Safe Haven - Regis College

dearneighbor2REGIS TODAYDuring the past six months, the citizens of the world have seeneconomic recession threaten Greece; battles rage on in Iraq,Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, and Syria; Super-PACs and talk-showhosts dangerously push images and language over the boundariesof civility; and religious women like our own Sisters of SaintJoseph of Boston join forces to fight human trafficking. Regisfaculty and staff members continuing our Haiti Project to educateHaitian nursing faculty recently reported back from their springseminar in that country that their first day was an emotional one.They met a 13-year-old girl who had just given birth to twins.These kinds of reality have made me—a nurse, mother, educator,and Catholic college president—dig in my heels and chargeRegis College faculty and staff with new energy for our mission.This winter, I attended a meeting with U.S. Secretary ofEducation Arne Duncan and discussed the challenges to highereducation. In March, I contributed to an article in The BostonGlobe Sunday magazine called “Putting college degrees to work.”Our education of students to have a good influence on the worldthrough service and leadership is a direct response to the humancondition and the common good.All of this means, first of all, firming up our capacities so themission can meaningfully continue and thrive. So this year wehave been very busy with the ongoing and central work of teaching,learning, and introducing new undergraduate and graduateprograms and courses, such as Heritage for a Global Society,Biomedical Science, Public Health, Medical Imaging, NuclearMedicine, American Narratives, Economics, and “Thinking, Learning, Doing: The HumanisticPath.” Students on our campus, who already reflect a global multiculturalism and diversity,have been working all year on learning how to help this campus community conduct the “difficultconversations” different human groups must always have.My office has been immersed in:• Working with the faculty of the School of Liberal Arts, Education and Social Sciences(SLAESS) to reinvigorate our liberal arts tradition• Conducting a facilities assessment to determine the needs of an aging physical plant• Taking the first steps toward development of a Master Plan to address those needs andour academic growth as we shape our future• Strategic planning, strategic planning, strategic planning, from the ground up andtop downWe live at a time when some sociologists say that human community itself is threatened and, invarious quarters, under attack. So one of our strategic goals is to “Build and strengthen community.”To do that we must, as another strategic goal puts it, “Bolster fiscal engagement.” This, inturn, supports our third and most fundamental goal, “Cultivate character,” that is, the missionand identity of Regis. You will be hearing more about our strategic plan in the months to come.That said, the morale on campus is good; the energy high; the students, faculty, staff, andtrustees hard at work; and I am very pleased at the direction Regis is going. I want to thankSister Betty Cawley ’63, CSJ, PhD, a classicist and historian, for so ably taking on the interimdeanship of SLAESS the past two years and welcome Malcolm Asadoorian, PhD, an economist,as he takes on the role of that School’s academic dean.Antoinette M. Hays, PhD, RNPRESIDENTphoto: Kathleen Dooher