2005-11-17 IB

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Nov. 17, 2005

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SBU admissions director finds you never leave Bona's, even in Iraq

Jim DiRisio went all the way to Iraq and found he couldn’t get away from his Bonaventure roots.

DiRisio, admissions director at the University and a major in the U.S. Army Reserve, recently returned from a year-long deployment in Baghdad as executive assistant to the commanding general of the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team.

During his tour, he leaned on lessons learned when he was a cadet in the storied Seneca Battalion, the U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at St. Bonaventure, which won the MacArthur Award as best small unit in the nation in 1998.

“At St. Bonaventure, we learned to behave ethically, morally. In Iraq, I walked into situations where that training was beneficial — where you needed to treat someone as you would want to be treated,” he said, pointing out that as he worked with 450 coalition personnel from four U.S. services and five nations, “I had to find ways to get things done with people who may have had significantly different ways of doing things in their service. … We found ourselves in ambiguous circumstances which required us to be extremely careful in our development of solutions to complex problems.”

“When you work with people from other backgrounds, other services, other nations, you realize that you don’t have all the answers,” he said. “We were an especially dynamic organization because of the diversity that we had.”

He’s proud of the work his division did in training Iraqi units, and disappointed that the media portray them as unprepared. “Because the previous regime was so oppressive, you don’t have a cadre of trained leaders who know how to lead, to set procedures so that troops can be trained, get paid and be promoted,” he said. But they have risen to the challenge: “To say there are no trained Iraqi units is just wrong. I’ve patrolled the streets with them. It’s a real testament to the spirit of those people that they want to take responsibility for their country.”

DiRisio believes the lessons he learned will help him work with his Admissions team. “You go back to the basics, and look for ways to leverage each person’s special talents as you integrate concepts or tasks into the work at hand.”

In addition, his time away gave him a “big picture” view of Bonaventure, one that was humorously pointed out in the November issue of The Atlantic Monthly, in which a former co-worker noted: “Being stationed in Baghdad, DiRisio said, provided the first time in 10 years he had gotten a good night’s sleep in April,” the traditional make-or-break time in admissions.

DiRisio had a foreshadowing of his trip to Iraq back in April 2004, when Lt. Col. Richard C. Trietley, 1986 classmate and current professor of military science at SBU, invited him to accompany the senior cadets on a full-day exercise at Allegany State Park. “I remember how we talked about how any of us, at any time, could find ourselves in Afghanistan or Iraq,” he said. For DiRisio, it was only two weeks before he found he would be doing just that.

He reported to the 98th Division headquarters in Rochester in June 2004, working three months as plans officer for its deployment. After a week of training in Texas and two in Kuwait, he arrived in Baghdad in late September.

Once in Iraq, he kept rubbing elbows with Bona grads, all members of the 98th Division, which stretches from the Buffalo area north to Maine and had between 700-750 members on active duty.

In Fallujah, he met up with Capt. Tom Manion, who holds an MBA from St. Bonaventure, where he works as an ROTC instructor. In Iraq, he was an embedded advisor with an Iraqi unit.

He ran across Maj. Jim Reese, a 1987 Bona grad. “He was in the platoon I was responsible for training as a senior.” Others include Capt. Dave Conner, who had taught ROTC at St. Bonaventure and now is a vice principal at a school in the Southern Tier; Capt. Brian Golas, a 1992 graduate who is also a schoolteacher and was embedded like Manion; and Col. Ed Downey, a 1977 graduate who is an Army attorney.

Aside from Bona reunions, DiRisio found another positive in this deployment, which while it still meant separation from his family was very different from the five months he spent in 1991 as a civil affairs officer with the 1st Armored Division in Iraq and even from the seven months he served as squadron civil affairs officer in Bosnia with the 4th U.S. Cavalry.

The big difference? E-mail.

“Having access to e-mail was great. … I believe that being able to see pictures of the family — and for them to see pictures of me — really helped to keep us connected,” as did a two-week, mid-tour leave in April, he said. Friends helped, too: “It was a blessing for <his wife> Mary and the kids to have so many good friends here who made a real difference with their thoughts, actions and prayers.”

Prayers kept him going, too. “While I was often in more dangerous situations than I had ever experienced, I always knew that I would be coming back. I prayed and tried to keep focused on what was going on around me,” he said. “I was well-trained and surrounded by some of the best soldiers, Marines and sailors I have ever had the pleasure to serve with.”

He’s philosophical about returning to active duty. “I will do my duty. As long as I stay in the Army Reserve, there is a possibility that I will have to serve again,” he said. “Our country is at war, and I have been proud to serve, and will do so again if I am called. ”

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St. Bonaventure University professor publishes book on the right to strike

Josiah Bartlett Lambert, Ph.D., associate professor of political science at St. Bonaventure University, has published a book this month through Cornell University Press, titled “If the Workers Took a Notion: The Right to Strike and American Political Development.”

In his book, Lambert traces the transformation of the right to strike from a citizenship right expressive of free labor into a limited commercial right for the purposes of collective bargaining.

“‘If the Workers Took a Notion’ is a superb read,” said Russell Muirhead of Harvard University, author of “Just Work.”

“Its prose is bold, dramatic, and pointed. It offers a comprehensive and gripping overview of the history of labor relations in the United States from the Civil War to the present with a focus throughout on the right to strike. Attentive to the tortured history and dim prospects for such a right, Lambert illuminates a radical vision of the connection between work and citizenship,” he said.

“I argue that this transformation of the right to strike was a result of factors in American political development, especially the rise of presidential power and the modern conception of sovereignty, rather than the intervention of the judiciary in strikes and labor relations generally,” said Lambert.

“I also argue that the American labor movement originally embraced the political culture of civic republicanism, but the rise of the new American state in the late 19th century forced the labor movement to abandon it in favor of a less threatening liberal political culture. This has led to the weakening of the right to strike,” he explained.

Lambert, who has been a professor at SBU since the fall of 2000, teaches courses in U.S. political institutions and public policy. Although he does not directly use his book in his courses, he does incorporate discussions of workers’ rights and labor conflict into them.

Lambert explained that his book started with his dissertation research.

“I needed a topic I was excited about, and I found the history of labor conflict in the U.S. very interesting. I also needed a topic that would keep me interested for the long hours I had to spend in the library,” said Lambert.

“I also perceived a gap in the political science literature with regard to strikes,” he continued. “As a form of collective action, strikes are a form of political participation in the broadest sense of the term, but very little had been done on the topic in my field.”

In order to write his book, Lambert spent a lot of time reading about strikes in U.S. history, as well as the statutes, administrative rulings and court decisions that have shaped U.S. public policy toward strikes. He recommends the book to anyone who is interested in the labor movement and is concerned about the decline of the labor movement in the U.S.

“I would like readers to reconsider the historic relationship between the mainstream labor movement and modern American liberalism,” said Lambert. “Although modern American liberalism established the rule of law in U.S. labor relations, the labor movement hasn’t exactly flourished either.”

Lambert has plans for future research as well. He is interested in the role of the labor movement in the political incorporation of new immigrants.

“Recently the labor movement has mobilized and empowered Hispanic workers in southern California through such activities as the Janitors for Justice movement. The recent Los Angeles mayoral election of Antonio Villaragosa, who began as a labor organizer in the Mexican American community, demonstrated the growing political incorporation of Hispanic citizens in southern California,” said Lambert.

He would like to find answers to questions such as “To what extent is the labor movement today shaping the political identities, interests and involvement of new immigrants?” and “Is political incorporation through the labor movement channeling new immigrants into effective and democratic forms of political participation or are new immigrants becoming co-opted? How will this political incorporation reshape the power structures of urban political regimes?”

Lambert says he is proud that the publisher of his book is Cornell University Press, one of the foremost publishers in the field of labor studies.

“It is thrilling to publish a book and see my name in print,” said Lambert, who was promoted to associate professor this fall. “It still hasn’t sunk in completely. Being published definitely has changed my standing among the community of scholars, and has led to invitations to make presentations and contribute in other ways.”

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Franciscan Institute launches database as worldwide resource on Franciscan women

There is only one place in the world where you can find the definitive source of sources on Franciscan women: The Franciscan Institute at St. Bonaventure University.

And through the wonders of the World Wide Web, it is accessible from nearly anywhere in the world.

As today we mark the Feast of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, the patron saint of the Third Franciscan Order, Franciscans worldwide can celebrate the opportunity to research hundreds of women who have followed in the footsteps of St. Francis of Assisi from the 13th century onward.

The Web site, http://franwomen.sbu.edu/, currently contains information on more than 1,500 Franciscan women from the 13th to the 18th centuries. It also lists all monasteries of Poor Clares (named for Clare of Assisi, who began a women’s order inspired by Francis) in Europe, Asia and the Americas during the same period, as well as more than 700 titles in its bibliography.

How did such a comprehensive collection come to be? A pair of Franciscan scholars put their love of research together with technical assistance now available through the Internet.

Dr. Bert Roest, a renowned medievalist from the Netherlands and living in Switzerland, had for years collected information as he traveled to perform research, said Dr. Jean François Godet-Calogeras, associate professor of Franciscan Studies at the University.

“During that time, being an itinerant researcher traveling from library to library, instead of carrying material with him, he would store it on the Internet,” Godet-Calogeras said. “As a consequence, he developed a huge database on Franciscan authors,” though they were all men.

Godet-Calogeras, for whom Franciscan women had been a research focus for 30 years, met Roest while he was serving as the Franciscan Institute’s Fr. Joseph Doino, O.F.M., Visiting Professor of Franciscan Studies. After discussing their mutual interest, the pair thought, “Why don’t we develop a Web site with all sorts of information about Franciscan women?”

“A Web site offered the possibility of gathering information not only about individuals but also communities, without the limitations of time and space,” Godet-Calogeras said, noting the site was to be targeted toward research, historical and scholarly rather than devotional.

And so Roest began the long and arduous task of transferring massive amounts of bibliographical information about these Franciscan women which he had collected over the years into the newly created database while inputting others of more recent vintage. Godet-Calogeras, entrusted at this early stage with the task of “quality control,” added others not known to Roest.

While these two men had the credentials for the research portion, they needed someone with technical expertise who would be able to create the structure necessary to establish the site.

They found their man in Matthew Mackowski, who had left the corporate world to pursue a master’s degree in theology as well as an Advanced Certificate in Franciscan Studies at St. Bonaventure, but brought a background rich in technological know-how with him.

The University was able to help pay for Mackowski’s time and work with funding from a pair of grants in 2004 and 2005 from the Leo Keenan Faculty Development Endowment for Teaching and Learning at St. Bonaventure, funded by a $1 million endowment from Leslie C. Quick III and his wife, Eileen.

The site went live Sept. 1 but continues to be refined and, Godet-Calogeras hopes, will continue to grow with contributions from other authors and researchers.

“The next steps for us are two things: To find dedicated funding, so that we can proceed as a real work and not on a volunteer basis, and to develop a network of contributors,” he said.

While the founders continue to search for funding sources to expand and maintain the site, they have reached out to members of Women in the Franciscan Intellectual Tradition (WIFIT), a listserv for Franciscan researchers, and have already found about a dozen scholars who are willing to provide their work to be incorporated.

“We are designing a methodology for including their research; we have to develop a strategy to organize it and keep the contributions of others up to date,” Godet-Calogeras said, adding, “We want to make it available free. If everything becomes an object of profit, that will be the end of scholarly research.”

In addition to benefiting several departments at St. Bonaventure, including The Franciscan Institute, theology, history and women’s studies, Godet-Calogeras sees the site as an important contribution to scholars worldwide.

“This will benefit not only Franciscan scholars, but medievalists, Franciscan women, interested lay people, and many others,” he said. While the tremendous benefit of the Web is its flexibility and capability to be continually updated, to keep it so is also a great responsibility. “This is a pilgrim project, very Franciscan,” he said with a smile. “It will be dead when it stops moving.”

To learn more about the Franciscan Institute and its resources, visit it on the Web at http://www.sbu.edu/academics/franciscan-institute/index.htm.

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St. Bonaventure University remembers junior John Dlugosz

Faculty and friends remembered John Dlugosz as passionate about current affairs, politics and, especially, people during a memorial service Tuesday on the St. Bonaventure campus.

The University was packed to standing room only as faculty, staff, friends and family turned out to remember Dlugosz, a 21-year-old political science major from Orchard Park who died Saturday on campus.

Close friends on the east side of campus, where he lived, organized a candle vigil, which included the recitation of the Prayer of St. Francis, lighting of candles and a walk together to the University Chapel.

Celebrant Fr. Michael Calabria, O.F.M., welcomed the mourners and, noting that he himself can get emotional but considers that a sign of a tender heart, said, “I see many tender hearts, much love and much faith here tonight.”

Referring the Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus, which had just been read, he said that Jesus had been moved to tears by the love and loss of his friends.

“Tonight this community sheds its tears over the death of John. Our faith cannot explain John’s death,” yet, like Martha, we receive his death in faith, he said.

“Christ is present to us who gather to mourn John, just as He was present to Martha. He tells us, as He told her, ‘Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die,’” Fr. Michael said, adding that John “will always be a part of His family, and he will always be a part of our family. … May the Lord give you His peace.”

Several community members remembered the charming, sincere young man who threw himself into every project with enthusiasm.

“I believe that St. Bonaventure brings out the best in people and the best in students,” said Dr. Jim Moor, chair of the political science department, who is completing his 31st year at St. Bonaventure. “John was an individual who came to class, who contributed and who always had something good to say about somebody.”

Steve Blaski, co-captain of the rugby team on which John played, said, “He always brought a smile to your face,” and flashed the sign for “Deuce,” which was his nickname.

A friend who worked with John in Model United Nations recalled how he loved to talk about his recent trip to Beijing, where his father lives, and the tremendous impact it had had on him. “I will remember the compassionate, genuine John was always a good listener, his passion for current world news, and his love of life and all the people in it.”

Dr. Neal Carter, who advised John, taught him as a student in several classes and worked with him on Model U.N., said the young man had a genuine interest in current events, with a quirky, creative sense of humor.

During an International Relations class simulation, “he got a group of the students together to form the C.A.R.T.E.R. pact. I don't quite remember what the acronym stood for (something both relevant and funny), but it was typical of his sense of humor to poke fun at different situations and of his creativity,” Carter said. “He often would do things for a laugh.”

That humor was never mean-spirited, though, and often turned toward John himself: “He had the self-effacing humor that few can pull off,” the professor said. “He also tended to be among the most courteous of our students. … People generally really liked John.”

“John will be sorely missed by all who knew him,” he added.

Friends also shared memories of John with his family during a reception that followed in the Robert R. Jones Board of Trustees Room, Doyle Hall. Counseling and minister-in-residence staff were available for students in Francis Hall following the service.

The University will also provide buses to take students to services in Orchard Park.

Calling hours will be held from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Brown Funeral Home, 6575 East Quaker St., on Route 20A, and a Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. at the Nativity of Our Lord Church, 4414 South Buffalo St.

Students interested in going to Orchard Park for the calling hours Thursday or funeral Friday are encouraged to go together on the bus provided by the Student Life division. They may sign up in the office of Student Activities, Room 208 of the Reilly Center.

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SBU's Quick Center opens holiday exhibition featuring 19th century Santa Claus images

Woodcut images of Santa Claus are featured in a new exhibition, Old Saint Nick: Christmas with Thomas Nast, opening at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University on Friday, Nov. 18.

The details of our long enduring popular image of Santa Claus were created during the Civil War by the great political cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) in his illustrations for Harper’s Weekly. St. Nicholas was a fourth century bishop who became the patron saint of children in the Middle Ages. Despite Protestant rejection of saints, the Dutch brought to their colony at New Amsterdam their tradition of celebrating St. Nicholas (Sinter-Klaus) Day on Dec. 6 by leaving gifts for children in their shoes. English colonists heard the name as ‘Santy Claus.’

St. Nicholas was often pictured riding on a white horse as a tall, thin man in a bishop’s robe. Washington Irving described him as stout and jolly, wearing a broad-brimmed hat, smoking a long pipe and driving a wagon in his Knickerbocker’s History of New York, published in 1809. The popular poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” of 1822, probably written by Clement Moore, introduced flying reindeer and Santa’s visit to children on Christmas Eve. Nast further embellished Moore’s concept with fur-trimmed clothing and a beard for his figure of Santa, who now lived at the North Pole and received mail from children.

From 1863 to 1886, Nast produced popular Christmas illustrations nearly every year. Being a political cartoonist and a strong supporter of the Union and Abraham Lincoln, it is not surprising that Nast’s first Christmas pictures were very political. Santa visited Northern troops, clothed in stars and stripes. After the South was

defeated, Nast began to show domestic scenes celebrating Christmas. Often his five children served as models. Nast published a collection of these illustrations, Christmas Drawings for the Human Race, in 1890.

The woodcuts on display are from the collection of Jay G. Williams, Professor of Religious Studies at Hamilton College. The exhibition remains on view until Jan. 8, 2006.

Admission to the Quick Center galleries is free and open to the public. Galleries are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For information on group tours, contact Jason Trimmer at (716) 375-7686. For general information, call (716) 375-2494, visit our Web site at www.sbu.edu or e-mail us at Quick@sbu.edu.

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SBU Annual Ski and Snowboard Swap

The Annual Ski and Snowboard Swap will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 4, at the St. Bonaventure University Francis Hall Café.

Anyone with used snow sports equipment such as skis, snowboards, boots, poles, bindings, clothing and other assorted gear can bring it to the swap and sell it for commission.

A local ski/snowboard shop in Ellicottville, N.Y., will send fitting personnel to the swap with new and used snow sports equipment available for purchases at very reasonable prices. The personnel will also be there to ensure proper selection and fit for the gear being purchased.

The main entrance into Francis Hall leads to the café. The café will be open to the public during the swap to purchase food and beverages.

Any questions please contact Chris Brown, owner of The Ski Depot in Ellicottville, at (716) 699-4917 or the SBU office of student activities at (716) 375-2514.

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St. Bonaventure inducts four into Sigma Delta Pi

St. Bonaventure University held a ceremony Nov. 8 inducting four students into the Xi Delta Chapter of Sigma Delta Pi, the national Spanish Honor Society.

Membership in the honor society is open to all students who are at least a second semester sophomore, have a minimum of one upper-level course in Spanish culture or civilization and a 3.0 GPA or higher.

The four students inducted were: Kathryn DeMarco, a senior journalism/mass communication major from Long Valley, N.J.; Daniel Hettrick, a junior Spanish major from Olean, N.Y.; Kaitlyn McElwee, a junior psychology major from Syracuse, N.Y.; and Jennifer Sorokes, a junior accounting major from Olean, N.Y.

The current officers of the Xi Delta Chapter are Heather Denby, president, and Meghan Moran, vice president.

The adviser for the chapter is Dr. Leigh Simone, assistant professor of modern languages, who noted that the Xi Delta Chapter brought an evening of salsa lessons and dancing with “Salsa Under the Stars” to the campus community in the spring of 2005 and hopes to offer more cultural activities this coming semester. The chapter also offers end-of-semester tutoring sessions and plans to sponsor Hispanic film nights as well.

Sigma Delta Pi was established Nov. 14, 1919, at the University of California in Berkeley. It is the only honor society devoted exclusively to students of Spanish in four-year colleges and universities.

Sigma Delta Pi is not only the largest foreign language honor society in existence; it is one of the premier honor societies, attested by its membership in the Association of College Honor Societies.

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Alumnus gives lecture on current issues of health care policy

Dr. Ronald J. Chenail, vice president for research, planning, and governmental affairs and professor of family therapy at Nova Southeastern University, presented a lecture at St. Bonaventure University on Tuesday on health care policy, clinical competencies, evidence-based practice and the future of counseling and psychotherapy in the Unites States.

The lecture covered topics such as major policy reports that will drive clinical research and practice for the future of federal health care policy and introduced the major features found in these reports such as: clinical competencies, healthcare disparities, evidence-based practice and systematic reviews and access via technology. Chenail also illustrated how these policies and concepts will help to shape the practice of counseling and psychotherapy.

Chenail discussed the Institute of Medicine’s “Six Core Values”: safe, patient-centered, efficient, effective, timely and equitable, which are seen as the foundation for a better health care system and will continue to exert great influence on mental health care in the U.S.

The lecture promoted a greater emphasis on exploring how language, culture, race and ethnicity can negatively impact the delivery of mental health care and how improving clinical services through improving practitioners’ culture competencies will take center stage in the training of health and mental health professionals.

Also discussed was the importance of evidence-based medicine, which is the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients.

Other topics included the increase of technology-mediated care and the implications for the future practice of counseling and psychotherapy.

The lecture took place in Plassmann Hall on the University’s campus and was given to the graduate students and faculty in Bonaventure’s Counselor Education program.
The lecture offered students with state of the art information on current and future trends in the professions of marriage and family counseling, mental health and school counseling.

Chenail is a 1978 graduate of St. Bonaventure University, where he received his bachelor of arts degree in history. He then went on to receive a master’s in educational psychology-counseling from the University of Houston in 1984. From 1986 to 1988 he was enrolled in the Marriage and Family doctoral program at Texas University, and then received his Ph.D. in family therapy from Nova University in 1989.

Chenail is currently the editor of The Qualitative Report and Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, and holds several other editorial responsibilities for other publications as well.

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University slates meetings on open enrollment for health insurance

It’s the time of year for open enrollment for benefits, according to the office of Human Resources.

Open enrollment is the annual time to enroll or change your health insurance plan, elect a flexible spending account for 2006 and/or enroll in the voluntary dental plan if you are not currently enrolled, explained June Solan, director of Human Resources.

Health insurance open enrollment meetings are scheduled for 10 a.m. and noon Nov. 30 as well as 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Dec. 6. All meetings will be in the Robert R. Jones Board of Trustees Room, Doyle Hall.

Representatives from BlueCross and BlueShield (Community Blue and
Traditional) and Independent Health will be available to discuss the options available as well as any changes for each of the plans St.
Bonaventure University offers.

“We will be offering two additional plans for 2006,” Solan said, adding that her office will send out the 2006 premium rates as soon as they are received from the insurance carriers. “Please note enrollment/change forms are due in the office of Human Resources by Dec. 9, 2005, for a Jan. 1, 2006 effective date.”

Flexible spending account enrollment forms for 2006 are also due in the office of Human Resources by Dec. 9. Information and enrollment forms are available via my.sbu.edu/human resources online or by calling the office of Human Resources.

The voluntary dental plan — Dental Pay Plus — may also be enrolled in during this period. “SBU has offered Dental Pay Plus since January 2001 and we have doubled our enrollment in this plan,” Solan said.

“The good news is that for the third straight year there will be no increase in the premium,” Solan said. For more information please call the office of Human Resources.

Information and enrollment forms for the flexible spending accounts as well as Dental Pay Plus will be available at the health insurance open enrollment meetings.

Those with questions prior to the meetings may contact the office of Human Resources.

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Career Center News ...

For information on upcoming career fair deadines, practice interview sign-ups and how to create a college central account, visit the Career Center Events Web page.

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Newsmakers ...

Dr. Patrick K. Dooley, Board of Trustees Professor of Philosophy, presented “Jack London and Missionaries” at the 40th Annual Western American Literature Association meeting in Los Angeles Oct. 21. This essay is the fourth in a series of analyses dealing with the topic of missionaries in the American Literary Realists and Naturalists. At the June 2002 meeting of the American Literature Association, Dooley presented a paper dealing with Stephen Crane’s notes on his travels in Mexico, including his commentary on the impact of missionaries upon the Indian and Mexican natives.
During the fall of 2003, Fr. Murray Bodo, O.F.M., gave a Clare 401 plenary address on “Indigenous People and Cultural Contact” that was part of the Senior Capstone course on “Globalization.” Following conversations with Bodo, Dooley resumed his study on the topic of missionaries and has since given presentations on missionaries and Willa Cather at the Tenth International Willa Cather Seminar in June 2005 in Red Cloud, Neb., and on missionaries and Mark Twain at the Fifth International Mark Twain Conference in August in Elmira, N.Y.

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Rear Adm. Louis V. Iasiello, O.F.M., University trustee, has been unanimously elected president of the Washington Theological Union by its Board of Trustees. The Washington Theological Union, one of the largest Roman Catholic graduate schools of theology and ministry in the country, educates and forms candidates for the priesthood and other church ministries, as well as students who seek to deepen their faith by expanding their theological horizons.

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In October, Dr. John Mulryan, Board of Trustees Professor of English, attended and participated in the Northeast Milton Seminar at Penn State University. He also addressed the bicentennial international Milton conference at Murfreesboro, Tenn., on the subject of “Milton’s Michael and Dante’s Vergil as Guides to the Fallen.” currently developing for next season for Bradford Little Theatre in Bradford, Pa.

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Bonathon callers make great strides toward $500,000 goal

The Bonaventure Fund’s Bonathon callers have been very successful so far as they continue to receive donations from St. Bonaventure University alumni, parents and friends, making their way toward their goal of $500,000.

This year’s $100,000 Challenge, an incentive designed to motivate student callers to raise $100,000 in 10 days, was a resounding success with callers surpassing their goal on night six of calling with a total of $104,005. By night 10 of calling, student callers had raised $142,445.

There are currently 27 undergraduate SBU student callers, who call Sunday through Wednesday from 6 to 9 p.m. Working under the supervision of Marcell Mallette, director of the annual fund, Karen Heitzinger, annual fund manager and Katie Fish, ’02, Bonathon coordinator, the callers have raised approximately $200,000 from alumni to date.

“The Bonathon team is hard-working and deserves much recognition for their efforts. Between their success and the excitement surrounding the Anniversary Campaign, I'm optimistic that we will reach our goal this year,” said Mallette.

The Bonathon focuses not only on securing gifts from alumni, but also developing and maintaining relationships with them. It is an important part of helping the unrestricted Bonaventure Fund reach its overall goal of $2.1 million for 2005-2006. To date, $638,457 has been raised, which is 42.5% ahead of the amount raised this same time last year.

“We changed the Bonathon program slightly this year by adding an extra hour to the training session, which included a motivational speech from Sr. Margaret,” said Heitzinger.

“Also, newly hired students were required to participate in phone as well as in-person interviews. We really wanted to gauge who the best students were for the job and I think we’ve accomplished that. We have a great group of students,” she said.

“I enjoy working at the Bonathon because I realize how much I am helping St. Bonaventure, a school that I have come to love,” said Melissa Emerling, a sophomore English major from Hamburg, N.Y. “I also love hearing stories from alumni because it makes our jobs fun and exciting — you always wonder what crazy story you’ll hear next. It is also teaches us how to be personable and friendly people.”

Callers are rewarded for their efforts with coupons, gift certificates and “leave early” passes, among other things. Callers of the week are recognized based on various criteria, not only most money raised, but largest dollar amount increases, most credit card pledges and most attempts made. A caller of the semester is also chosen based on overall performance throughout the entire semester.

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Plans under way for University's 2006 Martin Luther Week observances

St. Bonaventure University will pay special tribute to “the mother of the Civil Rights Movement” Rosa Parks during its traditional Martin Luther King Jr. Week celebration in January. The 2006 theme is “In the Steps of a Pioneer.”

Activities for the week, Jan. 16-20, 2006, include prayer services, a formal dinner in Hickey Dining Hall, a Warming House service project, performances by SBU Steppers and The Last Second, an SBU student oratory competition and a middle school essay contest. Also planned are special movie selections to be shown on SBU TV Channel 9 and a Friday Forum presentation.

Watch your e-mail and the Web site for additional information as plans are finalized in December.

For more information about Martin Luther King Jr. Week 2006, contact Lt. Col. Rick Trietley at ext. 2565 or rtrietle@sbu.edu.

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