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Happening ... in the Local Church
National Catholic Colleges Week
A
small community with a Christian world view. A nationally recognized Core
education program and teaching with wisdom. Fifty-plus clubs and
organizations and abundant opportunities for service and leadership. All
this and more contributes to the unique vitality of ...
The spirit of Saint Joseph's
 Saint
Joseph’s College was founded in 1889. (Photo by Kevin Cullen) |
 Saint
Joseph’s is home of the Pumas. Eighteen varsity sports are offered.
(Photo courtesy Father Tim McFarland) |
 This
year’s students hail from 20 states; 46 percent are Catholic. (Photo
courtesy Saint Joseph’s College) |
 A
statue of Jesus and St. Joseph stands on the college campus. (Photo by
Kevin Cullen) |
 "The
key to success at Saint Joseph’s is the teaching faculty,” President
Ernest Mills III said. (Photo courtesy Saint Joseph’s College) |
 “The
key to success at Saint Joseph’s is the teaching faculty,” President
Ernest Mills III said. (Photo courtesy Saint Joseph’s College) |
By Kevin Cullen
The Catholic
Moment
RENSSELAER — With its antique, twin-spired chapel, red brick buildings and broad campus green, Saint Joseph’s College could easily pass for a private liberal arts school in some snug New England hamlet.
Instead, it guards the south entrance to Rensselaer, population 5,500, the seat of Jasper County.
Feb. 17-23 is National Catholic Colleges Week, sponsored by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities. To help celebrate it, The Catholic Moment visited the only Catholic college in the diocese: Saint Joseph’s College, often called “St. Joe.”
The college, with 1,070 students, was named one of the best Midwestern colleges in the 2008 edition of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report, a finding also reflected in the Princeton Review’s college survey and Barron’s Best Buys in Education.
“At
the end of the day, it is a ministry to us,” said President Ernest R. Mills
III. “We are not trying to turn out individuals who are just quite smart and
wanting to dominate professional life. We want good people who make the
right decisions, who are not only successful in their careers, but
successful in their families and their communities, with a Christian world
view. That Christian world view is something that should be a part of how
they conduct their lives.”
“I
love it,” said Missy Kiefer, a senior in business administration from Crown
Point, whose high school was twice the size of Saint Joseph’s.
“The small community, for me, has really helped,” she said. “The staff here are so personal, always there to help whenever needed.”
Kiefer said she once considered attending Indiana University, but felt dwarfed by its size. She favors Saint Joseph’s 15-to-1 student-teacher ratio. As a Catholic, she seeks out classes taught by priests, because of the perspectives they bring.
Her campus activities have included president of the Student Union Board, captain of the tennis team and student senator, representing her dormitory.
Founded in 1889 by the Missionaries of the Precious Blood, the co-educational college offers 74 major, minor and pre-professional programs on a 180-acre campus. Its nationally recognized Core education program integrates history, philosophy, theology, natural science, literature and political science into every course of study. Experts discuss various topics; dialogue and writing follows. The result is exposure to the interconnected thoughts, values and perspectives essential to a well-rounded liberal arts education.
“For instance, we discussed India last fall,” Mills said. “We had Ghandi’s grandson here to talk about modern India and how it has evolved since his grandfather was involved in securing the freedom of India. Students talked about Indian literature and art, and India’s influence on the global economy.”
Sam
Albano, a sophomore education major from Carmel, came from a high school
with 4,000 students.
“I liked the size of the college, and I was interested in the Core program,” he said. “It looked like it melded everything together and made it make sense … I like the fact that (Catholicism) is part of our campus, and not off on its own somewhere. I’ll be a better teacher because of the Core program and the Christian focus.”
Opportunities for community service and leadership abound. Albano is active in the liturgy committee, campus ministry and the Student Association.
Kevin
Craney, a sophomore from Fort Wayne, said that spiritual retreats and campus
ministry are vital parts of the Saint Joseph’s experience. So are small
classes.
“The teachers here know your name, push you, and keep up with you,” he said. “A lot of kids look for a big college, but others want to escape it. I’m trying to do all I can while I’m here.”
He’ll be going to Guatemala in May on a Habitat for Humanity service trip and is active in the Investment Club and plays rugby. He’s starting a new club focusing on fitness awareness, exercise and nutrition.
Eighty-seven percent of St. Joe students are involved in one or more of the 50-plus clubs and organizations on campus. Nearly three-quarters of all full-time students live in campus residence halls, which contributes to the sense of a college community.
The average class size is 14 students. Professors do scholarly research and write, of course, but their main job is teaching freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors. Students are taught by professors, not graduate students working as teaching assistants.
“The key to success at Saint Joseph’s is the teaching faculty,” Mills said. “The kind of students who look to us are those who are serious about making the best of their education and meeting their teachers.”
“I
think the main extra dimension that full-time faculty with advanced degrees
add to undergraduate classes is wisdom,” said NEH Distinguished Teaching
Professor John Nichols at the college. “Wisdom goes beyond knowledge and
skills to evaluation and judgment.”
Teaching assistants, he said, “think they know everything; it comes with the territory of being a beginning graduate student — I thought that many years ago. But after you go through the doctoral ‘wringer,’ you not only learn the limits of your discipline, but you develop a heightened sensitivity to what is not known. Teaching both the power and the limits of a discipline, to me, is teaching with wisdom.”
This year’s student body hails from 20 states, but most are from Indiana. Forty-six percent are Catholic.
“Certainly, we are filled with Christians,” Mills said. “We’re good with that. We have a good campus ministry program. Not only the sacraments and the yearly cycle of our own Church, but the world view appeals to other Christian faith traditions. (We offer) a value-centered education, a Christian world view, and a sense of human dignity.”
Steve Ligda, of Evergreen Park, Ill., is a member of the Class of 1962. He’s a college trustee and president of the alumni association.
He said that he valued the camaraderie of the small campus, and the many Missionaries of the Precious Blood priests, brothers and sisters he knew as a student.
“You couldn’t help but admire all the sacrifices they made, and the real interest they showed in their students,” he said. “If you made a sincere, honest effort, gave it your best and weren’t a problem, they would see that you got a good education. They dedicated their lives to that. They were educators.”
Today, college trustees still try to find Catholics for key positions — Mills, for instance, is Catholic — and the Core curriculum “is a key in the Christian humanism angle. It is vital in keeping that spirit and Christian character alive,” Ligda said.
Private schools can be expensive, and Saint Joseph’s College is no exception. This year, the average cost of tuition, room and board total $30,640, but 97 percent of the students receive some sort of financial assistance. The average financial aid package for a first-year student is $22,500, according to the campus admissions office.
“There are a lot of parents who ask, ‘Is it worth sending my child to a Catholic college?’” Mills said. “If you want to get the opinion of the Church on social matters, it is apt to happen here; it is not apt to happen at other schools. The question is, ‘What do you want your child to ponder?’ What questions do you want to come into your child’s mind when he has to make a decision? The purpose is to provide a world view so the right questions are asked when questions of life, social justice and the care of the family arise.”
The college is in the final months of a $12.5 million capital campaign that will pay for renovations of academic, athletic and residential facilities, and strengthen the college endowment. Nearly $11 million has been pledged to date.
In recent years, the college has renovated its life science facilities, library, theater, dining rooms and student center. Dorms have been modernized, too, and a former convent, which once housed Sisters of the Precious Blood, became student housing. The landmark chapel, completed in 1908, was repaired, too. Matching roof tiles had to be ordered from the original manufacturer in Germany.
Saint Joseph’s is home of the Pumas. Eighteen varsity sports — nine for men, nine for women — are offered. Both the women’s soccer team and the men’s baseball team were runners-up for the Division II National Championship in 1996.
In recent years, Saint Joseph’s College earned a remarkable, documented distinction: a saint once walked on its grounds. She was Katharine Drexel, the Philadelphia heiress who in 1888 donated $50,000 to build St. Joseph’s Indian Normal School for the education of Catholic American Indian boys.
Later, it became Drexel Hall, a men’s dormitory. It now houses the Rensselaer Adult Learning Center, which offers literacy programs, preparation for high-school equivalency exams, and English As a Second Language classes.
St. Katharine Drexel was canonized in 2000. “Her” building is the oldest on campus … an enduring symbol of Catholic faith and service at the gateway to Rensselaer.