FALL 2018 CALDWELL UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE EOFEDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FUND CELEBRATES 50 YEARS ALSO INSIDE: BRINGING STUDENTS FROM RECORD-BREAKING NUMBER REMEMBERING SISTER THE PAGE TO THE STAGE OF GRADUATES VIVIEN JENNINGS VOLUME 10 ISSUE 2 CALDWELL UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE FALL 2018 Caldwell University Magazine is produced for alumni and friends twice each year by the News and Media Relations Office at Caldwell University. Its goal is to provide news and information about Caldwell University’s students, faculty, staff, alumni, and administration. We welcome your comments and suggestions! Please email us at [email protected]. 20 Blessed by the Holy Father EDITOR Colette M. Liddy ’13 M.A. 28 WRITERS & CONTRIBUTORS Remembering Sister Vivien Jennings Nicole M. Burrell ’09 Lori Funicello Christina Hall Meghan Moran ’07 John Tagliaferri COPY EDITOR John Jurich STUDENT ASSISTANT Andrew Timothy PHOTOGRAPHY table of contents Pushparaj Aitwal Gene Gabelli 4 Celebrating 50 Years of EOF Prasad Gyawali Marina Maret 14 Commencement 2018: Record-breaking Alan Schindler Number of Graduates DESIGN Graphic Imagery, Inc. 25 Coming Home: Hasani Whitfield Returns to Caldwell to SPECIAL THANKS Kimberly Reamer Lead the Baseball Program 14 Reference Services & Archives 30 Beatriz Gomez-Klein ’73: Librarian How Scholarship Forged a New Future Address comments and 32 Caldwell Alumna Builds questions to: Cultural Bridges [email protected] Caldwell University Magazine 120 Bloomfield Avenue Caldwell, NJ 07006 General information COVER: Andrei St. Felix, director of the Educational Opportunity Fund, with EOF students. St. Felix holds the 2018 Caldwell Cup award she received at honors www.caldwell.edu convocation. She says this is also the students’ award because “it is their hard work 973-618-3000 and resiliency that elevate the program and give meaning to what I do.” PRESIDENT’SLETTER Dear Friends of Caldwell University, A few short months ago, Caldwell graduated a record number The next time you are on campus, please stop by the newly of students when the university awarded over 500 degrees to renovated lobby in Werner Hall. This summer, Gourmet Dining, undergraduate, master and doctoral candidates. Now, as the our food service provider for the past eight years, created an fall semester begins, we welcome the largest freshman class in exciting new look, expanding the beverage and food offerings in the history of the institution. During a time when high school Café ’39 and refreshing the lobby and stairwell. The updated space graduates are declining, this is fantastic news for the university. now provides additional indoor and outdoor seating for students, faculty and staff. We’re grateful to Gourmet Dining for this In this issue, we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Educational investment in the campus. Opportunity Fund (EOF), a program that assists capable and motivated New Jersey students who come from economically Earlier this year, Caldwell University lost one of its visionary challenged and academically disadvantaged backgrounds. Caldwell leaders, Sister Vivien Jennings. Serving as president from 1984- is proud to have 132 EOF students on campus this fall. 1994, Sister Vivien made the historic—and difficult—decision to transition an all-women’s college to a co-educational institution A highlight from last spring was the study abroad trip that Sister that welcomed men for the first time in 1986. You can read more Kathleen Tuite and I led to Rome with students in our class, about the rich intellectual and spiritual life of this Sister of St. Catholic Dominican Foundations: Rome. During that trip, Dominic who had such a tremendous impact on our institution students visited the Mamertine Prison where St. Paul was held later in this magazine. before being beheaded. We also went on the Scavi tour under St. Peter’s Basilica and saw the bones of our first pope. At the As I close my letter, I’d like to invite each of you to come back to weekly papal audience, Stefanie Konboz, one of our students, was campus this fall. I hope you’ll plan to attend Homecoming and personally blessed by Pope Francis—an experience that will long Family weekend on September 22 or maybe our sprint football be remembered by all of her classmates, Sister Kathleen and me. contest against the Naval Academy on October 13. You can find What a moment of grace! the details for these and other exciting campus events in this issue on our website! I know you’ll enjoy the magazine’s feature on Professor Mary Lindroth, who utilizes her love of theatre to enhance her students’ Best regards, classroom discussions. You’ll also read about two shining examples of Caldwell alumnae: the amazing journey of Beatriz Gomez-Klein from Cuba to Caldwell and how she has used her life experiences to Nancy H. Blattner, Ph.D., OPA help others through her work in psychotherapy and Eileen Curtis, President whose career path is marked by accolades in culture and the arts. All three of these women represent the spirit of Caldwell University. 2 CALDWELLMAGAZINE HOMECOMING AND FAMILY WEEKEND 9.21.18–9.22.18 PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN EXCITING WEEKEND OF EVENTS WITH FAMIly AND FELLOW ALUMNI! FRIDAY, SEPT. 21 SATURDAY, SEPT. 22 3:30 p.m.: Music Department concert: Faculty 12 noon: 9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Favorites (Alumni Theatre). Reception Homecoming kickoff lunch All-day check-in and late registration to follow. (Student Center Dining Hall) (Alumni Theatre Green) 3:30 p.m.: 6:30 p.m.: 9:30 a.m.: Women’s alumni basketball game Women’s volleyball match vs. Welcome breakfast with the president (Newman Center) Holy Family (Newman Center) (Alumni Theatre Lobby) 3:30 p.m.: 6:30 p.m.: 10:30 a.m.: Class of 1968 “Just US” Class of 1968 dinner at Calandra’s Homecoming Mass followed by the (Reference Room, Jennings Library) Italian Village in Caldwell, New Jersey President’s State of the University Address and Alumni Awards Ceremony 4 p.m.: 8 p.m.: (Alumni Theatre) Reunion class reception Student bonfire 11 a.m.: (Newman Center Plaza) Women’s soccer match vs. Chestnut Hill 4 p.m.: (Soccer field) Alumni soccer matches (Soccer Field) 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.: 5 p.m.: Homecoming party on the plaza and Want additional information on the Athletics alumni reception barbecue (Newman Center Plaza) mini-university faculty lectures? (Newman Center Plaza) Curious about the family-friendly 12 noon: 5 p.m.: th activities available at the party? Class of 1968 – 50 reunion lunch Class of 1968 celebratory buffet Need help with accommodations? (The Gallery, Student Center) (Cougar Den, Student Center) Ready to register? 1:30 p.m.: 7 p.m.: Guided campus tour for the Men’s sprint football game vs. St. Thomas For any and all of the above, Class of 1968 Aquinas (James Caldwell High School) please visit 1:30 p.m.: www.caldwell.edu/homecoming SUNDAY, SEPT. 23 Men’s soccer match vs. Chestnut Hill The Office of Alumni Affairs (Soccer field) 9:30 a.m.: Class of ’68 farewell brunch can be reached at 973.618.3352 2:30 p.m.: (Crowne Plaza Fairfield) or [email protected] 50th reunion champagne reception, formerly known as the Golden www.caldwell.edu/homecoming Anniversary Tea (Newman Center Lobby) CALDWELLMAGAZINE 3 CALDWELLSPOTLIGHT FROM THE ASHES OF THE 1967 RIOTS: HOPE AND THE EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FUND IN JULY 1967 THE the admissions criteria to attend colleges my childhood memories along with the and universities in the state of New Jersey,” difference committed educators can make RESIDENTS OF THE said Andrei St. Felix, director of Caldwell’s in the lives of young people. Dr. Marie CITY OF NEWARK, THE EOF program. Mullaney, historian and professor of history at Caldwell, was also the daughter of a Former Caldwell College President Sister COUNTY OF ESSEX AND Newark educator and also lived through the Vivien Jennings, O.P., was the founder of THE STATE OF NEW Caldwell’s EOF program. “She cared deeply JERSEY WERE SHAKEN about the education and personal growth of New Jersey children. I share her vision and TO THE CORE BY THE passion for education, and that is why 50 FIVE-DAY RIOTS THAT years later we have an EOF program that is strong and continues to deliver on its RESULTED IN 26 DEATHS, promise to educate New Jersey youth,” said HUNDREDS OF INJURIES St. Felix. AND DAMAGES IN THE St. Felix remembers that when the EOF office was in transition, Sister Vivien would MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. come by every Friday to ask if the staff The Educational Opportunity Fund needed anything. “She wanted to make emerged from the ashes of the Newark sure we had everything we needed for it riots. New Jersey’s chancellor of higher to run efficiently.” education, Ralph A. Dungan, proposed I am the daughter of a Newark public the program for special assistance to high school English teacher, and that students from financially and educationally sad period of history is imprinted in Former Governor Thomas Kean and Andrei St. Felix disadvantaged areas. It stemmed from the at the 2017 tri-state EOF conference. Select Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Lilly Commission, which made its report to the governor and the state Legislature, recommending programs to address the conditions that underpinned the riots. The Educational Opportunity Fund was enacted in 1968; the legislation was sponsored by Thomas Kean, an assemblyman and future governor. “From that struggle and perilous time was born the opportunity to assist students who were financially and/or academically below 1993 EOF staff members Andrei St. Felix, then secretary; Dorian Douglas, director; Michael Nash, coordinator/ counselor, and Eleanor Davis, counselor. 4 CALDWELLMAGAZINE CALDWELLSPOTLIGHT EOF EVENTS Newark riots. “Today, those events I lived through have become the history I teach.