State of the College Fall 2013 President Tom Foley Mount Aloysius College
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here has been a great deal of excitement at Mt Aloysius since the last State of the College Address 12 months ago. Let me pick a few highlights from just the last month of the spring semester at Mt Aloysius: »» Our Faculty sponsored the second Honors Recognition event in April for over 150 students just before graduation and also produced another excellent Undergraduate Research Symposium, including the work of 11 students on their way to
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graduate degrees, as well as a record number of submissions from health to environmental sciences, from Marcellus Shale to marketing plans for brave new business ventures. Thank you Dean Fulop, Associate Deans Farcus and Zukowski, and Symposium Chair Dr. Natalie van Breukelen, Dr. Merilee Anderson and all their health sciences colleagues and other faculty who made research a priority. »» Our Students organized their own second annual Leadership Banquet in April, where they saluted more than 50 of their fellow students for outstanding service to clubs, organizations and to Mount Aloysius College. And our Students Activities leaders put on a dazzling array of campus events, entertainments, competitions and assemblies last spring, from another great MAC’s Got Talent, to craft, game and activity nights, as well as over 20
talented comedians, songmeisters and musicians who visited our campus. Thank you Elaine Grant, Dr. Jane Grassadonia, Chris Koren and all who helped organize this impressive roster of events. »» Our Admissions team put on another outstanding Mercy Presidential Scholars Banquet in April, with 29 of 31 scholars and their families in attendance and a final yield of 97%. We will have over 100 Mercy Presidential Scholars on campus next year, a new high. Thank you Dean of Admissions Frank Crouse, Freshman Admissions Director Andy Clouse and their teams, and especially our Mercy Presidential Scholars Committee led by Stacy Shenk. »» Our Staff pulled together the 1,000 details that go into Commencement and pulled off a Graduation in May that was moving, as always, and even
»» Our Student Affairs team conducted 559 social, educational and res-life activities with over 50 student organizations »» Our Admissions team helped produce the highest spring enrollment and largest graduating class (412) ever »» Our student athletes competed in 299 events in 13 intercollegiate sports, the most in our NCAA history »» Our community of actors, artists and writers sang at 6 Vox Nova concerts, produced 5 Belltowers, assembled 4 art exhibits and performed 3 plays (not including the Christmas Madrigal!) »» Our student volunteers donated 12,720 hours to 217 non-profit partners on 365 community projects »» Our Digital Grotto team produced 88 new videos on more than 40 different aspects of Mt Aloysius life »» And over the summer—260 young basketball players, 48 PSP young cadets, 40 plus somewhat older aspiring theologians, and 30 visitors all the way from Belfast, Northern Ireland graced our campus. exciting—and not merely for the presence of Western PA’s first family, the Rooney’s. More on them later. But thanks to Suzanne Campbell, our security team led by Bill Trexler, our buildings and grounds team led by Jerry Rubritz and to Chris Lovett and Jack Coyle and all their colleagues, who together constitute the “crew” for this signature event in our school year. »» And our Human Resources team organized our second annual all staff End of Year Luncheon in May, with enough door prizes to get a rouse from every table and enough time to congratulate our retirees appropriately! Thank you Suzanne, Tonia and their teams. In sheer metrics, the numbers for 2012-13 are impressive. During the past year: »» Our faculty taught 1,101 sections for 44,821 credits to over 1,700 students
All this activity generated 1440 news mentions in Pennsylvania for Mount Aloysius College, a full 120 each month. Good news for Admissions and for the College. Our Mt Aloysius team is making an impact—on our students, on this community and hopefully on each other.
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family of Ireland, where her husband Dan served as Ambassador for the last four years. She also spoke about the Mercy heritage in both of their families, their ancestral connections to the founders of the Sisters of Mercy from their own roots in Newry (Dan Rooney) and Cloontia (both in Ireland). She and Dan were very gracious, taking two of our star female student-athletes to dinner with them the night before (Lindsy Sammarco and Jalisa Westover with 3.7 and 3.9 GPA’s respectively and female athlete and scholar-athlete of the year at the Mount). “Mr. Rooney”–When I announced from the podium how he’d met the red-haired, green-eyed girl on the other side of the counter at the Arch Pharmacy in Pittsburgh’s North Side when he was 16, Dan apparently looked over at his wife and took her hand. Dan did a TV interview which WTAJ ran for three days. Mr. Rooney also autographed two Pittsburgh Steeler “Terrible Towels” for me (even though I had them lying on top of the Philadelphia Eagles blanket that I keep in my office). Honorary Degree recipients Shirley Pechter and Jim Walsh–Shirley honored for her lifetime of work in the arts and human services (especially for teen suicide prevention work); Jim for his “civil discourse” approach to difficult national and international issues (terrorism, North Korea, Iran). Jim also confided that his McKees Rocks’ parents would have been very proud—they were not able to make it to his college graduation (first in his family), and he himself was born in McKees Rocks before his family moved to Atlanta for work.
Turning to graduation, the third at Mt Aloysius for Michele and I (six if you count December graduations, which we do!). Some highlights:
Pinning ceremonies were, as always, quite moving. I attended the Nursing pinning and anointing ceremony, with Trustee Adele Kupchella. This year, a member of the President’ Executive Council was at each pinning ceremony. Thank you Nursing Associate Dean Zukowski, and Directors Regina Barr and Dr. Bonnie Noll for such a well-organized and moving event and thank you to all our Health Sciences chairs who ran the six other pinning ceremonies.
Commencement speaker Patricia Rooney–spoke directly to our yearlong theme of Hospitality: Finding Home in a Changing World. She told us a few stories from her experience as the first American
A new approach to the final “senior” week–Student affairs under Jane Grassadonia and Elaine Grant produced a series of activities to create a modified senior week “feel” for the graduates.
et me use this State of the College opportunity to cover three topics: reprise a bit on graduation; deliver to you a stakeholders report on progress/ challenges across the College; and finally, share a few comments on our Speakers Series’ (and College) theme for this year.
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INCOMING MAC CLASS OF 2013 30 Mercy Presidential Scholars (highest ever) 17 Biology Fellows 4 English Fellows 5 History/Political Science Fellows 21 Honors Students 35 out-of-state students from 18 states (CT/RI/OH/ MD/CA/FL/HI/ID/IL/MA/MI/ MO/NC/NJ/NY/SC/VA/WV) 5 International Students 112 Mercy Grant Recipients
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There was a staff/student softball game, an alumni-hosted barbeque and a more robust graduate toast and breakfast (with multiple toasts to our graduates on behalf of the Sisters of Mercy, Student Affairs, the Faculty, the MAC Alumni Association and from me). We will continue to enhance all these efforts next year. Changes in the Commencement ceremony itself–We added a color guard (led by one of our own students) and a bagpiper. We also added the presentation of four artifacts to connect these graduates and their stories to the history of Mount Aloysius. This also gave us an opportunity to honor 15 students (up from 5 in 2010) for their contributions to the College. We continued our new (as of last year) tradition of honoring a couple for their contributions (the Calandra’s and now the Rooney’s), and presenting an honorary degree to someone in education (Walsh) and someone from the region (Pechter). Baccalaureate Mass—Bishop Mark spoke to our students about hospitality in a biblical sense, and there were seven MAC students on the altar for the service; but the true highlight was the choir, with little
time to practice, terrific nonetheless. I mentioned in closing remarks that God has been sending that sunlight through those same stained glass windows for over 100 years. Enough said.
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ow, as a sort of stakeholder’s report, let me try to capture a few updates for you in the next few minutes.
Admissions As matter of FTEs, enrollment at Mt Aloysius has increased 60% in the last decade. And the news continues to be encouraging—especially as compared to some of our principle competition— even as the available pool of high school graduates has dropped almost 20% since 2008. Last year’s entering class was 1768 (FTEs) and this year’s fall class is again on pace to be a record setter, up almost 200 students from our numbers just three years ago. Freshmen admissions are up another 3%,
Adult and Transfers up 5%, Continuing Education is up 35%, (almost double last year’s growth) and Grad School, though still small, went up 14% (42% in two years). Even Summer School finished up 8% in total credits for the second year in a row. Slow and steady, even with the smaller pool and the increased competition in some of our subject areas. As of today, we are bursting at the seams for dorm space—a very good problem to have and one with which many of our competitors would be delighted to complain about. With this class, we will also welcome: »»
30 Mercy Presidential Scholars (highest ever)
»» 17 Biology Fellows »» 4 English Fellows »» 5 History/Political Science Fellows »» 21 Honors Students »» 35 out-of-state students from 18 states »» 5 International Students, and »» 112 Mercy Grant Recipients.
Thanks to Frank and his team, who have broken their own record for personal campus visits, for on-site school visits and for personal phone calls to prospective students—again this year.
CONSTRUCTION Senior Vice President for Administration Suzanne Campbell will give you a more detailed analysis. But three quick updates. First, the Mountie Stables and Athletic Complex—where some of you will gather for an informal reception (and perhaps a faculty softball game later today)—have been open for business since last year. We continue to upgrade that facility and the fields—check out the new paved access all the way up to the baseball field and the high-tech hook ups in the Stables itself. Our fields got plenty of use again over the summer as we hosted high school baseball all-star tryouts, the local Cresson (14 and under) softball team and a whole host of baseball clubs from Cresson to Johnstown—including the premier AAABA League—at Mt Aloysius. All of that exposure is especially good if you work in Admissions or the Athletic department. Second, the bigger construction news is of course, the Athletic Convocation and Wellness Center. 86,467 square feet—more than twice the square footage in Cosgrave. Two NCAA regulation gymnasiums, a wellness center, a high-tech classroom and three classroom-sized and suited all-purpose spaces, a large all-purpose conference room, home/away/male/female locker rooms, weightlifting center, athletic trainers’ quarters, public and studentathlete restrooms. We have made a lot of changes since the drawings you may have seen 8-10 years ago. These included: »» We took out 1,000 seats to maximize classroom and multi-purpose space—we can still seat almost 3,500 people in there for Convocation and Commencement »» Fewer on the floor seats saved us space on restrooms and concessions; we substituted mobile concession carts as well
»» We downsized offices and upsized the Wellness Center, and »» We cut out a lot of the outdoor reception areas. They looked nice on the architect’s renderings but we just didn’t see the College getting much use from that space—since most of our large audience activities will take place during the winter months. Those cuts allowed us to maximize the wellness features and to spend more of our resources inside the building. And so far, we are ahead of schedule and under budget. We will move offices in there in October, play basketball and volleyball full seasons in there and you will be able to walk the indoor path and watch the first snowfall while you work out in the Wellness Center. Yes, that deserves a hand—Suzanne and Gerry, please take a bow. Finally on construction, we have also continued upgrade work all over the campus this summer. Some examples include: »» painted entire 2nd floor of Misciagna and the Health Services suite (schedule) »» remodeled kitchenettes in Ihmsen and the Controller’s office (schedule) »» installed new flooring in two classrooms and one office in Academic Hall (schedule) »» completed interior and exterior (including masonry) summer repairs to all Residence Halls (schedule) »» performed preventive maintenance on all HVAC systems campus-wide (schedule) »» repaired (long overdue) condensation lines for Main complex heating system in the Chapel corridor »» paved access and ADA routes to baseball field »» repaved behind St. Joe’s, the Main circle, the loop road by Pierce and top of Ihmsen hill (schedule) »» corrected seasonal flooding behind St. Joe’s near the old Stables »» repaired exterior lighting campus-wide (schedule) »» replaced sanitary sewer-line below
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campus from manhole # 3 to # 5 (total replacement 520 linear feet) »» repaired storm sewer-line between the (old) Men’s House and loop road »» maintained the temporary parking lot behind the Library (to replace spaces displaced by new construction), and »» seeded, aerated, rolled playing fields in preparation for the fall seasons.
AWARDS Several recent awards to the College that are of note. Let me outline them quickly: »» College of Distinction: Listed for the third straight year as a “College of Distinction” for fall 2013 citing “engaged students, great teaching, vibrant communities, and successful outcomes” »» Community Service Honor Roll: Named to the 2013 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll by the Corporation for National and Community Service, fourth time altogether, and second year in a row, one of three schools in our five county area »» Military Friendly College: Named a 2013 Military Friendly School by G.I. Jobs and have been consistently since the inauguration of the program »» S&P A- Rating: MAC Promoted to an S&P rating of A-, with a positive outlook. When our S&P rating came up for its two year review, we were not only reaffirmed at A-, but promoted to a “trending positively” outlook. Safe to say that any school our size and classification would be delighted with this rating, and »» Editorial kudos: received editorial “Laurels” from the Johnstown Tribune Democrat (for our offer of free classes to any who lost their jobs due to the closure of Cresson-SCI) and from the Altoona Mirror (praising our decisive response to a threat against a faculty member on twitter).
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Our academic programs also had banner years: »» Capsim Business honors: our Business/Accounting program saw two teams of MAC students finish the Capsim ® Capstone Strategy Simulation in the top 10% of approximately 2,500 teams globally. MAC teams finished at the 96th and 97th percentile nationally »» ETS Criminology honors: MAC crim majors finished in the overall 89th percentile against national competition, with two students in the top 3% in the country »» NCLEX Nursing honors: with fully 35% of our total student body (and already on the way to a 100% job placement rate), our MAC nurses state exam pass rate is holding steady at 92%. That is just excellent, second year (and fourth grading period) in a row where our overall rate will exceed 90%. That pass rate competes with and surpasses the rate for many institutions whose incoming classes carry far higher average SAT and ACT scores and compares very well across the state »» State exam honors: 100% pass rate in the most recent state exams in early childhood, elementary education and medical lab techs; 95% for our radiologic technologists and 89% for our surg techs, and »» Grad school success rates: Eight Mounties are headed to doctoral programs in Physical Therapy, one Mountie each to law, medicine and pharmacy schools this fall and all of our first counseling master’s grads passed their state boards on the first try. Congratulations to all the faculty and staff associated with these outstanding results in so many different departments. Our student-athletes also excelled in the classroom, and had some good moments on the field of play as well: »» AMCC school academic honors: The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference named a record 54% of our student-athletes to its spring AMCC Academic Honor Roll. Mt Aloysius finished in a virtual dead
heat for second in the race for the Dean’s Cup for the AMCC, awarded to the member institution with the overall highest percentage of its student-athletes on the league Honor Roll. »» AMCC team academic honors: The baseball team won for highest team GPA and men’s basketball received the National Association of Basketball Coaches Academic Excellence Award (one of only 94 teams among over a thousand NCAA/NAIA programs); three team members (Aaron Patrick, Jake Wyatt and Kyle Baughman) made the NABC academic honor roll (tripling our previous grand total). »» AMCC individual academic honors: Team captain Tonya Bibby became the first MAC soccer player to be named to the All-East Region Scholar-Athlete Team (Honorable Mention) by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). PT major Aaron Kovach and business major Jalissa Westover were finalists for the top academic student-athlete award in the conference. »» AMCC community service honors: Our student-athletes also brought home four of the eight AMCC awards for community service work, including two of the three Gold awards—for the overall body of volunteer work by our 13 teams and for the Pink Out Volleyball Classic on behalf of the Joyce Murtha Center in Windber. »» AMCC Athletic honors: Four MAC teams (women’s basketball, tennis and softball, baseball) made the final four in conference play, a record for the College. And the Class of 2013 produced only the second league MVP in any AMCC sport—baseball player Aaron Kovach (who also brought home a 3.7 GPA and starts his doctorate in PT this fall). The other is Jalisa Westover, who shared the softball AMCC MVP award as a sophomore and carries a 3.93 GPA into her senior year. Finally, MAC had the only AMCC first team all-star in two sports—Lindsy Sammarco in basketball and softball (3.7 GPA).
You will note that the first four awards had to do with success in the classroom and volunteer efforts in the community. Thanks to our Office of Student Advising and Success led by Heather Lowe and to the many mentors—both faculty and staff—who are signal parts of these off-thefield results.
College Awards College of Distinction Community Service Honor Roll Military Friendly College S&P A- Rating Editorial kudos
Academic Awards Capsim Business honors ETS Criminology honors NCLEX Nursing honors State exam honors Grad school success rates
Student-Athlete AMCC Awards School Academic Team Academic Individual Academic Community Service Student/Team Athletic
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INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT Mt Aloysius is a tuition dependent institution and capital campaigns are the only way for us to finance all the new construction on this campus in the last 10 years, the only way to pay for great advances like the Simulation Labs in Nursing and technology across campus, and the only way to increase our investments in enrollment, community service and faculty excellence. We don’t want to conduct a campaign outside the College without everyone inside the College understanding why we have to do it. We have built this campaign around five themes that emerged from the focus groups in which many of you participated: »» Center for Civic Engagement »» Excellence in Health Sciences »» Faculty Achievement »» Preparing High School Students, and »» Athletic Convocation and Wellness Center. We haven’t really solicited much beyond our Board of Trustees and the President’s Advisory Council and the commitments are over a five-year period, but the results so far are very encouraging—we have almost doubled the final numbers for the College’s only previous campaign back in 2008. Much more work to be done but this is a good start. We also have new leadership in Vice President Jennifer Dubuque, who brings more than 20 years’ experience in higher education fundraising to her new post at the College. She has made a solid start by identifying long-term database issues, re-invigorating alumni outreach, challenging and upgrading her staff and professionalizing communications in mailings and alumni magazines.
ALUMNI Just a few words to keep you in the loop of our increased engagement here. First, lots of activity. We held 12 alumni events in four states last year—most in a very long time. Jennifer Dubuque and
Sally Gordon ran our most financially successful golf tournament ever, doubling last year’s net profit. Second, that duo together with Michael Greer, Jake Claar and the team also produced a fine alumni weekend of activities in late July, with almost 200 alums in attendance at over 20 events. We had a continuing education nursing seminar, a symposium on “The Past Present and Future of the College” (with Sister Charlene, Professor Minjar, Jack Coyle, two students, alum Pat Gildea and me). We also inducted a class of 5 Distinguished Alums who came back to us from State College, Scranton, Chambersburg, Maryland and Georgia. Good people, nice stories, some very moving speeches. Third, the newly reconstituted Alumni Council also introduced two “honorary” alums—Professor Pat Cuthbert, who gave 32 years of service to over a 1000 nursing students here and Sister Mary Guiseppe DaBella, a Montessori pioneer who has been teaching at the Ann Harris Smith Little People’s Place for most of the last decade. Finally, on alums, hope you had a chance to look at our two most recent Alumni Magazines, among the best we have produced, in the opinion of many. Thanks to Jack Coyle and Jennifer Dubuque and their teams for all the good ideas and stories in each edition. There are copies at the door for those who wish them.
TECHNOLOGY In my inaugural remarks, I outlined what I called the “Mount Aloysius Compact”— and outlined the proposition that we would endeavor to produce graduates who are “job-ready, community-ready and technology-ready.” We continue to invest heavily and appropriately in the hardware side of this equation. Here is a top-10 list of recent improvements implemented in-house by our IT team: »» Increased significantly the number of Wi-Fi access points across campus, ensuring better connectivity, security, and capacity. Partly as a result of this work, we
»» Increased our Internet bandwidth speed by another 65% this year. The Internet 100 meg connection was activated last year (four fold increase in bandwidth at no extra cost—thank you Suzanne Campbell and Rich Shea). We are keeping the existing Internet connection for additional bandwidth. »» Upgraded Jenzabar EX ERP system. This upgrade affected all modules (Registration, Advising, Admissions, Financial Aid, Business Office, and Student Life) within Jenzabar EX and required an enormous amount of planning, prepping, testing and securing the most critical systems of college operations. The information and data is sensitive and the connections between and among systems are intricate. The upgrade went off without a hitch (thanks to nine months of prep by Rich Shea and their team) and end users now enjoy the benefits of the upgrade with no significant interruption in services. Significant cost savings were realized by doing this in house as opposed to having the vendor supply a team. »» Upgraded Bookstore system. This is the first step that will enable future utilization of student ID cards in the Bookstore »» Upgraded Phone system. All phone calls now use Comcast instead of Verizon. This will result in lower monthly bills and long distance
Five Campaign Themes Center for Civic Engagement Excellence in Health Sciences Faculty Achievement Preparing High School Students Athletic Convocation and Wellness Center
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charges for the College »» Upgraded Blackboard Transact system. This upgrade was necessary to offer the new enhanced meal plans and “Mountie Money” for students in the cafeteria »» Installed and setup SiriusXM radio in Cosgrave. For your listening pleasure satellite radio is now available in Cosgrave »» Per our campus-wide IT replacement plan, we yy Replaced 100 new computers across campus yy Replaced Smart Boards in Nursing (Pierce and Main next summer) yy Replaced network infrastructure with 10 Gig connections to all buildings yy Replaced 50 faculty laptops (per schedule) »» Connected new ACWC to campus. The ACWC will also be used as a data backup facility. »» Completed integration of our four principle data systems (a huge
milestone for the College—critical to overall system speed and compatibility, and enhances applications across the board): yy Jenzebar (student-information system) yy MAC Gmail (faculty, staff, students) yy Campus directory services yy Blackboard (teaching tool). The College has long been known for producing graduates who are ready to work on day one, and who understand what it means to be of service to their communities. It is the strong feeling of many in this internet age that the complete education now requires a demonstrated facility with communications technology. At my request, Dean of Faculty Tim Fulop appointed a faculty committee to define the term “technology ready” in our academic setting. That group has completed its work. Next week, we will commission a college-wide Technology Committee, chaired by our two Senior Vice Presidents (for Academic and Administrative Affairs, respectively). That committee will be tasked with implement-
Definition of “Technology-Ready” Graduates »» That every student will experience an on-line course while here »» That every student will take three credits in communications technology (at beginning, after two years and at end of four years)
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»» That every student will experience an agreed percentage of technology intensive courses »» That every student will experience a technology-rich environment during their time here.
ing four key initiatives: »» That every student will experience an on-line course while here »» That every student will take three credits in communications technology (at beginning, after two years and at end of four years) »» That every student will experience an agreed percentage of technologyintensive courses, and »» That every student will experience a technology-rich environment during their time here. Thank you to Senior VPs Fulop and Campbell who will now lead the effort to implement these initiatives as quickly as possible and in all cases, by this time next year. One caveat to all this discussion of technology and education, some words from Don Randel of the Mellon Foundation, which has funded educational innovation across the country for generations. In an address last year to the Association of American Colleges and Universities, he warned: “There is no disruptive technology that will take the place of a grownup asking a young person to write about something of substance and then sitting with that young person, challenging him or her to observe more acutely and to frame a stronger argument in support of an original idea. This is an activity that must be undertaken thousands of times every day all across the country if we are to develop the minds that will ensure the nation’s welfare in every sense.” Thank you all for continuing to challenge the minds that are entrusted to us each year in these ways.
DIGITAL GROTTO We don’t keep a guest log down there, but I know that many of you have visited the Digital Grotto, in the basement of Alumni Hall. I like that you have to walk through all the costumes for our school plays to get to the grotto itself because I think the Digital Grotto represents a similar opportunity for transformation—of people or ideas. It gives us new tools with which to teach both in the classroom and in other less traditional forums, and I hope that you will take advantage of this resource. Three updates. First, we have again expanded the resources available down there, with new and used cameras and upgraded software. The two new learning stations got tons of use, with 88 new videos this year. Our two grad assistants are back for another year as they finish their MBA degrees, and they have both been outstanding contributors to the success of the Digital Grotto under Sam Wagner’s tutelage. Second, this is still a relatively new phenomenon for us at MAC and in higher education but already key to our progress. This lab is a learning facility for interested students, it’s a production ground for faculty and staff, and it’s a studio from which the message of Mount Aloysius can be distributed globally. Our staff and students can film three-camera interviews in an eight-person controlled setting with advanced recording, prompting, lighting and set control. The lab provides green screen capabilities allowing editors to inlay custom backgrounds or graphics to match the speaker’s message. Post-production equipment includes multiple video editing PCs for student and communications staff use. Our overall goal is for the lab to meet and expand the multimedia goals of the College as well as keep pace with the technology of our competitors.
Third, this is just one step on our path to graduating students who are “technology ready.” We are trying to use the arsenal of technology tools down there and across the campus—especially at the library: »» to introduce more blended learning, »» to build tutorials on things like FASFA and human anatomy, »» to deliver themed products for Admissions and Alumni departments, and »» to tape interviews for wider dissemination. Check out the Digital Grotto offerings at the YouTube icon on our website cover page every once in a while. And browse the website, our Facebook, Twitter and Flickr pages on occasion—lots of surprises in there—like over 100 photo galleries from different college events.
COMMUNITY SERVICE Community Service is alive, well and prolific at Mt Aloysius. In April, we completed our second year-long survey of community service at Mt Aloysius. More than 900 students performed almost 12,670 hours of service on 365 projects with 217 separate community partners. These are truly astounding numbers. And I say that as someone who spent the 12 years prior to my time at Mount Aloysius as CEO of arguably the two largest volunteer organizations in the entire state. The “street” value of all that work is almost $280,000. That’s $280,000 in volunteer work by Mt Aloysius students in one school year. Most of the work is done right here in the Southern Alleghenies. 132 of
the local projects promote health and wellness activities, 34 of them address the environment, 31 involve education, and 20 projects aid veterans in our community. Some of these volunteers travel well beyond our footprint to share their talents—to Harrisburg, Clearfield, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. And besides now traditional service trips by over 30 students to Guyana and New Orleans, four faculty members traveled to Ireland this summer and made presentations in Dublin and Carlow on their work here at Mt Aloysius. We thank Sisters Nancy and Helen Marie and all the faculty and staff who help to ensure this dimension at Mt Aloysius, so fundamental to our history and to our mission, to this day. We also thank all of you who have joined these efforts over many years. We thank all our CLS instructors who pound home the message of community service and we thank all in this audience who are volunteers in your community. I think this kind of information is central to the story of Mt Aloysius and of its reach beyond the front gate.
Mount Aloysius Community Service 900+ students 12,670 hours of service 365 projects 217 partners $280k street value
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SPEAKER SERIES: HOSPITALITY We had an extraordinary run with the themes for our last two annual Speaker Series. We began two years ago with the year on “Civil Discourse.” I introduced the topic at the spring version of this address, the College hosted a first-rate panel on the theme during inauguration (which ended up being televised statewide on PCN), we hosted six outstanding speakers on the topic and we ultimately produced a monograph on the 2011-12 Speaker Series which was officially received by the Library of Congress last year. The Librarian of Congress invited Michele and I to his office overlooking the Capitol where we personally presented the Mt Aloysius monograph to him. That meeting was a watershed of sorts. America’s Head Librarian, like many Mount Aloysius students, turns out to be a first-generation college graduate. Dr. Billington very much appreciated the story of our college and its origins, was moved on the topic of civil discourse by the very same incident that prompted our year-long discussion (the attempted assassination of Congressman Gabby Gifford and the murder of six American citizens during that attempt) and he has agreed to join us in the spring for a lecture on this year’s Speaker’s Series topic on citizenship about which you will
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hear more later. In the second year of our Speaker’s Series we turned to the topic of “Hospitality: Finding Home in a Changing World.” As in the first year, our efforts built on the theme with our students at Orientation, at Convocation, during the All College Liturgy and even in some weekly lessons down at Little People’s Place (our campus child care center). We had another run of exceptional speakers who in most cases spent substantial time at the college after their formal lectures—in classroom presentations and discussions over meals with students and faculty. That second annual effort produced not quite a monograph but a collection of six outstanding lectures on the theme from David Shribman and Cindy Skrzycki’s lecture on “The Hospitality of Writing” to Bishop Mark’s lecture on “The Theology of Hospitality” to Harry McHugh’s talk on “Hospitality as a Business Imperative” to Dr. Jim Walsh’s peroration as “Hospitality as a Context for Foreign Policy” all the way to the Commencement address where Patricia Rooney spoke about hospitality as an element of her faith, as part of her ancestral heritage and as a fundamental part of her husband’s work as Ambassador to Ireland. Elements of the Hospitality Speaker Series included:
»» Convocation Address by John Granger, author and authority on hospitality in an often inhospitable world, seen through the lens of three series close to the hearts of all millennials: The Hunger Games, The Twilight Saga and The Harry Potter series. »» Fall Honors Lecture entitled “The Hospitality of Writing,” jointly delivered by Pulitzer Prize winner David Shribman and his wife Cindy Skrzycki, an award-winning writing instructor at Pitt »» Faculty Honors Symposium looked at “hospitality” from perspectives as diverse as psychology, religion, government and English. Thank you Drs. Dragani and Costanza and company. »» Fall Orientation Program had several skits and programs built around the theme and it was part of RA training as well. Thank you Elaine, Chris and Dr. Jane. »» Constitution Day Program revolved around the theme, with young reps from various political parties and the two national campaigns addressing the theme “Is There a Home for Young People in the Political Status Quo?” Another thank you to Drs. Smith and Jones. »» Spring Honors Lecture looked at “Hospitality as a Business
Imperative” from the perspective of two leaders in the retail and gas business—Wawa and Sheetz. »» Moral Choices Lecture by Dr. Jim Walsh, who fascinated us through 11 events in two days, culminating in his address on “Hospitality as a Context for Foreign Policy: My Five Dinners with Ahmadinejad.” »» Graduation address by Patricia Rooney, which focused on the roots of hospitality in the Mercys, in her faith, and on their recent diplomatic assignment as Ambassador to Ireland. Before moving on to the subject of this year’s Speaker Series, I want to thank the numerous people who played significant roles in this signature endeavor: the 10 members of our Speaker Series Committee (Chair, Tom Foley, Dr. Tim Fulop, Dr. Paul Farcus, Dr. Becky Zukowski, Dr. Jane Grassadonia, Sr. Helen Marie Burns, Dr. Michael Jones, Dr. Glenn Neff, Director of Communications Jack Coyle, Dr. Barbara Cook), whose names appear on the screen, all of whom helped with individual lectures and some of whom helped incorporate the topic into our CLS curriculum; Elaine Grant and Dr. Jane Grassadonia who built the topic into Orientation, RA and other activities; and Tom Fleming and Carla Nelen, who helped handle the detail for many of these visitors. Can we give them all a hand. Thank you.
SPEAKER SERIES: CITIZENSHIP Our theme this year is “21st Century Citizenship: The Common Good.” The phrase presents us with at least three separate sub-themes—about the value of citizenship, about the idea of common good, and about the special challenges of the times in which we live, the 21st century. I want to say just a few words about the connection of this theme to our larger purpose of education.
Early American leaders were also attuned to these challenges. Ben Franklin in Philadelphia and Paul Revere in Boston each had a strong sense of civic duty, cast in terms of De Tocqueville’s “greater good,” and pursued their belief by helping to build libraries, create public hospitals, fund mutual insurance companies, start volunteer fire departments, and found colleges, fraternal and even intellectual societies.
More than 20 centuries ago, Greek thinkers grappled with the first two of these ideas, citizenship and common good. They argued about the notion of a communal life in the polis, the Greek city-state, and about the conflicts inherent between the wants of the individual and the needs of the community. Plato and Aristotle led the early debates, taken up in later centuries by Christian theologians like Augustine and Aquinas, Luther and Calvin.
Annual Theme Speakers: Citizenship
Thomas Aquinas felt that the biblical admonition to “love thy neighbor” was a guideline for governance as well as religion. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau and others took up this debate between individual rights and state sovereignty. Terms like laissez faire and social contract competed for primacy in their writings.
Four-time European Ambassador
County Court Justice Counsel to the Vice President of the US State Supreme Court Justice
Former President of this College Our nation’s Librarian of Congress
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For our purposes as an institution of higher education, Thomas Jefferson saw a direct link between education and citizenship, believing that for full citizenship, all our citizens had to be educated. He went further, opining that in addition to moral education, students should receive academic training, which Jefferson hoped, in the words of one biographer, “would prepare their critical reasoning skills to meet the challenges posed by democracy”—perhaps the first defense of the liberal arts in American history. In an early draft of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson smudged out a word and replaced it with the word “citizens.” For more than two centuries, historians wondered what word he had removed in favor of “citizens.” Just three years ago, using modern spectral imaging technology developed for military use, the Library of Congress revealed that the word he obliterated in his early text was “subjects.” Not subjects. Citizens. Not “tell me what to do,” but “let me participate”— perhaps the very essence of our American Revolution. So citizenship, participating in democracy, is the higher calling, and apparently the founders who endorsed his document felt the same. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis observed two centuries later that “the most important office in our democracy is that of private citizen,” and thus drew a line direct to Jefferson’s distinction between a mere “subject” and a vaunted “citizen.” One last thought on the connection between citizenship and education. In 1930, Eleanor Roosevelt penned an essay on “Good Citizenship: The Purpose of Education,” in a magazine called Pictorial Review. In it, she argued that “the true purpose of education is to produce citizens” and she outlined all the ways that an educational system does that—from the simple “acquisition of knowledge” that may help one day to critically analyze an economic issue to the “development of powers of concentration and accuracy which…help analyze a difficult situation.” She also saw a connection to citizenship from “social activities and athletics” that are part of one’s education—she argued that these activities “develop team play, cooperation and thought and consider-
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ation for others”—something to do with the common good, one might say. As we begin this semester, the key role of education in the promotion of the cognitive and moral qualities of citizenship is not something just discovered when we chose this theme. This debate goes back a couple thousand years, at least to Plato, and was a vigorous part of the debate at the founding of our own citizen state. At Mt Aloysius, we invite all to participate in this debate during our academic year and we hope to advance the conversation a bit with the speakers who have already agreed to join us on campus: »» A PA County Court Justice (and trustee) who will deliver our convocation address on the topic »» A long-time counsel to the Vice President of the US who will join us for Constitution Day »» A state Supreme Court Justice who will deliver the Fall Honors Lecture »» A four time European Ambassador who will deliver the Spring Honors Lecture »» A former President of this College who will deliver the Moral Choices Lecture, and »» And our nation’s Librarian of Congress who will also join us in the Spring semester. We are also delighted that our CLS classes will start with a reading titled “The Common Good,” thanks to Dr. Michael Jones, that outlines in crisp, probing language the challenges inherent in our theme. I think our students will have plenty of questions with which to pepper these many visitors to our campus.
Two final comments. First, about the year just past. 2012-13 was another terrific year for Michele and me at Mt Aloysius. We appreciate all your support. I recently completed my third performance evaluation for the Board of Trustees. It is a very formal, metricsfocused process. In Board metrics’ terms, I can say five things about my third year here: »» Participated in over 350 events
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on our campus last year—from hosting Mercy Scholar socials to participating in Career Services Mock Interviews, from enjoying theater productions to grading biology/anatomy class presentations, from managing Board of Trustees and President’s Advisory Council meetings to delivering formal lectures on topics as diverse as terrorism (the destruction of community) and leadership (the building of community). »» Visited with over 100 community and college partners in the past year from local arts groups to Rotaries, Chambers and other non-profits, to fellow Presidents from a dozen competitor institutions and with elected officials in Harrisburg and appointed ones in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Served as keynote speaker at a number of these events in Blair and Cambria counties, and was one of eight PA college Presidents (and the only one from this region) invited to testify in Pittsburgh before the Governors’ Commission on PostSecondary Education. »» Hosted over 75 events for faculty and staff, including: 13 open houses in my office (to celebrate holidays, retirements, doctorates and more); five all-staff/all-faculty picnics and meals (from the summer St. Aloysius picnic to the back-toschool and Christmas family events to our now annual end-of-year luncheon); more than 20 special events to welcome visitors (for our still new Bishop, for Carlow, Mercy and “Visiting” scholars, for Speaker Series lecturers, etc.); and a trio of “dinners on the veranda” (prepared and served by Michele and me on the small porch that fronts Old Main) for special guests of the College (from Belfast, Northern Ireland and Dallas, PA and from the ranks of long-time college and Mercy volunteers). »» Delivered formal remarks at over 50 campus events—at open houses and Mercy Scholar Banquets for our prospective students, at Honor Society Inductions and Student Athlete Banquets for our current students, at President’s Appreciation
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MAC FACTS 94% of Mt Aloysius students need financial aid from the College to get through school
my predecessor Sister Mary Ann as well), just completed my term as chair of the President’s Council of the AMCC (our 10-member athletic conference), serve on the Executive Committee for the Johnstown Area Redevelopment Initiative (JARI) and on the Executive Roundtable for Blair County Chamber of Commerce.
76% of Mt Aloysius students work at least a part time job, some full time jobs
So thank you for this extraordinary year, as we prepare for yet another.
62% of Mt Aloysius students are the first generation in their family to go to college
Last comment. With all the change inherent in this message, there is one thing about Mt Aloysius that does not change at all, and that is our fundamental mission:
40% of Mt Aloysius students come from families with total incomes under $38k a year
»» 94% of Mt Aloysius students need financial aid from the College to get
35% of Mt Aloysius students are mature students, at least five years out of high school 100% of Mt Aloysius students volunteer in the community during their time here.
Dinners and Alumni Awards Banquets for our alums and donors, and at retirement lunches and new doctorate celebrations for our faculty and staff. Also had the pleasure of three “Fireside Chats” hosted by our student government leaders, at the last of which Michele and I turned the tables and asked questions of the SGA officers and students—it was fun and revealing, for both the students and for me. »» Accepted leadership positions on three college-related Boards—on the NCAA Division III President’s Advisory Council, on the Board of Directors for Campus Compact (a national leader on community service in higher education), and on the Board of Trustees at our sister school in Chicago, St. Xavier’s University. I continue to serve on the Board of Trustees for AICUP (Association of Private Colleges and Universities in PA - a post held by
through school »» 76% of Mt Aloysius students work at least a part-time job, some full-time jobs »» 62% of Mt Aloysius students are the first-generation in their family to go to college »» 40% of Mt Aloysius students come from families with total incomes under $38k a year »» 35% of Mt Aloysius students are mature students, at least five years out of high school, and »» 100% of Mt Aloysius students volunteer in the community during their time here. Those numbers speak directly to mission
and purpose, and help define us more than any soliloquy I might offer. And when I speak on behalf of Mt Aloysius to elected officials, to area community leaders, to potential donors and to supporters of this college, I share these numbers with them. I also highlight three related points:
long values.
1. that our total cost-per-student is only slightly more than that offered at area state funded institutions (and less than Penn State main campus);
All three points are critical—we keep costs down, we don’t shrink from serving the hard to serve, and we don’t abandon the promotion of lifelong values in our teaching model. All three of these practices—practices that we tie directly to the mission handed down to us by our Mercy founders—have helped Mt Aloysius to be seen increasingly as a model of how to do higher education right.
2. that our percentage of Pell-eligible students with significant financial need was much higher than at most state funded institutions; and
And I thank each and every one of you for your role in creating, protecting, projecting and driving that model (of how to do education right) every single day.
3. that a Mt Aloysius education is an excellent value, centered in very concrete ways on the issues of life
Let’s all have another great year at Mt Aloysius. §
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