5ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND 2017 DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI 10 AWARDEES DONOR RECOGNITION RETURNS VOLUME 17 • NUMBER 1 14 FALL 2017 MARYGROVE COLLEGE • OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Message from the We’ve been criticized for the timing of our decision, coming three weeks before the start of classes, and I want to address that President elephant in the room. After exhausting all possible funding sources to keep Marygrove intact, the immediate concern of the Board and Fellow alumni, this message the senior leadership team was our students. How can we help is bittersweet, tinged with transition them to the next best school for them? We elected to stay both sadness and anticipation. open through the Fall semester for undergraduates who registered You’ve, no doubt, received the by September 5th and we’re counseling each and every student August 9th announcement on the school that will help them achieve their dream of a college about Marygrove’s closure of our degree. We have had amazing success with academic advising and undergraduate programs at the financial aid counseling and our students understand their options. end of the Fall 2017 semester, Our students have received or will receive offers from more than two December 16th. dozen colleges and universities. Our student-athletes have already The emotional responses of anger, been picked up by other teams. disappointment, confusion and Marygrove is also assisting affected faculty and staff with their concern are all understandable career transition. President and shared. Yet I trust that you remain grateful that you I share your sorrow. I share your appreciation for the foundation Elizabeth A. Burns ‘72, experienced the marvelous Marygrove gave us. But I choose to look to the future with MD, MA undergraduate education that confidence. We made the decision to continue providing Master’s Marygrove’s been providing for 90 level programs and professional development because we know that years in the city of Detroit. these programs are sustainable and are in demand. We have over 50 years’ experience in graduate education and were one of the early I want to address the reasons entrants in the distance learning market with our Master in the Art the Board of Trustees came of Teaching degree. More than 22,000 teachers have graduated with to the painful decision that a Marygrove MAT in that time. it did. Marygrove College has been experiencing a steady yet I am also bolstered by the fact that Marygrove has made bold dramatic decline in enrollment decisions like this before. We know of no other college in the country over the last several years, that has made this type of transformation, a transformation not despite vigorous recruitment and unlike our historically bold moves to educate women when it wasn’t marketing efforts. This has left fashionable, to bring 68 African American students to Marygrove in the college, with its dependence 1968 with the 68 for ’68 initiative, to create one of the nation’s on tuition, in its current first online MAT degrees, and to commit to an urban leadership untenable financial position. strategic vision. The College was not alone in this, for many small liberal arts colleges across the country are under the same stress. That’s why this year’s Alumni Reunion Weekend is a celebration of all that Marygrove was, is and will be. And we look to our alumni The leadership of the college, the Board of Trustees and the to recommit to what they know in their hearts about this hallowed Leadership Council of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart place…that whether you’re an undergrad or grad alumnus, Marygrove of Mary, have worked intensely for two years to find solutions that alumni make a positive impact on our world by living the ideals we would put the college back on its feet. know as the three C’s: competence, compassion and commitment. Marygrove is committed to continuing that legacy. As the financial picture worsened for Marygrove, we have sought the support of foundations and other grantors and donors. We’ve also professionalized our enrollment management operation and instituted an aggressive recruitment and retention program. We also conducted intensive traditional, digital and social media marketing campaigns. None of these strategies have worked to bring undergraduates to Marygrove. So rather than close completely, Marygrove can remain an anchor institution in the city of Detroit delivering quality graduate education and continuing to invite the community to our beautiful campus for events like the Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series and educational outreach through the Institute of Music and Dance. This was not an easy decision for the Board, many of whom are IHM sisters and/or alums, to make and, as you can imagine, it’s not been an easy decision to hear as an alum, student, faculty or staff member. The financial realities have hit Marygrove pretty hard. Marygrove is so tuition-dependent that we cannot run a college without students. 2 marygrove college Alumni Association Board of Directors Message from the President ...................................................................... 2 News from Alumni Association President ..................................................... 3 Dr. Vanessa Howell Ghant ’92 PRESIDENT In Memoriam .......................................................................................... 4 Alumni Reunion Weekend Details ............................................................... 5 Elizabeth Poliuto Loria ’70 Alumni Events ........................................................................................ 6 VICE PRESIDENT Alumni Directory ..................................................................................... 7 Marygrove Mustangs ................................................................................ 8 Alisa Fergerson ’02 2017 Distinguished Alumni Awardees ....................................................... 10 TREASURER Donor Recognition............ ................................................................. ...14 Brittany Mack ’12 SECRETARY NEWS FROM THE ALUMNI ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT Members at Large Dear Fellow Alumni, Mark Bartnik ’79 As alumni of Marygrove College, we were surprised and saddened by news of our alma Samual Blue ’93 mater’s undergraduate programs closing. We know what a marvelous college experience Gloria Brown-Banks ’11 Marygrove gave us all. In our 90 years, more than 40,000 bachelor’s and master’s degree Rahjinah Johnson ’03, ’05 students have called Marygrove their educational home. Margo R. Lee ’00 With the changes taking place in small liberal arts colleges across the country, which for some Brigeda Nelson ‘85 Alumni Association President of us are dramatic, the number of undergrad Vanessa Howell Ghant, MA students has dwindled to the point that our Miranda Linzmaier Outlaw ‘14 ‘92, D.Min programs are not sustainable. Frances L. Brown Simmons ’85 Graduate programs, by contrast, are sustainable and in demand. That is why the Board of Trustees made the decision to stay open for grad education and professional development as well as continue to serve as the anchor of this northwest Detroit neighborhood. At the same time we may feel sadness, I ask us all to remember that we are The Tower Times Marygrove alumni with an appreciation to the IHM sisters who’ve sponsored our is produced for alumni and friends college for 90 years in Detroit, to the professors who prepared us well for a future of Marygrove College through the we otherwise may never have had, and to the staff who supported us. Office of Alumni Relations, Division of Institutional Advancement. To the students who will be leaving at the end of this semester, we hope that Address changes, duplicate copies they continue to identify with Marygrove as their school, just as we do. The or information requests should Alumni Association is reaching out to current students, offering our advice or an be directed to: opportunity to talk. We will pray for them and wish them success as they pursue their dream of a college degree. Office of Alumni Relations Forever Marygrove alumni… MARYGROVE COLLEGE 8425 West McNichols Road Detroit, MI 48221-2599 Phone: (313) 927-1443 Fax: (313) 927-1595 E-mail: [email protected] Website: alumni.marygrove.edu 3 In Memoriam Mary Jane (Mary Timothy) Kelley, RSM ’40 Therese Michael Dudek, IHM ’61 SISTER-IN-LAW OF: Jody McGowan Schaden ’32 (dec) Rita Yungbluth Gibson ’41 Bernadette Kohls Ryan ’62 Helen Schaden ’33 (dec) Marion Stanton Baker ’43 Jeanette (Marie Jeanette) Boudreau, IHM ’66 Ann Mary Schaden ’47 (dec) Dolores Kathryn McFarland Radtke ’44 Jo-Anne Pion Cain ’66 Kathleen Ward Magee ’50 Stella Dionise DeMarco ’45 Linda Boberg Rumbough ’70 Marie Louise Kilway Rodeman ’46 Judith Byrne Benitez ’70 BROTHER OF: Therese Loges Schaden ’47, ’66 Charlene Kelly, RSM ’73 Elizabeth Kolinski Walter ’64 Anna Marie Weir Martin ’48 Kathleen Black Konyha ’77 Marguerite “Peggy” Kolinski Wescott ’67 Elaine Borowski Freeman ’49 Ruth (Margaret Marie) Schirtzinger, OP ’78 Margaret “Peggy” DeMarsh ’71 Frances Gabrielle Hess, IHM ’49 Catherine H. Nolan ’82 Rosemary McFarlin Drewke ’49 HUSBAND OF: MOTHER OF: Mary Kay Labino Garn ’60 Martha (Martha Marie) Rabaut, IHM ’49 Mildred “Millie” Eckersley Madden ’67 Elaine M. St. Jean Riordan, ’63 BA, ’67 MED Joan Sandon Becht ’50 Maryann Kummer ’75 Carolyn Joslin Abramovich ’67 Veronica Mary Maher, IHM ’51 Terese Czarski Daly ’84 Lynne O’Loughlin Hackathorn ’67 Marie Gabriel Hungerman, IHM ’53 Marissa Carter ’17 Margaret (Joseph Raphael) Dowd,