iPods? New pods. uPods! blj Dana Woito ccYou don)t plug them in (but we think they)ll be Since that time, mentors have organized get­ music to your ears!) You don )tgrow them in the togethers that included dinners out, dessert and garden (but we know they)ll be good for you!) coffee, and snacks in the Community Centre. (It Thelre uPods-and you belong to one!!!! is apparent that the pairing of students and food remains a universal constant!) Mentors have helped o began the invitation that welcomed the individual students in their uPods with such issues first-year class of 2006 to St. Jerome's and its as course selection and navigating the bookstore. Snew mentoring program known as uPods. Mentoring activities have ranged from being The innovative new program partners small groups online on MSN one night a week answering of 10 or 12 first-year students with a member of questions to organizing a bake sale to support a the faculty or staff. Designed to help students make refugee student sponsored by the World University the u·ansition to mliversity life, meet each other, and Service of Canada Student Refugee Program. access opportunities for involvement, enrichment, The program continues to evolve, seeking the and fun, uPods address SJU's mission of educating most meaningful ways in which to engage students. the whole person. They also introduce students to "The uPods program allows us to involve students the St. Jerome's spirit of community-for many in the academic and social life of the community," graduates the hallmark of the SJU experience. says Tataryn. "At the same time, it allows us to The program was launched on Tuesday, conduct institutional research into how and what September 5, during Frosh week. A lecture hall fiill students are actually learning. This is critical to our ofstudents sporting "uPodder" sweatshirts listened plans for deepening and broadening our educational to welcoming remarks from the Interim President, perspective, and for continuing our u·adition of Myroslaw Tataryn, and enjoyed a lighthearted skit providing all SJU students with opportunities performed by current members of the Students' to enrich their undergraduate education." ~ Union dramatizing potential transition issues they might encounter. The dinner that foUowed allowed uPodders to meet their mentor and each other. St. Jerome's Universit'j Volume 25 ·Number 2 FaH/ Winter 2006 SJU and the Future: Measured Steps Forward b1j M1jros1aw Tataryn, Interim President and Vice-Chancellor niversity life, and especially university life "passion." Living our nussion, living up to ilie clain1s in a small, Catholic liberal arts institution, made by these four words, would foster our dis­ U is no longer simply about "what I do in tinguishability and help make us ilie transformational my classroom." and life-giving institution tlut we wish to be. The recently published book Catholic Higher We embellish our tradition in ilie newly lawKhed Education: A Culture in Crisis) by Melanie Morey Master of Catholic Thought program, in our and John Piderit, examines the views of senior ad­ parmership witl1 Wilfrid Laurier University's new ministrators of Catl1olic universities and colleges Faculty of Education and local Catholic school and draws this conclusion: "Iftl1ere is to be a future boards to supply pre-service instruction for Cailiolic for Catholic culture in Catl1olic colleges and teachers, and in our agreements wiili a number of universities, those concerned and involved must international Catholic universities. be able to do tl1ree things. First, they must We encourage wonder when we provide differentiate the elements that constitute a rich, opportunities for more holistic human interaction photo: Bryn Gladdin g coherent Catholic culture from tl1ose tlut tl1ai1 is usually possible in tl1e classroom environment. dissipate it. Second, they must be adept at Our pilot uPod project-creating relationships and identifying new actions or strategies that will contexts for students outside ilie classroom-is just su·engthen ilie Cailiolic culture. And third, iliey one example. But we also need to facilitate the must be capable and willing to promote these new vocations ofour younger faculty and staff, ai1d create actions and su·ategies over a long period of time venues which will allow us to engage each other in within ilieir own institutions." our own big questions, our questions of vocation, Fortunately, we are assisted in iliese endeavours our questions of life. by tl1e changing interests and values of our We engage reason-tlut watchword of the students. Research into the attitudes of university academy-when we commit to planning for the students today suggests iliat iliey are searching for foreseeable future, recognizing our strengths, our venues in which iliey can engage life's big potential and our limits. Reason compels us to questions, holistically grounding tl1emselves in our measure and assess our students' experience and ilie increasingly pluralistic society. Morey and Piderit way our graduates perceive their SJU experience characterize institutions which respond successfully in retrospect. Recent enhancements in support for to iliese expectations as "transformational in faculty research must be augmented by innovations nature, not just transactional ... [teaching] people in our approach to teaching. The scholarship of not only how to earn a living but how to live a life botl1 teaching and learning must be nurtured at in a moral sense, an etlucal sense, in a value sense." St. Jerome's. They identify two conditions necessary for the We spark passion when we demonstrate what existence and continuance of a Catl1olic university: we all know to be true: the measurable benefits of "distinguishability and inheritability. " How does a liberal arts education in creating future leaders; St. Jerome's perform using measures of this kind and the importance of service learning as an expression how can we build on tl1e achievements of tl1e past? of social justice ilirough international placement We have inherited an academic regime tl1at programs like Intercordia -Beyond Borders; the includes a professoriate known for strong teaching, critical need for student engagement, creating an classes iliat remain relatively small, innovative inter­ environment for our students iliat models the kind disciplinary programs, and superb students who go of society which we would like to build; tl1e on to be significant contributors to society in many fostering of a true spirit of collegiality by selecting fields. Using the standard of "inheritability," and developing tl1e right faculty and staff for ilie St. Jerome's is strong and able to hold its own in SJU community; and tl1e embracing of our ilie highly competitive post-secondary environment position as a leader in Cailiolic higher education in Ontario. in Canada. To meet the measure of "distinguishability," These are ilie measures by which our mission we need to give real substance to the four words is extended beyond the academy to become a which characterize what we call "the St. Jerome's living image of our foundational values. $ advantage": "tradition," "wonder," "reason" and 2 Archbishop Tholllas Collins: A Distinguished Graduate b~ Harry Frokiage t is entirely possibly that last summer, at the same theology. Following his ordination moment as the St. Jerome's Graduates' Associa­ in 1973, he taught for t\vo years I tion was choosing its distinguished graduate for at Catl1edral High School in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI was contemplating whom Hamilton before pursuing he should select as the next Archbishop ofToronto. advanced studies at tl1e Pontifical Both deliberative processes arrived at the same Biblical Institute and returning to name: Thomas Collins. St. Peter's as a lecturer in Scripture. Collins was, at that moment, the Archbishop In 1984, he returned to Rome to of Edmonton, a position he had held since 1999. tl1e Gregorian University for Prior to that, he had been Bishop of St. Paul's in doctoral studies, writing a northern Alberta, an appointment he received in dissertation which focussed upon 1997 after serving for nineteen years at St. Peter's tl1e moral teaching and Seminary in London, Ontario. In a career filled with exhortation contained in tl1e final academic accomplishments-a Bachelor ofTheology, sixteen lines of the Apocalypse of an M.A. in English, a Licentiate in Sacred Scriptme, John. In 1992, he was appointed a Doctorate in Theology-the first degree he Dean of Theology at St. Peter's, received was a B.A. in English from St. Jerome's and became Rector in 1995. College in 1968. In 1997, he received a call Collins was born in Guelph in 1947. Among from tl1e Papal Nuncio inviting his childhood friends was Gerry Stortz-until his him to Ottawa for lunch tl1e next day. "He told death in 2003 a professor of history at SJU. While me tl1e Pope had made me Bishop of St. Paul, attending Bishop Macdonell Catholic High School, Alberta." He moved west following his Episcopal Collins was powerfully influenced by Fr. John ordination by Bishop Anthony Tonnos of the Newstead, a joyful and charismatic mentor who Diocese of Hamilton; two years later, he was sparked his interest in both English literature and appointed Archbishop of the Metropolitan See the priesthood. of Edmonton. Collins wanted to enter the seminary, but And now, after a similar call, Collins is returning remembers that "my father was ill so I was needed east to assume responsibility for the Archdiocese at home. I thought it would be great to attend a ofToronto-tl1e largest English-speaking diocese in Catholic, liberal arts college and St. Jerome's was Canada-upon tl1e retirement of Aloysius Cardinal fairly close at hand." He enrolled and, for the first Ambrozic in December. Collins' installation as three years, drove to the still-new campus every Archbishop takes place on January 30tl1, 2007. day. "In my last year, I lived in the residence at Less tlun tl1ree weeks later, on February 16tl1, St.