peace Corps. Alumni and former students have honored him by establishing the Rev. J. J. Quinn, S.J., Scholarship.

Chapter Three The Classroom and Beyond

“The education at Scranton is very grounding,” said Mary Beth Farrell ’79, H’10, former executive vice president of service delivery at AXA Financial Services, as she received the 2004 O’Hara Award in Management. “There are many times throughout my career where the values that were solidified during my Scranton years supported my ability to make tough but fair decisions.”

The University provides both ROTC and Peace and Justice Studies. The once all-male school has a Women’s Center and a Women’s Studies program. And the Catholic institution offers a concentration in Judaic Studies, recognizing both the relationship between Christianity and Judaism and the long-standing one between the University and the local Jewish community.

Dr. Brian Conniff, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said he expects the University to continue to develop new fields of study. “I think a lot of them are going to be bridging the gap between the liberal arts and professional education,” he said.

A student-faculty ratio of just 11 to 1 and the closeness of the community allow undergraduates to collaborate with their professors to an unusual degree, said Fr. Quinn. In 2012, for example, Joe Vinson, Ph.D., a chemistry professor, and Michael G. Coco ’13, a chemistry major, gained national attention for a study on the healthy antioxidants in popcorn after presenting their findings at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

“From working on this project with Dr. Vinson, I’ve gained experience and many insights in doing scientific research,” said Coco. “Besides the obvious things like learning how to use instrumentation and perform analyses, I’ve also learned that research is extremely satisfying, especially when you discover or think of something no one else has thought of.”

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The University has a long involvement with the Army ROTC, and for years it has included women students, such as this cadet in 1975. Today, about seventy-five students are enrolled in the program, where they take classes in military science, which help prepare them for leadership both on and off the battlefield.

Faculty-student collaboration is especially evident in the University’s three honors programs.

The Honors Program. The opportunity for independent study allows the University’s brightest students to work one-on-one with professors in a program devoted to freedom of inquiry and personal development. Students initiate tutorials and projects that are uniquely theirs. Topics have included Jewish Philosophy, Swordplay for the Stage, Ovarian Microcirculation, Privacy in Cyberspace, and Pain Intensity, to name

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

The Rev. Edward Gannon, S.J., H’83, in 1980, became the first faculty member at the University to receive the title of University Professor, thus allowing him to teach in any department. Fr. Gannon, who taught philosophy, founded the Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Program, inspired campus traditions that lasted for decades such as Fall Review and Campus Bowl, and was an editor and a musician. He cowrote with Kathleen M. Fisher ’80 the University’s alma mater.

Scranton’s oldest teaching award is named after him, as is Gannon Hall, a first-year student residence.

just a few. As early as their sophomore year, students participate in a seminar called Ideamaking that explores how researchers develop the concepts that direct their work. In a junior seminar, students lead and participate in discussions of writings on a wide range of contemporary issues. Participation in the Honors Program culminates in a yearlong senior project, which may be either creative or research-based. As seniors, they share

50

their work and react to that of other participants in a seminar, then defend the completed project before their mentor and two other faculty members. The final version is catalogued in the Weinberg Memorial Library.

Participation is limited and requires a big commitment on the part of students as well as faculty.“When you take someone into the Honors Program, you are promising that three faculty members will spend time with them in one-on-one tutorials and a fourth will direct an honors project,” said Dr. Casey, former director of the program.The program was founded in the early 1960s by Thomas M. Garrett, Ph.D., the late professor of philosophy, with assistance from colleagues.

Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program (SJLA).

Fifty to sixty top freshmen each year are invited into a unique program that allows them to complete their general education requirements in a community atmosphere that encourages service to others. Courses in philosophy, theology, and literature are designed specifically to enhance critical thinking, writing, and speaking skills. The program is considered especially appropriate for premed and prelaw students. It was founded in the 1970s by the late Rev. Edward Gannon, S.J., a legendary figure on campus who was the first to hold the title of University Professor.

Business Leadership Honors Program. Students from all majors can develop the talents and skills to succeed as leaders through this Honors program. Fifteen sophomores each spring are invited to explore the basic theories and concepts of leadership by means of special seminars and courses in management, ethics, strategy, and analysis. Field trips and mentorship enhance the coursework. The program is directed by Robert L. McKeage, Ph.D., ’71, associate professor of marketing/management.

The honors programs are in keeping with Jesuit philosophy. “A Jesuit education aims at developing leadership among

Chapter Three The Classroom and Beyond

University students can choose from among three honors programs: Business Leadership Honors Program, Honors Program, and Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program (SJLA).

(Above) Founding director Robert L. McKeage, Ph.D. (first row, far right), gathers with Business Leadership students at the President’s Business Council Annual Award Dinner in New York City.

(Left inset) Ellen M. Casey, Ph.D., discusses Honors Program research with a student. Among the first women to join Scranton’s full-time faculty, Dr. Casey directed the program for thirty-two years.

(Right inset) The Rev. Ronald McKinney, S.J., directed the SJLA program for twenty-four years.

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

students,” said Dr. Passon.

New buildings and renova“It’s kind of elitist. . . . Some tions of old ones help the people use that as a negative University provide its stuterm. I don’t.” dents with state-of-the-art Scranton students equipment. From one used take advantage of Sumcomputer acquired in 1964, mer Research Fellowthe school has embraced ships, stipends awarded to technology, integrating inundergraduates who have formation systems across been nominated by faccampus and offering seven ulty members. Many also undergraduate computchoose to study abroad. ing-related degrees and a University of Scranton graduate program in softstudents have studied in ware engineering. Through University biology professor Terrence Sweeney, Ph.D., along with a few of his fifty-three countries and technology, the University students, built a model of the body’s cardiovascular system destined to become on six continents. They also gives students around a teaching staple in classrooms and other places. The device mimics the myriad have come from almost evthe country the opportuniphysical and mechanical processes of the cardiovascular system, making it visible ery major, and have taken ty to earn graduate degrees through clear lines and containers. The model, which has been submitted for a patent, garnered Sweeney a national education award from the American languages from Arabic to online in education, busiPhysiological Society.

Wolof, a language of West ness, and human resources.

Africa. Some have also enThat first group of gaged in community projects; others have completed inboys 125 years ago could not have imagined the facilities, ternships. resources, and equipment at the hands of today’s students.

No matter the needs of students, the University provides a Nor could they have conceived of the many subjects available broad range of services designed to ensure that their Scranton for study—sixty-one bachelor’s degree programs, forty-five experience is as enriching as possible. In addition to faculty minors, twenty-five master’s degree programs, and a doctorate advising, offices providing such assistance include the Center in physical therapy—or the concept of working toward degrees for Teaching & Learning Excellence, the Counseling Center, online. As times and society’s needs change, the courses and the Office of Residence Life, Career Services, and academic technology will continue to change. But for The University of advising centers in each of the colleges.

Scranton to remain true to its roots, it will always put academic pursuit in the context of larger matters.

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52

The nursing program at the University graduates students with a bachelor of science in nursing and prepares them to work in a variety of healthcare settings. In addition to the classroom work, students receive hands-on training at three area hospitals. The nationally accredited program also offers master’s degrees in nursing.

The Loyola Science Center is more than an architectural showcase.

In addition to being the home for many of the natural sciences as well as computer science, mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering, it also serves as a center of collaborative learning for the entire university. With its glass walls, communal spaces, and many technical advances, it strives to facilitate the meeting of minds on many levels. The Center totals over two hundred thousand square feet of new and renovated space and boasts thirty-four labs, a research-oriented rooftop garden, and a lecture hall.

Music has always been a strong component of the Scranton experience. In February 1933 the St. Thomas College Orchestra, which appeared to be equal parts brass, strings, and woodwinds, readies for a concert.

Orchestra members included James Snyder, John Hennigan, Ralph Wenkler, John Lenahan, Joseph Walsh, Joseph Wunsch, John A. Maloney, Albert Biscontine, Joseph Secinski, Ross Tarentino, Ferdinand Bistocchi, Joseph McDonald, H’58, Al Munchak (director), George Munchak, Arnold Polidari, Erwin Rothman, Edward Sakolowski, Gerald Bodnar, John Reap, Harold Wedeman, Leo Haley, Victor Margotta, and William Maguire.

“Idleness begets a discontented soul.”

—Ignatius of Loyola

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build | CHAPTER FOUR

125 ARTS AND

ACTIVITIES

Providing a Pathway to the Human Heart

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esuits hold a high regard for the arts. A decree issued by their Thirty-First General Congregation states, “The arts provide a special pathway to the human heart.” The University of Scranton had the quotation engraved on the side of the McDade Center for Literary and Performing Arts.

In addition to a major in theatre, the University’s thriving arts program includes plays, exhibits, vehicles for creative writing, and musical performances that draw outstanding musicians from around the country to play with all-volunteer groups comprising students, faculty, staff, and local alumni.

The University Players present a wide range of plays that attract patrons from town and gown. Features in recent years included Columbinus, a stunning dramatic presentation of the shooting at Columbine High School by Scranton native and award-winning playwright Stephen Karam, and A Year with Frog and Toad, a musical based on children’s stories. A partnership with the Scranton Cultural Center broadens students’ experience, giving them a chance to work with union stagehands in a different venue.

Students’ original stories, poems, essays, and other literary efforts are published in the magazine Esprit, along with photographs, drawings, and paintings. Visual arts are also displayed at the University’s Hope Horn Gallery.

FirstJesuits2.jpg

57

The St. Thomas College Radio Club in December 1922. At center is Br. Firmus Edward, one of the Christian Brothers from the religious order that assumed operations of the College in 1897. The radio club eventually morphed into a radio broadcast studio and what became the campus radio station, WUSV.

Chapter Four Arts and Activities

But the arts are only one strong element on a campus that seems to offer something to fit every interest: radio and television stations; student newspaper, literary journal, and yearbook; more than eighty clubs and organizations; recreational sports; fitness classes; and spiritual retreats. By participating in a range of activities, students learn more about themselves and their passions. Like other things on campus, activities are rooted in the Jesuit philosophy. “I believe wholly and completely in what makes a Jesuit education—the idea that everyone is an individual, every-

thing is based in gratitude, and you need to examine everything and not take anything for granted,� said Cheryl Y. Boga, director of performance music.

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Although in the late 1920s the students at St.Thomas College, as it was then known, commuted daily from the local area, extracurricular life on campus was beginning to flourish.

Social fraternities, later dropped, were among the earliest organizations on campus, founded along ethnic lines for

An early University of Scranton Glee Club rehearses for an upcoming show. The Glee Club gave its first performance in 1925. Since then, thousands of students have performed with The University of Scranton Singers and the Chamber Choir.

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The University of Scranton’s Pride, Passion, Promise

The Jesuit tradition of theatre reaches back more than four hundred years, and at The University of Scranton it goes back virtually to its founding days. Even early stage theatre productions at the College allowed for sophisticated costumes and makeup. Today, the stage arts on campus are conducted by the University Players.

Chapter Four Arts and Activities

the mostly second-generation Americans. The first, Phi Nu Sigma, was established in 1926. Others soon followed: Chi Alpha Rho was Slovak; Lamda Alpha Phi, Italian. A threebranched student government was also created in 1926.

By the 1930s, several fields of study—business, chemistry, physics, French, and Spanish—had their own organizations. The Civic Council drew students interested in government. Over the decades, clubs were added and changed until, in its 125th year, the University’s dozens of organizations focus on everything from international business to fishing to hip-hop dance.

The Aquinas, introduced in 1916 as a monthly publication, became a biweekly campus newspaper. When World War II and plummeting enrollment brought curtailment of most extracurricular activities, the Aquinas was dormant from December 1943 until September 1945.

The final issue of the Aquinas each year was produced as a hardcover yearbook until 1925. For years after that, the yearbook’s publication was sporadic; its name changed from Vision (1927–28) to Purple (1936) to Labarum (1939–40). In 1948 the name Windhover was chosen, in reference to “The Windover,” a poem by Gerald Manley Hopkins, S.J. (1844–89).

As the 1948 yearbook staff wrote, “We feel that the word, Windhover, is symbolic because of the habits of this bird. More commonly known as the falcon, it is famous for loyalty to the master who trained it. We believe that, like the falcon, we have been trained and as we fare forth, it is with the hope that we may return to our trainer, Alma Mater, at least in spirit, through the pages of this Year Book.” The Windhover came out annually thereafter.

The Aquinas and the Windhover became nationally recognized, award-winning publications in the later 1950s and early 1960s. In 1957 the two were joined by the literary

The inaugural cover of the Aquinas, the student newspaper that began publication in 1916.

magazine, Esprit, which had also won its first national award within two years.

Drama was first performed on campus in 1893, when students staged the western melodrama Nevada, or the Lost Mine, to raise money for a library and football uniforms.

In 1923, undergraduates founded the St. Thomas College Dramatic Society. They produced many later plays in continued on page 65

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

From Tommies to Royals As an NCAA Division III member school, The University of Scranton is prohibited from offering athletic scholarships. All athletes are admitted to the University just as their fellow students are—based on their academic ability and potential to succeed.

That’s an advantage in some ways, said sports information director Kevin Southard. “The focus is always on academics,” he said. “That’s our number-one priority. Our athletes graduate. Our athletes move on to good professions.”

The University’s athletes also win significant academic recognition. In 2013 tennis player Timothy Patrick McGurrin ’13 became the sixteenth Royal to be awarded a National Collegiate Athletic Association PostGraduate Scholarship.

The summa cum laude graduate is attending Temple University School of Law. Athletic tradition extends back to the early days of the University, but athletics remained inconsistent for several years, with periods of success interspersed with years of inactivity. And while many sports are enthusiastically embraced, others—notably football— have been dropped.

Historical records show that a game of football may have been played— and won—by St. Thomas The Division III Royals basketball program is College against Carbondale High School in 1892, the a longtime force to be wary of if you’re an opposing team. They have made two appearances year St. Thomas opened and when its student body in the NCAA Final Four, and trekked to the was of elementary and high national championships twice, including in 1976, school age. In the spring when—led by sophomore guard Paul Mierenicki of the next year, students (above) and coached by Robert Bessoir ’55—they staged a play to fund beat Wittenberg College in overtime 60–57 for football uniforms. the national championship.

The first full season

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After arriving at the University in 1944, Pete Carlesimo directed the University’s athletic programs from 1953 to 1968. Not only did he lead the Royals to ten winning football seasons, but he also coached men’s basketball and cross-country and is a member of numerous sport halls of fame. In 2011 the University’s athletics department named its award for service to athletics and Catholic education in his memory.

of football was 1898, when St. Thomas lost just one game, 6-5, to then Keystone Academy. The 1908 season was perfect: St. Thomas shut out every opponent. Nevertheless, football was dropped from 1911 until 1916. After its return, it remained a part of the College’s life until 1961, then reemerged briefly as a club sport in the 1960s and 1970s.

Basketball came to St. Thomas in 1916, and, just as with football, early teams racked up impressive records. Through two seasons under Coach Bill Moore (1921–22 and 1922–23) the Tommies, as the team was known, went undefeated.

School colors seem to have been established by 1900, when Hugh Dunn, a member of the commercial class that year, wrote an alma mater referring to “royal purple and spotless white.” Dunn’s song was replaced in the 1930s, and two other alma maters would follow before the current one was adopted in the early 1980s, but the colors would live on. The school mascot, Iggy the Royal Wolf, was adopted in 2004, replacing a string of unsuccessful mascots intended to replace the popular Royal Rooster of the 1980s. Iggy is for Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuit order, and the wolf is from the Loyola family seal.

St. Thomas’s athletes drew regional attention and support from the mid1920s until World War II. This was largely the result of the work of John

Chapter Four Arts and Activities

J. (Jack) Harding, who was hired as athletic director in 1926 to coach football and basketball. His tenure was not without controversy. During his early years, St. Thomas awarded athletic scholarships, and concern arose in the Middle States Association, the accrediting body, that some players were academically unqualified for the College. When Brother Edward became president in 1931 he referred to students who were at St. Thomas only to play football as “tramp athletes” and began enforcing academic requirements. Athletic scholarships were discontinued in 1933.

Over eleven years as coach, Coach Harding accumulated winning records in both football and basketball while raising the level of competition so that all games were against college varsity teams. The Tommies continued to do well after he left. In 1939 they routed City College of New York 31-0 in one of the first college games ever televised.

The school dropped varsity sports in 1943 as World War II absorbed would-be students into military service. After the war ended, sports were back in full force with baseball, track, golf, and swimming joining football and basketball under the direction of the legendary Pete Carlesimo, whom the Jesuits hired as football coach and athletic director until he returned to his own alma mater, Fordham University, in 1968. In the postwar days, the University joined the Middle Atlantic Conference,

The Lady Royals have proven to be just as fearsome as their counterparts, with eight appearances in the NCAA Final Four, eighteen conference titles, and in 1985 a national championship. Coach Michael Strong (in white sweater), shown here with the 31-1 team from 1985, is the winningest coach in Division III women’s basketball history, recording his 800th win during the 2013–14 season. Sitting next to Strong is the Rev. John J. Fitzpatrick, S.J., G’62,

The University’s lacrosse team is as competitive as other sports teams at the school.

Among the many standouts over the years is Tim Cleary, ’13, No. 7, the first men’s lacrosse All-American and a two-time honorable mention All-American.

where it remained until moving to the newly formed Landmark Conference. The first official match in the new conference took place on September 15, 2007, when Scranton men played soccer against a team from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York.

The basketball team acquired its first home court on campus with the opening of the Long Center in 1967. The Royals won their first twentyone home games in the new building and captured the school’s first Middle Atlantic Conference championship during the 1968–69 season.

The center also accommodates volleyball, wrestling, handball, and other activities.

Fourteen more Middle Atlantic basketball titles and two national championships came under Robert Bessoir ’55, a Royal who holds the school’s single-game record of forty-three rebounds. Bessoir returned in 1972 as head men’s basketball coach and remained for twenty-nine seasons. The 1976 national Division III basketball championship was the first for the University in any sport. Another followed in 1983.

Carl Danzig, head men’s basketball coach since 2001, has made his own mark, with a 246-110 record and seven conference titles as of the end of the 2013-14 season.

In thirty-four seasons as head coach of the women’s basketball program, Michael Strong G’82, earned the distinction of being the coach with the most wins in the Division III women’s basketball history. He set the record (758) on December 17, 2011, with a 46-43 victory over Cabrini College in Radnor, Pa., and currently has 815 wins as of the end of the 2013-14 season. Strong has led Scranton to twenty-six NCAA tournament appearances, nineteen conference titles, and a national championship in 1985. As of 2014 he had never had a losing season.

who was the athletics chaplain for twenty years.

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The University’s radio station, WUSV-FM, first broadcast on October 1, 1950, providing opera, classical music, and discussion programs. In 1993, the station reemerged as WUSR-FM. Still owned by the University, WUSR is staffed by college volunteers and provides a wide range of music and other programming for northeastern Pennsylvania.

Chapter Four Arts and Activities

continued from page 61 collaboration with the women from nearby Marywood College, although St. Thomas men often played female roles in College productions. Beginning in 1932, students also performed radio dramas over stations in Scranton and nearby Wilkes-Barre. After World War II, theatrical performances were produced by the Rhyme and Reason Club, which became the University Players in 1948.

In the late 1940s a flood of veterans under the G.I. Bill brought new interests to campus. A Veterans Club was formed, but the older, often married students had little time for or interest in extracurricular activities. Other students, however, enjoyed a new flurry of opportunities.

Intercollegiate debating made its debut on campus in the 1920s. Scranton teams would face Harvard and Oxford Universities in later years, but, like many other activities, go on hiatus during World War II. As the war ended, the St. Robert Bellarmine Debating Society began operating. It was later renamed the Noel Chabanel Council of Debate for a martyred Jesuit missionary known for his persistence. Debate continues through the Debate Society.

The University’s own radio station, WUSV-FM, broadcast over the airwaves for the first time on October 1, 1950. It provided opera, classical music, and discussion programs until 1970, when a dispute between students and their faculty moderator over programming led to the decision

by University trustees to transfer the station’s license to the regional public broadcasting station. A new station, WUSRFM, was launched in 1993. Students also write, produce, direct, and shoot programs of all kinds for the Royal College Television Network, carried by the campus cable system.

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The first orchestra was established in 1915, and a band was added in 1931. Students can now play in concert and jazz bands, symphonic and string orchestras, or sing in several choirs and vocal groups.The latest addition is a group for ukulele players.

Internationally known musicians such as Wynton Marsalis H’96 and Wycliffe Gordon H’06 are frequent visitors. The late Vaclav Nelhybel H’85 inaugurated a World Premiere Composition Series in 1984, and his collection of works resides in the Houlihan-McLean Center.

An extensive trophy collection should be enough to sway one from engaging in an argument with a member of the Debate Society. The University of Scranton club not only hones team members’ skills in the art of framing an argument or point of view in collegiate competitions but also occasionally hosts campus events, such as a recent debate between College Democrats and College Republicans.

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

“In the Jesuit tradition, arts are important,” Mrs. Boga said.

“They are a component of living to your full humanity.”

For accounting major Blake Lucas ’15, “The best thing about being a Scranton student is being involved in the performance music program down at the Houlihan-McLean Center,” he said. “I met most of my friends down there. We make some great music, and we get to play with famous guest artists like Mark Gould, Wycliffe Gordon, and many others. Performance music really encompasses the values represented at the University.”

Mrs. Boga is happy with her all-volunteer corps of musicians. No one is working for grades or credit. Like the faculty

and alumni who participate, students are involved purely because they want to be. “The magic of what we have going on here is that they’re doing it because they love it,” she said.

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Since 2002 the Student Senate has functioned as the main body of governance for students. Student government drew attention and, at times, controversy during the 1950s when two parties controlled elections. Candidates ran under the banner of either the Progressive or the Student Action Party, and the office of student body president was held by the president of the Student Council. That changed in 1959,

Student government at the University dates back to 1926, when Br. Denis Edward formally established a Student Senate. Over the years, student involvement in University governance has expanded considerably with students now serving both on exclusively student representative bodies as well as on many broader University committees.

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Under the direction of Cheryl Y. Boga, the bands, ensembles, and choirs of Performance Music are open not only to students, but to University staff and faculty. The free performances are typically held in the Houlihan-McLean Center, and numerous musical masters are brought in for additional perspective. A World Premiere Composition Series inaugurated in 1984 by the late world-renowned composer Vaclav Nelhybel H’85 allows students to work and interact with established and aspiring composers.

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Sherman Wooden, former director of the University’s Office of Multicultural Affairs, lends a helping hand to a student.

The office, now headed by Paul Porter, Ph.D., promotes the understanding of, and appreciation for, diversity throughout the campus community.

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Chapter Four Arts and Activities

when the president was elected by a vote of undergraduate day students, a practice that continues. The executive cabinet expanded to meet the needs of the times, eventually including directors of technology and communication.

Under its 2002 constitution, the Student Senate, its website explains, “deals with pertinent issues that affect the day-to-day lives of students at The University of Scranton.

Five standing committees function under the twenty-twomember body: Residence Life and Dining Services,Academic Affairs, Safety and Crime Prevention, Appropriations, and Ignatian Awareness.”

Of course, Ignatian awareness permeates the campus.

The University has organizations and activities specifically to foster students’ religious lives—a campus ministry, daily and special Masses, and retreats at the University’s Retreat Center at Chapman Lake about thirty minutes from campus. Replacing a former hotel that was present on the site when the Jesuits acquired the property, the Retreat Center was constructed in 1998 and expanded in 2006.

At the Mass of the Holy Spirit, which begins every school year, many clubs and sports teams sit in groups. Some have T-shirts made for the occasion. Small groups of students meet weekly in Christian Life Communities, which grew out of Sodalities, also known as prayer unions, established by the Jesuits in their earliest days. Male students may join a campus chapter of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal benefit organization.

The University also provides religious opportunities for non-Catholics. It converted a house near campus into the city of Scranton’s first mosque in 1996, with Riaz Hussain, Ph.D., associate professor of economics/finance, serving as imam. Local Protestant and Jewish communities welcome University students. Generous gifts from members of the

Jewish community established and endowed the Judaic Studies Program in 1979 to sponsor lectures and other events to foster understanding of Judaism and Israel. In 1992 the program was renamed the Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute, recognizing substantial support from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. The foundation’s gift made it possible to create an endowed chair for a distinguished scholar and teacher, Marc Shapiro, Ph.D., the Weinberg Chair of Judaic Studies, who directs the institute to this day.

The school’s relationship with the Jewish community is long-standing. “Most poor kids of any religion came here and were very well received even though it was a Catholic university,” said Sondra Myers H’87, senior fellow for international, civic, and cultural projects and director of the University’s Schemel Forum. Her father, Morris Gelb,

On April 10, 1991, Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s fifth prime minister, spoke at the University’s T. Linus Hoban Memorial Forum. Since 1978 the Forum has hosted some of the world’s most prominent figures and thinkers, including U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt, and British prime minister Edward Heath.

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Campus Ministry at the University consistently finds ways to help students practice and understand their faith through programs, liturgies, retreats, and reflections. The late Rev. Thomas Masterson, S.J., inspired and guided Campus Ministry efforts for decades as director and later vice president.

Esq., ’26 H’79 was one of these “poor kids.” Emigrating from Hungary at eight years old and living in the nearby coal-mining town of Old Forge, he went on to become a prominent local lawyer.

The University actively promotes diversity among its student body. The Office of Multicultural Affairs attempts to make sure everyone on campus is acknowledged, welcomed, and valued. There are academic concentrations in Latin American Studies and Asian Studies. Lectures, films, discus-

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sions, and publications promote cross-cultural awareness.

Celebrations such as Black History Month and National Hispanic Heritage Month honor leaders of nonwhite ethnicities and provide opportunities to tackle tough subjects such as racial stereotypes. Diversity Fairs celebrate everything from Latin cuisine to Native American art. Clubs such as Se Habla Español and United Colors give all students an opportunity to acknowledge and share in the richness of other cultures.

Through the Office of Residence Life, students living on campus take part in leadership programs and other activities. First-year students can share common interests and experiences while living in any of five optional communities: The Cura Personalis Program encourages volunteering in the community and participating in discussions on faith and justice. The Wellness Program helps students pursue a balanced lifestyle. The FIRE Program fosters leadership and academic success. Sustain U focuses on living responsibly in one’s environment, and Celebrate the Arts allows students to pursue and discuss their artistic interests in a variety of formats, such as film, photography, drama, and music.

The impact of extracurricular activities can be profound, as Michael McDonald ’68 expressed in a 2011 interview for the Scranton Journal alumni magazine. McDonald was a photographer for the Aquinas and the Windhover. “For many of us, our engagement in these activities was a response to a warning by the late Rev. Bernard Suppe, S.J., who told us, ‘Don’t let the books get in the way of your education,’” McDonald said. “He was right, and jumping into the University community socially, spiritually, and through extracurricular activities became important facets of our education.”

Cultural and artistic diversity is widely embraced at the University, whether it’s showcasing a Taiwan opera, as shown here, or through the annual Diversity Fair. Indeed, such activities are a given at the University, whose faculty and student body reflect a significant degree of ethnic diversity. The University also offers multiple ethnic studies programs.

A Year with Frog and Toad came to the campus stage in 2012, but it is just one of the many offerings by the University Players.

Working out of the McDade Center, and under the banner of the Department of English and Theatre, the Players every year produce shows that are at once as entertaining as they are thought provoking. Parts in the play are open to all—not just drama majors—and oftentimes professionals are infused into the mix as guest performers, designers, and directors.

An aerial view of the University’s campus as it looked in 1965 shows not only the fourteen buildings erected between 1956 and 1965, but also a large amount of surrounding property the University acquired through the Scranton Redevelopment Authority on which first the Long Center was built.

Decades later, other structures, including the Byron Complex, DeNaples Center, Parking Pavilion, and Loyola Science Center, would also be built.

“Not where I breathe, but where I love I live.”

—Robert J. Southwell, S.J..

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build | CHAPTER FIVE

125 AN EVOLVING CAMPUS

Anything with a Steeple . . . and More

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rom Bishop O’Hara’s first cornerstone, The University of Scranton grew into a campus of fifty-eight acres in the heart of Scranton. Old Main, the structure built on that first cornerstone, is no more, and the University itself no longer abuts St. Peter’s Cathedral.Today’s University thrives in the part of Scranton known as the Historic Hill Section.

For decades, Old Main was all there was to St. Thomas College. The three-story building featured eight classrooms and a combination auditorium and gymnasium on the third floor, which gave way to the College’s library by the 1920s. The basement was initially a chapel dedicated to St. Aloysius before being used as a combination assembly hall and cafeteria that became known as the “Green Room” due to the color of its walls. From the 1940s until 1960, dances were held each weekend in the Green Room, drawing large numbers of University students and their dates.Another chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart was eventually created on one of the upper floors. While never seen as an architectural masterpiece, Old Main served its purpose well for seven decades, through the turn of the century, two world wars, and the Great Depression. No new construction would take place for sixty-plus years.

A significant addition to the campus would occur, however, in 1941, as the United States was about to enter World War II and the Jesuit order was about to take over the College. The grandson

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The “A” (Arts) Building, taken in the 1940s–1950s from the corner of Linden Street and Monroe Avenue on campus. It was built on the site that was once the home of Worthington Scranton, father of the late governor William W. Scranton. The stone pillars in the photograph are remnants of his property. After A Building was demolished in 1962, this became the site of the Galvin Terrace sports and recreation complex and later the Weinberg Memorial Library.

Chapter Five An Evolving Campus

of Joseph Hand Scranton donated his homestead and other nearby property to the University.The gift was a great surprise because Mr. Scranton was neither Catholic nor an alumnus.

The house, which came to be known simply as The Estate, was designed by architect Russell Sturgis in the Second French Empire style. Built of locally quarried granite, its interior features woodwork and paneling of burled maple, mahogany, and cherry.

The monetary value of The Estate made it the largest gift the College had ever received, but its significance in prestige may have been even greater.

When the Jesuits arrived on campus, they decided to take up residence in the granite mansion, which had suffered somewhat from being unoccupied since 1935. “Electricians, plumbers, cleaners here,” one of the first Jesuits wrote in his journal. “Noise. Dust. Confusion.”

Despite the elegance of the house, the priests lived simply, said Fr. McIlhenny, who moved in when he arrived in 1958, as headmaster of Scranton Preparatory School. “The house had no elevator, no fire escapes, no sinks in the rooms, and no private bathrooms,” he said. The Rev. J. J. Quinn, S.J., one of seventeen priests in residence there in 1985, quipped to the Aquinas, “At the moment it’s the home of the best men’s club in the world—the Jesuits.”

After the Jesuits moved into the newly built Campion Hall in 1987, The Estate was home to various administrative offices and a faculty/staff dining area until being converted for use as a Visitors Center and offices for undergraduate and graduate admissions. The president’s office is in Scranton Hall, The Estate’s former carriage house located in a portion of the grounds the University did not acquire until 1958.

With acquisition of The Estate, the University was no longer confined to the area around the cathedral, and the campus began to shift from Wyoming Avenue to Linden Street about

eight blocks away. It was split between the two locations for the next fifteen years.

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Frank J. O’Hara, L.L.D., H’56, served the University for fifty-three years in many capacities after he graduated from St. Thomas College in 1925. Not only was he the faculty manager of athletics, first registrar, and director of alumni relations, but he also was bursar, secretary to the trustees, and even served as acting president for a few months in 1942. In 1981 the University established the O’Hara Awards in his honor to recognize alumni and students who have achieved distinction at both personal and professional levels. O’Hara Hall also bears his name.

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Significant building on the Linden Street campus occurred in spurts, especially during the presidencies of Frs. Long, Panuska, and Pilarz.

After World War II, as veterans returned and entered college, the University received authorization from the Civilian Production Administration in Washington to construct three new buildings near The Estate using government surplus materials. Completed in 1947 they became known as Buildings A (for Arts), B (for Business), and E (for Engineering and Physics); or, collectively and flippantly, as the “cardboard campus.”

A, B, and E were but a temporary solution to accommodating a growing student body. By the time Fr. Long became president in 1953, the campus was ready for a major overhaul and expansion. During his ten-year presidency, it was accomplished. Every classroom, laboratory, student residence, and office in use when he arrived had been replaced with newly built or acquired facilities within five years of his departure—except, of course,The Estate.

Fr. Long’s $5 million fund-raising campaign—along with others that followed and the building boom they financed— consolidated the campus in the Historic Hill Section. Old Main and the Christian Brothers’ Residence (renamed LaSalle Hall by the Jesuits) were completely vacated in 1962 and returned to the diocese. Old Main—by then, students were referring to it as “Anthracite Hall” because of its age and condition—was eventually razed; its cornerstone was moved to the newly constructed St. Thomas Hall. It would be moved again in 2013 amid celebrations marking the University’s 125th anniversary.

The opening of the $1.1 million Loyola Hall of Science in 1956 was a milestone—the first new construction except for the military surplus buildings since the University opened.

Accounts in the Aquinas touted the four-story structure’s ac-

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Loyola Hall, as seen in this photo from around the time it opened in 1956, was constructed for $1.1 million. It was described as one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world. Replaced by the Loyola Science Center, Loyola Hall will eventually be razed and replaced by green space.

In June 1980 construction of the University Commons on Linden Street was under way.

What was once a busy cut-through across the campus would become terraced landscape and a communal gathering spot. This photo was taken on Monroe Avenue. The Galvin Terrace basketball courts and Gunster Memorial Student Center are across the street.

Chapter Five An Evolving Campus

coutrements: “The new building features such conveniences as . . . elevator service and natural lighting provided by ample window area.” It was designed to consolidate all of the University’s science programs, an objective it shared with its eventual successor, the Loyola Science Center. News reports at the time described it as “one of the finest of its kind in the world.”

Two years later, four dormitories opened to house a total of two hundred students to help meet the needs of a campus pulling students from a widening geographic area. One of those, Fitch Hall, would become the University’s first women’s dorm in 1972. Four more new dormitories followed in 1961.

Two larger ones, Driscoll and Nevils, opened under Fr. Long’s successor, Fr. Sponga, in 1965.

Alumni Memorial Library, so named because it was funded by alumni contributions, had capacity for 150,000 volumes— twice that of the previous space in Old Main. It opened in 1959. A new Student Center, designed to represent an open book, was under construction at the same time to house a cafeteria, auditorium, lounges, bookstore, and a rifle range for the ROTC. Before those buildings were finished, a new $2 million campaign was launched to fund a large liberal arts classroom and administration building, St. Thomas Hall, that was completed in 1962.

Dedication of the Long Center, built during the administration of Fr. Galvin, closed off the building spurt in 1967 by appropriately honoring the president behind it.The three-level athletic hub gave the Royals their first indoor sports facilities.

The purchase in 1968 of the six-story Glen Alden Coal Company office building at the corner of Linden Street and Jefferson Avenue gave the University the opportunity to pay homage to its immensely popular and influential longtime administrator and onetime acting president, Frank O’Hara ’25.

First as registrar for thirty-two years immediately following

his graduation, then as director of alumni relations, and finally as moderator of the alumni society, he knew legions of the school’s sons and daughters. The University also remembers him annually by presenting the O’Hara Awards for service and achievement.

Within the next few years a former YWCA building became Jefferson Hall (later Edward R. Leahy Jr. Hall), and the Pennsylvania Drug Warehouse on Linden Street became the Gallery. The Gallery was torn down in 2001 to help create Founder’s Green, and Leahy Hall was razed in 2013 to prepare for an eight-story center for rehabilitation education to serve growing programs in exercise science, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

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In 1977 Morey M. Myers, Esq., H’12 James Haggerty, Esq., H’87, and University of Scranton president William J. Byron, S.J., H’84, gathered to help promote the $6 million capital campaign, “Commitments to Excellence.” Later campaigns would be even more ambitious, exceeding over $125 million to support student scholarships, academic programs, and campus growth.

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

Construction and acquisition of new facilities under Fr. Panuska, the University’s longest-serving president (1982–98), rivaled or even exceeded those under Fr. Long.

Francis and Elizabeth Redington Hall was the first major addition to the physical plant under Fr. Panuska. It was also the University’s first suite-style residence hall. It was followed quickly by the Byron Recreation Complex, named after Fr. Byron, which featured multiuse courts for indoor sports or dances, a swimming pool, gallery, saunas, and steam rooms.

While the building was not initially air conditioned, ductwork installed during construction facilitated this improvement under Fr. McShane. The building hosts many major University functions, including Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement for the College of Graduate and Continuing Education.

Francis and Elizabeth Redington Hall, built in 1985, houses over two hundred students and cost more than $4 million to build. Named in honor of generous benefactors of the University, the west wing of the residence hall, a common area called Collegiate Hall (shown here), features panoramic views. Streaming across the walls supporting the timbered ceiling are inscriptions in Latin and English, including the last four lines of the alma mater.

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The five-story, seventy-thousand-square-foot Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library opened its doors in 1992, supported by a multimillion-dollar donation from the foundation of Baltimore businessman Harry Weinberg H’87. The son of immigrants who never attended college, Mr. Weinberg had business roots in Scranton and established upon his death one of the nation’s largest charitable foundations.The Scranton Heritage Room on the fifth floor is named in honor of the late governor William W. Scranton, H’63, and his wife, Mary, H’77.

It features thirty-six panels painted by artist Trevor Southey that explore the themes of religion, science, and art from universal and regional perspectives.

The next year saw the first students in the McDade Center, named for former U.S. representative Joseph M. McDade H’69. In addition to a main theater patterned after Shakespeare’s Globe, it includes a studio theater, classrooms, offices, computer laboratory, and meeting space.

One joke told by the late and legendary Msgr. Andrew J. McGowan H’82 at celebration dinners in town was that if you wanted to sell a building to the University during the presidency of Fr. Panuska, you just had to put a steeple on it. Fr. Panuska bought three churches, which serve various purposes for the University. One was Immanuel Baptist Church, which became the Houlihan-McLean Center for the Performing Arts, in celebration of the many contributions of the late Daniel J. Houlihan, J.D., ’43, a professor in the school of management, and John P. McLean ’40, professor of accounting who was a faculty member for more than fifty years.Another was the former John Raymond Memorial Universalist Church, which was used for classes in fine arts and later as offices for Facilities Operations.

It was named Smurfit Hall in recognition of generous support from Irish businessman Michael W. J. Smurfit H’85, the father of Anthony P. Smurfit ’85.The third was the former Reformed

After the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library was dedicated in September 1992, a time capsule was added behind the wall of an exterior pillar, within the cornerstone. Among the contents were the school’s affirmative action plan, a campus map, a graduate school catalog, and postcards of the University Commons. From left to right, Library Director Charles Kratz, University president J. A. Panuska, S.J., and Provost Richard H. Passon, Ph.D.

Within its sixty-eight thousand square feet, Brennan Hall houses the Kania School of Management, hightech classrooms, an auditorium, and an Executive Center where school and community patrons alike can meet. The school is named for Arthur J. Kania, ’53, H’87, benefactor and former chair of the Board of Trustees. The five-story, $11.5 million building was named for alumnus John E. Brennan ‘68, a former trustee who retired from the Southern Union Co. as vice chairman. It was completed in 2000.

The inset depicts University president Joseph M. McShane, S.J., Msgr. Joseph G. Quinn ’72, and the Most Rev. James C. Timlin, D.D., H’87, Bishop of Scranton, at the dedication ceremony.

Chapter Five An Evolving Campus

Episcopalian Assembly of God Church, which became Rock Trustees.The new building itself was named for another major Hall, after the Rev. Joseph A. Rock, S.J., H’81, academic vice donor and trustee, John E. (Jack) Brennan ’68. In the inaugural president, counselor in Hafey Hall, and acting president. Rock lecture, Fr. Byron, who had been president when the School of Hall houses Madonna della Strada Chapel, which takes its Management was formed, reminded attendees that Jesuit prinname from an image of the Virgin Mary in the home church ciples govern the school. “Offering an ethical dimension and of the Jesuit order in Rome. The building is also home to human dimension is critical to forming men and women for the University’s Military Science Department and ROTC business,” he said. “Faith is relevant to business.” program. Fr. Rock’s strong support for the program included In 2005 the Trustees dedicated the fifth floor of the buildbeing instrumental in the creation of the ROTC unit crest still ing as the Joseph M. McShane, S.J., Executive Center.The cenworn by cadets today. ter is the site of events, lectures, and meetings, many of which The Jesuits’ new campus home, Campion Hall, was include members of the regional community.The Faculty, Staff, finished in 1987, paid for by the Jesuits and signifying their and Student Senates and the Board of Trustees meet in the continuing commitment to the University. The new building PNC Bank Boardroom on the fifth floor. held a time capsule that contained, among other items, copies of University publications and a three-dimensional campus map. Two classroom buildings, Kathryn and Bernard Hyland Hall, opened in 1988, and McGurrin Hall, opened in 1998 and home of what would become Panuska College, were built under Fr. Panuska’s leadership, along with six new student residences. Numerous buildings also underwent renovation.

Construction of Brennan Hall was announced during Fr. Panuska’s presidency but was not completed until 2000, under the leadership of his successor, Fr. McShane. The building provided a state-of-the-art home for the Kania School of Management, which had been elevated from a department to a school in 1978. Twenty years later, it was named for Responding to strong demand for students for expanded retreat opportunities, the University constructed and later expanded a new Retreat Center at Chapman Lake, which is located thirty minutes from campus.

Arthur J. Kania, Esq., ’53 H’89, a generous A key feature of the expansion was the Blessed Peter Faber Chapel, which was dedicated in 2006 by the benefactor and former chair of the Board of Most Rev. Joseph Martino, D.D., Bishop of Scranton.

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The $30 million DeNaples Center, dedicated in 2008, was intentionally described as a campus center, not a student center, Fr. Pilarz wrote in the Scranton Journal.

“The facility is rare in approximating the goal of being ‘all things to all people.’ The variety of services available and the range of offices it contains make it a home for every campus constituency. As a result, it can only enhance one of the University’s most cherished characteristics: our sense of community that supports and sustains rigorous intellectual work.” The four-story building contains dining facilities, The Rev. G. Donald Pantle, S.J., stands in the rose garden named in his honor in June 2010. A Scranton native, an the Ann and Leo Moskovitz Theinstructor in German and Spanish, and an enthusiastic creator of potato pancakes, Fr. Pantle was a mainstay at the University for more than thirty years. In addition to his teaching duties, Fr. Pantle was active in leading retreats, ater, a fireplace lounge, bookstore, moderating clubs, directing Spanish House, and serving as a chaplain for several athletic teams. mailroom, ballrooms, meeting rooms, the divisions of University Mission and Ministry and Student Affairs, and a forum with Fr. McShane also shepherded a substantial expansion of offices for student organizations. apartment-style housing through the acquisition of Linden The 108,000-square-foot, seven-story Christopher and Plaza and the construction of Mulberry Plaza and Madison Margaret Condron Hall opened to students in 2008 and creatSquare. Responding to a pressing need for junior and senior ed a cluster of sophomore housing to replicate the close houshousing, the four-building Mulberry Plaza apartment complex ing arrangement that first-year residential students experience. was constructed in just eight months from April to October The building honors Christopher ’70, H’03, board chair, and in 2000. Both Mulberry Plaza and Madison Square provide Margaret Condron, former trustee.The Condrons served as the residents with full kitchens and generously sized living rooms. national cochairs of the Pride, Passion, Promise Campaign, the The Patrick & Margaret DeNaples Center for student aclargest capital campaign in University history. tivities, the cutting-edge Loyola Science Center, Christopher At the dedication, Mr. Condron remarked how proud his and Margaret Condron Hall, and two other new residences father and grandfather would be of this day and of the buildwere added under the Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. (2003–11).

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Chapter Five inAn Campus The Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., returned to Scranton 2011Evolving for the dedication of the west building of the Mulberry Street apartment and fitness complex that bears his name. Together with its sister building named in honor of Paul Montrone ’62, H’86 the $41 million complex provides nearly four hundred student apartments, a market, a casual dining restaurant, and a fourteen-thousand-square-foot fitness center.

The Patrick & Margaret DeNaples Center opened in January 2008. The four-story, 118,000-square-foot, LEED-certified center includes dining facilities, the Ann and Leo Moskovitz Theater, a lounge, bookstore, ballrooms, the offices of the University Ministries, and Student Affairs. It is fronted by the John & Jacquelyn Dionne Campus Green, a “front yard� the size of a football field.

Chapter Five An Evolving Campus

ing that bears the Condron name. “They would be even more proud of the influence the University has had on this city,” said Mr. Condron.“The University of Scranton is a catalyst, turning the decline of the coal town into a vibrant, university city.”

Planning, design, and construction of the Loyola Science Center, dedicated in 2012, spanned three presidencies. Beginning under Fr. McShane in 2001, science faculty produced a paper outlining the concept—a place that would not just provide classrooms but that would encourage students to gather, discuss, and learn. Under Fr. Pilarz, planning and fund-raising took off, culminating in a project groundbreaking in 2009. A “Green Team” of faculty and staff worked with architects to ensure that the building would be environmentally sustainable while meeting the needs of faculty and students and fitting well into the university’s culture and tradition.

The science building is a “place of research, scholarship, teaching, and discovery, a place to find God in all things,” said Fr. Pilarz’s successor, Fr. Quinn, at a dedication ceremony in 2012.

George Gomez, Ph.D., associate professor of biology and project shepherd, offered reasons to fall in love with the center, including natural light; science at work, visible through glass walls; a neighborhood concept that promotes interdisciplinary cooperation; student spaces to study alone or in groups; and its own coffee shop.

The University honored Fr. Pilarz in 2011 by naming a new apartment building and fitness center complex in his honor. In 2013, officials announced plans for a new $47.5 million building to house graduate and undergraduate programs in the departments of Exercise Science and Physical and Occupational Therapies, all among the most popular majors on campus. Physical therapy is the University’s only doctoral program.

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“In approving this project, the Trustees recognized the strength and strategic importance of these programs for the University,” said Fr. Quinn.

The center will connect to McGurrin Hall, which houses other departments in Panuska College—Nursing, Education, Human Resources, Health Administration, and Counseling and Human Services, in addition to the Leahy Community Health and Family Center.

“This building will also facilitate the fulfillment of our Jesuit mission through offering continued service to the local community, including pro-bono physical and occupational therapy provided by faculty and free developmental screenings for children conducted by occupational therapy students,” said Debra Pellegrino, Ed.D., dean of the Panuska College of Professional Studies.

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Of course, a campus is more than buildings. It is green spaces and artwork—such as the statues Jacob and the Angel by Arlene Love, installed in 1982; Metanoia by Gerhard Baut, installed with the Centennial Fountain in 1988; and Christ the Teacher by Trevor Southey, installed in 1998. It is sidewalks where students and faculty strut hurriedly to class or stroll leisurely in free time, meeting and greeting each other. It is its own world, set apart.

Ask those who’ve been around the University for decades—and alumni who dodged cars during their years on campus—and they’re likely to say that the most significant development of all was the closing of three blocks of Linden Street in 1980 under the leadership of Fr. Byron. That move unified a geographically divided campus and enabled creation of what is known as the Commons.

“That made this a campus,” said Dr. Casey, “instead of a collection of buildings in a city.”

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The Center for Rehabilitation Education, scheduled for completion in 2015, is the University’s state-of-the-art nod to the pivotal role occupation and physical therapy education plays at the University. The eight-story, $48 million center is 115,000 square feet of classroom, clinical, auditorium, and other spaces. Occupational and physical therapy are considered among the fastestgrowing professional fields in the country, and the University is one of only a small number of universities offering a doctor of physical therapy (DPT) degree.

The Loyola Science Center glows at dusk. Mirroring the sustainable approaches used in much of the University’s new construction, Loyola is LEED certified to meet high sustainable and environmental standards.

“Not only ought you continually to love and cherish each other, but to communicate that love to all.”

—Ignatius of Loyola

The Retreat Center at Chapman Lake, a thirty-minute drive from the campus, is a bucolic oasis for reflection on questions of life, love, vocation, or faith.

A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build | CHAPTER SIX

125 FOR AND

WITH OTHERS Our Place in the World

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o its students, to the city of Scranton, and beyond, The University of Scranton epitomizes the view of “neighbor” in the parable of the Good Samaritan by serving people regardless of their ethnic, racial, or religious backgrounds.

On campus, this has resulted in an increasingly diverse student body and faculty who work together and learn from each other. From its founding to educate the children of the immigrant Catholic workers in the Scranton area, the University’s reach has spread to an international student body representing twenty-three countries and a variety of faiths.

Off campus, the University has made a huge difference in the city of Scranton and environs, and in places around the world where students, faculty, staff, and alumni volunteer and work.

Those who study and work on campus consistently describe the genuine care and respect with which people regard each other. “People are close here,” said Dr. Passon. “Even though the faculty has grown, we know one another. The relationship between faculty and students is very close. There’s a family feel that’s real.”

Jessica Cranmer ’15, an early primary education major, agreed. “The professors get to know you by your name and they know when you are having a bad day or a rough week,” she said. “All the professors are here for you if you need help on anything—school, friends, or family issues.”

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The family feeling is made stronger by the great number of legacy students, some from several generations of ancestors or wide-ranging family circles, and by longtime staff and faculty members who love the University and its students. Ten percent of the 2012 freshmen were legacies.

On the other hand, 17 percent were the first in their family to attend college, a situation that some administrators say keeps the University in touch with its blue-collar history.

Nursing major Lauren Delle Donne ’13 followed her brother Andrew ’07 to campus. “I went to his graduation when I was a sophomore in high school and knew I wanted to come here,” she said. “I love everything about Scran-

Undergraduate women were not admitted to the day school until 1972. Now they make up 55 percent of the undergraduate enrollment and 63 percent of the fulltime graduate population.

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ton. I love walking outside and having strangers say, ‘Hi.’ I love how close-knit everybody is, but not so close-knit that they’re in your face all the time. There’s a special bond we all have.”

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That bond extends to the Scranton community. The University and the city have both undergone periods of prosperity and struggle, but whereas the school entered its 125th year on an upward trajectory, the city is still working hard to gain financial traction.

The first major blow to the city came in 1902 when the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company moved to Buffalo, but the growing importance of hard coal helped make up the loss. In the early 1900s, much of the country’s hard coal came from the Scranton area, earning the city the title of “Anthracite Capital of the World.”

A second big blow came with collapsing demand for coal after World War II. The city’s population, already in decline since 1930, would continue to shrink for decades.

With the loss of taxpayers, Scranton’s finances suffered, and with the dwindling of the consumer base, businesses closed.

In 1991, facing a projected deficit of almost a quarter of its $33 million budget, the city was officially declared distressed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As other industries disappeared, the University assumed increasing importance as an employer and economic engine.

A report on the mutual dependency between the University and the city published in the spring 2013 Scranton Journal estimates that the University had a $407 million positive economic impact on northeastern Pennsylvania in the 2011–12 academic year. More than seventeen hundred jobs were directly or indirectly attributed to the University. In a

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This archway leads you into a sun-filled courtyard at Mulberry Plaza apartments, making for an inviting communal gathering spot. The pointed arch here is an architectural tribute to the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe.

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survey of Lackawanna County colleges, the University’s almost six thousand students reported spending a total of some $1.4 million off campus each month. “The city can’t really get along without us,” said Dr. Parente.

Faculty, staff, students, and visiting parents shop in Scranton’s stores and eat in its restaurants. Many University employees live within the city and pay taxes and utility bills there. The University encourages students to explore downtown, with activities such as a scavenger hunt that requires visiting various businesses.

A revitalizing downtown area is one bright spot on the area’s landscape. Scranton is a walkable city with small restaurants, shops, and new downtown residences created out of old office buildings. In a healthy symbiosis, occupants of the new lodgings support businesses, which in turn may provide more jobs to bring in more people. The University’s Office of Community Relations, Small Business Development Center, and Kania School of Management are working with city business leaders to use new technologies and promotional methods to foster downtown success. And in a real hands-on effort in 2012, students and alumni planted flowers, raked leaves, and cleaned up downtown areas near the campus to mark Earth Day. “Although the city has often been the target of jokes— notably during the last two presidential election seasons, thanks to [Vice President] Joe Biden’s H’76 Scranton roots— it is not unusual to hear people talk proudly of their home city, ‘The Electric City,’ and the rich cultural life it sustains,” wrote Meghan Rich, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology, in a 2013 article about change in the city.

Scranton’s cultural appeal benefits greatly from the school that bears its name through a wide range of activities open to the public, many of them free. People line up for seats

well before the doors open for the annual musical Noel Night, a highlight of the Christmas season since the 1960s. Plays, concerts, exhibits, lectures, workshops, and sports events ensure that people in the community, as well as students, find something to their taste.

Some of those events are sponsored by the Schemel Forum, founded in 2006 through gifts by friends in memory of the Rev. George Schemel, S.J., ’52. The forum grew from a handful of informal lectures to a comprehensive enrichment program of study, dialogue, performances, and special events.

Minicourses, lectures, and excursions led by University fac-

Each year, thousands of students contribute more than 175,000 hours of service to communities near and far. As part of a spring Day of Service, students and alumni descended on downtown Scranton to beautify the city with flowers.

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ulty and guest lecturers cover classical texts and current issues from the arts, history, and philosophy to technology and theology. Some examples from 2013–14 include the films of Woody Allen; the literary genius of George Eliot; Russian president Vladimir Putin’s use of culture, language, and ideas to attract international support; challenges in modern peacekeeping; and Jesuit education in the twenty-first century. Mrs. Myers, the forum’s director, said that the sessions are aimed at “out-of-school adults who are eager learners.”

The University’s facilities, such as the PNC Boardroom and Rose Room of the McShane Executive Center in Brennan Hall, are available for community use, often with fees waived. Research by faculty and students, such as Dr. Rich’s study of downtown Scranton, provides valuable insight into the challenges facing the area. Residents can do their own research at the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Memorial Library, which is open to the public. And conferences on issues such as aging give local practitioners and community leaders access to pertinent information and facilitate cooperation.

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Of course there is an unavoidable interdependence between the University and city government.The city’s blessings are required for some University projects, and University money is required to meet many city goals. Negotiations between town and gown can be contentious, but there have been notable examples of hard-won cooperation.

The closing of Linden Street through the campus is a prime example. In an article about the Scranton City Council’s approval of the request that led to creation of the University Commons, the Aquinas reported in early 1979 that “what once seemed a remote, unattainable objective” was to become a reality.

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The dramatic sign was part of the $7 million Mulberry Street Improvement Project undertaken over several years. The project allowed for better and safer pedestrian passage. Made of limestone, wrought iron, and cast stone, it not only welcomes visitors to the school but to Scranton’s Historic Hill Section neighborhood.

Scranton will long be known as the home to one of the top universities in America. But, in popular culture, it will also be known as the home to the fictitious Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and its cast of engaging employees in the NBC program, The Office. When the show ended in 2013 the city presented its cast and crew with a send-off parade that began in front of the Loyola Science Center. The university tied in to the event by hosting a “Behind the Scenes Q&A” with the show’s writers, producers, and others. Here, Jenna Fischer (“Pam”) and John Krasinski (“Jim”) enjoy the parade.

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The multimillion-dollar Mulberry Street Improvement Project, primarily funded by the University, is another. The ambitious project beautified a corridor that connects the campus with a nearby neighborhood. Wider walkways, cobblestone-lined lawns, benches, vintage light fixtures, and intermittent, low limestone seating walls are a few of the features. The project was announced in 2007 by the City of Scranton, Scranton City Council, and the University to encourage foot traffic and improve pedestrian safety.

“Ultimately, the health and well-being of the city of Scranton and The University of Scranton are forever intertwined,” said University president Fr. Quinn.

of things to come. Each year roughly half of all students give a total of more than 175,000 hours of service.

Name a nonprofit service agency in the Lackawanna Valley, and odds are that students, faculty, and staff from The University of Scranton help out in some way. The University’s Center for Service and Social Justice collaborates with some 160 organizations to improve life for local residents and give students the opportunity to practice the Jesuit principle of service to others.

“We watch the students grow in faith and see how their faith is connected to service,” said Patricia Vaccaro. “There’s

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The University isn’t just another academic institution that must keep peace with its surroundings. It is a Jesuit university with a mandate to serve others. Time, energy, services, and goods given freely in the spirit of Christ add a deeper dimension to the University’s presence in Scranton. The commitment has brought perpetual listing on the President’s Community Service Honor Role, the highest recognition given to colleges by the federal government for volunteering and civic engagement, and ranking among the top-fifty service-oriented universities by Washingtonian magazine.

“Jesuits are contemplatives in action,” said Dr. Brian Conniff. “As a Jesuit institution, we believe in service. We believe in the action part. But we also need to be reflective of our place in the world and how our gifts fit. That’s the contemplative part.”

Service begins for many students before their first day in class through the FIRST program that started in 2003.

Freshmen arrive on campus a week early to work at nonprofit agencies and ministries. The experience is a foretaste

Christmas on the Commons is an opportunity for the University community to usher in the holiday season with music, hot chocolate, crafts, and the lighting of the University Christmas tree.

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no better way for them to learn their place in the world than to give service.” Evidence of some partnerships with local organizations is scattered around Mrs. Vaccaro’s suite of offices in the DeNaples Center: a wire basket of collected toiletries; fliers for Cinderella’s Closet, which furnishes formal dresses to poor high school girls for prom; stacked cans of paint. The University hosts an annual free Christmas Day breakfast for anyone in the community who wishes to come, and the annual campus collection of books puts thousands of volumes into the hands of the region’s children.

The exposure to community needs advances students’ learning, said Fr. Quinn. “Part of Jesuit education is that we should provide opportunities for our students to have contact with people at the margins.”

The center’s website lists other reasons for volunteering, including opportunities to gain practical experience, learn about the Scranton area, develop interpersonal relationships, and broaden knowledge of social issues. Possibilities range from tutoring high school students to visiting hospice patients.

Some projects have direct application to students’ academic pursuits, offering practical experience in professional fields. Students in the health sciences gain direct experience at the Leahy Community Health and Family Center housed in McGurrin Hall on Jefferson Avenue. A clinic in the center began giving free primary care to uninsured residents of Lackawanna County in 2003 in collaboration with Panuska College and the Lackawanna Medical Society.

The Exercise Science Club holds an annual Healthy Heart Fair at downtown’s The Mall at Steamtown. And, for two decades, accounting students have assisted low- and moderateincome local residents with their tax returns through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

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The University of Success program is designed to help at-risk high school students get into a college or university upon graduation. The students participate in a variety of academic, social, and cultural programs. The University of Success, free to participants and generously supported by corporate and foundation grants, is held on the University campus.

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Charity may begin at home on campus but it extends across the country and around the world. Many students use their break periods between semesters to venture out on service and mission trips, often accompanied by faculty, staff, and alumni.

Some trips, such as to the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina, require no special skills or knowledge. Others are specifically tied to academic areas, especially in health care.

During the 2011–12 winter break, one group of nursing

Benjamin Turcea ’15 and Katie Tamola ’13 (right) participate in some fun activities at the Search Retreat.

One of more than three dozen retreats sponsored each year by The University of Scranton, it is the oldest one the University offers (begun in 1984 by Fr. Bill Gavin, S.J.) and also one of the most popular due to its reputation for helping forge a close community of its participants during its thrice-yearly gatherings.

Working through The University of Scranton’s Department of Nursing, student Josh Braddell ‘08 and five fellow students ventured in 2008 to Haiti to work in orphanages and other sites where they ran a free clinic and performed other duties. During the trip, Braddell met this young wheelchair-bound orphan who suffers from hydrocephalus. “The trip was very important because we really wanted to make a difference, albeit small in the grand scheme of things,” said Braddell. “It was a great experience and something I use in my everyday career as a registered nurse to help show compassion to my patients.”

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students provided health screenings to children in a Newark, New Jersey, public school while another group traveled to Savannah, Georgia, where they performed physical examinations, organized medical supplies, and conducted healthy food demonstrations. “I take those things for granted, like how easy it is to see a doctor,” said Elizabeth Malocsay ’12, who went to New Jersey. “I think this trip helped me appreciate what I have and reminded me to keep helping others whenever I can.”

The International Service Program provides faith-based opportunities abroad, including short-term service trips to several destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Rev. Brendan G. Lally, S.J., ’70, a former rector and campus minister, pauses at the Memorial Rose Garden at Universidad Centroamericana (UCA), San Salvador, El Salvador. The garden is a tribute to the massacre that occurred there on November 16, 1989, when six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were executed. Growing from Fr. Lally’s efforts, El Salvador has an abiding place in the hearts of University students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

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Service doesn’t end at the commencement ceremony either. Alumni sometimes accompany students and faculty on trips, go on to participate in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps or AmeriCorps, work for nonprofit organizations, or give back to their communities through civic leadership.

Lauren Hahn ’11 entered AmeriCorps, a federal service program, after graduation and found herself in Sitka, Alaska, teaching and working in a community center. “I feel the purpose of my life is to do something worthwhile,” she said.

Kevin Moran ’01 is executive director of the New Visions Homeless Day Shelter in Camden, New Jersey. “My job has given me the opportunity to recognize each guest as my brother and my sister,” he said, “treating them with the dignity, love, and compassion they deserve.”

Mary Beth Schluckebier ’09 is resource development coordinator for the faith-based Providence Center in Philadelphia, working with immigrants. She also crusades for immigration reform. The University helped cultivate her desire for social justice, she said. “The sense of community that I experienced . . . has undoubtedly shaped much of who I am. I feel a great responsibility to the world, and I think I have the opportunity to raise up people’s voices who aren’t necessarily heard.”

At The University of Scranton, “You stand on the shoulders of giants,” said Dr. Sebastianelli. “I would like to think that most of us who have been here try to make it a better place.”

That’s true for the campus, the community and the world.

The University’s alma mater, written by Fr. Gannon and Kathleen Fisher ’80, says, in part, The legacy from those before Is briefly ours to hold, We leave the best behind for others As the coming years unfold.

St. Ignatius of Loyola put it another way: “The laborers in the Lord’s vineyard should have one foot on the ground, and the other raised to proceed on their journey.”

At The University of Scranton, one foot is on the ground, meeting the needs of the day; the other is in the air, eager to step into the future and make it better for others.

Whether sledding down Taylor Avenue, finding any hill on campus, or heading to nearby Sno Mountain, University of Scranton students tend to make the most of winter weather when it comes.

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The Office of Alumni Relations keeps in touch with more than forty-five thousand alumni around the world. Through five different professional groups, seventeen regional alumni clubs, the Alumni Society, conferences, social media, reunions, and numerous other activities, it’s no wonder University alumni have little trouble reconnecting with each other long after they graduate.

When Hurricane Sandy blew through the northeastern seaboard in 2013, it left in its wake unfathomable devastation. But following closely on the heels of that wreckage came help from all corners of the country, including thirteen students from The University of Scranton. Organized by the University’s Center for Service & Social Justice, the students rolled into Oceanport, New Jersey. Armed with rakes, shovels, determination, and compassion, they tackled one home after another, cleaning up debris. Organizing and staffing such service trips is the role of the Center for Service & Social Justice. In addition to another Sandy-related trip, the Center has sent students to New Orleans and Washington, D.C., on projects, and provides assistance on numerous community service projects in Scranton.

Madonna della Strada Chapel is The University of Scranton’s principal worship site. It was named in honor of the image “Our Lady of the Way,” a depiction of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child.

E P I L O G U E

Honoring Our Past,Celebrating Our Present,Embracing Our Future

by Kevin P. Quinn, S.J.

“To love and serve in all things; trust as if everything depended on God.” —St. Ignatius of Loyola

flection keeps us rooted in our living tradition, and it keeps us true to ourselves and our enduring mission. But the Spiritual Exercises do not stop there, and neither do we.The commemoration of our 125th anniversary invites all of us who share in the life of The University of Scranton to ask ourselves, at the urging of St. Ignatius, he opening paragraphs of this commemorative volume “What will I do for Christ?” present a snapshot of life on our campus—glimpses of Our individual answers to that question will be many and professors and students going about the normal, daily things of varied as befits a community as diverse and multifaceted as ours. university life. Although those paragraphs are particular to The The pages of this book remind us of that! There University of Scranton, part of what makes our can be no doubt, however, that our collective Scranton experience something to be treasured answer over the coming years and decades will is that similar snapshots could have been taken be a heartfelt commitment to engage the world at the same instant on dozens of Jesuit campuses and its needs with the very gifts we have reacross the globe. ceived through our participation in the life of From Buenos Aires to Rome, from South this University community—gifts of heart, Korea to Qatar, from Mexico City to Tokyo, the mind, and soul. same familiar rhythm of students and professors, The University of Scranton has been a service and reflection, study and worship proud member of a global Jesuit network of can be felt every day on Jesuit campuses. The faith and learning for many years, and for that languages, customs, and cuisines may differ, but we are most grateful. We are especially grateful the underlying reality is the same and connects for the many people named in this book, men us, one to another: the slow but steady action of and women who have left lasting marks on this grace transforming professors and students alike The Rev. Kevin P. Quinn, S.J., is the through the time-honored work of teaching University’s twenty-fifth president (2011– University. We are grateful, too, for the tens of thousands of other people—young and old, livand learning in a community animated by the present). ing and dead—whose work, generosity, energy, spiritual vision of St. Ignatius of Loyola. prayer, and love have given life to our community for a century These pages have offered us a grateful look back at the hisand a quarter. tory that has made our University community who we are.They We are grateful to Almighty God, whose patient labor and also prompt us to take a reflective look at the role we now play abiding presence have helped us shape a community that is at in our city, our nation, our world, and our Church, each of which once a respected university and more: a beloved home. Now is a has changed greatly since 1888. And that is as it should be in this precious time to stir up the gifts given us. Faculty, staff, and stuyear of celebration and commemoration. dents at The University of Scranton can dream of renewed birth In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius asks us to consider,“What because God’s Spirit dwells in us, powering us to always try anew. have I done for Christ, what am I doing for Christ . . . ?” Such re-

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1888

The University of Scranton was founded as St.Thomas College by the Most Rev.William G. O’Hara, D.D., the first Bishop of Scranton. On August 12, 1888, with few resources at hand, he blessed a single block of granite as the cornerstone for his vision. Though there was no money, no building and not a single professor, Bishop O’Hara’s simple act of faith launched a long tradition of unshakable belief in what would become The University of Scranton.

Letter dated August 6, 1888, from the Right Rev. William O’Hara, Bishop of Scranton, inviting the recipient to attend the blessing of the cornerstone of the College of St. Thomas of Aquinas, soon to be known as St. Thomas College. The event was held on August 12, 1888.

1892

It took Bishop O’Hara four years, but the Diocese of Scranton raised the funds that allowed the first students to take classes at St. Thomas College in 1892. The College was staffed by diocesan priests and seminarians.

1896 Bishop O’Hara asked the Congregation of the Brothers of Saint Francis Xavier, known as the Xaverian Brothers, to take over administration of the College.

1897

The Xaverian Brothers withdrew and Bishop O’Hara invited the Christian Brothers to administer St. Thomas College. T,he Brothers administered the College for forty-five years.

Letter dated September 6, 1897, from Michael J. Hoban to Reverend Brother Candidian, regarding the arrival of the Christian Brothers at St. Thomas College.

1901

The first bachelor’s degrees were awarded by St. Thomas College. Since the College did not have a charter, the students received diplomas from other Christian Brothers’ schools, most notably LaSalle University in Philadelphia.

1917

With World War I raging, enrollment at St. Thomas College, an all-male school, declined. The Christian Brothers scaled back to “junior college” status.

1921

The baccalaureate degree returned! This time, with a charter. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania charter, granted on January 12, 1924, meant that the Class of 1925 received their diplomas in the name of St. Thomas College.

Frank O’Hara, Class of 1925

1925

The Class of 1925 had a notable member, Frank O’Hara. O’Hara served the University as a staff member from the year he graduated (1925) until his death in 1976. O’Hara Hall is named in his honor. Only two other University staff have ever matched the fifty years O’Hara devoted to the University: the late Marilyn Coar, secretary to several University presidents, and the late Dr. Joseph Zandarski, who was a professor of accounting for fifty-three years.

1927

The 1920s were golden years for St. Thomas College. Enrollment boomed, and in 1927, the College gained Middle States accreditation, which it maintains today.

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Appendix Timeline

1938

St. Thomas College was renamed The University of Scranton. Also, Br. Denis Edward, then president, and University administration decided to admit women to the University’s evening programs. The day school remained exclusively male.

Black-and-white reproduction of a photograph of the installation of a University of Scranton sign on the outside of College Hall (Old Main), below the existing St. Thomas College sign, in the fall of 1938. The College’s name changed to The University of Scranton on March 30, 1938. College president Fr. Denis Edward looks on.

1939

When The University of Scranton football team, the “Tommies,”met the City College of New York on October 14, the game was televised by NBC. According to the Aquinas this was only the third football game ever televised. The Scranton squad overwhelmed CCNY 31-0. On January 3, 1961, The University of Scranton discontinued the football program.

1941

In December the Scranton family donated their family residence to the University.

Today, this residence stands proudly as The Estate, home of the Office of Admissions and the Admissions Visitors Center.

1942

The Depression years were hard on the nation, and the University was not immune.

Frank O’Hara, who served as the registrar, determined that no student should have to withdraw because his family could not pay tuition. O’Hara’s policy, backed by the administration, carried the University through tough times but also meant severe financial difficulties. By 1941 the Christian Brothers felt they had no choice but to withdraw. Bishop William Joseph Hafey invited the Society of Jesus not only to administer but to take ownership of The University of Scranton.

Photograph of the members of the original Jesuit community at The University of Scranton, taken in summer 1942 in the library of the former Scranton Estate.

1942 In what Professor Emeritus and University historian Francis X. J. Homer, Ph.D., says was the next great act of faith in the University, the Jesuits agreed to take ownership of the school. It was a tall order. World War II had engulfed the globe and enrollment had subsequently suffered, so the school faced significant financial peril. Nevertheless, Reverend W. Coleman Nevils, S.J., the University’s first Jesuit president, arrived in the late summer of 1942 with eighteen other Jesuits.

1943

The Annex, an old hospital converted to classrooms that stood on the corner of Mulberry Street and Wyoming Avenue, burned. Dr. Homer says this is the only University of Scranton building ever lost to a natural disaster. After the fire damage was repaired, the building became the home of Scranton Preparatory School when it opened in 1944.

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1947

After the war, University enrollment exploded, aided by the G.I. Bill. The University acquired naval barracks built in Scranton’s lower Hill section and used them as classrooms. The barracks remained in service until 1962. During these years, it was not unusual to see frantic young men running up Linden Street trying to get from classes in Old Main on Wyoming Avenue to the barracks in the lower Hill, a distance of five blocks.

1953

The Rev. John J. Long, S.J., became president of the University (he served until 1963) and embarked on an extensive building campaign. In 1967 came the final piece of Fr. Long’s legacy, a varsity athletic center fittingly named the Long Center.

1962

Black-and-white photograph dated 1958 of the construction of the Alumni Memorial Library, now Alumni Memorial Hall. The Estate and Loyola Hall are visible in the background, with Ridge Row in the foreground.

In partnership with the City of Scranton and the Scranton Redevelopment Authority, the University acquired parcels of land along Ridge Row, Linden Street, and Mulberry Street, which established the University’s campus in its present location.

1972

The University of Scranton goes coed!

Photograph dated spring 1972 of two University of Scranton students. Images from this photo shoot were used to advertise the University’s adoption of coeducation, using the tagline, “Their smiles mean the College of Arts and Sciences is now coed.”

The remarkable Scranton Fulbright story began.

Since 1972, 144 graduates of The University of Scranton have been awarded a Fulbright or other international fellowship award to support a year of study outside of the United States. Scranton has earned consistent recognition from the Chronicle of Higher Education as a “top producer” of Fulbright awards.

1978

The University establishes its business school, now the Kania School of Management.

Today, the Irwin E. Alperin Financial Center in Brennan Hall simulates a “trading floor” environment, complete with an electronic ticker, and news and data displays.

1982

The Rev. Joseph A. Panuska, S.J., is named president. He served in that role for sixteen years, the longest tenure to date of a University president. Fr. Panuska guided the University through a period of dramatic growth in facilities, faculty, staff, and services to students.

In 1992 Father Panuska, Charles Kratz, and Richard Passon placed a time capsule into the cornerstone of the Weinberg Memorial Library.

1985

A successful “Second Cornerstone Campaign” results in a strengthened University endowment and acquisitions like the Immanuel Baptist Church, now the Houlihan-McLean Center.

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The Board of Trustees established the College of Health, Education, and Human Resources, renaming it the Panuska College of Professional Studies in 1998.

Appendix Timeline

1989

In December the University received what was then its largest gift: $6 million from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Construction of what is now the Weinberg Memorial Library began the following year.

Cover of a twelve-page booklet produced in 1990 describing the Gateway to the Future University of Scranton Library Campaign, which was used to raise funds for what would become the Weinberg Memorial Library.

2000

In February the Board of Trustees approved a twenty-year vision for the University campus to become a “distinguished district” within the City of Scranton. The campus as it is today began to take shape with “student residences at the top of the hill, academic centers at the bottom and student life areas in between.” The priority building for this vision: Brennan Hall.

2001

The number of Fulbright Fellows from the University broke the one-hundred mark in June 2001 with the announcement that six University students had received fellowships to pursue graduate study and research abroad in the 2001–2002 academic year.

From left, Susan Trussler, Ph.D., Fulbright advisor and associate professor of economics/ finance; Fulbright winners Nicole Heron, Erin Friel, Clifford McMurray, Lisa Blagiotti, Maria Atzert, and Carol Gleeson; and University president Joseph M. McShane, S.J.

2008

The University’s first LEED-certified building, the Patrick & Margaret DeNaples Center, opened.

2012

The University dedicated the new Loyola Science Center, one of the most innovative science buildings in the country, on September 28, 2012. The $85 million, nearly two-hundred-thousand-square-foot facility marked the largest capital project in the history of the Jesuit university and the culmination of more than fifteen years of planning and preparation.

2013

The University remains committed to enriching the quality and variety of its academic offerings. In addition, continued investment in the physical plant includes plans for an eight-story center for rehabilitation education to serve growing programs in Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Exercise Science. Expected completion is the summer of 2015.

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Past Presidents of The University of Scranton

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Rev. John J. Mangan 1892–1895

Rev. Daniel J. MacGoldrick, S.J. 1895–1900

Br. Fintan Andrew, F.S.C. 1900–1904

Br. Eligius Lewis, F.S.C. 1904–1913

Br. Abdas John, F.S.C. 1913–1916

Br. Edelwald Alban, F.S.C. 1916–1919

Br. Glastian Philip, F.S.C. 1892 1919–1922

Br. Firmus Edward, F.S.C. 1922–1925

Br. George Lewis, F.S.C. 1925–1931

Br. Denis Edward, F.S.C. 1931–1940

Br. Eliseus Leonard, F.S.C. 1940–1942

Frank J. O'Hara, ’25 (Acting) 1942

Appendix Presidents

Rev. W. Coleman Nevils, S.J. 1942–1947

Rev. J. Eugene Gallery, S.J. 1947–1953

Rev. Aloysius C. Galvin, S.J. 1965–1970

Rev. Joseph A. Rock, S.J. (Acting) 1970

Rev. William J. Byron, S.J. 1975–1982

Rev. J. A. Panuska, S.J. 1982–1998

Rev. John J. Long, S.J. 1953–1963

Rev. Dexter L. Hanley, S.J. 1970–1975

Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J. 1998–2003

Rev. Edward J. Sponga, S.J. 1963–1965

Rev. Eswin A. Quain, S.J. (Acting) 1975

Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. 2003–2011

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A Legacy to Hold, A Future to Build: 1888–2013

2013–2014 Board of Trustees

Alumni Board of Governors Presidents

Tracy F. Bannon ’84 Judith M. Bavaria ’72 William J. Brady ’83 Christopher M. Condron ’70, H’03—Chair Vincent M. Cooke, S.J. Jacquelyn Dionne ’89 Mary Beth Farrell ’79 Matthew Geiger ’81 Michael P. Glinsky ’66 Otto H. Hentz, S.J. Philip G. Judge, S.J. Joseph J. Kadow, Esq. ’78 Christopher J. Kane ’86 Lawrence R. Lynch ’81 George V. Lynett Jr. Dennis J. McGonigle ’82 Justin B. Murphy ’76 Thomas P. O’Brien ’86 Francis J. Pearn ’83—Vice Chair Kevin P. Quinn, S.J. Vincent F. Reilly, Esq. ’80 Thomas E. Roach, S.J., H’08 Kathleen C. Santora, Esq., ’80 Teresa M. Schafer ’81 Thomas J. Scirghi S.J. Joseph T. Sebastianelli, Esq. ’68 Patrick W. Shea, Esq. ’78 Joseph L. Sorbera Jr. Joseph M.Vaszily ’95

James G. Hopkins ’41 1947–1952 Robert E. O’Brien ’33 1953–1954 Joseph F. Lynott ’49 1955–1956 James A. Kelly, Esq., ’48 1961–1964 Henry J Dende ’41 1965–1966 William J.Young ’59 1967–1968 Frank J. McDonnell, Esq., ’60, H’08 1969–1970 Edward Mitchell ’68 1971–1972 Peter G. Loftus Sr., Esq., ’61 1977–1978 Henry P. Burke, Esq., ’64 1983–1984 Gerald P. Tracy, M.D., ’63, H’99 1985–1986 John E. Walsh, Ed.D., Hon. LLD, ’49, H’89 1987–1988 Robert J. Bednar Jr., ’69 1989–1990 Frank P. Paoli Jr., ’67 1991–1992 John J. Price, CPCU, ’62 1993–1994 Daniel P. Loftus, MSW, MS, ’68 1995–1996 Michael M. Costello ’70 1997–1998 John H. Appleton, Esq., ’68 1999–2000 Thomas J. Davis, CPA, ’69 2001–2003 Catherine Manley Coffey ’86 2003 Kevin J. Lanahan ’84 2004–2005 Timothy P. O’Brien ’74 2006–2007 Michael J. McDermott ’71 2008–2009 John F. Lanahan, Esq., ’84 2010–2011 Thomas J. Grech ’84 2012–2013 Martina A. Martin ’80 2014–Present

Trustees Emeriti Arthur J. Kania, Esq. ’53, H’89 Hon. Joseph M. McDade, H’69

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Index

Numbers in italics indicate images.

——— activities, 61–70 Alban, Edewald, 5 Allen, Woody, 100 alma mater, 50, 62, 82, 108 Alperin, Irwin E., 44 Alperin (Irwin E.) Financial Center, 44 Alpha Sigma Nu, 42 Alumni Memorial Library, 81 Alumni Society, 109 American Association of University Professors, 24 American Physiological Society, 52 AmeriCorps, 108 Aquinas, The, 9, 19, 61, 70, 78–81 Archbald (J.) Estate, 6 arts, 56–65, 67, 71–73 Asian Studies, 70 Association of Colleges of the Middle States and Maryland, 6 athletics, 13, 62–63 athletic scholarships, 1, 62, 63 Bambera, Joseph C., 35 Banderlee, Alexius, 4 Bartley, Rebecca, 46 basketball, 62, 63 Baut, Gerhard, 26, 36, 90 Baxter, Edward J., 18 Beidler, John A., 24 Bellarmine (St. Robert) Debating Society, 65 Bellwoar,Vincent I., 18, 19, 20 Bessoir, Robert, 62, 63 Best Sellers, 9 Biden, Joe, 99 Biscontine, Albert, 56 Bistocchi, Ferdinand, 56 Black History Month, 70 Bleicher, Anthony J., 13–14

Blessed Peter Faber Chapel, 85 Bodnar, Gerald, 56 Boga, Cheryl Y., ix, 59, 66, 67 Boston College, 26 Boyle, Patrick (Packy), 12 Braddell, Josh, 106 Brennan, John E., 84 Brennan Hall, 44, 84, 85, 100 Brown, Louis Stanley, 10 Building A (Arts), 76, 78 Building B (Business), 78 Building E (Engineering and Physics), 78 Burti, Umbay, 47 Business Leadership Honors Program, 50 Byron, William J., 30, 33, 81, 82, 85, 90 Byron Recreation Complex, 74, 82 Campion Hall, 77, 85 Campus Bowl, 50 Cannon, Joseph, 30 Career Services, 52 Carlesimo, Pete, 62, 63 Carlin, Anne E., 22 Carroll, Frank, 19 Casey, Ellen M., 39–41, 50, 51, 90 Casey, Paul, 24, 25 Celebrate the Arts, 70 “Celebrating 125 Years,” 35 Centennial Fountain, 90 Center for Rehabilitation Education, 91 Center for Service and Social Justice, 34, 103–4, 111 Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence, 52 Chabanel, Noel, 65 Chabanel (Noel) Council of Debate, 65 Chamber Choir, 59 Chapman Lake, 69, 85, 94 Chi Alpha Ro, 61 Chiziek, William J., 9

Christ, serving, 113 Christ the Teacher (Southey), 36, 37, 90 Christian Brothers, 3, 4, 13, 41–42 Christian Brothers’ Residence, 78 Christian Life Communities, 69 Christmas on the Commons, 103 Christmas Day breakfast, 104 Chronicle of Higher Education, 46 Cimini, Frank A., 41 Cinderella’s Closet, 104 Civic Council, 61 Civilian Production Administration, 78 Cleary, Tim, 63 coal, hard, 96 Coco, Michael G., 49 coeducation, 29–30 College of Graduate and Continuing Education, 39 College of Health, Education, and Human Resources, 33 College of St. Thomas of Aquin, The, 2, 3–4. See also St. Thomas College Collegiate Hall, 82 Collegiate Volunteers, 34 Columbinus (Karam), 57 Commitments to Excellence campaign, 81 Commons, the, 90 Condron, Christopher, 86–89 Condron, Margaret, 86 Condron (Christopher and Margaret) Hall, 86–89 Coniff, John J., 19, 23 Conniff, Brian, 26, 49, 103 contemplation in action, 26 cornerstone, 75, 78, 83 Council on Resident Student Affairs, 24 Counseling Center, 52 Cranmer, Jessica, 95 cura personalis, 26, 34, 39 Cura Personalis Program, 70

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Danzig, Carl, 63 Day of Concern, 24, 27 Day of Service, 99 Debate Society, 65 debating, 65 de La Salle, John Baptist, 4 Delle Donne, Andrew, 96 Delle Donne, Lauren, 96 DeNaples (Patrick & Margaret) Center, 34, 74, 86, 88 Denecke, Charles J., 18 Diocese of Scranton, 1, 13 Dionne (John & Jacquelyn) Campus Green, 88 Diversity Fairs, 70, 71 doctoral program, 89, 91 Doorway to the Soul,The (Fedon), 36 dress code, 24 Driscoll, James, 6 Driscoll Hall, 81 Durkin, Joseph T., 18 Eagen, John, 2, 3 Edward, Denis, 10, 13, 14, 66 Edward, Firmus, 6, 58, 63 Eliot, George, 100 eloquentia perfecta, 45 Engel, Mary, 46, 47 Esprit, 48, 57, 61 Ethnic Studies, 71 Exercise Science Club, 104 Facilities Operations, 82 Faculty Affairs Council, 27 Faculty Senate, 85 Fall Review, 50 Farrell, Mary Beth, 49 Fedon, Lisa, 36 FIRE Program, 70 FIRST program, 103 Fischer, Jenna, 102 Fisher, Kathleen M., 50, 108 Fitch Hall, 29, 81

122

Fitzpatrick, John J., 63 football, 62, 63 Fordham University, 26 Founder’s Green, 81 Francis, Pope, 18 freshman seminars, 45 Fulbright, J. William, 46 Fulbright Scholars, ix, 33, 46 Gallery, J. Eugene, 19 Gallery, the, 81 Galvin, Aloysius C., 24, 27–29, 81 Galvin Terrace, 76, 80 Gannon, Edward, 50, 108 Gannon Hall, 50 Garrett, Thomas M., 50 Gavin, Bill, 105 Gelb, Morris, 69–70 General Electric College Bowl, 42–43 Georgetown University, 26 G.I. Bill of Rights, 20, 65 Gilhool, Thomas A., 9 Gillispie, John, 9 Glastian Philip, Brother, 2, 3 Glee Club, 59 Glen Alden Coal Company building, 81 God, search for, 26 Goldwater (Barry M.) Scholarship, 46 Gomez, George, 89 Gordon, Wycliffe, 65, 66 Gould, Mark, 66 Grady, Richard F., 18 Great Depression, 9, 10 Gruczszyk, Henry P., 18 Grzywacz, Joseph R., 22 Gunster, Joseph F., 4 Gunster Memorial Student Center, 80 Hafey, William J., 13, 14, 20 Hafey Hall, 85 Haggerty, James, 81 Haggerty, John J., 22 Haggerty, William J., 18

Hahn, Lauren, 108 Haiti, students’ travel to, 106 Haley, Leo, 56 Hanley, Dexter L., 30 Harding, John J. (Jack), 9, 62–63 Harley, James L., 18 Harrison (PA), 3 Harrison, William Henry, 3 Harte, Charles (Chick), 12 health sciences majors, addition of, 47 Healthy Heart Fair, 104 Heath, Edward, 4, 69 Hennigan, John, 56 Herrling, John P., 26 Hoban, T. Linus, 4 Hoban (T. Linus) Memorial Forum, 69 Homer, Frank X. J., 23, 33 Honors Program, 49–50 Honors programs, ix Hope Horn Gallery, 57 Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 61 Hopkins, James G., 22 Houlihan, Daniel J., 82 Houlihan-McLean Center for the Performing Arts, 65, 66, 67, 82 Hurricane Katrina, 104 Hurricane Sandy, 111 Hussain, Riaz, 69 Hyland (Kathryn and Bernard) Hall, 85 Ideamaking seminar, 49 Iggy the Royal Wolf, 62 Ignatius of Loyola, 14, 26 conversion of, 23 quotes from, 26, 38, 46, 56, 94, 108, 113 Immanuel Baptist Church, 82 independent study, 49 International Service Program, 107 internships, 47 Jacklin, Edward G., 18 Jacob and the Angel (Love), 36, 90

Index

Jefferson Hall, 81 Jefferson Medical College, 40 Jesuit Center, 26 Jesuits (Society of Jesus) arts tradition of, 57, 66 educational philosophy of, 14, 39– 41, 42–45, 50–52, 59 ethics and, 85 philosophy and principles of, 26 taking over the University, 14 theatre and, 60 Thirty-First General Congregation of, 57 universities associated with, 26 during World War II, 14 Jesuit Volunteer Corps, 108 Judaic Studies, 49, 69 justice, promotion of, 26. See also Center for Service and Social Justice; Peace and Justice Studies Kania, Arthur J., 84, 85 Kania (Arthur J.) School of Management, 39, 44, 47, 84, 85, 99 Karam, Stephen, 57 Keiser, Norman F., 22 Kennedy, Daniel J., 9 Knights of Columbus, 69 Kolvenbach, Peter Hans, 26 Krasinski, John, 102 Kratz, Charles, 83 Labarum, 61 Lackawanna Iron & Coal Company, 6 Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company, 3, 96 Lackawanna Medical Society, 104 Lackawanna Valley (PA), 3 lacrosse, 63 Lally, Brendan G., 107 Lamda Alpha Phi, 61 Landmark Conference, 63

Langan, Eugene M., 22 La Salle College, 13 LaSalle Hall, 78 Latin American Studies, 70 Leahy Community Health and Family Center, 90, 104 Leahy (Edward R., Jr.) Hall, 81 Lee,Vincent de P., 18 legacies, 96 Lenahan, John, 56 Lennon, Lawrence, 22 Lesniak, Marie C., 22 Linden Plaza, 86 Linden Street closing of, 33, 90, 100 obstruction of, during protests, 28, 29 Loftus, Joseph A., 9 Long, John J., 23, 24, 78 Long Center, 24, 63, 74, 81 Love, Arlene, 36, 90 Loyola Hall of Science, 78–81 Loyola Science Center, 34, 40, 54, 74, 79, 81, 86, 89, 92–93 Lucas, Blake, 66 Lynch, Marshall K., 9 Lynch, Mary Elise, 46 Lynett, Edward, Jr., 26 MacGoldrick, Daniel, 4 Madison Square, 86 Madonna della Strada Chapel, 85, 112 magis, 26, 39 Maguire, William, 56 Maher, Ryan, 26 Maher, Zacheus J., 19 Mahlmeister, Clarence F., 18 Mall at Steamtown, The, 104 Malocsay, Elizabeth, 107 Maloney, John A., 56 Mangan, John J., 3 Margotta,Victor, 56 Mark, Stan, 25

Marquette University, 26 Marsalis, Wynton, 65 Martino, Joseph, 85 Martrorelli, Gino J., 22 Marywood College, 13, 29, 34, 65 Mass of the Holy Spirit, 69 Masterson, Thomas, 70 Maycock, Frank W., 20 Mazzei, Renato, 22 McCabe, Neil, 42 McCormick, J. Carroll, 24 McDade, Joseph M., 82 McDade Center for Literary and Performing Arts, 57, 73, 82 McDonald, Joseph, 56 McDonald, Michael, 70 McGowan, Andrew J., 82 McGurrin, Timothy Patrick, 62 McGurrin Hall, 85, 90, 104 McHale, William J., 19–20 McIlhenny, Bernard R., ix, 26, 29, 31, 33–34, 39, 77 McKeage, Robert L., 50, 51 McKeon, Richard M., 18 McKinney, Ronald, 51 McLane, William, 43 McLean, John P., 82 McManus, Charles G., 18 McNulty, Gerald, 9 McShane, Joseph M., 34, 46, 82, 84, 85–86, 89 McShane (Joseph M.) Executive Center, 84, 85, 100 Meljen,Vivienne, 46 Memorial Rose Garden (Central American University [El Salvador]), 107 Metanoia (Baut), 26, 36, 90 Middle Atlantic Conference, 63 Middle States Association, 63 Mierenicki, Paul, 62 Military Science, 49 Mischief Night, 29

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Mitchell, Edward, 24 Montrone, Paul, 87 Montrone Hall, 87 Moore, Bill, 62 Moore, James, 31 Moran, Kevin, 108 Moskovitz (Ann and Leo) Theatre, 86, 88 Mulberry Plaza, 86, 98 Mulberry Street Improvement Project, 101, 103 Mullaghy, James J., 9 Munchak, Al, 56 Munchak, George, 56 Myers, Morey M., 81 Myers, Sondra, 69, 100 National Collegiate Athletic Association Post-Graduate Scholarship, 62 National Hispanic Heritage Month, 70 National Labor Relations Board, 27 Nelhybel,Vaclav, 65, 67 Neu, Richard J., 18 Nevada, or the Lost Mine, 61 Nevils, W. Coleman, 14, 18, 19 Nevils Hall, 81 New Visions Homeless Day Shelter (Camden, NJ), 108 Noel Night, 99 Noone, Molly L., 22 nursing program, 53 O’Boyle, Patrick A., 4 O’Brien, Joseph E., 9 O’Connor, Martin J., 4–5 Office,The (NBC), 102 Office of Community Relations, 99 Office of Multicultural Affairs, 68, 70 Office of Parent and Alumni Relations, 109 Office of Residence Life, 52, 70 O’Hara, Frank J., 6, 26, 41, 75, 77, 81 O’Hara, William G., ix, x, 1–3, 4

124

O’Hara (Frank J.) Award for Government Service, 26 O’Hara Award in Management, 49 O’Hara Awards, 77, 81, 107 O’Hara Hall, 77, 81 Old Main (College Hall), 2, 3, 6, 14, 75, 78, 81 O’Malley, Willard F., 9 O’Neil, Raymond A., 9 online degrees, 34 Order of Pro Deo et Universitate, 41 O’Reilly, Thomas C., 13 “Our Lady of the Way,” 112 Out-of-Towners Club, 23 Pantle, G. Donald, 86 Panuska, J. A., 26, 33, 78, 82, 83, 85 Panuska (J. A.; S.J.) College of Professional Studies, 33, 39, 45–47, 85, 90, 104 Parente, William J., ix, 29, 46, 99 parietals, 24, 27 Parking Pavilion, 74 Passon, Richard H., 30, 34, 42, 45, 52, 83, 95 Peace Corps, 48 Peace and Justice Studies, 49 Pellegrino, Debra, 90 Pennington, Karen, 29 Pennsylvania, State Council of Education, 13 Pennsylvania Drug Warehouse, 81 Performance Music, 67 Phi Nu Sigma, 61 Physician Shortage Area Program (Jefferson Medical College), 40, 47 Pilarz, Scott R., 34, 78, 86, 87, 89 Pilarz Hall, 87, 89 PNC Bank Boardroom, 85, 100 Polidari, Arnold, 56 political activism, 24, 27–29 Porter, Paul, 68

prayer unions, 69 premedical studies, 40, 47 President’s Business Council Annual Award Dinner, 34, 51 President’s Community Service Honor Roll, 103 Pride, Passion, Promise Campaign, 34, 86 Princeton Review, 41 Providence Center (Philadelphia), 108 Purple, 61 Putin,Vladimir, 100 Quinn, John J. (J. J.), 48, 77 Quinn, Joseph G., 84 Quinn, Kevin P., 34, 39, 49, 89–90, 103, 104, 113 Quinn (Rev. J. J.; S.J.) Scholarship, 48 Rabin,Yitzhak, 69 radio stations, 64 Ratio Studionum (Plan of Studies), 42 Raymond (John) Memorial Universalist Church, 82 Reap, John, 56 Redington, Elizabeth (Betty), 26, 82 Redington, Francis, 82 Redington (Francis and Elizabeth) Hall, 82 Reformed Episcopalian Assembly of God Church, 85 Rehnquist, William H., 4, 69 Reilly, Thomas C., 16 Religio, Mores, Cultura, 42 religious life, 69–70 Reserve Officers Training Corps. See ROTC Retreat Center at Chapman Lake, 69, 85, 94–95 Rhyme and Reason Club, 65 Ribadeneyra, Pedro de, x Rich, Meghan, 99, 100 Rock, Joseph A., 85

Index

Rock Hall, 85 Rodgers, Richard, 43 Rose Room, 100 ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Corps), 23, 49, 85 Rothman, Erwin, 56 Royal College Television Network, 65 Royal Rooster, 62 Sakolowski, Edward, 56 Schemel, George, 99 Schemel Forum, 69, 99–100 Schluckebier, Mary Beth, 108 Schmidt, Helmut, 4, 69 school colors, 62 Scranton (PA), 3, 6 downtown, 99, 104 financial difficulties of, 96 Historic Hill Section, 23, 75, 78, 101 mutual dependence of, with the University, 89, 96–103 Scranton, Joseph Hand, 14, 77 Scranton, Mary, 82 Scranton, William W., 82 Scranton, Worthington, 14, 76 Scranton Cultural Center, 57 Scranton (Joseph Hand) Estate, 6, 14, 20, 21, 77, 78 Scranton Hall, 77 Scranton Heritage Room, 82 Scrantonia (PA), 3 Scranton Preparatory School, 20, 77 Scranton Redevelopment Authority, 74 Scranton Times Progress Exhibition, 15 Search Retreat, 105 Sebastianelli, Rose, 45, 47, 108 Secinski, Joseph, 56 Se Habla Español, 70 service, 26, 99, 107. See also Center for Service and Social Justice Shapiro, Marc, 69 SJLA. See Special Jesuit Liberal Arts

Honors Program Small Business Development Center, 99 Smurfit, Anthony P., 82 Smurfit, Michael W. J., 82 Smurfit Hall, 82 Snyder, James, 56 social fraternities, 59–61 Society of Jesus. See Jesuits Sodalities, 69 Southard, Kevin, 62 Southey, Trevor, 36, 82, 90 Southwell, Robert J., 74 Soya, Walter J., 22 Spanish House, 86 Special Jesuit Liberal Arts Honors Program, 50 Spiritual Exercises (Ignatius of Loyola), 113 Sponga, Edward J., 23–24, 81 Springer, Robert H., 18 Staff Senate, 85 Stahlheber, Francis, 9 Strong, Mike, 63 St. Thomas College, 75 accreditation of, 6 alma mater of, 62 athletics at, 62–63 awarding first degrees, 6 chartering of, 6 class reunion (circa 1919), 8 clubs and activities at, 9 commencement (1929), 16–17 commencement and end-of-year exercises (1898), 5 commercial department of, 4 cornerstone for, ix, x, 1. See also cornerstone curriculum at, 41–42 customs and traditions at, 6 Depression’s effect on, 10 diversity of students at, 10 Dramatic Society, 61–65 faculty (1928), 7

high school department of, 3–4 “House of Magic” exhibit, 15 name changed to The University of Scranton, 13 night school at, 4, 10 Orchestra (1933), 56 Radio Club (1922), 58 school colors, 62 social fraternities at, 59–61 sports at, 9, 11, 12 women admitted to, 10–13 during World War I, 5–6, 8 St. Thomas Hall, 78, 81 St. Thomas High School, 42 Student Affairs, 86, 88 Student Affairs Council, 27 Student Army Training Corps, 6 Student Center, 81 Student Council, 66 student government, 6, 24, 27, 61, 66–69 Student Life Board, 27 Student Senate, 66, 69, 85 Sturgis, Russell, 77 Summer Research Fellowships, 52 Suppe, Bernard Allen, 41, 70 Sustain U, 70 Sweeney, James P., 14 Sweeney, Terrence, 52 Sylvester, Robert, 26 Taiwan opera, 71 Tamola, Katie, 105 Tarentino, Ross, 56 The University of Scranton, 6, 74–75 academic quality of, 30–34, 39–41 activities at, 61–70 alma mater of, 50, 108 arts at, 13, 56–66, 67, 71–73 artwork at, 90 athletics at, 13, 62–63 band (1938), 13 Board of Trustees created at, 24

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126

campus artwork, 36 Campus Fulbright Committee, 46 campus master plan, 34 care and respect at, 95 college preparatory school at, 20 commuters at, 23 computer era begun at, 23–24, 25 cultural appeal of, to Scranton, 99– 100 curriculum at, ix, 39–45 diversity at, 71, 95 economic impact of, 96–99 enrollment growth at, 30, 33, 34 Evening College at, 20, 29 expansion of, 23, 24, 33, 74, 77–93 family feeling at, 96 first Jesuit faculty at, 18–19 fund-raising at, 34 Graduate School at, 23, 29 graduation exercises (1943), 21 Green Room, 75 honors programs at, 49–52 identity of, as Jesuit institution, ix, 26 location of, shifting, 77 master of arts degrees, first recipients of (1952), 22, 23 medical school admissions from, 47 music at, 13, 65–66 mutual dependence of, with Scranton, 89, 96–103 name change, from St. Thomas College, 13 nickname changed to Royals, 23 Office of Fellowship Programs, 46 political activism at, 24, 27–29 political neutrality of, 27 Program Committee, 42 relationship with Jewish community, 69–70 religious life at, 69–70

retreats at, 105 service emphasized at, 34, 103–8, 110–11 student-faculty ratio at, 49 student research at, 39 study abroad at, 52 technology at, 23–24, 25, 52 theatre at, 61–65 Vietnam War’s effect on, 27–29 women admitted to, 22, 29–30, 96 women’s enrollment at, 96 World War II’s effect on, 19–20, 21, 61, 63, 65 Thomas Jefferson University, 47 time capsule, 83, 85 Timlin, James C., 84 Truman Scholars, 46 Trussler, Susan, 46 Turcea, Benjamin, 105 United Colors, 70 University Commons, 80 University Mission and Ministry, 86, 88 University Players, 57, 60, 65, 73 University Professor, 30, 50 University of Scranton Singers, 59 University Senate, 24, 29 University of Success, 104 U.S. Army Air Corps, 20 U.S. Navy, 20 U.S. News & World Report, 33, 41 U.S. War Department, 20 Vaccaro, Patricia, 34, 103–4 Vanston, Brendan, 43 Vergnetti, Gian, 46 Veterans Club, 65 Vietnam War, 27–29 Vinson, Joe, 49 Vision, 61 Visitors Center, 77

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, 104 Walsh, James, 24 Walsh, Joseph, 56 Washingtonian, 103 Waters, William A., 22 Watres Armory, 15 Wedeman, Harold, 56 Weinberg, Harry, 82 Weinberg (Harry and Jeannette) Foundation, 69 Weinberg Judaic Studies Institute, 10, 69 Weinberg (Harry and Jeannette) Memorial Library, 49, 76, 82, 83, 100 Wellness Program, 70 Wenkler, Ralph, 56 Wheeler, Ferdinand C., 14, 18 Wierbowski, Bradley, 46 Windhover, 61, 70 “Windover, The” (Hopkins), 61 Women’s Center, 49 Women’s Studies, 49 Wooden, Sherman, 68 World Premiere Composition Series, 65, 67 World War I, 5–6, 8 World War II, 14, 19–20, 21, 61, 63, 65 Wunsch, Joseph, 56 WUSR-FM, 64, 65 WUSV-FM, 58, 64, 65 Xaverian Brothers, 3–4, 41 yearbooks, 61 Year with Frog and Toad, A, 57, 72–73 YWCA building, 81

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