Fall 2020 Mercyhurst Magazine

FALL 2020 SPECIAL EDITION RESILIENCE & RESOLVE Relive the stories that make Mercyhurst, Mercyhurst. A message from the President As I write this, students once again fll the Mercyhurst campus. We’re all wearing masks, trying to stay socially distant, and holding lots of classes and meetings in a virtual format. But we’re back. Our faculty and staf have spent countless hours since the students left in March creating the systems that have allowed us to reopen and give students a real (if very diferent) Laker experience. It’s no coincidence that we chose the words “Resilience and Resolve” to describe the way we’ve faced the COVID-19 pandemic. They suggest the kind of perseverance that’s in our DNA and that we’ve displayed over and over during the past 94 years. In this special issue, we share just a few stories from our history that exemplify those qualities, starting with the determination of Mother Borgia Egan and her Pioneer Sisters to open Mercyhurst College. They’d already overcome a lot of obstacles when a workers’ strike Mother Borgia Egan threatened to prevent them from opening on time. Other stories reveal how Mercyhurst – and a few alumni – have coped with other challenges. And a few stories on the lighter side ofer a bit of comic relief. I’ve discovered that Lakers show the same kind of resilience and resolve no matter what goal they’ve set for Borgia recalls themselves – even a world record for the longest strudel! All these stories remind us that our Carpe Diem spirit enables us to opening amid push forward toward the goals we’ve set for ourselves, and to cope with challenges that threaten to derail our plans. worker strike One of my predecessors, Sister Carolyn Herrmann, once remarked: “Life on the frontier is unafraid of change. It welcomes it. It helps to bring Condensed from Mother Borgia Egan’s account of it about. It adjusts quickly to it. We need imagination at once bold and the founding of Mercyhurst College. disciplined, creative minds that will dare to try new ideas, minds able to discern both the fact of novelty and the focus of relevance.” When ground was broken in September 1924, the general thought Sister Carolyn spoke those words in 1964, but she could just as easily was that eighteen months would fnd the buildings completed. An have been talking about the Mercyhurst I know today. additional six months’ leeway was given to take care of any unforeseen delays. September 1926 was fxed as the date for opening the new Stay well — and Carpe Diem! school. ... In the spring of 1926, when the contract called for a fnished building, it was evident that at least another six months would be necessary to make the structure ready for occupancy. Even when summer rolled Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D. around, there were serious doubts in the minds of experienced builders President, Mercyhurst University that the work could be completed in time for an early September opening. Additional men were called in to rush the work; day and night shifts were employed. Prospects seemed brighter that the opening day On The Cover: announced for September 7 would fnd all in readiness. But again the The recognizable silhouette of Mercyhurst’s unexpected happened. Less than two weeks before the opening date Old Main emerges in the blueprints created when foors had yet to be sanded and fnished, plumbing and lighting for the college in 1924 by F. Ferdinand Durang fxtures to be installed, labor trouble developed. ... Architects, 1220 Locust St., Philadelphia. Original building, 1926 First faculty, Mercyhurst College and Seminary, 1927 (Mother Borgia Egan in second row, third from right) Accustomed as they were to face dilemmas of insuperable proportions, There were no elevators in those days, nor were there men around to do the Sisters of Mercy called from the various branch houses Sisters who the laborious work of carrying the furniture from the present students’ were skilled in handling paint and varnish brushes as well as in putting dining room which served as a receiving room to the fights above. As together furnishings that had come knocked-down, that they might lend fast as one crew of Sisters put the furniture together, another group a hand to establishing order out of the chaos that the strike had brought carried the heavy pieces to their destination. ... to the project. A crew of eager, courageous Nuns appeared on the scene ready to tackle any problem that was within the power of a woman. When the strike was fnally settled, there remained the classrooms to Fortunately, most of the critical problems were in this class. be fnished and only Friday and Saturday until noon to accomplish this. When at the blow of the whistle, Saturday at noon, the workers in Floors had to be sanded, then varnished. This was the most acute need, obedience to Union orders laid down their tools, six classroom foors as it was imperative that the varnish and other preparations used in had been sanded and made ready for varnishing. At noon, the Sister fnishing foors have time to dry before the building was used. In short workers took up where the men left of, spent the afternoon and far into order, with a little direction from the idle contractors, huge sanding the night applying the frst coat of varnish that would preserve the wood machines manned by the Sisters were working steadily and efectively. sufciently until additional coats could be applied. Dormitory foors were one by one being treated to coats of varnish and made ready for occupancy. Day and night this valiant band that included Wonderful to relate, in spite of predictions to the contrary, the doors of every rank from the Mother Superior to the youngest novice persevered Mercyhurst swung wide on Tuesday, September 7, to receive its frst class at the work until every room in the large dormitory was put in readiness of students. for the incoming students. Sister Carolyn Herrmann and Mercyhurst’s commitment to racial justice By Chris Magoc, Ph.D., and Sister Lisa Mary McCartney, RSM, Ph.D. For many white Americans, the sufer insults and indignities,” Sister Carolyn As historian Roy Strausbaugh has extraordinary movement for racial declared with words that ring poignantly recounted, on April 25, 1969, at the and economic justice has inspired an true today. So also does her appeal to direction of Sister Carolyn, Dr. Bill Bryan, unprecedented reckoning with four “unite in prayer and charity to prove our Mercyhurst Director of Education, centuries of violent, systemic racism. It has solidarity with our brothers in chains,” and and professor Bob Sturm notifed the also evoked memories of America’s most for the redemption of fellow Americans superintendent that until a serious plan recent and heralded civil rights movement acting “in error.” Led by Sister Carolyn and was developed to merit the lifting of of the 1960s, when many white citizens singing Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” PSEA sanctions, Mercyhurst would no joined the African American-led struggle and the civil rights anthem “We Shall longer send its student teachers to Erie for freedom and equality. Overcome,” the group marched through city schools. Sister Carolyn, along with Mercyhurst’s iconic gates in solidarity with trustee Mace Levin and other members of The Mercyhurst University community the struggle in Selma. On March 14, faculty the Mercyhurst community, then joined a recalls with particular reverence the and students joined hundreds of Erie demonstration outside the district ofces leadership of Sister Carolyn Herrmann, citizens in a 2.5-mile sympathy march in demanding change. Soon thereafter, Dr. president of what was then Mercyhurst downtown Erie through rain and snow. Bryan was leading the Urban Coalition Task College. With deep roots in the Catholic Force that developed the district’s anti- Worker movement extending to her Days later, faculty members Michael discrimination plan. graduate study at Notre Dame, Sister Cashore and John Lincourt boarded the Carolyn championed the engagement of local NAACP-organized bus of 26 Erie Proud of this legacy, shaken but inspired the Mercyhurst community on issues of citizens who traveled to Alabama for the by the events of 2020, and grounded in social justice throughout her tenure as fnal 3-mile leg of the 54-mile march from the long history of the Sisters of Mercy president (1963-1972). Selma to Montgomery. Lincourt and Erie confronting prejudice and bigotry, reporter Ron Wasielewski were among Mercyhurst is recommitting itself to the Her work on civil rights is exemplifed by those who were spat upon as the throng work of advancing a more just society, two occasions, the frst of which is refected of several thousand marched toward the beginning here in our own community. in her “Homily,” delivered prior to a “Bible state capitol in Montgomery, where they Vigil for Selma,” held March 11, 1965. Four heard these immortal words from Dr. days earlier, John Lewis and dozens of Martin Luther King Jr.: “How long? Not long, other voting rights activists were savagely because the arc of the moral universe is beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in long, but it bends toward justice.” Selma, Alabama, in the event enshrined as “Bloody Sunday.”Two days later in a But the arc does not bend on its own. In subsequent march, Reverend James Reeb, April 1968, an uprising at Academy High a U.S. Army veteran and Unitarian minister, School revealed longstanding issues was brutally beaten on the streets of Selma. of systemic racism in the Erie School That evening as Rev.

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