UARTERLY - College of New Rochelle

In planning for
our Centennial Year,
it was my desire to invite
to The College of New
Rochelle distinguished
leaders from the academic,
religious, and business
worlds for a series of
extraordinary convocations that would focus on the
significant elements of CNR.
My expectation was that these convocations would
give us the time and opportunity to engage in serious
discussions on the elements that make this university
community unique in the world of higher education.
We were gifted in having our Centennial year begin in
Holy Family Chapel last September. We were honored
to have presiding at this opening Centennial Mass our
dear friend Archbishop Joseph Pittau of the Vatican
Congregation for Catholic Education.
Archbishop Pittau conveyed to the Community Pope
John Paul II’s blessings and felicitations and drew attention
to the meaning and mission of a Catholic college like
our own.
The Archbishop pointed out that while we cannot reduce
the Gospel message to the “merely socio-political dimension,”
we also cannot live the faith if we do not live it
with a sense of responsibility and of social commitment.
And that means—as all of us at CNR know so well!—
continuing our commitment to assist our students to
“gain a greater understanding of human reality in its
social, political, economic and global complexity.” It also
means, as Archbishop Pittau emphasized, “holding out a
hand to those who are marginalized and oppressed, and
forming young men and women to integrate into their
lives the Gospel values of authentic service to others.”
BESTIR YOURSELVES
The next day, Monday, September 15, we presented
honorary degrees to Avery Cardinal Dulles, SJ, the
Laurence J. McGinley Professor of Religion and Society
at Fordham University; Antonia Coello Novello, our
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2004 ANNUAL R EPORT / THE C OLLEGE OF N EW ROCHELLE
PRESIDENT’S LETTER
New York State Health Commissioner, and Mary E. Lyons,
President of the University of San Diego.
Speaking to faculty, staff, and students, President Lyons
drew us back to our roots, to the sixteenth century saint,
Angela Merici, who as Mary Lyons phrased it, “influenced
directly the educational philosophy of this… institution.”
What Mary Lyons was referring to was the salient fact
that “the Ursulines, daughters of Angela, brought with
them to the new world an educational orientation that
yielded a plan of studies recognizing the multiple
dimensions of human development, not least of which
is the spiritual. So the preservation of the liberal arts, as
foundational for this College, should be no surprise. The
courage and determination of Angela to create a company
of women committed to prayer and works of charity also
reveal much about the College’s continuing contribution
to the educational needs of women.”
We are all the benefactors of this educational philosophy
here on the hallowed grounds of our College, but what
also forcefully struck me was another of President Lyons
insights, and that was an exhortation of Saint Angela to
her community expressed nearly 500 years ago. Angela
told the women, “Have confidence and strong faith that
God will assist you in everything. Act. Bestir yourselves…
You will certainly see wonders if you direct everything to
the praise of the divine majesty and the great good of
souls.”
Such a saintly attitude, Mary Lyons reminded us, revealed
“a flexibility and adaptability so characteristic of those
who are liberally educated.”
And so we are, here at CNR!
THE PRIMACY OF THE LIBERAL ARTS
Therefore, a couple months later, we focused on the
primacy of the liberal arts over a two-day period on the
Main Campus. To address this preeminent topic, we
invited Indra K. Nooyi, President and Chief Financial
Officer, PepsiCo, to join us for a convocation in early
December, 2003, to speak on what she saw as the true
value of a liberal arts education.