’ I came to Mercyhurst full time in 1997, so I don t personally remember the days when the Sisters of Mercy were everywhere on campus – but I ve always felt that Mercy spirit. Even though the number of Sisters here was dropping by the time I arrived, you couldn t miss the legacy they had built here. You felt it everywhere, and I continue to be grateful for it. There are only two Sisters of Mercy working with us full time now. I ve told both Sister Lisa Mary and Sister Pat that they re not allowed to retire, but there s a real possibility that at some point there might not be any Sisters left on our staf. The question that needs to be addressed ’ ’ ’ ’ ’ A message from the president
“ is: How can those of us who follow them ensure that the Mercy spirit and tradition live on at the university the Sisters created? One school of thought is that we need to create a Mercy community to take on that responsibility. I hope you’ll take a moment to read the story on page 15 that outlines this idea, as well as profles of our two remaining Sisters. ” ’ I thought I knew our Trustees pretty well, but I learned a bit more about 15 of them who are Mercyhurst alumni in Mary Daly s feature story in this issue. Mary, who very capably handles Board of Trustees matters now, is also Mercyhurst s longest-serving employee. She remembers all these Trustees from their student days and has some interesting stories to tell. It s fun to look back, but of course most of our time is spent looking forward, positioning Mercyhurst for the future and working to ensure that our students get the kind of hands-on, real-world experiences that prepare them to succeed. ’ ’ ’ You’ll read about these eforts in this issue, too. We re especially proud that Erie native Tom Ridge has agreed to lend his name to an exciting new initiative for our intelligence studies department, already one of our best-known and most successful programs. We ofered our frst January-term (J-term) at the beginning of the year, and many of our faculty developed and taught exciting new courses for this intensive, three week time frame. For some, it was the perfect time to lead groups to destinations all over the world. We opened an archival center this spring to help make the works of Joan Chittister, OSB ’62, one of our most distinguished alumni, available to our students and to the public. We re extremely grateful to the family of another Mercyhurst graduate, Helen Loebelenz Boyle ’34, for helping us honor Helens very dear friend. There s much more inside, including stories about just a few of our alumni who are impacting the world in all sorts of ways. I hope you’ll enjoy reading their stories, and will let us know about other stories we can tell in future issues. God bless you, and God bless Mercyhurst University. - ’ ’ ’
Thomas J. Gamble, Ph.D. President, Mercyhurst University
ON THE COVER: Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge chats with Justine Chopp (left) of Billings, Montana, and Olga Bugera of Erie during the announcement of the Tom Ridge School of Intelligence Studies and Information Science. Both women are completing master’s degrees in applied intelligence at Mercyhurst.
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