MILESTO ES AND A CRUSHING V O ID: 1950 TO 195 1 he year 1950-51 was distinguished by several significant events. With the cooperation of the administrati on, Sister Mary olasco McPhillips overhauled the Standing Committees and placed Admissions, Orientation, Counseling and Discipline, Financial Aid, Part-time Placement, Health and Extra-curricular Ac tiviti es under Student Personnel Services and under her supervision. By the fall of 1950, Sister (Albert) Marie Flick had restructured the five-year and three-summer nurSing degree program into a four­ year continuum, thus integrating it more closely with the regular Coll ege calendar. O n November 29, 1950, the Board of Review of the National Nursing Accrediting service voted to approve the coll egiate program of the Division of Nursing and to li st it \",ith the accredited pro­ grams. Of great consequence was the fa ct that on December 9, 1950, Sister Patricia received word that the extensive application for orth Central Accreditation had arrived at the Chicago offi ce and that selected members of the North Central Review Board would be in Detroit on December 13-14 to visit the Coll ege, its clinical facilities and laboratory schools. Subsequently, February 26, 1951 was a spe- 68 M ere)' College of Detroit cial day. The inspecti on team's glowing rep ort of the "unusually comprehensive and articulately attractive segments of the two vol­ umes" was received fro m Manning M. Pattillo, Assistant Secretary of the 1 orth Central Association of Coll eges and Secondary Schools. Am ong the comm.ents were the following: · . Mercy Coll ege is clear in its conception of general edu­ cation as a necessary base for professional or advanced study in any fi eld . · .. The faculty is enthusiastic about their work, and there seems to be a great harmony in the institution . · . The offi ce of the President is so highly centralized that only an expert administrator, such as Sister Mary Patricia, would be abl e to exercise the sort of control which is inherent in this close-knit organization. The voice of authority of the President, kind but firm , is evidently the voi ce which is respected by the students, faculty and administration alike and is almost unquestioned. · .. The examiners have seldom seen a group which understood the objectives more clearly than does the staff at Mercy Coll ege. · .. There is a lack of lay representation both on the Board of Tr ustees and on the Council of the Coll ege. · .. The Dean of the College, Sister Mary Lucille, is a force­ fu l, highly articu late woman of great charm who in the real sense is not Just an academic d ean but an administra­ tive dean fo r the whole College. · .. The general education program is somewhat lacking in its emphasis on the fin e arts. · . It woul d be hard to envision a small college with a bet­ ter set-up (college and hospital) than Mercy has for its Nursing program. · . In other fi elds, such as the sciences, the Coll ege has avaibble extraordinary laboratory facilities maintained in the very finest manner, as is everything at the Coll ege. · .. The faculty for the most part have excellent credentials and manifest a high level of p rofessional competen cy. The First 25 Years 69 · . The Dean of Students, Sister Mary Nolasco, is an intel­ ligent, attractive woman endowed with warm sympathy and understanding. The administration of ho using fa cili­ ti es is absolutely superior as is student o ri entation . · .. A ve ry w holesome integratio n of the various activities was apparent in a program w hich was presented in the Assem bly during the visit of the committee. It bespoke the kind of precisio n , competency and effi ciency w hi ch o ne met everywhere at the College. · .. The student record s are ve ry we ll kept and up to date. · .. The examiners fou nd the m embers of the religio us Board of Trustees to be persons of visio n, integrity and high capability. It would be well if lay members were a part o f the Board to represent their point o f view. · .. Both the Business Manager of the College, Sister Mary Carmela, and the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees, Sister Marie Bernard, are persons of excepti o nal abili ty and effi- Cle• ncy. · .. Rarely have the examiners been able to rate o peratio n and care o f an institutio n as highly as they rated the main­ tenance of Mercy College. All at Mercy Coll ege were elated by the report. However, n o cele­ bratio n could quite equal that felt by the Board of Trustees, the administration, the faculty and the students w hen Mr. Pattillo wrote on April 9 , 1951: I am glad to inform you o ffi cially that the No rth CentraL .. at its annual meeting held March 27-31, 1951, voted to accredit Mercy College. This action was effective March 2l. The name of Mercy Coll ege wil l appear o n the next li st of accred ited institutio ns in the July 1951 issue o f the "North Central Associatio n Q uarterly. " Am o ng new faculty m embers in 1950 were Professor Peter Bilaniuk ( Bi ology); Dr. Dora Gunderson (Hi story and Political Science); Benp min Glicker (An); Sister Mary Lil y Foco (Radiology); Evelyn Powell (Bacteriology); J o hn J. Powers (Attorney and Sociology); and Dr. \Villiam Walsh (Speech). Tuition that year increased to $100 per sem ester. Room and Board 70 Mercy C ollege of Detroir remained $500 per year. On November 8, 1950, the recently organized Mercy League (mothers of Mercians) invited the fathers of Mercians to get to know the College heritage of Catherine McAuley, the administration, the fa cuity, and the operations and architectural plan of the bUildings. The fathers responded with a great deal of enthusiasm. To quote Sister Ma ry Lucille, "We know why we have so many nice girls at Mercy College; we met their fathers last night." 1950-51 was a year of impressive meetings, huge gatherings and heroic acts. More than 1,000 attended the National Student Association meet­ ing in An n Arbor, and there debated such topics as a student Bill of Rights, federal aid to coll ege students, and the Student Purchase Card. Hundreds discussed "What's in a Retreat for You l " at the youth section of the Nati onal Laywomen's Retreat Congress at the Book Cadillac in Detroit. Over 700 Mercians from several Mercy institutions Joined a campus procession to honor Rosary month. The Outer Echoes staff-among thou sands-attended the Associated Collegiate Press Conference at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago to d iscuss with journalistic exp erts all phases of collegiate publishing. Mercy College, which head ed the InterracialJustice Commission of the National Federation o f Catholic College Students, sent several representatives to the national m eeting at j ohn Carroll University in Cleveland.With Irene Lazar (Hungary), Christine Skowronki (Poland), Florencia Moncada (Honduras), Zu lma Ortiz and Nilda De la Cruz (Puerto Rico), and Mary Kimjoh (Korea), Sister Mary Madonna Weigel sp on sored activities to recog­ nize the fifth birthday of the United Nation s and found her group hostesses, not only to the campus, but also to large groups from sev­ eral neighboring colleges and secondary schools. "We saw your media announcement," they explained . "It looked interesting. " "The more the merrier," quipped Sister Mary Madonna, down-to­ earth and unfl appable. "As we say in Iowa, we'll just add a little nip­ per to the dipper. " No one enjoyed this seemingly innocent jargon from the mouth of a sweet, abstemious-looking little nun m ore than a six-foot, 250-pound tackle from Wayne State University'S football team, the Tartars. At the same time, junior Gloria Torrey won a citation from Captain Keissling, Master of the ill-fated United States Coast Guard ship, City oj Cleveland: "O n june 25, 1950, while you were on watch The Fir.\! 25 )ears 71 as radio telephone operator ... you dutifully stayed at your post even though the 5.5. Ravclldj ell crashed into our ship a few feet from yo ur station and yo u were surrounded by nying debris and steam." Gloria's heroism is easily accounted fo r: she wears the tartan of the great Robert Bruce. Then, too, she is a Mercian. Nearly everything that year seemed larger than life. Every day brought a milestone. Every year seemed a d efin itive step toward something bigger and brighter. Mercy College celebrated its tenth annive rsary while Detroit celebrated its 250th. So mewhere along the way, the "McAuley Auditorium Se ri es" evolved into the "McAuley Series." The season's offerings included lectures by Archduke O tto of Austria, "The War Zone," and j.M. O 'Neil , "Religious Education under the Constitution"; composer and pianist Percy Grai nger, who autographed a new Steinway grand on the McAuley stage, call ing it an "exquisite in strument"; and the Catho lic University Players, who produced both Shakespeare and Hemingway. There was also some admirable local talent: The Detroit Symphony Chamber Ensemble, the Dun Scotus Franciscan Choi r and, finally, a campus arts festi val by the Mercy Singers and Pl ayers­ all this for a six-dollar season ticket. The Players continued to experi ment. Philip Johnson's "The Lovely Miracle" was symbo lic of nature. Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Fatal 1nt erview" was interpreted through modern dance. In collabo­ ration with students from the Unive rsi ty of Detroit, the Players chose as their Christmas producti on, Paul Claudel's "Tidings Brought to Ma ry " Also, the Coll ege was one of the Michigan institutions invited by the University of Michigan to publicize its ca mpus ove r their radio station, v-ruOM.