Mercyhurst Magazine Summer 2016
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MAGAZINE SUMMER 2016 Mercyhurst’s Irish trailblazers P. 12 Inside this issue: PRESIDENT VICTOR’S VISION FOR THE FUTURE P. 3 NORTH EAST CAMPUS CELEBRATES 25 YEARS P. 6 MASCOTS: FROM CRAZY DAVE TO LUKE THE LAKER P. 10 ALUMNI HONORED DURING REUNION WEEKEND P. 20 GENEROUS DONORS MAKE 2015-16 A RECORD YEAR P. 30 A message from the president As anyone who drives through our Gates knows, the campus of learn more about the Mercyhurst University is a landscape that can hold you in awe. And Mercy mission and while Mercyhurst at its core is its people – the Sisters of Mercy, our the tenets of Catholic students and alumni, our friends and donors, our faculty and staf – higher education. The it never hurts to be surrounded by beauty. program is expected to continue and grow When I assumed the presidency last August, I felt something each year and also missing in the sights and sounds that distinguish our campus. to be infused in our The carillon that rang out the hours with Westminster Chimes had freshman curriculum. fallen silent. It was a tradition that added character and warmth to our beautiful campus and, so, in my frst ofcial act as president, we In concert with living restored it. the mission, I also want to say how I must say that was the easiest thing we did all year! The challenges important I believe faced by the university in recent years had taken a toll on our it is that we live and community. We needed to restore our collective spirit while work in an environment where mercy, collegiality and good old- making some tough calls. fashioned college spirit reign in abundance. There were those who said: It can’t be done! Besides restoring the carillon, we began Hurst Day, where the entire college community comes together for a day of socialization You can’t streamline the administrative and academic operations in a year! amid games, contests and great food. We gave out deli trays to You can’t reconstruct a whole liberal arts curriculum in a year! departments and ofces in thanks for their hard work. We began You can’t change the academic calendar in a year! You can’t bring in a record freshman class with only a year’s preparation! an Employee Recognition Day to honor employees for their And you certainly can’t raise millions of dollars in a year! commitment, beginning with fve years of service and up. And yet, we did it. We did it with transparency, buy-in and mercy. I am so proud of who we are and where we are going, but I am also humbled by the incredible support I’ve received from everyone The changes have made us a much more nimble university and during my inaugural year. You’ve sent me cards, emails and all positioned us to better meet the needs of our students. kinds of encouraging greetings. I can’t thank you enough for your hospitality. As much as we now look forward to a promising future, we must never forget our past and the traditions that have made Until next time, Carpe Diem. Mercyhurst great. The legacy of the Sisters needs to be sustained, especially as their ranks on our campus diminish. This year we began the Mercy Emissary Program with a cohort of nearly 40 faculty and staf Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D. across both our Erie and North East campuses. Members have President, Mercyhurst University been taking hour-long classes periodically throughout the year to ON THE COVER: John Melody ’90 serves up a pint to old friend John Deasy ’90, now a member of Ireland’s Parliament, at Melody’s U Pick 6 Taphouse in downtown Erie. The two men, who were among the frst Irish students to attend Mercyhurst, got together when Deasy visited Erie earlier this year. (Photo by Caitlin Ewing ’14) The Ofce of Marketing and Public Relations publishes Mercyhurst Magazine twice a year. Magazine Editor Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 [email protected] 814-824-2090 Design Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 [email protected] 814-824-3022 Contributing Writers Susan Hurley Corbran ’73 Deborah W. Morton Jennifer Smith Inside this issue Contributing Photographers Caitlin Ewing ’14 2 HURST DAY: A NEW TRADITION Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07 3 VICTOR’S VISION 6 25 FACTS FOR MERCYHURST NORTH EAST’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY Printing Leader Graphics, Erie, Pennsylvania 9 ‘HURST ANTHROPOLOGIST PROBING NEW HUMAN SPECIES 10 EVOLUTION OF THE MERCYHURST MASCOT Director of Alumni Engagement 12 MERCYHURST’S IRISH TRAILBLAZERS: JOHN DEASY ’90, JOHN MELODY ’90 Lindsay Cox ’12 [email protected] 14 ALUMNI PROFILES 814-824-2330 SEAN FEDORKO ’11 EMILIO COLAIACOVO ’98 Class Notes Editor Debra Tarasovitch SIMON ARIAS ’05 [email protected] EMILY FRANCIS ’15 AND JOYCE SAVOCCHIO ’65 814-824-2392 JORDAN ZANGARO CORCORAN ’10 Send changes of address to: ANN MARKLEY ’15 (ANNALAINA MARKS) Alumni Relations DREW SPACHT ’13 Mercyhurst University 501 E. 38th St. 18 ALUMNI NAMED TO BOARD LEADERSHIP POSTS Erie, PA 16546 19 HAGEN HONORED DURING COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY [email protected] 20 MERCYHURST RECOGNIZES DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI 21 HALL OF FAME INDUCTS STANDOUT LAKER ATHLETES 22 LAKERS, SAINTS HIGHLIGHTS If you haven’t been receiving the bi-monthly 24 LAKER ALUMS MAKE HISTORY IN NWHL Alumni eNewsletter, Mercyhurst does not have an active email address for you. Visit 25 LACROSSE’ING PATHS hurstalumni.org/get-involved to update 25 GRAD WORKS DREAM JOB AT GOP CONVENTION your information and reconnect. 25 AMY WEAVER-KAULIS WINS TEACHING EXCELLENCE AWARD We’d love to hear from you. Send your 26 CLASS NOTES story ideas, suggestions and comments to 28 LAKER COUPLE STARTS WITH SOLID FOUNDATION [email protected]. 30 YEAR IN REVIEW: MERCYHURST REPORTS RECORD FUNDRAISING YEAR 32 DONOR HONOR ROLL 1 The skirl of bagpipes flled the Mercyhurst infatable games. More than 75 four-person campus early on the morning of Oct. 7, but teams took part in the signature event – a few minded the early wakeup call. The pipes scavenger hunt that tested their knowledge signaled that classes would be canceled that of Mercyhurst history. And everyone enjoyed day so the whole community could celebrate a picnic lunch in Munson Plaza. Hurst Day. “A celebration like Hurst Day, which is a It’s a brand-new tradition at Mercyhurst, campus-wide event, is the kind of social glue HURST imported by President Michael T. Victor as that fosters community and inclusiveness on part of his campaign to reinvigorate the spirit a college campus, and so I am very excited of Mercyhurst. to begin this new tradition at Mercyhurst,” Victor said. Students enjoyed a day of outdoor activities and games on the campus green, from a Plans are underway for Hurst Day 2.0, but the DAY dunk tank to a mechanical bull to an array of inaugural efort will be hard to beat. A New Tradition 2 Victor’s vision The sunfower yellow walls of the president’s ofce still glistened with fresh paint as students celebrating Hurst Day scurried about looking for scavenger hunt items. If the new president wanted to make a good frst impression on the student body, he certainly had done it with this colossal new fall tradition dedicated to school spirit and camaraderie amid games, music, a dunk tank, climbing wall and food stations. When Michael T. Victor assumed the Mercyhurst presidency on Aug. 1, 2015, he made it clear change was afoot – and not just in celebratory ways. He likened the modern university to a city-state in its scope and complexity and cautioned that private higher education could no longer thrive simply on experience and instinct. 3 “At Mercyhurst, we have put in place a business model that demands institutional efectiveness at all levels,” said Victor, who credits his leadership team (see cabinet photo, p. 5) for the strategic path they have charted using research-based problem solving, analysis and best practice. Of all his administration’s accomplishments thus far, perhaps the greatest is in the number of new freshmen enrolling for the 2016-2017 academic year. More than 720 true freshmen are expected to converge on the Erie campus this fall – without a doubt, the largest freshman class in Mercyhurst history. And, Mercyhurst did not lower its standards to achieve this milestone; in fact, this group promises to be one of the brightest yet. “Navigating the whitewater of today’s higher education landscape is a daunting feat, but the fact that we are enrolling so many new students in the throes of it, well, that puts us in an enviable position,”Victor said. But it wasn’t only admissions and marketing that drove the enrollment success; advancement also put forth a Herculean efort to yield the strongest fundraising year in the university’s 90-year history. Overall contributions to Mercyhurst topped $6.57 million with gains in nearly every area: endowment, major gifts and the annual fund. See the Donor Report at the back of this issue for details. In the area of academics, change was widespread. The university’s administrative and academic operations were streamlined to improve efciency, and the academic calendar and liberal arts core curriculum were revamped to make them more responsive to diverse student needs. Of all the changes, the toughest came in right-sizing a faculty that had grown by 20 percent over the past eight years while enrollment had declined by 9 percent. “It was an unsustainable model,”Victor said. “Gratefully, our faculty recognized the fx we were in and were incredibly supportive of our eforts to correct it.” Moving forward, Victor said he intends to continue down the road of innovation, to invest in majors with strong outcomes while being true to Mercyhurst’s liberal arts tradition.