Dr. Petillo's Blog

Thanks to a $22,000 grant from the Connecticut Healthy Campus Initiative, our University will be able to re-energize its substance abuse programs, enhance peer education on these issues and continue our very successful “social norming” strategy that works to educate the campus community about the actual state of alcohol use at SHU. We are especially grateful to Nancy Dekraker of the Counseling Center, for writing the successful application, and to Janice Kessler, for her work as the coordinator of the program for alcohol and other drugs.

We’ve been particularly fortunate this semester in the number and variety of guest speakers on campus. This week alone, we hosted nationally recognized educational reformer, Dr. Steve Perry; the widely respected authority on issues relating to boys and men, Dr. Michael Kimmel; the Yale historian and memoirist, Dr. Carlos Eire, and baseball’s legendary Bobby Valentine. Thanks to everyone involved in these presentations: they prove once again how important learning is that takes place outside the classroom.

Our academic landscape has grown greener with the formal introduction of an Irish Studies minor. Participants will earn at least three credits at our campus is Dingle, Ireland, and will have a growing choice of options here on campus. This program would never have gotten off the ground were it not for the hard work of Professors Gerry Reid and John Roney, and we wish everyone the “luck of the Irish” in this great new program.

Once again this year, Sacred Heart’s small but potent graphics art department is making national news. This is the 34th time since 2004 that an illustration by a Sacred Heart student has been accepted into one of the two nationally juried student competitions by the prestigious Society of illustrators of New York, and of Los Angeles. Junior Maria Damianou’s drawing in graphite, “Walken,” has been accepted into both societies this year. Congrats, Maria, and to Professor Jack de Graffenried and all the team.

I hope you are following the developments at the Legislature in Hartford as drastic cuts are threatened in scholarship aid to Connecticut students. This is a critical issue for many of our students and, so, for the future vitality of our University. A representation of students will travel this Monday, February 28th, to the Capitol. The students will meet at 3:30 P.M. at the Governor's office and walk as a group to the Legislative Office Building. The Appropriations Committee hearings begin at 5:00. SHU students--wear your SHU tee shirts or sweatshirts and join your fellow classmates on the bus to the capital to show your support. SHU will provide transportation so just meet outside the Edgerton Center and board the bus, which will leave the University at 2:00. Food will be supplied, and SHU students will stay until 6:00 and then be transported back to campus.

A number of students are participating in alternate spring breaks this week, continuing a very proud tradition for the University. Among them, we wish Godspeed to our delegation heading to El Salvador – including Father Jerry Ryle. They go with our prayers and heart-felt support.

Great thanks to Professor Gary Rose and the faculty volunteers for their recent work to enhance our freshman course offerings. At the request of Dean Seamus Carey of the College of Arts and Sciences, a committee reviewed the academic experience of our freshman students. The result was the design of 19 interdisciplinary courses to be taught as pilots over the next two years. The mini-“catalogue” of options has something engaging for every taste and imagination ranging from sports narratives to a critical look at popular media to embryonic development to a seminar on love.
 
The various committee meetings are making great progress on mapping out the framework for a new Strategic Plan for the University, and I am hearing really positive feedback on the number of those participating and the exceptional ideas that are being generated. Thank you for attending the various open sub-committee meetings and for being part of the process.  
 
Plans are well underway for our annual Discovery Awards and Scholarship Dinner. This 22-year-old event has raised millions of dollars for scholarship assistance, and this year, we are offering heavily discounted tickets to faculty members and staff of just $175 apiece. In 2008, Sacred Heart established the Discovery Scholars award, a full-tuition scholarship for deserving students from Fairfield County with family incomes below $50,000, a program that has benefited dozens of students. Such efforts will be even more critical this year than ever as major cuts in funding for scholarships are threatened. That’s on both the state and federal levels. In the weeks and months ahead, I will be calling on every member of our community – students, faculty, staff, alumni and families – to mobilize against these severely damaging cuts. We are all concerned about fiscal responsibility, but I do not believe that we should achieve that by stealing the promise of the future from our young people. You’ll be hearing much more about this in the days to come and I hope all of you will be able to help in this effort.

Be sure to check out the story on our website behind this Sunday’s Ali’s Angels concert at the Edgerton. Most of us know Ali’s story, but for those who don’t, this annual concert is named for a Sacred Heart nursing student whose life was saved by a fellow student when he came forward to donate part of his liver. The concert will benefit liver research and should be a great time too.

  Alumni came from as far away as Canada, Alaska and South Carolina for last weekend’s men’s hockey reunion. As many as 40 grads along with their families returned to Connecticut, where they played again together on UConn’s Rentschler Field in East Hartford -- outdoors. The next day, on Sunday, many stayed on to see the Pioneers confront UConn: our first-ever contest under the sky. And Kristy Cioffi, director of our Alumni Relations office, reports that the returning athletes raised over $3,100 for SHU hockey programs.

Lastly, Senior Matthew Choiniere’s “homework” took him far from home last month. The Rhode Island senior collaborated with his professor, Dr. Rupendra Paliwal, interim dean of the John F. Welch College of Business, to present an academic paper at a conference on finance in Gurgaon, India. This is an ideal example of students and faculty working in close partnership as Sacred Heart prepares leaders for the global economy. Congrats to both of you, and thanks for the benefit of your example.

February is Black History Month, and we are fortunate to have  two top-notch speakers coming to campus. This Sunday, WSHU hosts Dr. Yvonne Thornton, whose autobiographical books chronicle her rise from poverty to become a nationally ranked medical doctor. This is one of WSHU’s regular “Join the Conversation” series that brings phenomenal authors to campus. And on the 21st in the Edgerton Center, as part of the Student Affairs Lecture Series, we will welcome Dr. Steve Perry, author of the book Man Up! Nobody Is Coming to Save Us. 
 
Another compelling speaker joined us this week as part of the Student Affairs Lecture Series too. Travis Roy was a freshman hockey star at BU when an accident on the ice broke his back but not his will. What a story he had to share! And, be sure to check out the photos of Travis with our hockey team. 

This week, we also had the opportunity to hear from three remarkable world journalists, David Gibson, Robert Mickens and Peter Kavanagh. Congratulations and great thanks go to Dr. Michael Higgins and Dr. Matthew Kenney for organizing this first annual “Religion and…” conference – this year touching on religion and politics. These events help us to shine light on our mission and our  growing reputation  in the Catholic intellectual tradition.
 
Sacred Heart students were  part of a massive national demonstration in Washington last month. Katie Anninos ’12, Jo-Marie Kasinak ’11, and Kayley O’Brien ’14 joined with a group from the Diocese of Bridgeport to take a bus to the 38th annual March for Life. Active in Heartbeat, SHU’s pro-life outreach, the group said their commitment to defend the dignity of human life was greatly strengthened by seeing people from all walks of life at the March.
 
If you want some great reading that helps you understand what makes SHU so special, check out the New York Times from February 6 – it’s on our website. “Sacred Heart’s Enduring Sideline Presence” is a terrific profile of our alumnus and long-time basketball coach, Dave Bike. Dave is a Sacred Heart institution, and we are mighty proud of him and all he has done for the University. It is good to see that the national press also recognizes what we have in Coach Bike. 

Yes, it’s still winter, with snow covering most of the campus – and ice covering much of that. I am happy to report that our students rallied around “Operation Clean Sweep” and pitched in to help turn the situation around. With equipment provided by Campus Operations, you took up snow shovels and helped dig out cars stranded in parking lots and allowed plows to clear the ground of snow and ice. Great thanks to Paul Healy for organizing the brigade and to our good people in Residential Life, Public Safety and Campus Operations for this great display of teamwork.

And the miserable weather on Wednesday didn’t scare away a capacity crowd in University Commons to explore our new Strategic Plan process. I am truly heartened by the response of the community and the willingness of everyone – including our students – to participate in this critical effort. This is not the administration’s plan; it is the University’s plan. As I reminded folks at the meeting, this process must be participative and transparent and must allow everyone to be heard and feel a part of this. I hope all of you will be giving the Strategic Plan a great deal of thought. So please look at the Strategic Planning materials on the Sharepoint site, and let me know what you think.  There must be tension in this process: a healthy, educated tension. Speak up and ask questions – even challenging questions – because future resources will be allocated for programs and staffing based on this plan. It will make a huge difference. We learn in many ways, including outside the classroom, but academics is first. As I said at the meeting: Dream big. Don’t hallucinate, but dream. Many such meetings are planned in the coming semester, and I look forward to the heat and the light that we will generate together.