A Notable Year for Anniversaries

Gannon began enrolling female students on a full-time basis into all of the school’s programs during the 1969-70 academic year. We have seen remarkable strides in the 50 years since then.

Today, the university’s student body is more than 60 percent females. And serving as the official voice of this student body in the upcoming academic year will be newly elected Student Government Association president, Beth Kropf.

Women have become an influential part of leadership at Gannon in other ways, too.

The university’s three colleges are each headed by women. It is the first time in Gannon’s history that all of its deans are women.

In 1964, Gannon began accepting women into limited programs and only in afternoon and evening classes, so as not to compete with Villa Maria College. That changed in 1969-70, when Gannon welcomed females into all of its programs full-time and set a precedent for women’s success.

Mary (Freeman) Klupp graduated from Gannon in 1973 as one of the school’s first female alumnae. Her graduating class included the first women who had enrolled full-time at the university after co-educational policies that previously only allowed part-time enrollment changed. At the time, the university did not offer female housing and programs primarily included male students. Klupp, who earned a degree in mathematics, drew on her Gannon experiences to become a highly successful automotive market researcher with Ford Motor Co. We asked her to share some insights with us.

Gannon College officially became Gannon University on Jan. 1, 1980.

It was a milestone for a college that had started during the Great Depression. The college was known for its tenacity – such as in 1943 when all but 35 of its 250 students were drafted and yet the college persisted.

The State Department of Education’s announcement that Gannon was approved as a university was a tribute to this resilience and to the college’s continued growth in student enrollment and academic offerings.

Becoming a university allowed Gannon to capitalize on its existing graduate programs. The first master’s degrees in English and education had already launched in the 1960s and included nearly 50 students. The first doctoral program – organizational learning and leadership – was offered later in 2007.

Gannon’s university-status has contributed to our growth in the years since. This academic year, the university offers 26 master’s, 11 pre-professional, 20 cooperative, and six doctoral programs and additional research opportunities to 1,000 students across two campuses.

Bishop Michael Murphy emphasized Gannon’s vision as a new university through the words of Pope John Paul II in a speech made after the announcement in 1979.

“The Catholic university or college must train young men and women of outstanding knowledge, who having made a personal synthesis between faith and culture, will be both capable and willing to assume tasks in the service of the community and society in general, and to bear witness to their faith before the world,” he said. “To be what it ought to be, the Catholic college or university which bears witness to a living and operative Christianity – a community where a sincere commitment to scientific research and study goes together with a deep commitment to authentic Christian living.”

Parris Baker first attended Gannon in 1979-81 during its transition from a college to a university. With the announcement came much pride from his fellow students, Baker said. But significant changes could be felt gradually over the years of growth that came for Gannon University. Baker, who is with us again as the director of social work and mortuary science, shared with us his perspectives on this.

In July of 1989 Gannon integrated with Villa Maria College to strengthen the delivery of Catholic higher education. Sister Ann Stephanie Stano, Ph.D., SSJ, dean of the School of Education at the time, called this integration “a new, exciting educational dynamic.” Notably, the new collaboration expanded Gannon's academic offerings. Villa Maria introduced new programs to the university, which led to a newly formed School of Health Sciences and School of Education. Many of the programs in these schools still exist at Gannon today, including nursing, physician assistant, respiratory therapy, early childhood education, elementary education and secondary education. And growth continues. Today, the university’s health professions and sciences programs include 35 percent of Gannon’s total enrollment. The School of Education has since launched additional education programs in specialized areas of the field – most recently in special education. Both offer continued graduate education opportunities.

Stano said that through the integration, “lifelong learning opportunities for women expanded exponentially and created pathways for future success.” Specifically, the integration provided women access to programs in business, science and engineering, which existed at Gannon prior to the integration. A larger faculty body also increased opportunities available to students as the university was enabled to apply for other new programs and grants. Many in the university remained devoted to Villa’s original commitment to women. Among them was Sister Leonie Shanley, former president of Villa Maria College, the first female vice president at Gannon, and dean of the Villa Maria College within Gannon. Shanley, Stano and these university leaders created many of the educational, recreational and social opportunities that laid the foundations for our female students and leaders today.

Becky Kolodychack was among the first graduates of Gannon University after its integration with Villa Maria College. She entered Gannon’s nursing program during a period of significant transitions for the university and went on to pursue a successful nursing career with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and most

recently at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital. She later transitioned to a stay-at-home mother, but still values the education she received through Gannon and Villa Maria. She offered to share some thoughts around her experiences.