Dr. Petillo's Blog

President Petillo's Blog: Friday, June 26th

This week kicked off with an event that was very special to me as I was inducted into Seton Hall’s Athletics Hall of Fame. This honor was both humbling and meaningful. I would never take credit for the success of Seton Hall Athletics during my tenure as chancellor—anything I achieved was because of the talent and cooperation of the coaching staffs and student-athletes. That said, this honor was particularly rewarding because it came from my alma mater where I earned two degrees and developed into the person I am today. It came from a place where I will always feel at home. It was a wonderful experience to have my family and Sacred Heart colleagues attend, to introduce them to friends at Seton Hall and to see my two SHU experiences merging in such a meaningful way.

Another important event also took place on Monday—our annual Pioneer Open. This year’s event was at the Stanwich Club in Greenwich, which is a beautiful course and ranked number one in Connecticut. The Pioneer Open provided a chance for us to invite our friends and benefactors out for an enjoyable day of golf, networking and camaraderie. From what I hear, those who attended had a fantastic time. Congratulations to the Advancement team for organizing a great outing.

Huge congratulations are in order for our student-athletes who tied with Wagner to win the 2015 Northeast Conference Institutional Academic Award. The Pioneers’ 22 NEC teams combined for a grade point average of 3.279. While this award goes to those who play in the NEC conference, all our student-athletes are deserving of kudus for their academic performance. Our nearly 800 student-athletes combined for a GPA of 3.27. Across all 31 varsity sports, the Pioneers had 51 student-athletes post a semester GPA of 4.0 during the year, with 467 earning Dean’s List recognition. In addition, 423 student-athletes were recognized with academic honors by their respective conferences. Congratulations to all of you for being winners both on and off the field!

I also want to again congratulate Board of Trustee member Pat Maggitti on his appointment as provost at Villanova. He starts this new job August 1 and will be the chief academic officer and the second-ranking officer at the University. Villanova is in good hands with Pat.

Congratulations also to Professor Khawaja Mamun who has been asked to be the research trainer at Bangladesh Bank (the central bank of Bangladesh) for the training program titled “Econometric Research with Time Series: Bangladesh Perspectives.” He will be in Bangladesh from July 21 to August 3 to conduct this training.

Our offsite alumni happy hour events continue to be successful with more than 100 alumni turning out in New York City last night to network and reconnect. We are optimistic that these outings will lead to alumni chapters around the country.

Tonight a group of MBA students who have been working with the Barnum Museum will present their work to museum officials and receive their feedback. Earlier this week, another group met with representatives from the Town of Fairfield to provide recommendations for enhancing the downtown area so that more people will shop and dine there. As part of these projects, students research similar entities, do surveys and much more. It is great to see this Action Learning Program is benefitting both the students and area businesses and nonprofits as it was designed to do.

Have a wonderful weekend!

President Petillo's Blog: Friday, June 19th

Yesterday was a special day at Sacred Heart as we broke ground for the new Center for Healthcare Education. Nearly 200 of you showed up to celebrate, which was great to see. This is an exciting time for Sacred Heart as we continue to grow. It is wonderful to share these moments with so many from the SHU community as well as our friends from Bridgeport, who have also become important members of our family.

Last night was the Fourth Annual SHU Media Exchange. It is an outstanding program that is put together entirely by MACOMM students under the guidance of faculty. This year’s event focused on women and minorities in the media. The moderator was Faith Daniels, and the panel consisted of Anita Ford Saunders, director of Marketing Communications at the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut; Ana Ceppi, vice president of Business Development at Univision Communications; and Rob King, senior vice president of SportsCenter and News at ESPN. The evening also included a cocktail hour and a post-event reception for networking. A great job by our students!

Also last night, Alumni Relations continued its series of happy hour events with a successful gathering in Stamford at Bobby Valentine’s eatery. More than 100 alumni turned out to mingle, network and hear about the great things going on at SHU.

For the second consecutive year, the Bank of America Charitable Foundation has provided $10,000 to Sacred Heart for the Bank of America Problem-Based Learning Projects for Not-for-Profits Organizations program. The program benefits both our WCOB students and area nonprofits as it gives the students the opportunity to consult with the nonprofits and help to resolve real-world business problems. The grant funds three teams of students over the course of the academic year. We are very grateful to Bank of America for its generosity.

The economic outlook for the state developed by Lucjan Orlowski’s economic and financial forecasting class continues to get recognition. Most recently, the Fairfield County Business Journal carried a story about it. You can read that article here.

I want to encourage everyone to consider getting involved in the Connecticut Bike Challenge on July 25-26. Once again TEAMSHU will be riding in honor of Chris Cook, the late son of C. Donald Cook, executive director of Intercollegiate Athletics, emeritus. This year, the CT Challenge will award a $10,000 scholarship in honor of Christopher to a student that creates a team. It will go to a cancer survivor who attends SHU full time. TEAMSHU has a goal of 50 bikers this year and a fundraising challenge of $20,000. Seventy-five cents of every dollar raised by TEAMSHU will go to the scholarship. SHU will also host a rest stop on the ride course, so those who can’t bike can volunteer at the rest stop. It is a fun and rewarding event. You will have a great time. You can join TEAMSHU by clicking here.

I would also like to encourage you to participate in our ongoing United Way campaign. The campaign runs through next week, and monies raised will help your friends and neighbors in coastal Fairfield County, with a special focus on children. We have already raised more than we did in the previous two years, and I thank those of you who have already made a contribution. You can make an online gift here.

Enjoy the weekend!

President Petillo's Blog: Friday, June 12th

It’s great to be back on campus after a wonderful vacation. While in Italy, I was able to meet up with our students in Rome—something I always try to do—and take them out to dinner. We had a fantastic evening of good food and good company. I loved hearing their stories about their studies and experiences in Rome.

I also love the excitement that always surrounds freshman orientation. We had approximately 1,300 incoming freshmen on campus the past two weeks for three orientation sessions. Both they and their parents were enthusiastic and excited as they heard about what they can expect when they arrive back here to stay in August. I want to thank all of you for all you did to make their visit here welcoming and productive. Thanks and congratulations to Denise Tiberio and her entire team. I especially want to thank the student volunteers who do so much to make the newest members of our Sacred Heart family feel welcome. I am not the only one who is grateful. We got some wonderful feedback from parents posting on Facebook. You can read their comments here. There are also several great videos from these events. Here’s a link to one of them. You can find others on YouTube and Facebook.

I want to take a moment to update you on the two pieces of legislation that we all worked so hard to defeat.The PILOT bill was amended in the House so that the property taxes would be levied only on University-owned residential houses used for student housing. The Senate did not take up this bill during the regular session so, while the bill is dead at this point, it is expected that the proposal approved by the House will be considered again in the upcoming special session.

The proposed cuts to the Governor’s Scholarship Fund were limited to $2 million in FY16. We expect that no institutions will be cut from the program, but there will likely be a limit placed on either the amount of money a school may give out per year or the number of awards. Those details will be in the implementer bill, which will be finalized in the upcoming special session. 

All in all, the news is good. I want to thank all of you who wrote letters to your legislators. You truly made a difference. Once the decisions are final and we have all the details, I will communicate with the entire SHU community again.

In my last blog, I talked about the great work that the students from Lucjan Orlowski’s economic and financial forecasting class did in preparing their annual economic outlook report for the state of Connecticut. Since then, a reporter from the Connecticut Post wrote a fantastic story on their work, which was published in all the Hearst newspapers. You can read it here. The report has also been shared with state lawmakers, various local city officials and area economic development directors. Congratulations to the following students who worked on this comprehensive report: Kimberly Ball, Adria Abboud, John Brownell, Kenneth Byram, Matthew Cole, James Cooksey, Kyle Czarnecki, Anthony Dolisi, Jonathan Flood, Scott Gaffney, Vincent Iannitelli, Margaret McCabe, Raymond Satagaj, Steven Sullivan, Emma Trapani and Adrien Viani.

Faculty members recently gathered for the Digital Learning Summer Institute, which has a goal of empowering faculty to enhance their teaching practices through effective integration of the digital learning environment and build a community of practice among faculty as they develop their digital pedagogical strategies. Under the leadership of the provost, Laura Niesen de Abruna, the Office of Digital Learning partnered with IT and faculty facilitators—Anita August, Wendy Bjerke, Jim Castonguay and Amanda Moras—to design and deliver this initiative collaboratively. The weeklong institute was attended by 21 faculty members with representatives from all our Colleges. The participating faculty worked in seven college-based teams to meet common program objectives. 

For the first time, the Alumni Relations team is offering a series of happy hour events for alumni over the summer. The gatherings will take place in eight cities throughout the Northeast, and they are already proving to be popular. Approximately 80 people came to an event at Red’s in late May, and 20 alums gathered in Boston last night. Responses on Facebook indicate that more than 100 plan to attend the upcoming event in Stamford, and 160 have sent an RSVP for New York City. These events provide alums with an opportunity to network and meet people in their city as well as to hear from Alumni Relations about all the great things that are happening at their alma mater. The hope is that alumni chapters will develop in these areas as a result of these events.

Once again, our talented students and faculty are doing us proud. Laura Niesen de Abruna has been tapped by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to attend their convening of higher education leaders to talk about organizational change in U.S. Universities. She will be heading to Seattle in July.

Gail Samdperil, associate dean of the College of Health Professions, is a recipient of one of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s 2015 Athletic Trainer Service Awards.

Nathan Lewis has three works in the exhibition titled “Remythologies: New Inventions of Old Stories” currently on display at the Housatonic Museum. You can check out the exhibit now through July 24.

Rising sophomore Ross Doty won a seat as a Town Meeting representative in last weekend’s town election in Walpole, Mass. This makes Ross the youngest elected official in Walpole in recent memory.

Alumna Keely Backus has been named 2015 Teacher of the Year for the town of Norwich. Keely has been with the Norwich school district since her internship for SHU.

Upward Bound student Geranne Darbouze will be unable to attend SHU’s summer Upward Bound program because she will be participating in the 2015 Telluride Sophomore Seminar entitled “Dreams of Freedom and Realities of Confinement” at the University of Michigan. While there, she will receive individualized writing instruction and attend programs by guest lecturers. Congratulations to all!

I want to close with a big congratulations to our women student-athletes on winning the 2015 Joan Martin Commissioner’s Cup. The cup is presented annually to the NEC institution that achieves the greatest overall success in women’s athletics. Our Pioneers accumulated 107.64 points, two points clear of runner-up LIU Brooklyn (105.81) and Central Connecticut State (105.48) to win the cup for a league-record eighth time. Sacred Heart last won the women’s commissioner’s cup in 2011-12.

Have a relaxing and safe weekend!