SJU Update 2015 by St. Jerome's University

ST. JEROME’S UNIVERSITY UPDATE MAGAZINE | VOLUME 33 NUMBER 1 FALL 2015

COFFEE, CONVERSATION, AND COMMUNITY How “third places” can save neighbourhood identity

LEST WE FORGET THEM What the writings of wartime medical workers tell us

BEYOND BORDERS Ten years of international experiential learning BUILDING ON TRADITION

SJU Launches $5-million plus Building on Tradition Capital Campaign

BUILDING ON TRADITION CELEBRATING

150 YEARS 1

of Catholic Education

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VOLUME 33 NUMBER 1 FALL 2015 EDITOR Deepa Jolly ASSOCIATE EDITOR Allanah Pinhorn CONTRIBUTORS Deepa Jolly Allanah Pinhorn Katherine Bergman Scott Kline Glen Lombard Carol Acton

Kieran Bonner Isabel Uriarte Latorre Victor Rojas Kira Vermond Nancy Harper Pamela Riseborough

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO Jennifer Adamthwaite, Deb Addesso, Bryn Gladding Photography, Kristina Bartold, Nathan Beninger, Victoria Boland, Katie Brogan, Bretton Capindale, Melissa Carvalhal, Chartwells/ Compass Group, Allison D’Souza, Martha Fauteux, Imperial War Museums, Luis Juarez, Celia MacKenzie, Kenneth McLaughlin, Christina Mancini, Bess Mitchell, Stephanie Morrison, Gabriel Niccoli, Viola Poletes Montgomery, Crystal Raymond, Bonnie Rudnisky, Toni Serafini, Jay Smith, Samuel Stuckless, Cristina Vanin, and Waterloo Central Stores. DESIGN Sara McCarter, Insignia Creative Group PHOTOGRAPHY Jonathan Bielaski, Light Imaging SJU/CR Archives PRINTING Waterloo Printing ADDRESS St. Jerome’s University 290 Westmount Road, North Waterloo, ON Canada N2L 3G3 SJU Update is published by St. Jerome’s University, federated with the University of Waterloo since 1960. 2

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INSIDE THE ANNIVERSARY EDITION 04 Our Story......................................... 06 Coffee, Conversation, and Community.... 14 Lest We Forget Them.......................... 18 Beyond Borders.................................. 22 Building on Tradition............................ 30 Our Mission....................................... 34 President’s Message............................

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE BOARD OF GOVERNORS Steven Bednarski Jim Beingessner, Chancellor Katherine Bergman, President and Vice Chancellor Kevin Burns Paula Colaso Mary Ellen Cullen, Vice Chair Mark Godin Cathy Horgan, Chair Whitney Lackenbauer Ken Lavigne Jim Long Steven Lubczuk Kelly Macnab Rev. Murray McDermott, C.R. Judy Nairn Rev. Cornelius O’Mahony, C.R. James Skidmore Kathy Smidt Cathy Snyder Marion Thomson Howell Robert Truman

By all accounts, 1865 was a momentous year that would leave an indelible mark on Waterloo Region. 1865 proved to be significant for many reasons, but, to me, the most important event was the birth of a lasting legacy of intellectual, emotional, and spiritual development that continues to change lives 150 years later: the legacy of St. Jerome’s University. Founder Father Louis Funcken, C.R., alongside the Congregation of the Resurrection — and later with the help of the School Sisters of Notre Dame and the Diocese of Hamilton — created a Catholic educational institution that was, and is, rooted in the pedagogical vision of “harmonizing the education of the heart with instructions of the mind, and in holding up the gospel values of love, truth, and justice, as exemplified by Jesus.” Now, celebrating our 150th anniversary, St. Jerome’s University has clearly come a long way since those oneroom log cabin days in St. Agatha, Ontario, but we haven’t wavered from our educational vision of educating the whole person — body, mind, and soul. Over the years, thousands of students and hundreds of professors have taken those gospel values into the world to help build a more just, respectful, and positive society for all. I am incredibly proud of this heritage and I’m filled with confidence and hope as I walk through our hallways and see them transforming into an impressive space where we will continue to thrive. Campus Renewal 2015, a $47-million project now well underway, will build us a new and renovated academic centre, a residence complex, additional study and muchneeded community spaces. This represents a new era for our University, while still remaining true to the educational vision of our founding fathers and community partners who have contributed to our long and remarkable history. Thank you all.

President’s Message

We hope you will join us in this time of celebration, this 150th Anniversary year. As you read through the following pages, you’ll discover how St. Jerome’s University pushes boundaries within a loving, diverse, and dynamic community, to work to create a more just society.

Here’s to the next 150 years.

Dr. Katherine Bergman, President and Vice Chancellor

President’s Message

St. Jeromeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s University began as a one-room, log cabin schoolhouse in St. Agatha, Ontario, rented by Fr. Louis Funcken, C.R., in 1865. Known then as the College of St. Jerome, the classical college grew from those humble beginnings into the University it is today.

OUR STORY PLANTING THE SEEDS Founded in 1865 by Reverend Dr. Louis Funcken of the Congregation of the Resurrection, the College of St. Jerome was originally a school that aimed to prepare young, German-speaking men for higher studies and practical professions. Within a few decades, the school was attracting a 6

Our Story

broader group of students, even though many still had the goal of preparing for religious life. By the end of the 19th century, the College was offering courses in business as well as traditional liberal arts courses in mathematics, science, geography, languages, history, religion, and philosophy. But pressures brought on by modern societal

Dating back to 1836, the Congregation of the Resurrection is a small religious community of priests within the Roman Catholic Church. The Resurrectionists live out the gospel values of justice, truth, and love, and strive to witness the transforming power of God’s love in their own personal lives and in the community. Their congregation acts as a model of Christian community values, hoping those around them will be one in heart and mind. The members reach out to their communities through education as well as ministry; one of the principal aims of the Congregation is providing and improving on religious education through partnerships with institutions such as St. Jerome’s University.

The founder of St. Jerome’s, Father Louis Funcken, C.R., was a Resurrectionist who valued “enthusiasm for truth” and education.

shifts prompted St. Jerome’s to revisit its curriculum. In spite of attempts to develop from a “classical” college to an institution affiliated with a university, the first three decades of the 20th century were difficult, and the College struggled to attract students amidst global wars and financial crises.

“By our vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, we dedicate and consecrate ourselves totally to the Risen Christ in the religious life.This dedication entails an act of faith whereby we respond to God’s call to give ourselves completely with all our talents, abilities, and powers to him, to the church, and to the Congregation.” — Constitutions of the Congregation of the Resurrection, article 13 Our Story

UNIVERSITY BOUND In the 1940s, Bishop Joseph F. Ryan had begun to advocate for the expansion of Catholic education in the Diocese of Hamilton. In particular, Bishop Ryan envisioned a Catholic liberal arts university with degree-granting powers. Through an affiliation arrangement with the University of Ottawa, in 1947 St. Jerome’s became a coeducational institution that offered arts courses leading toward a university degree. At the same time, St. Jerome’s responded to the trend toward increased religious vocations and the demand for pre-seminary training. In 1953, a contemporary academic and administration building opened in Kitchener, signaling that the time was right to develop an academically rigorous university curriculum to meet the challenges of a modern world. But few women and men interested in a broader education enrolled 8

Our Story

because the College continued to foster a seminary-like atmosphere. Nevertheless, many closely associated with St. Jerome’s remained committed to the vision of a vibrant Catholic liberal arts university in the diocese. The academic character of St. Jerome’s College changed dramatically in 1959 when, as an independent institution, it signed a federation agreement with the recently established University of Waterloo, thereby making St. Jerome’s the founding college of the University of Waterloo. With this agreement in effect, the newly named University of St. Jerome’s College suspended its degree-granting powers, with the exception of degrees in theology, but it retained the right to teach courses from its denominational perspective. Additionally, the agreement enabled St. Jerome’s to offer

general arts courses, which at the time included mathematics, that were part of the University of Waterloo curriculum. As a result, St. Jerome’s established its Arts Faculty to work with the University of Waterloo and its Dean of Arts to help form the totality of the Faculty of Arts on the broader Waterloo campus. In September 1960, for the first time, students from St. Jerome’s enrolled as undergraduates at the University of Waterloo. In 1962, St. Jerome’s moved to its current location, just “across the creek” from the University of Waterloo, and opened its doors to a class of students that, in later years, would be called pioneers. In the 1960s and 1970s, St. Jerome’s focused on becoming a contemporary Catholic university. This focus led to building a faculty of excellent teachers and strong scholars. Many of these faculty members went on to hold academic leadership positions at St. Jerome’s. In the 1980s, for example, Dr. Douglas R. Letson became the first lay Dean and then lay President of St. Jerome’s, a position he held from 1989 to 1999. Initially hired in 1967 as an English professor, Dr. Letson was an admired teacher, a respected scholar, and a gifted administrator. In 1998, the University of St. Jerome’s College legally changed its name to St. Jerome’s University (SJU), a change that clarified our status as a federated university and formally recognized us as an institution that could grant graduate degrees.

Sr. Leon White, SSND, Director of Notre Dame College, was a valued educator and leader at St. Jerome’s. Here she examines a blueprint for development of UWaterloo with J. Winfield Fretz, Alan McLachlan, Wyn Rees, and Fr. J.R. Finn, C.R., all leaders of federated and affiliated colleges.

The School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSND) are members of an international congregation, whose lives are directed toward the oneness of Jesus Christ by sharing love, faith, and hope. They are significant members of St. Jerome’s history. Arriving to work with Fathers Eugene and Louis Funcken, C.R., at St. Agatha’s orphanage in 1871, they later partnered with the Congregation of the Resurrection to help provide coeducational opportunities at St. Jerome’s. In the 1960s, they opened Notre Dame College (now Sweeney Hall) as a residence for the University’s female students. In 1996, they left St. Jerome’s University to seek a new apostolate for their good work, leaving Notre Dame Chapel as a reminder of their presence on campus. Both Sister Marie Taylor, the first woman Chaplain, and Sister Leon White, first Dean of Women, were members of the SSND and valued educators at St. Jerome’s.

“United and content with little, we go out into the whole world, into the tiniest villages, into the poorest dwellings, wherever the Lord calls us, to bring poor children the good news of God’s reign.” Gerry Hagey and Fr. Cornelius Siegfried, C.R., survey the future site of the University of Waterloo, surrounded by Wyn Rees, M.R. Good, and J. Ross Morrison.

— Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger, Foundress of the SSND

Our Story

PRESIDENTS OF ST. JEROMEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S FROM 1865 TO 2015

18651889

18901891

18911905

19051919

19191926

19261929

19291936

19361942

19421948

1948-1951 1955-1965 1972-1979 1980

19511955

Siegfried

Graf and Arnold

19651972

20062007

20072012

2012CURRENT

Funcken

Dehler

19791989 Choate

Our Story

Spetz

Borho

19891999 Letson

Fehrenbach

Weiler

19992006 Higgins

Zinger

Tataryn

Benninger

Perrin

Siess

Finn

Bergman

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

RENOWNED RESEARCH This shift in name came with a renewed emphasis on research. Today, our faculty members have national and international reputations as leading scholars in their fields. Since 2005, SJU faculty members have received more than $1 million in funding through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Since 2010, our faculty complement has published, on average, more than five books per year and authored numerous book chapters as well as articles in peer-reviewed journals. Members of our faculty serve as book series editors, journal editors, and consultants to government bodies around the globe. A number have served on the boards of national and international learned societies. In 2015 alone, one SJU faculty member received a prestigious award from the Cooperative Education & Internship Association for her research on experiential learning, two faculty members received SSHRC grants, and another faculty member received a highly prized Ontario Early Researcher Award. These research successes are especially noteworthy because historically, SJU’s faculty complement hovers around 30.

As we look to the future, we are reminded that St. Jerome’s has always been attentive to student interest in the development of our interdisciplinary programs. In 1972, St. Jerome’s launched the Sexuality, Marriage, and Family Studies program to study the profound changes resulting from the sexual revolution of the 1960s. This popular program continues to attract students wanting to examine the complex issues shaping our perspectives on human sexuality and familial relationships. In 2001, with increased student interest in our legal studies and criminology courses, SJU spearheaded the formation of the highly regarded Legal Studies program, which is jointly delivered through SJU and the University of Waterloo. In 2005, we launched the Master of Catholic Thought graduate studies program in response to requests that we offer academic theology courses for leaders holding positions in Catholic institutions, including those in education, health care, and social services. SJU is also preparing for the future with the development of our infrastructure. In spring 2014, we broke ground on the Campus Renewal 2015 Plan, an over $47-million project that will provide much-needed new and renovated classroom, residential, and library space. Opening in 2016-2017, the new 28,000-square-foot academic building includes a 300-seat lecture hall, one classroom that seats 125, one classroom that seats 95, another that seats 75, and two smaller classrooms that seat 60 each. Also, in 2016-2017, faculty will move to Sweeney Hall, where there will be 23,000 square feet of renovated office, research, and meeting spaces. Renovations to existing classrooms and the library are expected to be completed by the 2017-2018 academic year. We look forward to writing another chapter in our ongoing story. Excerpts from: Kenneth McLaughlin, Gerald Stortz, and James Wahl, Enthusiasm for the Truth: An Illustrated History of St. Jerome’s University (Waterloo, Ontario: St. Jerome’s University, 2002), 185.

Our Story

OUR CATHOLIC HISTORY AT A GLANCE

1865 Father Louis Funcken, C.R., arrives in St. Agatha and rents the log cabin that is to become the College of St. Jerome.

1953 St. Jerome’s splits into two distinct institutions. The Duke Street buildings will continue to serve as a men’s high school, while the new Kingsdale campus, on the eastern boundary of Kitchener, will be exclusively for college- and university-level courses.

1962

Notre Dame College, a women’s residence, is opened under the leadership of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Our Story

1866-1867 At the suggestion of Bishop John Farrell, Fr. Funcken purchases the property on the corner of Duke and Railway Streets in Berlin (later Kitchener), which is to become the new home of the College. Railway Street was later changed to College Street in recognition of the dominant presence of the College of St. Jerome.

1901-1903 Name changes to St. Jerome’s College.

1959

1959-1962

St. Jerome’s College is granted university status, changing the name to University of St. Jerome’s College.

St. Jerome’s federates with the University of Waterloo and relocates to the newly formed University of Waterloo campus.

1967

1979

Bishop Joseph Ryan, a St. Jerome’s graduate and a force behind the College becoming a degree-granting institution, becomes the school’s first Chancellor.

Sr. Marie Taylor, SSND, becomes first woman Chaplain of University of St. Jerome’s College.

1984 J. Frank Clifford becomes the first lay Chair of the Board of Governors.

1991 Mary McLaughlin becomes the first woman Chair of the Board of Governors.

2012 Dr. Katherine Bergman is appointed President; she is the first woman President in SJU’s history.

1985 Toni Delabbio becomes the first layperson, and woman, to become Director of Campus Ministry.

1991 John Sweeney is appointed as the first lay Chancellor of the University.

2013 Fr. Funcken statue is relocated to the University grounds, and stands in the Choate Common, named after another President, Father Norman Choate.

1989 Dr. Douglas Letson becomes the first lay President.

1998 Consolidated Act of Incorporation changes the name of the institution to St. Jerome’s University.

2015-2016 St. Jerome’s University celebrates 150 years of Catholic education. Our Story

COFFEE, CONVERSATION, AND COMMUNITY By Kira Vermond

Coffee, Conversation, and Community

Dr. Kieran Bonner explores how “third places” can save neighbourhood identity one cozy chair at a time When Bewley’s Café, the famed Grafton Street coffeehouse in Dublin, Ireland, closed in November 2004, public outcry was strong and swift. Within days, thousands of supporters signed a petition in support of reopening the then 77-year-old institution that once saw literary luminaries James Joyce and Samuel Beckett darken its opulent doors. It took mere weeks for the city council to pass a motion to help save the Bewley’s location. Ireland, which was in the midst of an economic boom, would eventually get its beloved café back with the help of complicated financial maneuvering by those with deep pockets. So why the uproar? In truth, Bewley’s coffee was often described as lacklustre and milky. Something a persnickety, aging aunt might sip while playing bridge. The breakfasts were hit-and-miss too. But the food was never the point. Bewley’s had personality, history, and a sense of hardwon permanence stitched into the country’s social, artistic and cultural fabric. Bewley’s offered not just a space, but a feeling. Or, as Dr. Kieran Bonner, St. Jerome’s Chair of Sociology and Legal Studies and Director of Human Sciences, puts it, the café was a “third place.” Whether they’re Parisian sidewalk cafes, local pubs in London, Japanese teahouses, New York watering holes, or neighbourhood squares in Barcelona, third places are informal, public gathering spots with heart.

They’re not a first place — home — or a second place — work. Instead, they’re a neutral locale where anyone can come to relax, connect, and interact with others in their community.

“A third place is where you meet people,” says Bonner. “It encourages talking, performance, and reaching out to the other. It’s part of what it means to be human.” Although Bonner didn’t coin the phrase — that would be American sociologist Ray Oldenburg a few decades ago — his research explores the concept of third place and how it connects with Irish cultural identity. Bonner’s related piece written for the Canadian Journal of Irish Studies was part of a five-year project, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, or CIHR, on City Life and Well-Being: The Grey Zone of Health and Illness. It’s another interest after spending years researching the culture of cities, parent-andchild relationships, and even ancient Athens. He once explored whether urban or rural areas were safer for raising children. As a reflexive researcher, he used his own family’s experience moving from Toronto to a small town in Alberta as a lens for understanding cultural preconceptions, including his own. It turns out that, statistically, there’s no difference. Some rural areas are more dangerous than some urban areas, and vice versa.Yet, Bonner found a legitimate basis for why rural parents would say it is safer by exploring what safety means to them. Bonner’s research interests may seem incongruent, but all share a common theme. Coffee, Conversation, and Community

Third places offer a feeling that modern convenience cannot capture; they are inviting, relaxing, and neutral places for socialization, allowing identity to bloom. Dr. Kieran Bonner explores third places as part of his research into culture.

“What does it mean to live well in the context of the human condition? I’m wondering how that question gets worked out in particular places and particular times, whether in larger contexts like the culture of cities or in more micro contexts like parenting well today,” he explains. Third places are all about living a good life, of course. And without them, neighbourhoods become much less habitable. We’ve seen what happens when there have been trends away from building third places in communities. For decades, North American municipal bylaws dictated that work and home should be kept entirely separate. Huge swaths of farmland morphed into sprawling suburban landscapes without sidewalks, shopping areas, theatres, restaurants, or any other spaces where someone might run into a friend, family member or neighbour. Urban planning of the time

Coffee, Conversation, and Community

meant there was nowhere to walk and nowhere to go. One of the reasons for the third place’s demise was its intangible nature, explains Bonner. It’s not easy to measure how exactly a community centre, coffee shop, local pub, or outdoor skating rink, will lead to health, happiness, and a more livable space. How does one measure neighbourhood identity and personality? “There’s a famous Wittgensteinian saying, ‘Just because it’s not a thing, doesn’t mean it’s nothing.’ There are things that are intangible and we can’t control, but we can set conditions up for them so they can flourish,” he says. “That’s the key to the vitality of a city.” Measurable or not, it’s important to maintain urban vibrancy where people feel comfortable meeting and talking to friends

and strangers alike. Without that, entire neighbourhoods and even city centres can turn into no-go spaces. Detroit, with its hollowed-out downtown and crumbling districts, is a perfect example of what kind of extreme downward spiral a place can suffer. Detroit hit such rock bottom that suburban Motor City families started moving dead relatives from city cemeteries years ago. “They didn’t want to go visit them there. So even the dead are moving out,” says Bonner. On a smaller scale, some might say that even Starbucks, that once beacon of third place support, has in recent years moved away from creating inviting spaces for coffee drinkers to linger, meet, and feel connected to their community. Regulars notice that bar-height counters with hard stools replace cozy chairs, dimmed lights get brighter, and few storefronts feel like a heart of a neighbourhood. There’s more money in foot traffic. While some large coffee chains may be moving away from the third place concept, current urban planning recognizes the importance of changing bylaws in neighbourhoods to foster identity. Bonner says he’s encouraged by the independent coffee places springing up in downtown Kitchener and the influx of high-tech workers meeting at them. Meanwhile, the province of Ontario’s mandate to curb urban sprawl by creating livable small city downtown cores means new condos, shops and cafés intermingle. In fact, Bonner was one of a number of faculty who fought for the return of the UWaterloo Grad House — the original Schneider farmhouse — as an iconic third place at the University. It’s that same sense of integrated place that Bonner says he still enjoys at the University. Although it’s a functional space — students, professors, and staff go to the University each day to study or work rather than to socialize — its own vibrant history lends itself to engaging and intellectual conversations about different aspects of the liberal arts. “That collegiality is important,” says Bonner. “As long as there’s a place that encourages it, leading to conversations with people from different disciplines, perspectives, and backgrounds, St. Jerome’s can become a third place in its own right.”

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PLACES “Coffee,Tea, and Mrs. B,” Mrs. Joy Brown lived up to her name at St. Jerome’s very own historical third place People make the place. Simply connecting with fellows can turn a place into the third place for a community. St. Jerome’s had its very own thriving third place in Mrs. Brown’s Coffee Shop. The Coffee Shop, which was opened in 1974 by the late Mrs. Joy Brown, was more than the typical, nameless, faceless college stop for students grabbing a cup a Joe on campus — it was a place for conversing, dabbling in school politics, making friends, and connecting. Brown, who graduated from St. Jerome’s at the age of 61, ran the Coffee Shop for 17 years and cherished the time she spent there. “For her, it was an opportunity to have company and conversation with intelligent younger people,” said her son, Ellis. And isn’t that what a good third place is all about? “The greatest people in the world stand on the other side of my Coffee Shop door.” — Mrs. Joy Brown

Coffee, Conversation, and Community

Lest We Forget Them

LEST WE FORGET THEM By Kira Vermond

Professor of English, Dr. Carol Acton, researches the writings of wartime medical workers A few years ago, Dr. Carol Acton, Professor and former Chair of the Department of English, noticed an email in her inbox from a woman whose name she didn’t recognize. Curious, she opened it. “I think you have written about my grandmother’s diary,” the note read. It turns out the sender was the granddaughter of Mary Morris (born Mulry), an Irish nurse who had worked on the home front in England before being dispatched to the front line during the Second World War. Acton had discovered her diary while visiting the Imperial War Museum in London, UK, discussed it in a published paper, and has been looking to contact the family since. It’s amazing that Mary’s story of bravery survived at all — nurses on active service were not actually permitted to keep diaries for fear that they might fall into enemy hands. It was simply lucky for Acton that Mary wasn’t one for following rules. Her diary is surprisingly comprehensive, taking the reader from nights of the London

Blitz to the Battle of Arnhem. Its intimate entries do more than give a history lesson though. They allow us to look through a window rarely seen or spoken of even today — the reality of how medical personnel experience the trauma of war. Their heartbreak, stress, and grief are just as real as that of the soldiers they heal and lose, although they are expected to conceal their emotions while still feeling them acutely. Maintaining a necessary detachment can be impossible, particularly for those who operate on their close friends.

“You have to understand that war breaks and destroys people, not just the killing, but mentally. You’ve got people who never fully recover, and they’re not just the soldiers. These are people who are witnesses,” says Acton. Reading numerous personal diaries, journals, and letters over the years, the topic has become a research focus for Acton, who is one of surprisingly few researchers working in that field of study. In 2014, she published Mary’s writing as A Very Private Diary: A Nurse in Wartime. She has also written and published two other books in the same vein: Grief in Wartime: Private Pain, Public Discourse (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007) and, more recently, Working in a World of Hurt:Trauma and Resilience in the Narratives of Medical Personnel in Warzones (Manchester University Press, 2015) along with co-author, Dr. Jane Potter of Oxford-Brookes University, UK. “Everyone talks about the soldiers and combat stress, shell shock, and post-traumatic Lest We Forget Them

(LEFT) Royal Army Medical Corps orderlies load British and French wounded on to a hospital train at Doullens, during the German spring offensive, 27 April 1918. They are supervised by nurses of either the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve or the Territorial Force Nursing Service. (RIGHT) British wounded are treated at a Dressing Station, during the Battle of the Ancre, Aveluy Wood, Battle of the Somme, 13 November 1916. Photos: © Imperial War Museums

stress disorder,” Acton says. “But I hadn’t seen anyone discussing what happened to the doctors who must have been out there experiencing exactly the same thing.” Acton’s work in articulating the self-sacrifice of doctors, nurses, and medics in the face of deadly conditions is relevant today as we mark 100 years since the outbreak and continuation of the First World War, and the Vietnam War’s 50th anniversary. Indeed, she often draws strong links between the two wars. There are similarities in how those who participated in these wars experienced them: with shock, horror, and a sense that, as a generation, they were, “marked out for some kind of terrible punishment.” Unlike the Second World War, when both soldiers and civilians were encouraged to repress their feelings, even in their personal letters, those embroiled in the First World War and Vietnam often felt compelled to write more openly about their sorrow, fears, and suffering. One Vietnam battalion surgeon, Byron Holley, wrote to his wife saying that after losing so many of his mangled friends on the operating table he felt, “that I am held together with Scotch Tape.”

Lest We Forget Them

Despite this apparent openness, there is hiding too. To reveal the writers’ true feelings, Acton uses the close-reading training of an English professor to understand not only what is being said in a non-literary document, but also what goes unsaid. For instance, because many of those in the medical corps felt that their own psychological suffering paled in comparison with the combatants’ injuries, they often focused on describing others’ physical and mental traumas rather than their own. They also concentrated on the sorrow they felt for the soldiers’ parents back home rather than their own feelings of despair. This, despite the fact that over 1,300 medics were killed in Vietnam while performing minor and major miracles in the most dangerous settings imaginable. Only recently have people started recognizing the heavy psychic weight all medical personnel bear after witnessing traumatic events. In 2015, news stories hit the media claiming that emergency medical services workers experience avoidance symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) similar to soldiers. Military doctors have gone on record about their PTSD also.

“It’s the burden that those people have to carry afterward,” Acton says. “Even if you know that you’ve saved people, you’re always going to remember the ones you couldn’t save.” She says she hopes to show similarities in suffering across wars, in order to give today’s doctors and nurses context for their experience. Doctors in the First World War and Vietnam often spoke of the demons that followed them for years after the wars ended. While they found ways to cope in the field — by taking daily walks or writing in a journal — they never were able to shake a deep sorrow that seemed to affix itself to their soul. As one American doctor in Vietnam put it, he wouldn’t be going home with a Purple Heart, the military decoration awarded to the wounded, but a bruised and broken one. “There are narratives that carry over, so if you’re a doctor in the Iraq war, you’ll read other accounts and see there are people who had experiences before you.You’ll know you’re not alone,” Acton says. To research these stories fully, St. Jerome’s University supported her, with both funding and time, taking a long-term and supportive approach to publishing and research, says Acton. Instead of “publish or perish,” think, “patience.”

Royal Army Medical Corps and women of the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service carry a wounded soldier out of the operating tent at the 79th General Hospital at Bayeux, during the Normandy Campaign, 20 June 1944. © Imperial War Museums

many papers did you put out this year?’ ” she says. “In order to write something fairly extensive, you need time.” No doubt. Researching myriad primary sources — original letters, journals, diaries, official papers, autobiographies, and interviews — in the archives requires stamina. But if it means that past health workers’ candour and honesty about their pain results in truth and authenticity today, Acton’s “required reading” is time well-spent.

“It means you’re often free to work on a book over a period of time because nobody is leaning over your shoulder going, ‘How

Lest We Forget Them

BEYOND BORDERS TEN YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING By Nancy Harper, with translations by Luis Juarez, photography by Nathan Beninger and Glen Lombard

“We’re very reluctant to go down the path of ‘change the world.’ It’s not about parachuting in and putting a student on the ground and having them do something just for the sake of doing something.” —Glen Lombard, Director, Office of Student Experience

Beyond Borders

Erika Toffelmire knows what it means to serve. She’s been there. She gets it. The months Erika spent in India with Beyond Borders may not have changed the world, but they changed her for good. And that’s exactly the point. Beyond Borders exists so that St. Jerome’s University students can translate their desire to make a difference into meaningful engagement, rather than to parachute in somewhere just to shake things up. “Instead of a wide swath of colour on a canvas, my impact more closely resembled a dot on a Jackson Pollock painting,” says Toffelmire, a 2012 graduate of Peace and Conflict Studies. “I can’t say that I made much of a difference. My being there for a few months didn’t change anything. But I also can’t ignore that my words and actions didn’t exist in a vacuum. I know they somehow affected the experiences of others.

“I may never fully understand the situations or struggles of other people, but I can always support and encourage them, and walk with them on their life journey,” adds Toffelmire, now 25. “I believe this is ultimately what development and peace work should be about. Beyond Borders helped me learn that I wanted to serve people. I started to see there were ways I could do that, and ways I couldn’t. It shouldn’t be about me saying ‘This is the way we do this; this is the right thing to do.’ ” It’s an attitude and approach that SJU has tried hard to foster — and clearly it’s working. “Experiential learning at St. Jerome’s University is not about being an experience junkie,” says interim Vice President Academic and Dean Scott Kline. “It’s not a type of extreme education for students amped up on Red Bull. At SJU, experiential learning opportunities are intended to help students discover the humanity in those living on the margins of society.

Beyond Borders

“Many of our students come out of our experiential learning programs with the sense that they know less than they did going in. There’s humbleness in knowing ‘I don’t know everything’ and ‘I don’t really understand the complexity of the way things are’ and ‘I have a lot to learn.’ “When you have that kind of experience, you can’t shake it,” Kline says. “You can’t leave it behind. It permanently and fundamentally alters the way you exist in the world.”

SJU’s experiential learning programs challenge students to examine their own preconceived notions about the world because, when they do, important questions surface: about gender inequality, food security, ecological sustainability, international volunteerism, tourism, and traditional approaches to development and nongovernmental organizational work (NGOs). As students seek to address these questions, they approach whatever they do with renewed — and enlightened — purpose.

Glen Lombard, Director, Office of Student Experience, adds: “Many of our students come from a place of privilege and begin to appreciate while they are abroad that with privilege comes responsibility. Our trips are not about changing the world. They are about meeting people on their terms, and building understanding through meaningful dialogue and relationships.” Jenna Bott, also a graduate of Peace and Conflict Studies, agrees. She spent nearly four months in Uganda with Beyond Borders, and the experience changed her life.

“They need help, but not in the way we might think they do,” Bott says. “Really, you take far more out of these experiences than you can possibly give. They make you want to work toward the benefit of others and learn more, wherever you are and wherever you go.”

Beyond Borders International Service Learning opportunities can challenge students’ perspectives on issues such as gender inequality and roles.

ON THE GROUND WITH BEYOND BORDERS The three-credit Beyond Borders program, which consists of two terms of on-campus course work and a 90-day placement abroad, is a great primer for students looking to do international development work. Students get involved in anything from hands-on agriculture and community development to recreational programs and mobile health clinics. The idea is to actively engage them in projects that can bring about a greater awareness of issues like food production, poverty, education, and human rights. This year, Beyond Borders will reach a noteworthy milestone: 10 years of international experiential learning and more than 150 Beyond Borders alumni. In 2005, SJU began partnering with the non-profit Intercordia Canada, which served as placement coordinator for SJU students. Another partner, World University Service of Canada, helped provide education, employment, and empowerment opportunities. Spring 2006 saw the first cohort of students placed in Belize, Ecuador, Honduras, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ukraine, and Canada. Expansion continued in 2007 with a formal bilateral agreement between SJU and Ternopil National Pedagogical University in Ukraine. The agreement built on the previous year’s placement and created opportunities for students to engage in further meaningful learning at an Internat — a Ukrainian orphanage — for young women with disabilities. In 2010-2011, Beyond Borders expanded further with Reach Out Mbuya (Uganda) and the Esperanza Project (Dominican Republic), while in 2012 it added Caring

Partners Global (Kenya) and PROASSA and Café Femenino (Peru). From 2012 to 2014, Beyond Borders further extended the possibilities with partnerships with SMILES Africa and NEST (both in Kenya), as well as Haiti Partners (in Port-au-Prince) and Iko Poran (Brazil). In 2014 they expanded the program once again, by offering a double cohort, which will allow students to travel in the spring or the fall. Today, the University maintains direct relationships with our Beyond Borders placement partners. “By working directly with international partners, SJU ensures that mutually beneficial relationships are being forged over a number of years,” Lombard explains. “These relationships are the foundation for a successful and sustainable program that ensures consistently exceptional student experiences from year to year. “Both SJU and its partners are on the same page about the long-term goals of the program — goals that support the needs and priorities of the NGOs as well as the learning objectives of our students.” Beyond Borders

International Service Learning participants can travel to a host of different countries around the world; Elizabeth Chand, Kate McNamara, Bill Lin, Emily Butzakowski, Yasmeen Nematt, and Sam Stuckless traveled to Peru with SJU in Peru.

COMMUNITIES AND STUDENTS: A MUTUAL PARTNERSHIP

orphanage, which cares for girls with physical and mental disabilities.

“We’re very reluctant to go down the path of ‘change the world,’ ” Lombard says. “It’s not about parachuting in and putting a student on the ground and having them do something that’s only meaningful for them, just for the sake of doing something.

The orphanage has been a Beyond Borders partner for 10 years, and although people with disabilities still experience widespread stigma in Ukraine, the SJU presence is starting to effect real change.

“Our partners are consistently impressed with the quality and maturity of our students: their ability to integrate and really immerse themselves in the culture, to listen to what’s needed, not imposing, and then actually producing some pretty phenomenal results. “We’re not telling the organization what they need. We teach our students to listen. As our partners in Peru say, change comes poco y poco — or little by little. Little by little, our students are walking that path with our partners abroad.” That kind of incremental change is happening right now at the Ukrainian 26

Beyond Borders

“Our students understand that people with disabilities are fully human and need to be treated as such. Isolating them is dehumanizing,” Kline explains. “Over time, incrementally, what you see is the students at the university in Ukraine starting to ask: ‘Why would Canadian students come and stay at this orphanage? Why would anyone else in the world want to do that?’ Now they’re starting to say, ‘Well, wait a second, there’s a need here in our own country and if someone else is interested in this, maybe it’s something we should be interested in.’ Eventually they think, ‘They’re actually in it with us and they seem to be sticking it out.’ ”

ROOTED IN A CATHOLIC TRADITION OF SERVICE The preferential option for the poor and vulnerable is a basic principle of Catholic social teaching and the moral foundation underlying Beyond Borders. In essence, the option for the poor and vulnerable compels us to create conditions for marginalized voices to be heard, and to ask how social, political, and economic actions affect the most vulnerable. It is based on the premise that justice and peace are collective pursuits within the human community. Through Beyond Borders, students get the chance to explore how they can help build just, compassionate, and inclusive societies. “Our experiential programs invite students to put their knowledge, skills, and education to work for a more just and peaceable world,” Kline says. “What we’re engaged in is not charity. These are not mission trips. We’re in other communities to establish ongoing relationships with people who are not usually considered leaders, power brokers, or global difference-makers. We are there in solidarity with them as part of our collective pursuit of justice, peace, and mutual well-being.”

TALKING THE TALK, WALKING THE WALK Two people who understand that philosophy perhaps better than anyone are Isabel Uriarte Latorre and her husband Victor Rojas. Years ago Uriarte Latorre and Rojas had been trying to help Peruvian coffee producers improve their farming techniques and organize into collectives so they could earn fair market prices for their products. It wasn’t enough. Intermediaries had been setting prices without considering the true production costs facing small-scale farmers. So Uriarte Latorre and Rojas founded PROASSA for the simple reason of ensuring producers receive fair market price for their coffee.

St. Jerome’s University President Katherine Bergman and PROASSA founder Isabel Uriarte Latorre.

Today, PROASSA is an umbrella organization that provides support in the form of merchandising, business management, and social and environmental responsibility. Having reached out to more than 1,500 marginalized, small-scale farmers in communities across northern Peru, Uriarte Latorre and Rojas are helping to make lasting social and economic changes.

CHALLENGING GENDER ROLES To address not only global inequality but also the continued marginalization of women, PROASSA has established a partnership with Café Femenino, a brand of coffee made exclusively by women and marketed as fair trade and organic. The intention is to help women acquire the knowledge, experience, and education they need to be successful producers in their own right. Prior to the Café Femenino experience, all the coffee a Peruvian family produced was sold by the man of the house. The perception that only men could be breadwinners gave them the right to manage and spend household income without consulting their Beyond Borders

wives — even though research has shown that once women in developing countries acquire economic power, they use that power to improve the lives of their children. Now more women are educating their daughters, seeking executive positions in their co-operatives, and changing the future of their communities. Uriarte Latorre says it’s just one of the many ways Peruvian communities are benefiting from sustainable farming — and one of the ways young Canadians are being challenged to see the world differently. “The students ... learn very important lessons,” Uriarte Latorre says. “They are able to understand the sacrifices realized by coffee producers in adverse conditions, but even more so, that the producers work with dignity to produce healthy products that do not harm the environment. This experience strengthens a student’s desire to act in solidarity with Peru’s rural and Andean populations. They will value the products even more than they already did, and go on to promote the consumption of these products wherever they may end up after graduation.” It’s a win-win for both student and coffee grower.

“Coffee producers who receive support from people of different countries become very enthusiastic as they realize that people around the world care about their situation,” Uriarte Latorre adds. “They realize that they are not alone, and that every day the world becomes more and more connected.”

Beyond Borders

THE CHANCELLOR JOHN SWEENEY AWARD Isabel Uriarte Latorre and Victor Rojas’s story is more than a genuine success in sustainable development; it’s also award-worthy right here in Waterloo. This October, Uriarte Latorre and Rojas will receive the 2015 Chancellor John Sweeney Award in recognition of their 40 years of selfless service. Inspired by the legacy of the first lay Chancellor at St. Jerome’s University, the award is presented each year to an exemplary leader living a life rooted in the values of truth, faith, and justice. “Isabel and Victor are, to the very core, people who are interested in serving others,” Glen Lombard says. “Their entire existence has been centred on ensuring the advancement of other people. And our students are going there and consistently having absolutely phenomenal learning experiences while being immersed in a grassroots movement. They see Isabel as a figurehead in these communities. Even the men bow down to her. She’s a powerful voice of reason, change, and influence.” She’s also one of the reasons that experiential learning at St. Jerome’s is so powerful, and why so many students will keep putting themselves out there … for the next 10 years and beyond.

Bridges Lecture Series

Public lectures connecting Arts & Mathematics DEEP SURFACES

October 16 th 2015

geometrical challenges in digital design ARCHITECTURE

MATHEMATICS

Benjamin Dillenburger

Daniel Hambleton

University of Toronto

MESH Consultants Inc.

THINKING MACHINES

November 27 th 2015

ENGLISH

MATHEMATICS

Fiona Coll

E. Bruce Pitman

SUNY Oswego

SUNY Buffalo

The

HARMONOGRAPH

February 26 th 2016

VISUAL ART

MATHEMATICS

Anita Chowdry

John Baez

London, UK

UC Riverside

MATHEMATICS, MUSIC, and VISUAL ART

March 11 th 2016

VISUAL ART

MUSIC & MATH

Nathan Selikoff

Dmitri Tymoczko

Orlando, Florida

Princeton University

7:30 pm Followed by a reception Siegfried Hall, St. Jeromeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s University 290 Westmount Road North, Waterloo

PUBLIC LECTURES FREE ADMISSION

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BUILDING ON TRADITION A Capital Campaign in Support of Campus Renewal 2015

“Lend me the stone strength of the past and I will lend you the wings of the future, for I have them” — Robinson Jeffers

Building on Tradition

Campus Renewal 2015 will bring opportunities SJU needs to support world-class research and student experience. Here, Chancellor James Beingessner and President Katherine Bergman discuss future amenities with students.

Help build the future of St. Jerome’s University; join us in Building on Tradition by supporting Campus Renewal 2015. Campus Renewal 2015 is an investment in new infrastructure to enhance the university experience of students and support the delivery of our mission. We have grown over the last 50 years and are beyond our capacity. Our faculty and staff are engaged in the life and well-being of our students, and our current infrastructure no longer adequately supports the teaching, research, student life, and ministry activities that enhance and give shape to the students’ intellectual, emotional, and spiritual dimensions. This $47-million project includes a new academic centre designed to enrich the variety of teaching spaces and learning experiences, and a new residence complex, which will provide much-needed student accommodation and activity space. Priority is also given to a place of prominence for Notre Dame Chapel. Our faculty, students, and staff have helped design the location and allocation of this campus renewal to ensure that we build infrastructure that supports and animates the program delivery we need.

These additions promote wellness and enhance the student experience, but also ensure our long-term viability, and strengthen our ability to continue to deliver on our mission of forming leaders for the service of the community and the church — a mission that we have always recognized, and value highly. When we inspire our students we teach them to be conscientious, informed citizens, capable of empathizing with the experiences, hopes, and dreams of others. By cultivating their imagination we foster in them the ability to advocate for the common good, the vision to see what is, and what might be, and the courage to stand up for truth so that they can truly work for a just society. Together we can build on our tradition, enhancing our 150-year-old vision of educating the whole person. As we launch our capital campaign we hope that you will consider becoming part of our team. I look forward to working with you as together we grow our University. — Dr. Katherine Bergman President and Vice Chancellor

Building on Tradition

ILLUMINATING

HEARTS

&MINDS

2015-2016 ANNIVERSARY LECTURES Free of Charge / Free Parking / Wheelchair Accessible / Refreshments Served

During the 2015-2016 academic year, St. Jerome’s University celebrates 150 years of Catholic education in Waterloo Region. Part of our educational commitment and vision means building relationships with the larger community within which SJU is located. For 33 years, SJU has provided a series of public lectures that promote a socially engaged faith and embody our University’s commitment to justice. In this year’s Anniversary Lectures, our speakers will illuminate our hearts and minds as they invite us to explore what faith means in secular culture, how visual arts such as film can help us address the Canada–Québec relationship, and how we break cycles of violence in order to build caring communities. We will examine the face and impact of war, the call to an integral ecology and social action required by Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, the complex meaning of identity, and what the future should hold for First Nations.

Charles Taylor, PhD | OCT. 23, 2015 FAITH AS AN OPTION: THE 21ST CENTURY RELIGIOUS AND SPIRITUAL SCENE

Kevin Tierney | NOV. 13, 2015 BON MOVIE, BAD MOVIE

Barbara Coloroso | DEC. 4, 2015 BREAKING THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE AND CREATING DEEPLY CARING COMMUNITIES

Dr. Samantha Nutt | JAN. 15, 2016 CONFLICTED? THE WORLD OF WAR

Margaret S. Archer, PhD | FEB. 12, 2016 LAUDATO SI’: A NEW CALL FOR CATHOLIC SOCIAL ACTION

We look forward to seeing you!

Lawrence Hill | MAR. 4, 2016 IDENTITY AS PERFORMANCE: YOU’RE GIVEN A SCRIPT, BUT YOU CAN SWITCH IT (MAYBE)

Cristina Vanin, PhD Lectures Coordinator

www.sju.ca/anniversarylectures

John Borrows, PhD | Leah Gazan | Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, PhD | APR. 8, 2016 FIRST NATIONS AND CANADA: SEEKING TRUE RECONCILIATION

THEIR LIGHT WILL BE CHERISHED “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” John 14:1-4

Fr. Liddy, Fr. Siegfried, and Fr. Norm Choate, all of the Congregation of the Resurrection, were cherished members of the St. Jerome’s community.

REVEREND ROBERT LIDDY, C.R. (‘FR. BOB’) 1933–2015 “Bob is universally recognized as an unshakeable example of the consummate priest: compassionate; humble; non-judgmental; ever-present; totally faithful to his vows, his Church, his religious community, and to his priestly calling. The chorus of cheers contained in that last birthday card are being echoed by all who had the privilege of knowing Father Bob. As much as we are grieving his passing, we do know that it was just that: a passing. He is now where he often expressly assured me he longed to be.” — Dr. Douglas Letson, former President and Vice Chancellor, St. Jerome’s University

Fr. Bernie was a celebrated presence around campus, ensuring community members took the time to laugh. He is seen here (second from the left) with Mr. John Losch, Fr. Gary Palangio, C.R., and Fr. Brian Hennessy, C.R.

REVEREND CHARLES BERNARD HAYES, C.R. (‘FR. BERNIE’) 1932–2015 “Fr. Bernie Hayes was a man of great spiritual, emotional, and intellectual depth. The St. Jerome’s University community has lost a tremendous friend, fervent supporter, and trusted advisor. SJU has had the privilege of calling Fr. Bernie one of our own, even while acknowledging that he graciously gave his life to the service of so many others, not only in Waterloo Region but across Ontario and into the United States. With a pastor’s sensibility, he had the ability to connect with others, to meet them where they were, and to enrich their lives. Fr. Bernie’s presence on campus meant there would always be intense conversation and more than a few laughs.” — Dr. Scott Kline,Vice President Academic and Dean, Interim St. Jerome’s University Update Magazine

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MISSION St. Jerome’s University is a public Roman Catholic university federated with the University of Waterloo and historically associated with the educational vision of the Congregation of the Resurrection. We are committed to learning and academic excellence; the gospel values of love, truth, and justice; and the formation of leaders for the service of the community and the Church. In all of our activities and practices, St. Jerome’s University functions within the context of the Roman Catholic tradition and the principles of academic freedom.

St. Jerome’s University Update Magazine

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After the shopping blitz of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, make sure you get involved in GivingTuesday – December 1, 2015 – a day to give back! Visit www.sju.ca/givingtuesday to get involved

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SJU Update –15

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290 Westmount Road North Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3G3 Phone: (519) 884-8110 Fax: (519) 884-5759 www.sju.ca 2) TWO COLOUR SHIELD Green and Gold lightened to 80%