A Notable Year for Anniversaries

THIRTY YEARS AGO, AN INTEGRATION WITH VILLA MARIA COLLEGE CHANGED THE TRAJECTORY OF CATHOLIC HIGHER EDUCATION.

FORTY YEARS AGO, GANNON CELEBRATED ITS NEWLY ACHIEVED UNIVERSITY STATUS.

FIFTY YEARS AGO, WOMEN WERE FIRST ENROLLED FULL-TIME AT GANNON.

This is a milestone year for anniversaries at Gannon, and we celebrate these moments that have become such an influential part of our history.

There’s much to appreciate about the people who make up this history, too. After all, numbers don’t tell the whole story – but we know some remarkable alumni who can. We’ve invited them to share some perspective with us.

1969-1970

Gannon began enrolling female students on a full-time basis into all of the school’s programs during the 1969-70 academic year. We have seen remarkable strides in the 50 years since then.

Today, the university’s student body is more than 60 percent females. And serving as the official voice of this student body in the upcoming academic year will be newly elected Student Government Association president, Beth Kropf.

Women have become an influential part of leadership at Gannon in other ways, too.

The university’s three colleges are each headed by women. It is the first time in Gannon’s history that all of its deans are women.

In 1964, Gannon began accepting women into limited programs and only in afternoon and evening classes, so as not to compete with Villa Maria College. That changed in 1969-70, when Gannon welcomed females into all of its programs full-time and set a precedent for women’s success.

MARY KLUPP ’73 FORD MOTOR CO., RETIRED AUTOMOTIVE MARKET RESEARCHER

Mary (Freeman) Klupp graduated from Gannon in 1973 as one of the school’s first female alumnae. Her graduating class included the first women who had enrolled full-time at the university after co-educational policies that previously only allowed part-time enrollment changed. At the time, the university did not offer female housing and programs primarily included male students. Klupp, who earned a degree in mathematics, drew on her Gannon experiences to become a highly successful automotive market researcher with Ford Motor Co. We asked her to share some insights with us.

Mary Klupp

What are some lessons you’ve learned that you would pass on to women in business?

Be prepared for someone to ask why you were hired and why you are where you are. Be prepared for comments that insinuate you are not qualified for the job. Have a prepared answer to your qualifications and expertise, so you’re not caught off guard.

Find a way to build credibility within your organization. Become the expert in some facet of the business. Be the person with the facts, the person with knowledge of the competition, and the “go-to” person for relevant information. This will give you confidence and show your knowledge of the business.

Find someone in senior management you can talk to. Every organization has the formal way things get done, but there also is the “informal way.” This can involve access to highvisibility assignments, new training opportunities, or international assignments. If your organization has a mentoring program, get into it. If not, find a person who will share their insider knowledge with you.

How you handle a mistake is more important than what happened. Mistakes happen, and how you handle it can define your career. When you make a mistake, admit it, apologize, have a plan to fix it and move on. If you’re a perfectionist, a mistake will feel like a huge failure. In any case, don’t be too hard on yourself, but recognize this won’t be the last time something happens.

1979-80

Gannon College officially became Gannon University on Jan. 1, 1980.

It was a milestone for a college that had started during the Great Depression. The college was known for its tenacity – such as in 1943 when all but 35 of its 250 students were drafted and yet the college persisted.

The State Department of Education’s announcement that Gannon was approved as a university was a tribute to this resilience and to the college’s continued growth in student enrollment and academic offerings.

Becoming a university allowed Gannon to capitalize on its existing graduate programs. The first master’s degrees in English and education had already launched in the 1960s and included nearly 50 students. The first doctoral program – organizational learning and leadership – was offered later in 2007.

Gannon’s university-status has contributed to our growth in the years since. This academic year, the university offers 26 master’s, 11 pre-professional, 20 cooperative, and six doctoral programs and additional research opportunities to 1,000 students across two campuses.

Bishop Michael Murphy emphasized Gannon’s vision as a new university through the words of Pope John Paul II in a speech made after the announcement in 1979.

“The Catholic university or college must train young men and women of outstanding knowledge, who having made a personal synthesis between faith and culture, will be both capable and willing to assume tasks in the service of the community and society in general, and to bear witness to their faith before the world,” he said. “To be what it ought to be, the Catholic college or university which bears witness to a living and operative Christianity – a community where a sincere commitment to scientific research and study goes together with a deep commitment to authentic Christian living.”

PARRIS BAKER, PH.D., ’92 GANNON UNIVERSITY, DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL WORK AND MORTUARY SCIENCE

Parris Baker first attended Gannon in 1979-81 during its transition from a college to a university. With the announcement came much pride from his fellow students, Baker said. But significant changes could be felt gradually over the years of growth that came for Gannon University. Baker, who is with us again as the director of social work and mortuary science, shared with us his perspectives on this.

Parris Baker

How have you seen Gannon grow from a college to the university as we know it today?

I grew up as an African-American in the ’60s during the time of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. At the time I went to Gannon, diversity was not present at all. I was first an engineering student, and I would engage in incredible conversations with James Freeman about issues surrounding race. He told me it was a myth that AfricanAmericans cannot learn science, and that he is here to change that. That was amazing for me as an African-American to hear that. Contrast this with now, as Gannon has grown from being primarily an all-white, all-male school to integrating Villa Maria College and becoming more diverse to the point where we’re literally inviting the entire world to campus.

Another point of growth is how Gannon now relates to the surrounding community. Two of the poorest ZIP codes in Pennsylvania, 16503 and 16501, are close to Gannon. Today, we’ve really engaged in how to touch communities through our university, as well as through the Our West Bayfront and Erie-GAINS. Before, we were too young to have this figured out. We’ve now positioned ourselves to be a vibrant part of Erie’s transition.

1989-90

In July of 1989 Gannon integrated with Villa Maria College to strengthen the delivery of Catholic higher education. Sister Ann Stephanie Stano, Ph.D., SSJ, dean of the School of Education at the time, called this integration “a new, exciting educational dynamic.” Notably, the new collaboration expanded Gannon's academic offerings. Villa Maria introduced new programs to the university, which led to a newly formed School of Health Sciences and School of Education. Many of the programs in these schools still exist at Gannon today, including nursing, physician assistant, respiratory therapy, early childhood education, elementary education and secondary education. And growth continues. Today, the university’s health professions and sciences programs include 35 percent of Gannon’s total enrollment. The School of Education has since launched additional education programs in specialized areas of the field – most recently in special education. Both offer continued graduate education opportunities.

Stano said that through the integration, “lifelong learning opportunities for women expanded exponentially and created pathways for future success.” Specifically, the integration provided women access to programs in business, science and engineering, which existed at Gannon prior to the integration. A larger faculty body also increased opportunities available to students as the university was enabled to apply for other new programs and grants. Many in the university remained devoted to Villa’s original commitment to women. Among them was Sister Leonie Shanley, former president of Villa Maria College, the first female vice president at Gannon, and dean of the Villa Maria College within Gannon. Shanley, Stano and these university leaders created many of the educational, recreational and social opportunities that laid the foundations for our female students and leaders today.

BECKY KOLODYCHAK ’91 UPMC PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL, FORMER CLINICAL DIRECTOR OF NEUROLOGY/VASCULAR SURGERY AND NEUROSURGERY

Becky Kolodychack was among the first graduates of Gannon University after its integration with Villa Maria College. She entered Gannon’s nursing program during a period of significant transitions for the university and went on to pursue a successful nursing career with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and most

recently at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. She later transitioned to a stay-at-home mother, but still values the education she received through Gannon and Villa Maria. She offered to share some thoughts around her experiences.

Becky Kolodychak

What are some of your memorable Gannon/Villa Maria experiences?

The education I received while at Gannon as a nursing student was, first, one of uniqueness. The nursing program at that time required the students to attend the Villa campus for all nursingspecific classes and all other didactic occurred downtown at the main Gannon campus, thus making for a great deal of traveling back and forth. Our nursing group tightly bonded over the years with our exclusive manner of training. We were always together in all our classes and clinical rotations, which occurred at the two local Erie hospitals. While the driving between campuses and going from two different styles of classroom learning required some getting used to, in the end it became very much a contributor to the nurse I became. I grew to know my nursing instructors well and cherished hearing their nursing experiences and clinical advice.

The Villa campus culminated that environment with its small and intimate setting. The class of students all working hard together to prepare for future nursing careers was small in size, which fostered openness in discussion and learning. While always a Gannon Knight, Villa Maria College contributed to my nursing education.