Dr. Petillo's Blog

President Petillo's Blog - Friday, February 22nd

This is one of those weeks where I am in awe of the breadth and range of the programs and events offered on campus. On Wednesday alone, we had:

• SHU’s version of Ted Talks with SHU professors from a variety of disciplines sharing some great information on various food-related topics in an informal setting.
• Our annual history lecture featuring Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University’s Sterling Professor of Humanities for Italian, on “Petrarch’s Confrontation with Modernity.” Mazzotta is also chair and director of Graduate Studies for Yale’s Department of Italian and a highlight of his talk was the reading of sonnets in Italian and the subsequent translation.
• The first of four colloquia in response to the December tragedy in Newtown. University Commons was packed to overflowing as David Johnson and Hadar Lubin from the Post-Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven talked about the role of mental illness in mass shootings.
• A discussion on the Obamas and the presidential relationship. A more intimate group gathered to hear New York Times correspondent Jodi Kantor, author of the bestselling book, The Obamas, talk about the impact on a marriage when one member is the President.

From top left, clockwise, are Professor Michael Ventimiglia at the Ted Talks, Yale's Giuseppe Mazzotta at the Annual History Lecture, author Jodi Kantor talks about her book, "The Obamas," and David Johnson of the Post-Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven at the Reflecting on Sandy Hook colloquium.

Wednesday was also the day of our annual Internship and Career Fair. The Pitt Center was packed with professionally dressed students meeting with vendors and representatives from more than 100 businesses and organizations.  I have no doubt that many great connections were made.

Career Fair

I’m sure you all saw the message earlier today from Jim Barquinero about the hiring of Bobby Valentine as executive director of Intercollegiate Athletics. We are looking forward to having Bobby join the Sacred Heart community. You will hear much more about all of this on Tuesday, but these are exciting times at SHU.

This week’s NEASC topic is Standard 3, which focuses on Governance. This standard provides us with an opportunity to show how our organizational structure empowers each and every member of the faculty and staff to provide the best for our students. NEASC Standard 3 seeks to discover how this University promotes respect, collaboration and the pursuit of truth in the interest of the students. One way we do that is with an outstanding leadership team. I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by talented and dedicated leaders who continuously come to the table with creative and innovative ideas while keeping student experience as the top priority. We are a teaching University, and that means our talented faculty is responsible for educating our students. Our role as leaders is to facilitate and empower the faculty to do what they do best.

Standard 3 also looks at how the University practices subsidiarity. That means that decisions should be made at the appropriate level. Simply put, staff members at all levels are encouraged to be leaders in their own role and to make decisions with the good of our students in mind.

Congratulations to Marni Cutler who was the winner of a gift card for correctly answering last week’s NEASC trivia question. You have until Tuesday at 4 p.m. to submit an answer to this week’s question.

Please don’t forget to respond to the Innovation Survey that was sent out to everyone earlier this week. Your feedback is important to the Innovation Committee and their work.

Congratulations to the Men’s Club Ice Hockey team on winning their first NECHA American Conference Championship this past weekend with a 6-4 win over Westfield State! Way to go!

The Club Hockey team celebrates.

Congratulations also to Vincent Ramaglia on his accepted illustration to the Society of Illustrators of New York’s Nationally Juried Annual Student Scholarship Competition. His detailed drawing of men in battle makes you feel like you are right there in the foxhole with them.

Vincent Ramaglia's 'Pinned Down'

Still on the subject of art, students from the Department of Art & Design will be displaying their work at the Watermark at 3030 Park from now until April 11. An opening reception is scheduled for February 28 inside the art gallery at the nearby retirement community. We appreciate the Watermark’s continued support of our students.

Recently I sent all our students an email encouraging them to consider taking advantage of the many opportunities we provide to study abroad. I was pleased to hear that during the coming summer and fall, our largest group of students ever will be taking advantage of the opportunity to study at John Cabot University in Rome. Our partnership with John Cabot began in 2010 with the mutual goal of increasing student and faculty opportunities abroad.  To date, 36 SHU students have spent a semester or summer term at John Cabot; one faculty member has taught a course at the university and a 2013 summer faculty-led program will use John Cabot’s housing and classroom space.  When we count the students headed to Rome for the summer and fall, a total of 68 SHU students will have had the invaluable experience of studying at John Cabot University — all within the span of three years!

If you are looking for something to do over the weekend, check out Gospel Fest at the Chapel of the Holy Spirit Saturday evening. Among the lineup of performers will be our own SHU L.O.V.E. and Four Heart Harmony. Our fourth annual Elements Concert is slated for Sunday afternoon. This program, performed in the round, includes selections from all of our performing arts areas including theatre, band and choir.

One thing I will be doing this weekend is greeting next year’s Early Decision students and their families as they come to campus for a visit. This is the biggest Early Decision class in the history of SHU, and I am looking forward to meeting them and welcoming them and their families to our community.

And if you don’t have plans later this evening, come by Red’s at 5 or so to see if Iannazzi’s Marketing & Communications team can creep past Maresco’s band of teachers in the second leg of the Faculty & Staff Trivia Contest.

Enjoy the weekend!

President Petillo's Blog - Friday, February 15th

It seems like well more than a week since I sat down to write before the storm. So much has happened since then. Since I can’t possibly say it enough, I am going to once again offer a huge thank you to the members of the Campus Operations staff who worked around the clock for days to make this campus passable and safe as quickly as possible. Thanks also to the folks from Public Safety, Residential Life, Chartwells and others who were on campus or on call all weekend. Your efforts to keep our students safe and cared for are greatly appreciated. If you haven’t already seen the thank-you video put together by the Marketing and Communications Division, check it out here.

Throughout the weekend and this past week, I have heard many heartwarming stories of students, staff and even strangers helping out and offering a random act of kindness. I want to share one or two:

Jeff Barrett of Public Safety shared that student Stephan White approached him earlier this week during the early stages of cleanup in the North lot. While Stephan had already cleared his vehicle earlier in the day, he returned and asked if he could help others dig out. Jeff took him up on his generous offer and the two of them helped 15 to 20 students free their cars.

I have also heard that many of you were out and about in Bridgeport and Fairfield helping our friends and neighbors dig out and rescuing motorists around the area who had gotten stuck. Even the parents in our community got in on the act. One dad who came to campus to help his daughter shovel her car out stuck around to assist with a half dozen other vehicles. Although I have come to expect nothing less from this very special community, it is heartwarming to hear about our unsung heroes. Thanks to you all for the way you represent the spirit and mission of SHU.

I’m not sure if this is related to the storm and all the updates we sent out via social media, but I’m told that the SHU Facebook page now has more than 10,000 “likes” and that we are just double digits away from more than 3,000 Twitter followers.

For the past 18 months, more than 100 members of the Sacred Heart community have been preparing for the upcoming visit from the NEASC accreditation team. The process requires rigorous preparation and input from all departments and programs. Congratulations to Brittany Burger who was last week’s winner in our NEASC trivia contest. Don’t forget to send in your answer to this week’s question. You could win a $20 SHU bookstore gift card.

I want to encourage you to come to the Chapel at 7 this evening for the “Living Stations of the Cross.” This dramatic presentation was written and directed by student Vincent Ebenau (yes, the same one you see interviewing me for SHUBox each month) and will be performed by a cast of SHU students. It should be the perfect way to prepare yourself for the holy season of Lent.

Next Wednesday afternoon, SHU will offer its own version of TED Talks. Sponsored by the Hersher Institue for Applied Ethics, the program will feature SHU professors from a variety of disciplines talking about some fascinating food-related topics. Examples include Steve Lilley on “Free Range Humans,” Andrew Pierce on “Disgusting Food” and Beau Greer on “Foie Gras: Delicacy and Distraction,” but there is much more. The program is slated for 1:50 to 3:50 in the Schine Auditorium, and I encourage faculty to attend. Congratulations to Mike Ventimiglia, who co-directs the Hersher Institute, on an innovative and exciting program.

Wednesday also brings the first of four lectures that comprise our colloquia series entitled “Reflecting on the Sandy Hook Tragedy.”  The topic of the first lecture will be “Trauma and Mental Health: Implications of the Sandy Hook Shooting.” David Johnson and Hadar Lubin from the Post-Traumatic Stress Center in New Haven will address two important issues – the impact of trauma on both the individual and the community and the relationship between mental illness and violent actions. SHU Professor Michelle Loris will facilitate the discussion.

It’s Siblings Weekend, and I hope all our students will have a great time with their brothers and sisters. Enjoy!

 

President Petillo's Blog - Friday, February 8th

Despite the groundhog’s prediction of an early spring, it looks like winter has at least one more storm in store of us. Stay safe tonight and tomorrow and enjoy the wintry weekend!

A blizzard is not the only thing that will put this week in the history books. Earlier in the week, all three members of our Mission leadership team were on campus at the same time. We were even able to document this momentous occasion with the photo you see below.

Mission leadership team - from left are Father Jerry Ryle, Michael Higgins and Father Tony Ciorra.

This week’s NEASC topic is Standard 6, which is our opportunity to talk about campus life and the programs and opportunities provided for students through Student Services, Student Government, the Wellness Center, etc.  We will describe our very involved student community by talking about our 24 academic clubs, our 800 student athletes in 31 Division I sports and close to 600 participating in club sports. We will also share the various opportunities for volunteering that led to more than 53,000 hours of community service during the last academic year. And we will report on how we measure up to the academic standards set by NEASC. For example, NEASC expects students to spend at least two hours a week working on academics outside the classroom for every hour spent in the classroom or receiving direct faculty instruction.

Don’t forget to answer this week’s trivia question. You could win a $20 gift card to the SHU bookstore.

We had a great turnout for the Polish music concert last Saturday night with more than 300 in attendance. The event was sponsored by the Polish Studies Fund – a long-standing endowment established by the late Professor Francis Lachowicz to promote the study of Polish history, culture and language. Professor Lachowicz taught at SHU from 1978 to 1995 in the Department of Modern Foreign Languages.

Clockwise from top left are pianist Magdalena Baczewska with soprano Zuzanna Ducka,
Baczewska and cellist Marta Bedkowska-Reilly.

We also had a good turnout Wednesday evening for Gail Fosler’s lecture on the topic “Does Business Need Government to Lead?” Her final conclusion was that business leaders and politicians can learn from each other – that business can learn to be more expansive and government can learn to be more porous.

Gail Fosler

Earlier this week, we got a mention of our Newtown t-shirts on the WTNH Channel 8 news broadcast. Proceeds from the shirts benefit the Sandy Hook Elementary School Memorial Scholarship Fund. If you haven’t gotten a shirt yet, they can be purchased online at www.wearenewtownshirt.com.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the annual meeting of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU). The theme of the conference was “Catholic Higher Education and Globalization: Finding Our Place in the New Global Commons.” The conference offered a variety of sessions and seminars aimed at determining how those of us in Catholic higher education can maintain our Catholic identity and educational mission, while keeping up with burgeoning communications, an expanding international knowledge network and shifting world economies. It was a rewarding conference, and I look forward to presenting some of the ideas that came out of the meetings.

I had a chance to share some of those thoughts with members of the faculty at dinner this week. To date, I have gotten to know approximately 200 of the faculty in that informal setting. Some great conversations – and good ideas – have resulted from gathering folks from different disciplines for a good meal.

Earlier this week, I sent an email to the students here encouraging them to take advantage of the many options we offer to study abroad. I strongly believe that anyone who can should take the opportunity to develop a broader world view and get to know different cultures. In response, I got a very nice email from a student who had spent a semester studying at our campus in Dingle, Ireland. She expressed her gratitude for the opportunity to study in the country of her heritage, along with the chance to travel extensively in France and Italy. So, don’t take my word for it. In the words of a fellow student, “The whole study abroad experience was wonderful. I was able to learn more about myself in those three and a half months than I thought was possible.” Stop by the Study Abroad office in the Academic Building and explore the opportunities that are available.

Last night, our GE Foundation Scholars could be found at the Feel the Warmth Soup Kitchen at the United Congregational Church in Bridgeport. Community service is a condition of their scholarship, but most go well beyond the minimum hours required. In addition to serving as a group at the soup kitchen several times a year, they also volunteer individually in areas of interest to them. Some of their projects include working with the elementary students at Dunbar School in Bridgeport, helping immigrant families at the Caroline House, volunteering at the Kennedy Center and Habitat for Humanity, participating in health care missions to Guatemala and more.

From left are GE Scholars Emmanuella Joseph ’13, Jessie DiMuzio ’13,
Amanda Contento ’15, Nicole Theus ’15 and Christina Joerg ’15.

While they were doing that, I was enjoying dinner at Roncalli Hall with the team of honors students that won the Honors Competition. Their project focused on A Raisin in the Sun. It was a great evening with a lively discussion on a variety of topical subjects. I’ll let you wonder if I stopped for ice cream on the way out.

In closing, I want to congratulate Professor June-Ann Greeley on her appointment as the new Northeast Region representative to the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) sub-committee. APPE is a comprehensive, international organization advancing scholarship, education and practice in practical and professional ethics. The sub-committee that June-Ann represents is focused on undergraduates and the APPE’s Ethics Bowls. Greeley will oversee the yearly regional bowl for the Northeast. Last year’s regional bowl took place here at Sacred Heart University last November, and the 2013 bowl will also take place here. June-Ann is also hoping to implement mini-bowls throughout the year in each of the states represented by the Northeast Region.

Stay warm and dry and watch the website for any storm-related updates.

President Petillo's Blog - Friday, February 1st

It’s February already. After the cold and windy weather we’ve been experiencing, I’m hoping that Punxsutawney Phil does not get scared by his shadow tomorrow morning.

This week, I want to talk about NEASC Standard Five, which is Faculty. This standard gives us the opportunity to share with NEASC the strength of our faculty and to highlight their role as educators. As a university that places a high priority on the teaching and learning process, I am proud to have faculty who invite our students into their research and also support the research of students (as can be seen each spring at our annual undergraduate poster session).

The NEASC team will look at the Academic Program Reviews for each of our colleges. These are self- evaluations that are completed every five years. It’s a time for the colleges to determine if any programs should be discontinued and where there is opportunity for expansion.

The dedication, enthusiasm and preparedness of our faculty allow this University to thrive and to continually meet the diverse needs of our students.

Don’t forget to answer our NEASC trivia question. You could be the winner of a $20 SHU Bookstore gift card!

While I’m on the subject of our distinguished faculty, there are more kudos in order for this week. First, I want to congratulate our authors from the College of Arts and Sciences. Lori Bindig, Richard Grigg, Michael Higgins, Christopher Kelly, Stephen Lilley, Jason Molitierno, Gary Rose and Jonas Zdanys were all honored at a reception this week for their recent publications. Their books cover a wide range of topics. There is definitely something for everyone!


I also want to congratulate Seamus Carey, who has been selected to participate in the 2013–2014 Executive Leadership Academy, cosponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the American Academic Leadership Institute. The year-long program prepares experienced administrators for future leadership roles. The program is a big commitment, and we appreciate Seamus’ desire to develop additional knowledge and skills that will benefit this University.

Finally, a tip of the hat to Ralph Lim, professor of Economics & Finance, for taking third place in the Stamford CFA Society’s Forecast contest. I’m putting him on speed dial for all my financial decisions!

The Newtown t-shirt, with proceeds going to the Sandy Hook Elementary School Memorial Scholarship Fund, can now be purchased online. You can order them at www.wearenewtownshirt.com. The Newtown shirt is the first of many original and exciting shirts to be produced by our new student-run t-shirt business. Proceeds from future shirts will be used to support our student mission trips.


The annual Pack the Pitt event on Saturday was a big success with a packed – and very loud – gymnasium that led to victories by both the men’s and women’s basketball teams. A highlight for me was the chance to chat with our enthusiastic band members as well as some special guests – high school students who are interested in both Sacred Heart and the band program. They joined our band in rallying the crowd with some spirited hand-clapping, foot-stomping selections.


We were fortunate this week to have University of Notre Dame Professor of Organ and Artist in Residence Craig Cramer on campus. The combination of his incredible talent and the organ and acoustics in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit led to a breathtaking evening of music.


Tonight is the first installment of a three-part trivia contest featuring teams made up of faculty and staff. I’m looking forward to checking out the talent and finding out if there is anyone my student-led team couldn’t wipe the floor with! Good luck to everyone and have fun!

What better way to get psyched up for the Super Bowl than with an evening of Polish music? In all seriousness, Saturday’s concert in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit features three extremely talented artists on voice, piano and cello. I encourage you to attend.

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the game. Don’t eat too many chicken wings!