Oct. 12, 1972 issue 02 Loquitur

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October 12, 1972

CABRINI COLLEGE, RADNOR, PA.

Vol. XIX, No. 2

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Reverend William Maloney, S.J . chairman of the board of trustees, has announced the election of Sister Mary Louise Sullivan as president of Cabrini College. Sister has served as academic dean for ·the past two years, and she ·will serve a fiveyear term as president. ~ister Mary Louise v.~as a membe .r of Cabrini's board of trustees from 1968 to 1970 and served as board secretary prior to being · named assistant academic dean in 1970. As dean, Sister was very instrumental in developing a new programs in special education, and she also initiated degree majors in communitcations and medical technology. In addition, Sister headed faculty-student committees to investigate individualized major programs revision of general education requirements; _ and stt1dy abr.oad. Sister Mary Louise was also very influential in developing academic cooperation with Eastern College and Widener College . Currently, sh,e is working toward establishing a deparement of religious stud-

ies which Would include interdepartmental courses and campus religious activities. In the Philadelphia academic community, Sister is a member of the college council on community involvement and the committees on academic models. Sister Mary Louise is now a doctoral candidate in American History at Bryn Mawr College. Before the actual election of Sister Mary Louise, an unprecedented meeting took place between board chairman Rev. William Maloney and members of the Council of College Affairs. The council had requested the meeting between board members and the college community. Since the council is representative of all groups on campus, Rev. Maloney noted that it was making " ... an important contribution toward working t:ogether to attain mutual goals." The meeting focused on the ' election of the new president. The council members outlined specific q,1alifications which it felt were essential in any candidate for the position. Primary

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Sr. Mary Louise concern was given to the need for a president who would commuracate openly with students and be available both to students and to faculty. The council also r€quested that a presi dent should be willing to give reasons for admiinstrative decisions. The week before the elec•

tion, the council conducted a poll on campus which suggested possible candidates for the presi -:. dency. Rev. Maloney presented the results of the council's survey to the board on Monday, September 25, at which time Sister Mary Louise was elected to the office of president.

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Last year a program was established through the student academic council (SAC) to study and evaluate the possibility of lowering the genera }education requirements, initiating an interdepartmental and individualized major, and a program for studying abroad. Committees were formed and v.,·ork begun but the results of any efforts are not generally known. General Ed. Requirements At present, the work of the committee to lower the general

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education requirements is at a standstill. When questioned about the slowness of the committee, the chairman gave these · two reasons: 1. that although the committee has developed three ideas, the fact remains that no other school has tried them and therefore the success or failure is unknown. 2. That Sr. Mary Louise is slow on giving answers tr., possible proposals. It was also noted that the bias of

faculty members toward their own departments supplied a barricade to any real progress. The ideas that resulted from the committee's studies of various area schools are the follow. 1ng: 1. reduction · of the language re-

quirement to 6 credits in either introductory or intermediate. Some schools even give the student a choice be, tween a language or math. 2. some schools have only 6 English credits. I

3. to combine departments, Theology-Philosophy.

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Cabrini preesntly has 65 general education requirements as opposed to other schools which average between 35 and 45. It was expressed that although Sr. Mary Louise has been extremely open to suggestions made by the committee, she did not supply the needed encouragement for the students. They felt as if they did not have the needed "authority" to go too far on their own since there always seemed to be some kind of objection to their suggestions. The fact remains that no formal proposal has been given to Sr. Mary Louise, but one is anticipated in the near future. Sr. Mary Louise feels that the

number of general education requirements is overwhelming, however, she foresees this area . as being the most difficult to deal with. The inain problem lies within the individual departments: In defense of the ' faculty's opposition to abandon some required courses, Sr. Mary 'Louise said that "this is not Harvard" in which many of the students come from sophisticated high school backgrounds and may have had exposure to various academic fields such as Philosophy and Social Science. Introductory courses are thought to be indispensible in providing a foundation for upper division courses and also for providing a general concept 9f what a particular field is all about. Sr. Mary Louise would hope that there would be some change by September, but the progress or lack of progress by the committee and faculty can not be foreseen. Supposing there is a change, however, it will not be a drastic one because what the faculty says is final, and the students themselves have only expresed conervative change. Sr. Mary Louise is presently awaiting recommendations from the committee and will review and comment on them as soon as possible. (Continued on Page 6)

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