Print Edition of The Observer for Monday, October 8, 2018

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Volume 53, Issue 36 | monday, october 8, 2018 | ndsmcobserver.com

CERVELLI RESIGNS

IVAN SKVARIL | The Observer

Administration, students respond to Saint Mary’s President Janice Cervelli’s resignation just short of her two-year anniversary at the College. Provost Nancy Nekvasil will take over as interim president.

For the second time in the last three years, Saint Mary’s has a new College president. In an open letter to students Friday, chair of the Board of Trustees Mary Burke announced the resignation of President Jan Cervelli and the appointment of former Provost Nancy Nekvasil as the Interim President of the College. “I wanted to make you aware of an immediate change in our Saint Mary’s family,” Burke said in the letter. “Earlier this week, President Cervelli informed the Board of Trustees of her intent to resign. We appreciate all that she has contributed to Saint

Mary’s during her tenure here and we wish her the best. We are grateful for her leadership and devotion to the Belles. Her on-campus camaraderie and interactions will be missed.” Interim President Nekvasil, who will serve in this role until the summer of 2020, said her focus will be to promote the values that encompass Saint Mary’s during this transition. “I am humbled and inspired to work with our entire campus community to uphold and strengthen Saint Mary’s and ensure continuity in this time of transition,” Nekvasil said in an email. “In my three decades as a faculty member and administrator, the constants have been the educational

and spiritual values that distinguish the College, creating a supportive environment in which students can meet the challenges inherent in an excellent education.” This is the second time in the College’s history that an interim president has been appointed, the first being Sister Alma Peter. Peter served as interim president from 1970-1972 following the sudden death of College President Emeritus Monsignor John J. McGrath, the College’s sixth president. Cervelli took over the role of president in the fall of 2016 after the retirement of College President Emerita Carol Ann

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By JORDAN COCKRUM Saint Mary’s Editor

see RESIGNATION PAGE 4

By MARIA LEONTARAS Associate Saint Mary’s Editor

The news broke with a whirlwind of texts, Facebook posts and confusion. Janice Cervelli resigned from her post as Saint Mary’s president on Friday. Students received confirmation of Cervelli’s decision through a letter in an email attachment written by Mary Burke, the chair of the Board of Trustees. “I was just in my room watching Netflix, and then I got a text from my friend who was referencing the Facebook post, and she said, ‘Did you see Cervelli resigned?’ I was looking through the post and the comments, and I was like,

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‘Well, this is crazy,’” senior Sarah Wehby said. Wehby said she was confused by Cervelli’s choice due to the sudden nature of the statement. “It felt like it came out of nowhere,” she said. “Like, what is going on here? We had the whole [vice president of student affairs] Karen Johnson retiring thing, now Jan Cervelli — where did this come from?” Wehby said she is curious as to why Cervelli chose to resign in the middle of the semester and is hoping to find out more at the all-student assembly being held Tuesday night. see REACTIONS PAGE 4

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