A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
In today’s hypercompetitive higher education ecosystem, universities that are tentative in the face of change will fail to prosper. Mercyhurst University has changed in many ways since I took ofce in 2015, evolving and innovating to better meet the needs of our community of faculty, staf, students and alumni. Mercyhurst’s student experience – long among the region’s best – has become more robust, especially with this fall’s grand opening of the new amenity-rich sophomore residence, Ryan Hall. We also expect to open an Irish-themed pub on campus in January that will further enhance the residential experience while creating a safe environment for our students to socialize. As a result of our eforts to attract more underrepresented minority students to Mercyhurst, our student population has grown more diverse. In support of that progress, we established a Diversity and Inclusion Task Force aimed at fostering a more hospitable and compassionate community of learners. We know that student success relies heavily on advising and support systems that take into account the developmental and academic needs of our students. To that end, we are bringing all our student support eforts – from Learning Diferences to the Honors Program – under one umbrella. As we seek to deliver positive outcomes, like graduating on time and helping our students get good jobs, we are also reinventing our Career Services program to better accomplish these goals and meet the expectations of students in today’s global marketplace. Perhaps nowhere is change more evident than in our academic programming. From our distinctive foray into the felds of cybersecurity, data science and risk management, supported by our new MCPc Cyber Education Center, we expect to produce highly skilled and sought-after graduates. Our Ofce of Distance Learning is working diligently to improve students’ access to learning through these new technologies and we have every confdence that it will propel us into the online
market in a big way. We are also holding true to our roots in educating the whole person through REACH; this newer core curriculum ofers our students both fexibility and choice in pursuing their interests.
While we are busy on the campus-front, we have sought to use our community’s talents in partnership with others in academia, business and government to enrich our city. Through the Mercyhurst-led Erie Innovation District (EID), we are helping to deploy smart-city technology in Erie and recently brought nine new startup companies to town for the EID’s accelerator program. Accomplishing these many changes has been the handiwork of a dedicated and determined Mercyhurst community. Many years ago, during her Mercyhurst presidency, Sister Carolyn Herrmann described Mercyhurst as “a vital, alive college in which there is no room for complacency or for satisfaction with less than the best...” I believe she’d be pleased with how we are staying true to that message.
Carpe Diem .
Michael T. Victor, J.D., LL.D. President, Mercyhurst University
ON THE COVER: Sister Lisa Mary McCartney, RSM, Ph.D. ’71, who stepped down in May from her full-time position as vice president for mission integration, is pictured in front of Egan Hall. With the number of Sisters of Mercy in the Erie community dwindling, Sister Lisa Mary has spent the past decade working to ensure that the spirit of the founding Sisters of Mercy continues to thrive at Mercyhurst. (Photo by Jeremy C. Hewitt ’07)
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