fall 2007 - Seton Hall University

Our alumni encourage and lift up one another.
Indeed, you who are graduates carry this special
light to the whole world. You encourage and enable
us to move Seton Hall forward, through involvement
in presidential advisory councils, with service on
the Board of Regents, through contributions to
the Annual Fund, with regional alumni clubs and
recruiting efforts — and always with your prayers
and good words.
My memories include the day my dad dropped me
off at Boland Hall at the beginning of freshman year.
There was no great outpouring of student and staff
volunteers for Move-In Day in those days . . . but,
then again, I carried only two suitcases. Today, more
than 40 years later, I have never forgotten — and
hope never to forget — the words and actions of
those who encouraged me to be here, to learn here,
to come back here to serve students and colleagues.
For 27 years (except for some years of study and
work in Rome and a few other places), I have been
one of those alums who has been privileged to call
Seton Hall my actual home. I have met many of you,
worked hand-in-hand with you, to make ours a more
beautiful, prosperous and recognized community.
There is much more to do, for the next entering
class (who will have been born in 1990!) and for
the next century.
Our Sesquicentennial Strategic Plan will be
concluded at the end of this calendar year — which
includes the $150 million Ever Forward Capital
Campaign that is transforming Seton Hall. Graduates
have been a critical part of that plan. We have sought
to reach out to you to encourage in you a renewed
culture of philanthropy and active engagement with
Alma Mater.
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We have been pleased at your response. You have
shown your loyalty and commitment in ever greater
numbers and with tangible results.
Of special note is the growing number of local
and regional alumni chapters who carry forward
the mission of Seton Hall, especially in recruiting
higher-quality students than ever before. For all you
have done and continue to do in this regard, you
have my great and sincere gratitude.
This year we will embark upon a strategic planning
process — the third strategic plan in my 12
years as president — that will involve Seton Hall’s
alumni in the research, formulation and execution
of the plan, and as components of the plan itself.
Without our alumni, such planning and efforts at
renewal would be for naught.
With our alumni as our foundation we can
accomplish so much more. I think that even our
visionary founder, Bishop Bayley, could not have
foreseen the sheer numbers that we now represent.
But he certainly knew that he was a part of an
enterprise destined to transform those whom it
touched and who brought their talents and faith
to her service: to Alma Mater, to Seton Hall, of
whom we sing:
To Alma Mater all be loyal, . . .
be ye faithful in her eyes
for she will foster all your dreams.
Her name is Seton Hall.
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